Daily Brew // Morning Brew // Update

June 02, 2026

Morning…and congratulations to Dua Lipa and Callum Turner, who tied the knot in London over the weekend. The singer and actor reportedly first bonded over having both just finished the first chapter of Hernan Diaz’s novel Trust, which prompted Turner to hit Dua Lipa with the line, “So we’re on the same page.” This goes to show that even a little reading can put you on the path to love and happiness, so we recommend continuing until you get to the bottom of today’s newsletter just in case you need something to chat about.

—Dave Lozo, Matty Merritt, Molly Liebergall, Neal Freyman, Abby Rubenstein

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

Why WFH may be costing jobs
A lawsuit accusing OpenAI of overlooking ChatGPT’s safety flaws
The music frequency that might help you get work done

MARKETS

Nasdaq

27,086.81

+0.42%

S&P

7,599.96

+0.26%

Dow

51,078.88

+0.09%

10-Year

4.475%

+2.0 bps

Bitcoin

$71,112.63

-3.62%

Nvidia

$224.36

+6.26%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: Forget about June gloom: All three major indexes kicked off the month with new records yesterday, thanks in part to frequent market main character Nvidia spiking after revealing that it’s getting into the PC game, with what it calls the “most efficient PC chip ever built,” setting it up to compete with the likes of Intel, AMD, Apple, and Qualcomm.

REMOTE CONNECTION

Study says WFH, not AI, is stifling Gen Z job market

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If you’re a recent college graduate blaming AI for stealing your job, you’re not necessarily wrong, but you may want to consider another factor for why your diploma feels worthless. A study by the New York Fed found that remote work is a bigger contributor to unemployment rates among young people than AI.

Before you say we’ve been infiltrated by robot overlords asking us to blame people working in their pajamas, here’s the case NY Fed economists made for why the jobless rates for college graduates under age 29 rose from 3.1% on average from 2017 to 2019 to an average of 3.7% from 2022 through 2025:

Between 2017 to 2019 and 2022 to 2024, the unemployment rate for “remotable” jobs rose nearly 1% among the younger crowd. But, in the same time frame, the jobless rate declined among those 29 and older.
Meanwhile, for non-remote jobs, there’s little difference between these age groups.

The unemployment rate for young college graduates was 5.6% in March 2026, up from 3.6% in March 2019. According to the NY Fed, the rise in remote work is responsible for 64% of that increase.

How is remote work preventing…work?

The NY Fed said it was given access to proprietary data from an anonymous Fortune 500 company and found a reluctance to hire younger, inexperienced workers for remote positions because it’s harder for them to develop skills in an isolated setting.

A Wharton management professor, who spoke to Fortune after a British academic study also pointed to remote work as the culprit for new grads’ hiring woes, believes that Gen Z’s development is being stunted because older millennials are not in the office to set an example for younger employees. He thinks remote work is diminishing the long-term value of new graduates, pushing employers toward older candidates who already gained experience in the pre-remote world.

As for AI…the NY Fed said it “may play a more primary role” in employment patterns in the future. A Goldman Sachs report published on Friday found that ~21,900 layoffs in April were explicitly attributed to AI, the highest monthly total since the bank began tracking in 2023.—DL

Sponsored By Hulu

Mindy Kaling takes Manhattan…again!

Mindy NYC, and the feeling is mutual.

Her latest project, Not Suitable for Work, is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+. The show centers around five work-obsessed twenty-somethings striving for professional success and, if they have time, personal happiness in Murray Hill.

Watch along as these friends tackle heartbreak, first jobs, and (most terrifying of all) the New York housing market. It dives deep into the “figuring it out” phase that defines your 20s. Through all the ups, downs, and 6 trains, they’ve got each other’s backs.

Not Suitable for Work is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. New episodes stream on Tuesdays.

WORLD

Tour de headlines

Getty Images

Anthropic filed to go public. Setting the stage for a massive IPO, the company behind Claude filed a confidential prospectus with the SEC yesterday. The filing comes after Anthropic has seen rising demand for its products and recently raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation, pushing it above rival OpenAI—which is also planning an IPO but hasn’t filed yet. Details are still scant for now. “The number of shares to be offered and the price have not yet been set,” the company’s blog said.

Trump says Israel and Hezbollah agreed to ease fighting after Iran stops peace talks. Iran ceased negotiating a deal with the US yesterday, calling out Israel’s fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, and said it would move to fully block the Strait of Hormuz, according to local media. President Trump told CNBC “I don’t care if” peace talks are over but said he would ask Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Lebanon. After speaking with Netanyahu, Trump said Hezbollah had “agreed that all shooting will stop—that Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.” Lebanon later confirmed the new ceasefire, as did Netanyahu, though he said Israeli strikes would continue “if Hezbollah does not stop attacking our cities and civilians.”

Serena Williams to make pro tennis comeback after almost four years. The 44-year-old tennis legend has accepted a wild-card invitation to play doubles in next week's HSBC Championships at The Queen's Club in London. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champ hasn’t played in a professional match since saying she was “evolving away” from the sport after the 2022 US Open. But her decision to return on a grass court has fueled speculation that she may also compete at Wimbledon (a rumor that Wimbledon's welcome back post is unlikely to squelch).—AR

SAFETY FIRST

Florida becomes first state to sue OpenAI

Morning Brew Inc

Florida Man is taking on Sam Altman. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed an 83-page lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, yesterday, accusing the company of releasing ChatGPT despite knowing its safety flaws.

How is this case different from others? OpenAI is wrapped up in so much litigation, its in-house legal department is running out of timecards. The company has been at the center of high-profile copyright and privacy litigation, and is also being sued by seven people claiming that ChatGPT drove individuals to suicide and other delusions. But Florida is the first state to sue the company:

Florida’s suit alleges that OpenAI’s “insatiable quest to win the AI arms race” and drive to make money overshadowed red flags about the technology.
The suit also says OpenAI puts users, especially children, at a risk of “addiction, cognitive decline, violence, and related harms.”
It also aims to hold Altman personally liable for harm.

In the civil suit, Uthmeier references a criminal investigation he opened earlier this year against the company for its alleged role in helping an individual plan a mass shooting at Florida State University. It remains ongoing.

OpenAI and Altman haven’t responded directly to the new lawsuit, but the company has previously denied similar claims and has said it’s working on bettering safety protocols within ChatGPT.

Big picture: Uthmeier and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, both Republicans, have broken with President Trump’s policy of deregulating AI. Public backlash against the tech has intensified—and even the Pope called on lawmakers to regulate it.—MM

NO WHEY!

Gym rats beware: A protein powder shortage is here

Getty Images

We protein-maxxed too close to the sun. You may soon notice higher prices on foods containing whey powder as suppliers struggle to handle the rush to add it to everything from Doritos to Starbucks cold foam, Bloomberg reported yesterday.

A major squeeze is underwhey:

Whey powder’s wholesale prices jumped to the highest levels on record in April, according to market data reported by The Atlantic.
Some whey suppliers are sold out for the rest of the year, according to the USDA, as companies scramble to buy out inventories.

Straight-up protein powder has already been affected: A whey powder tub that cost ~$40 on Amazon roughly six months ago hit $54 last month, per The Atlantic. A different supplement company recently paused sales of their tubs of whey after their costs jumped more than 300% from 2023, Bloomberg reported.

Now, food companies that planned to counter slowing snack sales by appealing to gains-obsessed Americans and the GLP-1 crowd are considering alternatives like soy powder or milk protein concentrate, which could change the flavors and textures of whey-boosted foods.

This shortage may be just a blip. The North American dairy industry is undergoing a $12 billion expansion that’s projected to close the current supply-demand gap in “the near future,” per The Atlantic, since whey protein is a byproduct of cheese making.—ML

MATTY’S WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Find a playlist that goes a little lower

Niv Bavarsky

On Tuesdays, the Brew’s Matty Merritt brings you the news you need to make life a little easier during your 9-5, 5-9, or OOO.

Need to lock in and send 70 emails? Some people are swearing by music tuned to 432 hertz, a slightly different frequency than the more common 440 hertz (or how many cycles a sound wave completes per second). To the standard listener, a song in the nontraditional tuning might just sound a little lower, but some people think it feels more grounding and can help them relax.

Be warned: searching for a 432 hertz compilation on YouTube can lead you down a conspiratorial rabbit hole claiming that 440 hertz was created as a form of mind control. Plus, there’s no real scientific evidence that listening to music at 432 hertz helps with focus or has healing properties—it’s more likely that some people just prefer it. Still, if you want to try it out for yourself, here’s a fun mix.—MM

READER POLL

Do you listen to music while you work (at any frequency)?

Yes, it helps me focus.
Sometimes, it depends on what kind of work I’m doing.
I don’t, but maybe I’ll try a new frequency.
Nope, it’s distracting.

Island time

With today’s return of Love Island USA, here’s a question about islands.

In 1493, Christopher Columbus named this archipelago in honor of Saint Ursula and her 11,000 followers.

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ANSWER

The Virgin Islands

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: squelch, which means “to suppress or quell.” Thanks Philippa from New Zealand for a suggestion that didn’t dampen our enthusiasm. Submit another Word of the Day here.

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