October 17, 2026

Presented By

Bon appétit. It’s National Pasta Day, so throw on a bow tie, brush out your angel hair, elbow someone out of the way, and start chomping on some spaghetti.

—Brendan Cosgrove, Sam Klebanov, Molly Liebergall, Matty Merritt, Holly Van Leuven, Abby Rubenstein

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

KFC switching from Pepsi to Coke
The White House press secretary’s brief tenure ending
Critics’ responses to the Elizabeth Holmes documentary

Markets

Nasdaq

26,140.03

-2.15%

S&P

7,659.44

-1.09%

Dow

52,002.41

-0.34%

10-Year

5.098%

+1.0 bps

Bitcoin

$81,650

-0.87%

CoreWeave

$61.39

-11.91%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:30pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: Like your friend who bet on the Dodgers, stocks had a rough week. The Nasdaq had its worst week since June, as investors shunned AI stocks and oil prices rose to $110 per barrel yesterday. Chip stocks took a hit, as did CoreWeave, whose debt kicked off concerns about AI financing this week, after getting a brief boost the day before.

LIQUID ASSETS

The colonel says KF-see ya later to Pepsi

Illustration of the Kentucky Fried Chicken colonel walking with a cup of Pepsi and suddenly turning around to ogle a cup of Coca-Cola instead, referencing the girlfriend meme.

Niv Bavarsky

After 40 years of offering PepsiCo products at its US restaurants, fast-food chicken chain KFC said Thursday that it’s making the switch to Coca-Cola starting in January. The finger lickin’ goodbye is a loss for Pepsi in the long-fought Cola Wars, but KFC thinks the move will help get the restaurant’s gravy train rolling again (or at least the mashed potato train).

So, why did Kentucky Fried Chicken cross the road? Consumers, especially younger ones, have been increasingly thirsty for innovative and customizable beverages, like refreshers and dirty sodas. KFC believes Coke products will help it “innovate, meet changing tastes, and give customers more reasons to choose us,” KFC US President Catherine Tan-Gillespie told employees and franchisees in a letter obtained by CNBC.

KFC needs a leg up. Colonel Sanders and company have been losing ground to other chicken chains for years, dropping from No. 1 in US sales in 2012 to fifth overall in 2026, per research firm Technomic.

Pepsi might need some Pepcid

Getting expelled from the land of 11 herbs and spices is sure to be a source of heartburn for Pepsi, which was already in a tough place:

The company’s stock is down double digits in the past year.
Healthier habits and GLP-1 drugs have dinged its salty snack business in North America.
Coke has about 44% of the US carbonated soda market, compared to ~26% for Pepsi, per Circana.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner: This isn’t the first time that Coke has convinced a Pepsi client to switch to the red team, having recently poached Culver’s, Arby’s, Panda Express, Marriott hotels, and the Costco food court. But Pepsi hasn’t sat by. It stole Subway from Coke, officially becoming its supplier last year.

But the KFC–Pepsi divorce stings a little bit more, since the two had become such an iconic pairing, like thighs and drumsticks. Pepsi owned KFC for more than a decade after scooping up the chain in 1986. Pepsi later spun off its restaurant businesses, including Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, in 1997 into a company that later became Yum! Brands.

Silver lining for the blue: Pepsi will continue to supply multiple overseas markets for KFC’s massive international business.—BC

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World

Tour de headlines

Katie Zacharia at podium giving address to reporters with raised hands in foreground

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

🇺🇸 White House press secretary out after five days. Katie Zacharia was ousted from the role yesterday, following a single rocky 14-minute press conference and questions about why she called herself a lawyer despite having never passed the bar exam. Trump said yesterday that he’d told her, “If I were you, I’d reconsider” the job, and said the media treated her “very badly.” About an hour later, news outlets began reporting that she’d been fired. That leaves the White House looking for a communications head in the lead-up to the midterm elections. Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted 10 days in the job during Trump’s first term, weighed in, saying, “Records are meant to be broken.”—AR

🖊️ Trump signed an executive order to waive Congress’s new Russia sanctions. The sanctions passed both houses of Congress with bipartisan support as the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, which President Trump signed into law last month. The legislation gave Trump until Oct. 18 to impose sanctions and tariffs on Russian energy until “the Russian Federation has ended its war in Ukraine and credibly committed to a just peace settlement that includes compensating Ukraine for war damages” or waive them. Last night, Trump signed an executive order waiving them out of “the national interests of the United States.”—HVL

🏦 Kevin Warsh went to Bangkok…and avoided talking about the Fed’s next move. Speaking during a moderated discussion at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings yesterday, the Fed chair stuck to his position of keeping as mum about the central bank’s next move as an actor promoting a Marvel movie. “I don’t prejudge meetings,” Warsh said. “I don’t believe in saying now what I might do at the meetings we have in the balance of this year,” he continued, sidestepping the question of whether the Fed will raise interest rates when it meets later this month. “It’s a new chapter at the Fed, and we’re not in that business anymore,” Warsh said, acknowledging that his less signal-heavy approach is different from previous chairs. The Fed raised rates last month for the first time in three years, but it’s not clear what it will do at its Oct. 27–28 meeting.—AR

NATHAN’S GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU

Elizabeth Holmes doc could make Oscars history

Elizabeth Holmes looking into the distance

A24

You can finally watch Nathan Fielder get out-awkwarded. The perennially uncomfortable comedian’s documentary, You Can See Everything, which follows Theranos founder and convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes in the weeks leading up to her incarceration, hit theaters to great aplomb yesterday.

The three-hour A24 film had a 99% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of yesterday, with the Guardian saying it’s “more shocking, twistier, thornier, and revealing than billed.” This outlandish-even-for-Fielder creation—made in collaboration with co-director Lance Oppenheim—was kept under wraps until the drop of a viral trailer last month showing an unblinking Holmes assuring Fielder of her honesty.

It’s a weird one

Unlike much of Fielder’s previous work, the doc isn’t about him trying to rescue Holmes’s failed business:

But he does spend time living alongside Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, in the days before her imprisonment, seeking to understand her elusive character. Fielder ends up being the last person she hugs before getting driven to report for her 11-year sentence.
It also homes in on Evans, who tries to negotiate (unsuccessfully) for Holmes to receive a cut of the film’s proceeds, has a moment of impromptu full frontal nudity, and admits that he doesn’t run some of the posts he makes on Holmes’s X account by her first while she’s in prison.

It could make Oscars history. Hollywood watchers say the buzz around the film and its critical acclaim could help it become the first documentary to get a best picture nomination in the award’s nearly 100-year history.

Spoiler alert! After Holmes goes to prison, Fielder taps Amanda Seyfried—who won an Emmy for playing Holmes in the Hulu series The Dropout—to reenact his odd conversations with her.—SK

Reader Poll

Do you plan to see You Can See Everything?

Yes, I can’t wait.
Maybe, talk to me when it’s streaming.
No, I have seen enough of Elizabeth Holmes.
I want to see a different movie this weekend.

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ICYMI

Have you heard…

Here’s everything that didn’t make it into this week’s newsletters but we immediately sent to the group chat.

➡️ OpenAI has warned its employees to be wary of anyone trying to seduce them in case they’re undercover spies trying to steal company secrets, according to the beautiful woman named Svetlana we sent to Silicon Valley earlier this year.

➡️ Social media users think that a Democratic candidate in a local Indiana election was drunk when she called for “firing all Republicans” and said “the sheriff’s nephew threatened to blow my head off” in a now-viral interview. Her sobriety level at the time hasn’t been confirmed, but Caitlin Clark may not be the only one bringing attention to the state by knocking down a bunch of shots.

➡️ At this year’s Taco Bell 50k—an ultramarathon in which runners have to eat something at 10 Taco Bell locations along the course—one participant who documented her journey put Diablo hot sauce on each menu item she ordered. We hear she finished the race and ran straight to the nearest Hyrox gym.

➡️ A Jack Russell Terrier named Luna was reunited with her owners after she ran away on vacation at Yellowstone National Park and went missing for more than a month. She’s reportedly healthy, but now spends hours staring out the window and swirling the ice in her water bowl.

➡️ An entire season of Sweden’s version of the reality TV show The Challenge was reportedly deleted weeks before its premiere date, after the production team let an AI agent access their server (though it’s unclear if AI caused the mess). The New Stanford Prison Experiment reality show comes out in four days, if any rogue bots want to give that production team a challenge of their own.—ML

News

What else is brewing

The man who fatally shot the teenage gunman attacking Oregon’s Silver Rail Elementary School on Thursday has two daughters at the school, his mother told reporters yesterday.
President Trump denied yesterday that the White House was behind SpaceX’s Starlink being restricted in Ukraine this week, which the country said hindered its fight against Russia.
Residents of Alberta will vote in a referendum Monday on whether they want to remain part of Canada or begin a process that could lead to separation. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney appealed to Albertans, saying that “some outside our borders” are trying to break Canada to own it, in an apparent reference to the US.
The NBA said it told the sportsbooks it partners with not to offer certain types of bets, including some player prop parlays.
Apple’s iPhone Duo sold out within minutes of presale orders going live, with phones ordered later not available for shipping until 2027.
Sean “Diddy” Combs was moved to a different prison after being hospitalized for a head injury, his rep said.

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Community

Crowd work

Last week, we asked, “What’s your proudest nonprofessional competitive accomplishment?” Here are some of our favorite responses:

“Back when the Nintendo Wii was nearly impossible to get, Lunchables offered one as a prize through a daily online code-entry contest. Every day, I entered my code, while my mom rolled her eyes and reminded me that nobody actually wins those things. Then one day, I did. Nothing beats the look on her face when my free Wii console arrived in the mail.”—Connor from Fort Worth, TX
“I won the Moth StorySlam by telling a story about the seven times I’ve broken my nose. Two weeks later, I got into a bad car accident. Totaled my car, but walked away with my eighth broken nose. Kinda feels as if surviving eight broken noses is the bigger accomplishment.”—Germaine from Chicago, IL
“I cut down a lot of dead trees on our property for firewood. It all had to be split, and I did it by hand with wedges, a sledgehammer, and a wood-splitter maul. At the end of the summer, my kids saw their 155-pound father win the ‘ring the bell’ hammer game at the carnival.”—Anonymous
“Won the teacher awards for ‘Best Laugh’ and ‘Best Musical Taste’ as voted by the high school students where I teach. Touched my dang heart 🥹”—Jamie from Lewisburg, PA
“I have a golden trophy of a baby in a diaper that I got for winning a crawling race against a bunch of 2-year-olds (I was also two at the time).”—Zach from Ohio

This week’s question

Who’s a public figure you’ve had a healthy parasocial relationship with?

Sam’s answer to get the juices flowing: “Ever since Conan on TBS became part of my nightly routine when I was a teenager, I’ve felt that the self-deprecating host is like a goofy uncle who laughs away his insecurities. The sense of kinship is strengthened by the fact that he’s also a huge history buff and that we went to the same high school (34 years apart).”

Submit your response here.

recs

Three ways to become a better conversationalist.
The colors paint brands say everyone will be using for their walls next year.
The 2026 winners of a wildlife photographer of the year contest.
Give your skin a break from the dry air with this humidifier.**

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Play

Brew Crossword: This week’s big puzzle is titled “Order of Appearance.” Remember that when you encounter some clues that make you go “whut.” Play the Crossword here.

Open House

Welcome to Open House, the only newsletter section hoping to hide away in the mountains. We’ll give you a few facts about a listing and you try to guess the price.

Zillow

Today’s 223-acre property includes five lots (four of which are buildable) with two renovated homes in Boulder, CO. The estate is just far enough outside the hustle and bustle that you can enjoy complete quiet while still being within driving distance of whatever super green smoothie you need. Amenities include:

5 beds, 7 baths total
Outdoor pool
Horse stables

How much for the Colorado glamping getaway?

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Answer

$10.4 million

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: incarceration, meaning “confinement in a jail or prison.” Thanks to Juan from Costa Rica for the arresting suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.

✳︎ A Note From Doroni

This is a paid advertisement for Doroni’s Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.doroni.io. Forward-looking statements were included here that the Company believes to be accurate given the current information. A reservation of the ticker symbol is not a guarantee that we will be listed on the Nasdaq. Listing on the Nasdaq is subject to approvals.

Written by Abigail Rubenstein, Brendan Cosgrove, Sam Klebanov, Molly Liebergall, Matty Merritt, and Holly Van Leuven

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