Double Dusted with Harley Morenstein

This week, Harley and Big Lynch break down the hit 1991 soda Orbitz, Clearly Canadian's soda with balls: a drink so futuristic it had suspended orbs, a dedicated website, and every flavor except a good one. The boys cover the $155 million company that gambled on science and on balls in a bottle, the 85% sales faceplant, why the whole thing was secretly boba tea arriving a decade early, and the one flavor crime that Harley never forgave. Plus Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, Marvel selling off Spider-Man while bankrupt, the death of physical games, and peak 1997 nostalgia. New episodes of Double Dusted Discussion, every Monday!
Tell us what you think at r/EpicMealTime, @EpicMealTime on Twitter, or [email protected].
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This week, Harley and Big Lynch break down how the coolest drink in America became the most expensive bottle of iced tea in business history. The boys trace Snapple from a Brooklyn health food store to a glass-bottle, fact-under-the-cap phenomenon, the private-equity operator who bought 70% for $140 million and walked away with $900 million, and Quaker Oats outbidding Coca-Cola to pay $1.7 billion at the absolute peak. Then comes the fatal mistake, running the Gatorade playbook on a brand that lived in bodegas and corner stores, followed by benching Wendy the Snapple Lady, getting squeamish and torching the Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh deals, and dumping the whole thing to Nelson Peltz's Triarc for $300 million just 27 months later. The brand didn't fail; the owner did. Plus: how the Tylenol poisonings invented the tamper-proof seal, Rao's marinara math, and a Fruitopia-and-Sobe nostalgia spiral. New episodes of Double Dusted Discussion, every Monday!
Tell us what you think at r/EpicMealTime, @EpicMealTime on Twitter, or [email protected].
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This week, Harley, Donnie, and Big Lynch break down how a $20 all-you-can-eat shrimp deal exposed the cracks in a 56-year-old icon and dragged Red Lobster into bankruptcy court. The boys trace it from founder Bill Darden to the $2.1 billion private-equity sale to Golden Gate, the sale-leaseback that gave away the land out from under the restaurants, and Thai Union, the shrimp supplier that also owned the company and allegedly steered Red Lobster into buying its shrimp at a premium. Then there's the CEO who turned a limited-time promo into a permanent everyday menu item, the $11 million lost in a single quarter, the $530 million write-off, the Chapter 11 fire sale, and a new CEO now trying to make Red Lobster fun again with hush puppies, happy hour, seafood boils, and a cautious return of Endless Shrimp. Plus: a food-myth fact-or-fiction round, the "100% beef" McDonald's wrapper conspiracy, Donnie's theory that shrimp are spider cousins, and the $2,200 AR glasses nobody asked for. New episodes of Double Dusted Discussion, every Monday!
Tell us what you think at r/EpicMealTime, @EpicMealTime on Twitter, or [email protected].
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This week, Harley, Donnie, and Big Lynch break down how a single Subway franchisee accidentally invented the most famous deal in fast food history,  and how that same $5 sandwich nearly broke the empire that sold it. The boys trace the footlong from a slow weekend at a Miami hospital Subway to a 27,000-store juggernaut, the jingle that's still stuck in your head, the $3.8 billion it raked in, the franchisee revolt over a price that didn't math, the "11-inch footlong" puffery lawsuit, and the $9.6 billion private-equity sale that left Subway stuck at $6.99 forever. Plus: the great how-many-neighbors-is-too-many debate, Cracker Barrel recovery from walking back its logo, the Subway x Moana collab, Xbox's new era, and uncovering the best corporate training video ever made. New episodes of Double Dusted Discussion, every Monday!
Tell us what you think at r/EpicMealTime, @EpicMealTime on Twitter, or [email protected].
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This week, Harley and Big Lynch break down how Tim Hortons went from owning Canada (eight out of ten cups of coffee, double-doubles, Timbits, Roll Up the Rim) to getting branded anti-Canadian. The guys get into the hockey-player founder, the 2014 sale to the Burger King owners in Brazil, the "always fresh" par-bake reality, the franchise squeeze, and the temporary foreign worker firestorm that dragged Tims into Canada's youth unemployment rage. Plus: the fact sheet Tim Hortons dropped to defend itself, why Dunkin' marching back into Canada might be the thing that saves them, Crumbl naming a 186-gram dirty soda after the boys, the unwritten laws of golf attire, and an investigation into Harley's hair. New episodes of Double Dusted Discussion, every Monday!

Tell us what you think at r/EpicMealTime, @EpicMealTime on Twitter, or [email protected]. Make sure to subscribe and follow the podcast. New episodes every Monday!

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This week, Harley and Big Lynch break down how Wendy's spent decades trying to replace Dave Thomas and ended up posting their worst quarter in 20 years, with the stock down 50%, 600 stores closing, and CEO Kirk Tanner bailing to run a chocolate company. Big Lynch delivers a full PREsentation on the rise of Wendy's, Dave Thomas, the high-school dropout and Colonel Sanders protégé who founded the chain in 1969, the 1984 "Where's the Beef?" campaign that spiked sales 31%, the 800+ commercials that made Dave the entire brand, and the recent struggles that one of Double Dusted's favourite fast food restaurants now faces. Plus: AI data centers melting your bones, the "AirPods made me fat" documentary pitch, the Saudis buying up golf, Ferrero's $8B US shopping spree, the Halo Top alleged air scam, and evaluating the Pizza Hut Crust Platform. New episodes of Double Dusted Discussion every Monday.
Tell us what you think at r/EpicMealTime, @EpicMealTime on Twitter, or [email protected]. Make sure to subscribe and follow the podcast. New episodes every Monday!

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This week, Harley and Big Lynch break down how McDonald's accidentally caused the biggest fast food promotion disaster in history: selling 100 million Happy Meals in 10 days during the 1997 Teenie Beanie Baby craze and having to publicly apologize for it. Big Lynch delivers a full PREsentation on the history of the happy meal, the $1 billion 1996 Disney exclusive deal that nuked the toy arms race, and cover some of the other great fast food toy promotions. The boys discuss how 75% of family fast food trips are kid-driven, why toys went from afterthought to the entire reason you buy the meal, the Pizza Hut Book It program flanking McDonaldland, Burger King's 1989 Kids Club move, and the Pizza Hut Metal Gear Solid demo crossover. Plus: Donnie's tenant catching him on camera doing dirt in their living room for an hour, the Planet Fitness jerk chicken treadmill cup holder girl, the Batman glass collab being undefeated, Tim Sparks converting 80 Pizza Hut locations back to red roof Classics, White Castle's vending machine empire, Milka's German shrinkflation ruling, and Wendy's new CEO Bob Wright walking into five straight quarters of declining sales. New episodes of Double Dusted Discussion every Monday.
Tell us what you think at r/EpicMealTime, @EpicMealTime on Twitter, or [email protected].
Make sure to subscribe and follow the podcast. New episodes every Monday!

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This week, Harley and Big Lynch break down the slow death of Pizza Hut and why Yum! Brands is now trying to offload them for $3.5 billion. Big Lynch delivers a full PREsentation on how a $600 loan from the Carney brothers' mom in 1958 turned into the world's #1 pizza chain before losing to Dominos. The boys reminisce about pebbled red cups, Tiffany lamps, X-Men VHS giveaways, Pizza Pete, the salad bar, the dessert pizza buffet, and Harley's grade 11 era of partying inside a closed Pizza Hut. They get into the 2008 Pasta Hut rebrand, why Pizza Hut tried to delete the word "pizza" from its own name in 2009, the Chinese Salad Tower scandal, the 2018 Domino's takeover, how the buffet got killed in 2014, why the Red Roof concept is officially "retired" per Pizza Hut's own filings, the Pizza Hut Classic remodel program, and why Yum! Brands now reports earnings "excluding Pizza Hut." Plus: the Domino's CEO saying the vibes are bad, a Wetzel's x Cold Stone co-branded location tease, why Donnie keeps ghosting the pod, and so much more. New episodes of Double Dusted Discussion every Monday. 
Tell us what you think at r/EpicMealTimeMake sure to subscribe and follow the podcast. New episodes every Monday!

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This week, Harley and Big Lynch break down the worst collapse in fast food history, Quiznos. From 4,700 stores at the 2007 peak down to 200 today, the boys unpack the Spongmonkey mascot disaster, the toaster ad nobody asked for, the senior VP sting, and the corporate "trap" that nickel-and-dimed franchisees out of business. Big Lynch delivers a full presentation, with Donnie listening from a canoe somewhere. Plus: meet Sardar "Big Larry" Biglari, the Steak N Shake CEO who calls himself Michelangelo, runs his empire from Monaco, and is currently shitposting Cracker Barrel into oblivion. The boys roast Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright's "mid single digit inflation" corporate speak, break down the Thermos recall that left three people permanently blind, react to YouTube AI gassing itself up, debate whether the perfect tomato sandwich needs cheese, hot dog consolidation, and so much more. New episodes of Double Dusted Discussion every Monday.
Tell us what you think at r/EpicMealTime, @EpicMealTime on Twitter, or [email protected].
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This week, Harley and Big Lynch let YouTube's AI pick the episode and dig into the $200 million chip disaster that gave America diarrhea. The boys break down Olestra, the Wow! chip launch of '98, and why "may cause anal leakage" was just printed on the bag like it was a nutrition fact. Then it's an update on Brian Niccol's $100M year at Starbucks, McDonald's launching dirty sodas with no fresh limes in sight, and the 17g protein menu push for the GLP-1 crowd. Plus: a Chinese restaurant in Louisiana caught with roadkill in the freezer, Lynch's confession about eating queso out of the jar in his cup holder, and so much more. New episodes of Double Dusted Discussion every Monday.
Tell us what you think at r/EpicMealTime, @EpicMealTime on Twitter, or [email protected].
Make sure to subscribe and follow the podcast. New episodes every Monday!

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