🦃 Thanksgiving will be pricey

The busiest phone line this week will almost certainly be the Turkey Talk-Line.

Operated by Butterball — which claims to sell ⅓ of Thanksgiving turkeys — the line will field 100k+ calls related to cooking time and stuffing best practices.

It’ll probably hear a few of these questions, too: “Yo, why is everything so expensive this year?”

Prices for Thanksgiving favorites…

… are up across the board, compared to the first week of November 2020:

• Thanksgiving meats (+7.4%)
• Sides (+6.3%)
• Pies (+4.7%)

The price increases come as grocers deal with supply chain issues while trying to meet rising demand.

Thanksgiving was a subdued affair in 2020

Smaller gatherings led to demand for smaller birds. This year, people are looking to get festive.

About 36% of consumers are planning for a dinner with 10+ people; this is ~2x more than 2020 (19%) and nearly on par with 2019 (40%), per The Wall Street Journal.

Larger turkeys are back in the mix but there’s a shortage of some real necessities like pie crust, cream cheese, cranberry sauce, and — please, no — liquid gravy.

There could still be deals

Bloomberg notes that many shoppers stocked up early this year. Prices may wane today as grocers discount any excess inventory.

So if you told your family, “don’t worry, I’ll put Thanksgiving together at the very last second,” you may actually come out ahead.

And if you need recipe inspiration, the experts at Butterball’s Turkey Talk-Line have you covered: For the first time, they are spreading their magic on TikTok.

Social commerce: Twitter premiered its live shopping product, which allows users to purchase directly from Twitter video streams. #ecommerce-retail

Delivery weed: Uber announced it would let users in Ontario, Canada, order cannabis through Uber Eats. #emerging-tech

Domain debacle: GoDaddy announced it experienced a security breach that exposed information of 1.2m users. #privacy

To the moon: MoonPay, a crypto payments platform, raised $555m at a $3.4B valuation. #fintech-crypto

Big reveal: Gizmodo announced it would make all of the Facebook Papers public. #big-tech

Though megahits like “The Lion King” or “Hamilton” happen every few years, the formula for Broadway success remains elusive.

In terms of revenue, Broadway was as healthy as ever before the pandemic struck:

• Revenues have increased every year since 1985-86
• Annual attendance has shot up from 6.5m (1984-85) to 14.7m (2019)

From 2018-19, the average income of Broadwaygoers was $261k — roughly 4x the median household income in the US.

We wanted to dive deeper. Who invests in these shows? How much do they cost to operate? How much money do they bring in?

To find out, we researched statistics dating back to the 1920s and spoke with several insiders about production, theater ownership, and the difficulty of predicting a hit.

5 social media strategies you’re sleeping on

Great social media marketers can make the gig look so easy.

Some people have that creative knack for cranking out quippy memes and tweet threads. Some just have good taste, and do their damn homework.

We’re here to help. With the homework part.

Blog post: 5 ways to make content that slaps on socials

If you haven’t considered leveraging micro-influencers on TikTok or having your CEO do storytime, here are some underrated ideas.

These scroll-stopping techniques are backed with recent data, bolstered with personal insights, and brought to you by HubSpot.

When the world screeched to a halt in the spring of 2020, most people paused with it — but a brave few sprung to action.

We asked if anyone had launched a new venture during the pandemic, and 300+ of you responded with your stories.

Businesses spread across industries, with most falling into:

• Food & beverage (10.8%)
• Retail (7%)
• Apparel & fashion (5.1%)

Why launch during the pandemic?

Founders cited a number of reasons:

• “Pet adoption rates were at an all-time high, and I knew that once the country opened back up, people would need sitting services.” (– Amber Kelly, Beach Buddies, dog walking and pet sitting in DE)
• “Both my wife and I were laid off [during the pandemic] and we had always wanted to start our own business, so it was the perfect time.” (– Brad Abell, Littlest Babe, a baby products company)

A ton of other really cool businesses emerged:

• Made by Koa: a bedding company solving the age-old problem of changing duvet covers
• Deskvana: a meditation and breathwork app that integrates with Slack
• Hampr: an on-demand app for laundry service
• Dovey: a virtual dating site for long-distance couples
• Minimalist Chocolate: an ethical, guilt-free chocolate brand
• Terra Karta: a company that flips and sells lots of vacant land

To read the full story, including revenue and fundraising data, click here.

Dr. Andrew Huberman’s meteoric rise to fame

Sam and Shaan are starstruck.

The Stanford professor and neuroscience expert wants to optimize you.

He’s known for breaking down all kinds of health topics, especially related to how our brain controls health, behavior, and perception. It’s why his podcast became a chart-topper in less than 10 months.

The boys unravel his brain. The doc doesn’t disappoint.

My First Million show highlights:

• Meet Dr. Andrew Huberman
• On his fast rise to fame and wealth
• 3 simple steps for better health and focus
• “The nutrition space is a disaster”
• Why he continues to teach

✈️ On this day: In 1971, the infamous D.B. Cooper parachuted from a plane he’d hijacked with $200k in ransom money, leaving behind only speculation into who he was and what happened to him.

🗿 That’s cool: Here’s a map of every UNESCO World Heritage Site in the world.

👂 How to: Deep or active listening can be an important tool for understanding others, especially if you’re coming from opposite sides. Here’s how to do it.

🍄 Wait, what: Using a particular fungus, researchers have been able to derive a wild strawberry scent from trash. This knowledge could be used to sustainably produce aromas and flavors.

💲 Savings: Here is a roundup of 100+ Black Friday deals from D2C brands, curated by The Fascination.

🤗 Cure boredom: This website will take you to a random livestreamer who has no other viewers.

🍰 Aww: Here’s a stop-motion video of animator Andrea Love baking a tiny cake made entirely out of wool. It is adorable.