TeeJay Tech Bro

  F or young workers fresh out of college, the lure of America’s big coastal cities has always been pretty obvious: chase the higher-paying jobs, stomach the rent, and trust the grind will eventually pay off. For a new grad in 2026, though, the math in that deal may be getting harder to justify, according to new analysis from ADP Research. The study ranked 53 major US metro areas for workers in their 20s based on hiring rates, wages, and affordability. So, where can a 23-year-old realistically launch a career without having to hand half their paycheck to a landlord — or wait months just to get past the resume screening process? Birmingham-Hoover, Alabama , claimed the top spot, driven by strong hiring, low living costs, and median wages for recent grads that rose more than 16% to roughly $59,000 over the past year. Florida’s Tampa region jumped to No. 2 from 26th place last year, after posting the fastest hiring rate among all of the metros analyzed in the study. Down is up Six...

  ince 2008, NPR’s popular “Planet Money” podcast has helped fans and listeners break down the complexities of the economy, making it more accessible and entertaining. It first launched during the financial crisis to help people better understand the global economy through narrative storytelling and hands-on reporting.  Last month, longtime contributor Alex Mayyasi and the hosts turned the podcast into book form and released “Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life,” with new stories and insights taken from more than a decade of reporting to show how economics shapes our world and how readers can harness its key principles to make their lives a little richer. The book tackles everything from how AI might help or replace you to how the compounding effect applies to more than your 401(k). It also takes readers to a smartphone factory in Patagonia, a raisin cartel in California, and an Indigenous reserve in Canada that might hold the solution for the h...

  ith Mexico about to host a raft of World Cup games, the zeitgeist moving on from a recent “ Star Wars ” movie, and Michael Jackson storming the charts, you’d be forgiven in 2026 for thinking you’d gone back in time to 1986 . As a buzzy biopic moonwalks the King of Pop back into the mainstream, Jackson’s “Billie Jean” recently topped both Spotify’s global streaming chart and the Billboard Global 200 more than 43 years after its initial release. But, zooming out, lists indicating the most listened to songs today are increasingly populated by some of the biggest tracks of yesteryear. Throw it back A new article in The Wall Street Journal unpacks how the latest generation of music listeners are now congregating around songs from the past — from early ’10s Justin Bieber hits to niche ’60s bops — citing data company Luminate’s Retro Revival report, released Wednesday. In a survey of US consumers aged 13 to 24, Luminate found that   44%   of respondents last year said ...

  ven though DC’s “Supergirl” marked another disappointing outing for the superhero genre that once reliably propped up the movie industry, Hollywood has still had a flying first half of 2026. In fact, some are now positing that we could now see the best domestic box office year since before the pandemic, potentially crossing the $10 billion mark thanks to mega-hits like “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” “Michael,” and “Toy Story 5,” as well as a bumper second-half slate . Still, between the inconsistency in the superhero cinematic universe, the (slim) chance that we may have seen “ peak sequel ,” and the recent rise of indie horrors helmed by internet personalities, it seems to be getting a little more difficult for some movie bosses to know which of their films are guaranteed to get the people out and filling seats across 2026. Streaming execs, meanwhile, might have happened upon a much more straightforward, if less inspiring, formula: just keep plundering the back catalog. Former...

he US June jobs report had something for everyone: On the one hand, non-farm payrolls rose by just 57,000. Analysts foresaw job growth of 113,000; prediction markets were more optimistic, looking for job growth above 125,000 but below 150,000. On the other hand, the unemployment rate unexpectedly dipped a tick to 4.2%. Economists (as well as prediction markets) thought the unemployment rate would come in at 4.3%. (Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.) US equity futures rose to their highs of the morning in the wake of this print, as traders anticipate that the soft headline job growth reduces any urgency for rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. Two-year Treasury yields declined to 4.11% from 4.19% in the minutes following this release, and the US dollar sank versus major trading partners. The improvement in labor market data year to date coupled with sticky price pressures has prompted ...

  mashing nuclei together to generate energy has proved a lot more difficult than splitting the atom. The first pure-play publicly traded company in pursuit of that goal, General Fusion GFUZ $9.25 (2.30%) , debuted on the Nasdaq on Monday as part of a SPAC merger with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp III. The firm uses a hybrid approach called Magnetized Target Fusion (or more colorfully, steampunk) in which magnetism and shockwaves combine to generate intense heat and compress what are among the tiniest things in the universe. CEO Greg Twinney spoke with Sherwood News from the Nasdaq during the stock’s first day of trading, calling fusion a “trillion dollar opportunity” with the potential to deliver “on-demand, clean, incredibly abundant energy.” It’s something to dream on — and something that’s been dreamt on for a long time. With $150 million in the bank, Twinney says that General Fusion has “the capital we need to hit those really important science milestones” with the goal of h...

  Hey Snackers, Single chord changes, especially in experimental music, aren’t often much to get too excited about, but yesterday’s addition of an eighth note in a performance of John Cage’s “ORGAN²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible)” is a pretty big deal in the pretty narrow world of avant-garde art projects that span six centuries . A single small organ in Germany has now played the same Cage composition for 25 years and is, as of yesterday’s new chord, 4% of the way through the piece, meaning that it should wrap up in just 614 years from now. Apparently the full thing still won’t drag as much as the local school orchestra recital you went to that time. A relatively quiet Wednesday, as the S&P 500 finished slightly lower after a four-day winning streak. Oil prices were flat ahead of a potential deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.  A huge raft of SpaceX shares are hitting the market today For anyone who’s followed the high drama of the journey that SpaceX has been on since it...