TBOY Newsletter · Wed, July 22, 2026

Listened to us on an iPhone today? Cool. But listened on a CD? Coolest. CDs are officially the fastest-growing music format: We bought 16 million CDs in the first 6 months of this year, up 16%, while vinyl grew just 2%. That’s despite half of CD buyers not even owning a CD player. It’s all about the fan merch: BTS, Taylor Swift, Charlie xcx, each sells CDs fans are snatching up (which are also insurance for if your Spotify subscription goes away). Stick that stat in your huge 3 inch CD binder.

The ultimate “Accidental Invention?” Play-Doh started life as a wallpaper cleaner in 1930. But when home heating switched away from coal and nobody had soot on their walls anymore, the founder's sister-in-law had a better idea in 1956: Call it Play-Doh, and market it as a kids toy.

Hasbro stock just jumped 10% Tuesday to reach a $12B valuation, while rival Mattel is down 28% this year to $4B. And the next Profit Puppy? Adult Play-Doh — Hasbro just launched Blooms, a $25 kit for grown-ups to craft clay-like flower bouquets that can decorate their house much longer than fresh flowers. DIY Peonies are now a thing.

• But interesting detail: Hasbro tried this 6 years ago as “Play-Doh Flowers”… and it flopped.

• So this time, they dropped the “Play-Doh” branding, launching “Blooms” on TikTok Shop and selling out in 24 hrs.

• Hasbro's CEO said it himself: "If it's like traditional Play-Doh, it will fail."

Hero Fact: Basketball and volleyball were invented 9 miles apart in Mass (Springfield & Holyoke) both by gym teachers looking for winter-friendly indoor sports. One of them turned into a global, billion-dollar biz. The other just quietly became the #2 girls' sport in America.

• 493K high school girls play volleyball now, 2nd only to Track & Field. It’s up 14% from 10 years ago and nearly 10x the number of boys who play.

• Non-contact is key — the only person you can bump into is your own teammate, which is how its YMCA creator designed it in 1895.

• Now Nebraska's women's volleyball is sold out their football stadiums (92K people) & this year's nat’l championship game pulled 1.4M viewers.

But 1 problem… "We haven't had our Zendaya movie yet." That’s a quote from the CEO of USA Volleyball, referencing how 2024's Challengers movie spiked interest in tennis. But don’t stop there — The Mighty Ducks boosted hockey 32 years ago and Drive to Survive boosted F1 fandom in 2019. Volleyball has the numbers, just not the movie.

Last week it was DeepSeek, the low-cost Chinese AI American companies are using to save money is prepping to IPO. This week it's Moonshot AI, whose Kimi model exceeds OpenAI and Anthropic on intelligence, not just price. If DeepSeek was AI's Honda, Moonshot is AI’s Ferrari-killer — and it's named after Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, dropped on the album's 50th anniversary.

Now Treasury Secretary Bessent says the US Gov’t will investigate Chinese AI companies for theft and sanction labs if it’s found they stole American models (through a process called distillation). And the White House is considering a straight up ban to protect US industry. But banning Chinese AI would raise AI bills for US companies, which could trickle-down to prices we all pay — while foreign companies still running Chinese AI would get a cost advantage.

Btw Besties, we’re obsessed with Liquid I.V.’s new Sugar-Free Ring Pop® Cherry flavor. Jack hydrated his sweat-dripping body on IG so that you can get 20% off your first order at LiquidIV.com with promo code 2026TBOY.