October 09, 2026

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Happy Friday. A 61-year-old Canadian grandma named DonnaJean Wilde has broken her own world record by holding a plank for more than five hours.

It’s the rare story of a grandma staying on the ground for hours that’s actually positive.

—Brendan Cosgrove, Matty Merritt, Molly Liebergall, Dave Lozo, Adam Epstein, Neal Freyman, Holly Van Leuven

In today’s newsletter, we’ll get into:

Hollywood giving Big Tech its reckoning
Starbucks–Chipotle merger rumors
New data revealing earnings by college major

Markets

Nasdaq

27,193.34

-1.25%

S&P

7,765.36

-0.47%

Dow

51,231.64

+0.10%

10-Year

5.231%

-5.0 bps

Bitcoin

$81,801.71

-1.90%

Chipotle

$32.65

+6.10%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 4:30pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: Stocks fell yesterday, pummeling the tech-heavy Nasdaq, following a report that OpenAI’s revenue was lower than estimated. In other words: It was just another day for markets as the AI industry continues to produce wild swings in both directions. Elsewhere, Chipotle ticked up amid rumors it could be bought by Starbucks (more on that later).

MAKING A MARK

Hollywood reckons with Big Tech

Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg sitting at a desk in a scene from The Social Reckoning

Columbia Pictures

Sixteen years after The Social Network, a new Facebook-focused film, The Social Reckoning, is in theaters today. Aaron Sorkin’s quasi-sequel has plenty of new material to work with, following the company as it deals with scandals and the negative consequences of its technology. It’s a good story, which is why Hollywood has approximately 1 billion other movies and TV shows dealing with similar dynamics coming out this fall.

A Strong lead: The Social Reckoning, which stars Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg, covers events from 2019 to 2021, which, if you’re keeping track, takes place before Zuck cosplayed as Benson Boone. During that time, the company was riding high atop the algorithmic tiger of engagement and extremism, until a whistleblower helped land Zuck in front of Congress.

From Sam A. to Mark Z.

When it comes to Hollywood’s obsession with Big Tech, Zuck is just the tip of the ’berg:

Alex Gibney’s four-hour Elon Musk documentary, Musk, is also in select theaters today.
Next Friday, you can watch Nathan Fielder’s documentary on disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes.
The Altruists, a limited series on former crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried, launches on Netflix next month.
Andrew Garfield stars as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in Artificial, hitting theaters this Christmas.

Then, there’s Cupertino, a new CBS drama where underdog lawyers take on fictionalized Silicon Valley companies and billionaires. The show is just meeting fans where they are: According to a recent CNBC/Generation Labs poll, Americans aged 18 to 34 overwhelmingly distrust some of Big Tech’s biggest names to act responsibly on AI, and many have a negative view of data centers and how AI will impact their careers.

Behind the scenes: The slew of tech-focused content has also shone a light on Big Tech’s power. Amazon MGM opted to sell Artificial to another studio after striking a business deal with Altman’s OpenAI. Meanwhile, Musk’s X reportedly blocked ads for the new Musk documentary.—BC

Reader Poll

Which movie or TV show about Big Tech are you most looking forward to?

‘The Social Reckoning’
‘Artificial’
‘Cupertino’
‘The Altruists’
‘Musk’
None of these.

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World

Tour de headlines

J.D. Vance speaking at podium in front of sign that says Protecting American Workers

Alex Wong/Getty Images

🪪 Trump admin suspends Microsoft from green card program. Vice President JD Vance said yesterday that the administration is suspending the tech giant from a program that allows its employees with H-1B visas to apply for green cards. Vance accused Microsoft of replacing American workers “with what is effectively foreign indentured servants.” In a statement, Microsoft said most applications were for workers already legally in the US, and they only comprised 1% of its US workforce. Supporters of the H-1B program argue it boosts competitiveness and innovation by hiring workers in high-skill roles that would otherwise be difficult to fill. H-1Bs have long been a target of the Trump administration, which contends that they undercut American workers.—AE

🌀 Hurricane Isaias may reach US Gulf Coast today. The storm, which is pronounced “Ees-ah-EE-ahs,” became the first hurricane of this year’s Atlantic season on Wednesday night. As of this morning, it’s a Category 2 storm. It’s expected to make landfall from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to the Florida Panhandle. Experts said Isaias could become a Category 3 storm today, before hitting land either tonight or early tomorrow. Yesterday, voluntary evacuations began in coastal Alabama, and mandatory evacuations began in some parts of Florida. Isaias is the latest first hurricane of the Atlantic season to develop since 1905, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.—HVL

💻 Amazon refreshes device lineup with new Alexa Tablets. The race to incorporate AI into as many gadgets as possible intensified yesterday, when the e-commerce giant launched three new tablets with built-in Alexa+, its AI assistant. The devices range from $230 to $550—more expensive than previous models but still significantly cheaper than their chief rival, Apple’s iPad, which can cost up to $1,500. As part of the refresh, Amazon is jettisoning its budget-friendly Fire devices and rebranding tablets under the Alexa banner. The company is also releasing a version of its new tablets for kids.—AE

GRANDE GUAC

Report: Starbucks might get Chipotle for lunch

Chipotle burrito wrapped in foil next to Starbucks drink topped with whipped cream

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Chipotle, Adobe Stock

Starbucks’s secret menu could get a generous helping of barbacoa. The coffee chain—amid a massive turnaround effort—has explored a takeover of Chipotle, according to the Financial Times. A merger would unite two wildly different fast-casual chains and constitute the largest restaurant buyout in history.

This would be venti. If Starbucks bought the $41 billion burrito chain, it would create a new company with roughly $50 billion in sales, as of last year. Chipotle could benefit from Starbucks’s massive footprint, especially abroad. Right now, Starbucks has ~41,000 coffee shops, with 40% of those in the US, while the vast majority of Chipotle’s 4,200 locations are stateside.

It might seem random…but before Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol took the job in 2024, he was the top exec at Chipotle. And before that, he worked at Yum! Brands, the brains behind the KFC–Taco Bell–Pizza Hut franken-restaurants.

But it’s far from a done deal. There have been no reports of a formal offer submitted to Chipotle. It could also be a tough sell for Starbucks investors: Despite four consecutive quarters of comparable sales growth, Niccol arguably hasn’t quite delivered the returns to warrant a huge swing like this, experts say. Chipotle’s stock increased yesterday following the news, while Starbucks’s fell slightly.—MM

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SUMMA CUM MONEY

Most lucrative college degrees in the US, revealed

Three college graduates standing on stacks of gold coins of different heights

Niv Bavarsky

Teenagers who want to be dancers or playwrights: Your parents have new data to wield against you. The median incomes of top STEM majors from elite universities run laps around the salaries of average college graduates, according to government data that the New York Times reported on this week.

The highest-earning degree in the US…is Mathematics at Duke. Its undergraduates earn a median income of $297,029 four years after graduation, according to the HEA Group, which crunched the tax returns of students who graduated during the 2017–18 and 2018–19 school years and received federal financial aid.

HEA also found that:

Duke, Carnegie Mellon University, UCLA, MIT, Pomona College, and several Ivy League schools accounted for the country’s 10 highest-earning programs, six of which were computer science. Median incomes started at $217,000.
Nursing majors from some California schools made ~$150,000, landing in the top 100 out of nearly 25,000 bachelor’s programs analyzed.
Among the liberal arts, English majors medianed out at $48,920, but history majors can outearn them by $50,000+.

Zoom out: Though some critics object to an earnings-only assessment of a degree’s success, a new rule could cut federal student loans for undergraduate programs that don’t beat the median high school graduate income of $34,808. Juilliard—whose music program came in under this baseline in HEA’s assessment—said its projected graduate earnings for 2026 would pass this test.—ML

Dave’s sports desk

The NFL is betting on the Supreme Court

Closeup of screen displaying betting odds for NFL games

Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images

On Fridays, the Brew’s Dave Lozo looks at a sports business story that says a lot more than just the final score of a game.

In the battle between US states and prediction markets, the NFL is siding with the states. The league filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court yesterday, arguing that prediction markets are gambling and should be left to states to regulate.

Concerns raised in the brief, which asked SCOTUS to accept a petition originally filed by New Jersey, include:

Event contracts can theoretically be manipulated, like players intentionally missing field goals. They may also involve injuries that can benefit people with inside information.
Customers as young as 18 can put money down on Kalshi. The NFL wants a minimum age of 21 for prediction markets users.

Also: Attorneys general from 39 states and Washington, DC, filed a similar brief Wednesday, backing New Jersey’s claim that prediction markets are ducking state gambling laws.

Despite this, the NFL isn’t entirely opposed to prediction markets entirely—the league says there was $1.8 billion in trading on the first NFL Sunday of this season. It told CNBC that it just feels that states are better equipped than the federal government to keep an eye on them.—DL

Quiz

Friday news quiz

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz has been compared to securing good overhead bin space that is also proximate to your plane seat.

It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz.

News

What else is brewing

President Trump said that the US will not attack Iran again before the midterm elections on Nov. 3 amid “productive discussions” with Tehran.
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s space company, is likely to pursue an IPO within the next several years, the billionaire said.
Anne Carson, the Canadian poet and classicist, won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Joe Rogan renewed his highly lucrative, multiyear podcasting deal with Spotify for an estimated $250 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Xbox formed a new film and TV division, as Hollywood increasingly mines the world of video games for story ideas.
Anyone who still uses the term “artificial intelligence” instead of “super intelligence” is the “enemy,” President Trump posted on social media yesterday.

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Play

Decipher: Your task this week is to decode a one-liner from an offbeat comedian. Play Decipher here.

Calendar trivia

2013 was the first year since 1987 to have a specific characteristic. What was it?

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Answer

2013 was the first year since 1987 to be composed of four different digits.

(Source)

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: jettisoning, meaning “throwing something away or getting rid of something unwanted.” Thanks to David from Wheeling, WV, for the suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.

Correction: In yesterday’s story on home heating oil prices, we incorrectly stated that water prices were up 62% since last year. We have updated the story to state that the rise happened over the last decade. We apologize for the error.

Written by Adam Epstein, Brendan Cosgrove, Matty Merritt, Molly Liebergall, Dave Lozo, Neal Freyman, and Holly Van Leuven

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☕️ From Sam A. to Mark Z.