Can tea compete with coffee?

In this week’s episode of Crack It in an Hour, Romain brings Simon and Jesse a new challenge: how to make tea as popular as coffee in a market where morning caffeine and craft coffee culture reign supreme.The team explores how coffee built its multi-wave legacy and why tea’s image in America—often split between British rituals, wellness trends, and over-sweetened artificial flavors—has kept it from becoming a true competitor.Rather than fighting coffee for the morning slot, the team pitches an alternative strategy: owning the 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM "afternoon lift" with a lighter caffeine alternative. From creating a simplified menu of caffeinated staples to introducing guided "bar-teastas" (tea bartenders) and using scent marketing like fresh-baked bread to lure in customers, they break down what it would take to build a fresh tea culture. Did they Crack It? Listen to find out!

Have we completely lost the art of good manners? In this week’s episode of Crack It in an Hour, Simon, Jesse, and Romain are joined by special guest Alex Gardner, to tackle a growing modern issue: the decline of basic etiquette and respect.From ghosting meetings and chronic lateness to the internet's rage-bait culture and social media's impact on human interactions, the team breaks down why people seem to be losing their sense of social etiquette—and how we might fix it.The group explores whether etiquette can be rebranded as a competitive advantage for personal and professional success, how the widespread "embarrassment epidemic" keeps people from engaging politely, and whether we can use Chat GPT's surprisingly polite communication style to shame humans into being more respectful. From gamifying good habits using wearable technology to tapping into the modern cultural shift where "caring is cool again," they leave no stone unturned. Did they Crack It? Listen to find out!

This week on Crack It in an Hour, Romain brings the team a delicious challenge: can they create a candy brand from scratch in one hour?In a candy market flooded with products targeting kids, the team asks a different question: what if there's an untapped opportunity hiding in plain sight—adults who love candy but have never been marketed to? With over $55 billion in global candy sales and consumption driven increasingly by grown-ups, the team dives into why no one has seriously gone after this audience.From texture innovation to social media discovery, from the rise of sour to the power of attitude, they unpack the five major trends reshaping the candy world. They debate whether lollipops are dead, whether spicy candy can go mainstream, and who the real target consumer should be. Is it adult women looking for irreverence? Runners seeking guilt-free fuel? Or something entirely different?Then things get serious: they land on Sour Mouth—a brand concept built on attitude, not just product. They explore what a sour candy with multiple intensity levels could look like, how texture could revolutionize the sour category, and why comedy (think Giggly Squad) might be the perfect launch partner. Activation ideas range from reinventing the Valentine's Day candy box to opening an adult candy bar complete with martinis and french fries.So… can you build a candy brand for adults that breaks through in a crowded market? Did they crack it in an hour? Find out.

This week on Crack It in an Hour, founder of Local Style Chips and longtime friend of the pod Laura Gardner brings Romain, Jesse, and the team a question that hits different: what if hometown pride could be the antidote to modern malaise?In a culture plagued by loneliness, depression, technology addiction, and division, what would it actually look like to find belonging in your community? The team explores how deep love for a place—and the people in it—could reverse the trend line on everything from mental health to social isolation.From passionate pizza debates to small-town lore, from sports fandom to shared food traditions, they unpack what actually creates collective pride. What are the pillars that make people feel connected to their hometowns? Is it positive divisiveness? An underdog mentality? The power of mythology? And why is food always at the center?They also dig into whether hometown pride could actually change public policy—making cities healthier and happier by design.So… can we solve loneliness and depression by leaning into what makes our communities unique? Did they crack it in an hour? Check it out!

This week on Crack It in an Hour, Jesse brings a problem that sounds simple but gets weird fast: how do we sell Harley Davidson to the next generation?Harley has legendary brand equity and iconic semiotics of freedom and rebellion. But their average customer is over 50, sales have dropped 32% globally since 2021, and younger riders are choosing Triumph and adventure bikes instead.So what went wrong? Is it the product, the price, or have we been thinking about Harley's identity all wrong?The team wrestles with what freedom, rebellion, and adventure actually mean today. They debate modern "soft rebellion," aspiration, and whether Harley should just go back to being a motorcycle company. Somewhere around the 50-minute mark, they land on something interesting: what if Harley stopped trying to reframe everything and just owned the codes that made motorcycles matter in the first place?You'll have to listen to find out where they land.

The Crack It team is back, welcoming the newest member of the Significant team, Loie Greenwood! His challenge to the group: how do we bring back sleepovers for adults?What follows is a mix of nostalgia, cultural analysis, and pure strategy. Jesse immediately claims the crown as the ultimate champion of adult sleepovers, while Loui reflects on a recent post-wedding Airbnb trip with friends that sparked the whole conversation. Simon questions if adult sleepovers ever truly existed or if we just grew out of them, Roman digs into why social barriers and the need for autonomy make hosting overnight stays tricky as we get older, and the group ponders whether the lack of good social skills is creating a "bad hang" epidemic. Plus: Mario Kart drinking games (aka "Berio Kart"), the 40x40 Alaskan King bed, "tiny adventures" as a counter to expensive vacations, and how a fantasy football draft turned into an accidental boy-hang. Did they crack it? It's a solid first hour toward a 100% crackable problem — check it out!

This week on Crack It in an Hour: Simon brings the team a problem that's near and dear to his heart—how do we fix modern day messaging?The average Microsoft worker receives 117 emails and 153 Teams messages daily—not including personal texts. We're drowning in communication, yet we're still missing context, misunderstanding tone, and dealing with unspoken rules nobody agreed to.In this episode, Simon, Jesse, and Romain explore:- Why email, Slack, and text are all fundamentally broken -  The psychology behind "telepressure" and the addiction to checking messages-  Why digital detox and "brick phones" aren't realistic solutions -  How work-from-home exacerbated the communication crisis - AI and intelligent assistants as potential fixes -  Building a code of good messaging etiquette - Why emojis are surprisingly complicated 🙌🙏😬- And whether we can actually "crack" nonverbal messagingSpoiler alert: The answer might just be "be a grown-up about it."

Can Taste Be Taught? Crack It in an HourWhat makes someone have "good taste"? Is it something you're born with, or can it actually be learned?In this episode, Simon, Jesse, and Roman are joined by special guest Owen Williams to tackle one of the most elusive questions in creative culture: Can Taste Be Taught?They explore what "taste" even means—is it personal preference, aesthetic judgment, or something deeper? They debate whether taste comes from exposure, environment, confidence, or lived experience. And they wrestle with some genuinely complicated ideas:• The difference between taste, expertise, and craft• Why the story behind a creative decision matters more than the output itself • How AI is redefining why human discernment will be our greatest differentiator • Whether teaching taste is actually teaching a process rather than a result • Why exposure to diverse experiences—not just "high art"—builds better taste Did they Crack It? Listen to find out! 

This week on Crack It in an Hour, Jesse brings Roman and Simon a challenge that hits close to home: how do we make the US a cool place to visit again?International tourism to the US is down, global perception has taken a hit, and traditional travel campaigns feel disconnected from what travelers actually want to experience. But when international visitors do come, they leave loving the local quirks, hidden regional cultures, and unapologetic American scale that don't make it into traditional travel ads.So how do you separate politics from the actual tourist experience? Can you market regional pockets, roadside quirks, and "the mostest most" without sounding defensive or tone-deaf? And what happens when you let expats reframe the myth of America on their own terms?It’s a massive problem, but did we crack it? Check it out!

This week on Crack It in an Hour, Simon brings us a problem: how do we add more danger back into our lives?Here's the paradox: we're safer than ever—traffic deaths down 63%, workplace injuries plummeting, violent crime down 72%. Yet anxiety is up 84%, teen distress is soaring, and people are more anxious than ever. So what's missing?The team explores whether small, chosen doses of danger actually build the resilience we need to live better lives. They debate what danger really means, why it's been monopolized by extreme sports, and how to make accessible danger desirable again.Did we crack it? Check it out!