Episode

McDonald's CEO Ate a Burger Like He Was Defusing a Bomb

Podcast: Future Commerce
Published: Mar 4, 2026
Duration seconds: 3841
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Canonical source: https://www.futurecommerce.com/podcasts/mcdonalds-ceo-ate-a-burger-like-he-was-defusing-a-bomb
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Summary

Phillip and Brian get deep on a week when everything felt a little unhinged: Shopify's AI sidekick started building custom apps, Iran allegedly took out AWS data centers mid-Claude-outage, and the McDonald's CEO went mega-viral just days after Phillip prophesied it. Underneath the chaos, a throughline emerges: the things we've used to measure value (view counts, credit card rewards, third-party apps, and AI contracts) are quietly expiring. Culture is first. Then comes commerce.