The Best One Yet
🟠“Penny RIP” — End of the Penny. Dunkin’s diss track. T-Mobile’s dead-zone killer.
Tue, 11 Feb 2025
Trump is canceling the US penny… because our cheapest coin is our most expensive.The biggest diss track in the SB wasn’t Kendrick Lamar… it was from advertisers.SpaceX and T-Mobile just shockingly teamed up… to kill the cell phone dead-zone.Plus, the untold origin story of Ben & Jerry’s… and their most disruptive flavor: Phish Food.$SBUX $TMUS $TWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Ben & Jerry’s 🍦. Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What are the top business news stories today?
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy Tuesday, February 11th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Was it too hard to ask you to pick me up from the airport, Jack? You made me take an Uber. I didn't make you. I told you I'd pick you up if you wanted me to. I didn't even think I'd have to ask.
I'm just gonna, we'll sell it at the end of the pod. It's stored for another pod. It is more snowy in Vermont since the week I met you. That is the last time it was this snow. I actually do need to borrow some gloves. But Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the team, boy? Thanks for coming to visit me. Absolutely. For our first story.
Did you see Dunkin' Donuts Super Bowl commercial? I did. It ripped on Starbucks. But the real diss track of the Super Bowl wasn't Kendrick Lamar. It was in the commercials. So we're presenting the do's and don'ts for corporate dissing. Yes, we are. For our second story, President Trump is ending the US penny. He has ordered no more pennies be minted ever again. But the
biggest shocker of this penny pause is that it didn't happen sooner. And our third and final story is the most surprising collab of the year. Oh, yeah. SpaceX and T-Mobile. But can we talk about T-Mobile's winning recipe, please, Jack? T-Mobile leans into the board. Board. But yetis, before we hit that, wonderful mix of stories. And Fantastic mix of stories. Love the mix today.
Nick is not just here in Vermont to get some skiing and slurp some syrup in before my baby arrives. Although I'd like to do both of those. No, we are up in Vermont to do some T-boy research. Because today we're dropping an entire 45 minute episode on Vermont's most ultimate brand. We're talking the biggest ice cream company in the world.
And the most fun entrepreneurial origin story we've ever heard of. Bring them out. Actually, we don't have them here, but Ben and Jerry. Although they live around the corner. The true untold origin story of America's favorite ice cream brand. Don't choke on your chunky monkey, Yetis. Today, Yetis, Ben and Jerry's does over a billion dollars a year in ice cream sales.
But Ben and Jerry started as a couple goofball buddies who failed to get into med school. Did you hear that they learned how to make ice cream through a mail order catalog class? Or Jack, how about when they came to the financials, they just made up the numbers? Ben and Jerry's should have gone bankrupt at least 12 different times. And yet, this duo disrupted the entire ice cream industry.
And they remained best friends through the entire journey. And we've admired that entire journey. So Ben and Jerry's is the next episode of our weekly deep dive show, The Best Idea Yet. The Best Idea Yet. The untold origin stories of the most viral products of all time. Specifically, we focused on fish food. Ben and Jerry's fish food. The only ice cream named after a jam band that was named Fish.
So later today, after this T-boy, check out our weekly deep dive show, The Best Idea Yet. New episodes drop every Tuesday morning. Tap the link in the episode description because Ben and Jerry's fish food is simply the best idea yet. But in the meantime, Jack, we've got a fantastic show. So how about I scream, you scream, we all scream to hit our three stores?
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Chapter 2: What was the real diss track at the Super Bowl?
Rule number one, no low blows. Don't be mean. All is fair in love and war, but not in advertising. Rule number two, you can punch up, but you can't punch down. Dunkin' can attack Starbucks, but we don't think Starbucks can attack Dunkin'. Not a good look. Starbucks is way bigger than Dunkin'. It'd look like bullion. Frappuccinos can't mess with culottes.
And finally, rule number three, humor transcends all. Starbucks and Ford both got dissed over the Super Bowl, but we bet Starbucks and Ford both chuckled because Dunkin' and Jeep's ads were fun. It was good what Harrison Ford did, and we know you're laughing up in Detroit, guys. So when to diss and when not to diss in corporate America, those are our three rules.
No low blows, don't punch down, and humor transcends all. Send this to your buddy who works in marketing. For our second story, President Trump has ordered the end of new pennies. Pennies are dunzo. And after diving in T-boy style, we're shocked this penny pause didn't happen decades ago. It's funny you should say that, Jack, because full disclosure, this is Nick, and I'm a numismatist.
Numismatist? Yeah, I can't read your mind, Jack. That's something different. But numismatist is the collection of coins. I actually started doing it when I was like nine years old. Yeah. Whenever we went somewhere, I'd go to the local coin shop. I had half Liberty Dollars. I had Mercury Dimes. I had a bunch of Indian heads. What's a Mercury Dime? Is that an American currency?
It's a story for another pod, Jack. Remember my wallet had the Buffalo nickel on it? It was fantastic. Well, Nick could tell you that in 1909, the U.S. Mint put Abraham Lincoln's head on a penny to commemorate his 100th birthday. I could also tell you, Jack, that the U.S. penny is the most produced coin in the history of the world. That is wild. It is. It's the smallest. It is.
But it's also the biggest. And here's the news. President Trump told the U.S. Treasury Secretary to stop printing pennies. Stop minting them. All the pennies we have today, that's it. No more ever again. It's the great penny pause. And we know what you're thinking yet is, does this mean that my coin jar full of pennies is worthless now? The answer to that is no.
Technically, only an act of Congress can retire the penny as a valid form of U.S. currency. Correct, Jack. But the Treasury Secretary has asked the mint to stop making newer. In case you're worried, by the way, Abraham Lincoln's going to do fine. He's still on the $5 bill. Yeah, we were thinking about that, actually.
Although we do have a proposal that if we're going to lose the penny, we should bring back the $1,000 bill, given inflation, right? Who would you put on that thing, Jack? I don't know. Teddy Roosevelt? Actually, let us know in the comments who we should put on the $1,000 bill. Wrong answers only. Or Oprah. But...
And here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story, is that after looking at the penny, it's actually the most uneconomic thing we do. Here's the hero stat. Each single cent costs 3.7 cents to produce. We repeat, making one penny costs us like over three pennies. We should not make the penny if the act of making the penny is worth less than a penny.
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Chapter 5: How does T-Mobile plan to kill the cell phone dead-zone?
The biggest diss track in the Super Bowl wasn't from Kendrick Lamar. No. It was from the advertisers. So Jack and I explained in three rules how to diss in corporate America without crossing the line. For our second story, President Trump has ordered the U.S. Mint to stop minting new pennies. The persistence of the penny shows the power of inertia.
For our third and final story, T-Mobile's Starlink commercial was the number one most engaging of the whole Super Bowl. T-Mobile's success was in focusing on the boring parts. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Elon Musk has made an unsolicited bid to acquire OpenAI, the largest startup in the world.
Elon and his venture capital partners are only offering $97 billion, though, which is a lowball price that's bound to be rejected. And Jack, what did Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, say in response? On X, he posted, no thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.7 billion if you want. Besties, we'll cover the developments for you.
If there are any, there might be, or maybe someone throws TikTok into the deal. We don't know. Second, Donald Trump is imposing 25% tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum. He also pledged to retaliate against any country that imposes tariffs on the United States. He'll retaliate to retaliations. Trade war two, it's escalating.
He's also gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which requires an act of Congress, but he's essentially ignoring that and daring courts to stop it. And finally, school is canceled. The Philadelphia public schools have canceled school this Friday so the whole city can celebrate the Eagles Super Bowl victory.
From Rindau Square to West Philly, it begins at the stadium, ends at the Museum of Art. This is pretty fascinating. It ends at the Rocky Steps. Yeah. Philadelphia fans, like my mother, they ride if they lose and they'll ride if they win. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Savannah Westwood from lovely Orlando, Florida.
For three decades, one company in Florida has minted the official coin flip coin for the NFL Super Bowl. It's called Highland Mint and they make commemorative coins for 30 years for the Super Bowl. One side of the coin has the team's logos on it, the tails, and the other side has the Super Bowl logo, the heads. After the game, they sell that coin flip coin to charity.
And the last one sold for $5,000. But you can buy one for 99 bucks. And according to the comment section, a lot of people collect these coins. Yeah, so we're losing the penny jack, but apparently it's getting outlasted by the Super Bowl coin. By the Chiefs Eagles L1X, which means 59, I think, in Roman numerals. Super Bowl commemorative edition coin. It'll live on forever.
Yetis, you look fantastic over there. Excuse us because Jack and I have got to go grab a little ice cream on Church Street, don't we, Jack? Yes, we do. That's right. We're going to the place where Ben and Jerry's began. We really honestly love this episode so much because Ben and Jerry are so humble, so thoughtful, and they admit that they just didn't even know what they were doing.
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