Episode 4: Jimmy James
It’s an amazing time to be alive. We are witnessing the confluence of a Pandemic, the Civil Rights Movement and the Great Recession (part 2). There have been almost 8 million cases of Covid-19 cases and 500,000 deaths worldwide. The Black Lives Matter protests (mostly peaceful at this point) continue across the country and world. There have been a litany of business executive resignations and firings for social media posts (or lack thereof) to the Black Lives Matter movement. In a WSJ poll, 80% of voters believe things are “out of control” in the US. Unemployment is at 13% and the US GDP is expected to drop 6% in 2020—the biggest drop since 1946. Meanwhile, the NASDAQ hit an all-time high earlier this week, breaching 10,000, and the S&P was briefly back in positive territory for the year; Apple stock hit a record high with a valuation of $1.4 trillion, and Hertz which filed for bankruptcy last month subsequently saw its stock rise 896% (that’s not a typo) only to fall dramatically the last few days upon receiving a delisting notice from the NYSE (and today it’s surged up almost 40%). I don’t know what else to say other than W.T.F.?!
I. Below are the articles I found interesting the past week:
Ted Talk on Radical Transparency/Fierce Conversations (I used this video to lead an exercise on this topic with my Vistage group and it was extremely powerful)
Hertz plans to sell potentially worthless stock
Should cops be forced to carry liability insurance?
Dear White boss…..
https://hbr.org/2002/11/dear-white-boss
When 500 epidemiologists expect to fly, hug and do 18 other everyday things:
Public shaming is a new pastime
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/pandemic-shaming-wellness-trnd/index.html
Low income nations likely to remain deeply damaged five years after pandemic
Dogs can detect Covid by smelling your armpits
Four things emotionally intelligent people don’t do
https://medium.com/personal-growth/4-things-emotionally-intelligent-people-dont-do-24ea6ea53992
Flying-cab drivers wanted
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/flying-cab-drivers-wanted
The results are in for remote learning: it didn’t work
Teenager collects tadpoles, turns into a TikTok star and signs a media deal with a US agency
A billionaire turns on his own
The info we consume matters as much as the food we put in our body
Buried treasure discovered after 10 years and 5 deaths
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a32801149/forrest-fenn-treasure-found/
Man struck by lightning and turns into a concert pianist
Covid has limited the access to abortion services. Telemedicine is now an option.
The Chinese developer and +$100 billion valuation behind TikTok
https://www.economist.com/business/2020/04/18/bytedance-is-going-from-strength-to-strength
Saying this word will help you stop complaining!
https://medium.com/personal-growth/saying-this-word-will-help-you-to-stop-complaining-361d951e88ad
Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam are being stripped of their guns (but Fudd still possess a scythe and ample dynamite to kill Bugs)
II. Stats that made me go WOW!
- AirBnB has booked more US listings between May, 17th - June, 3rd, 2020 than for the same period in 2019.
- 60,000 urban air mobility pilots could be needed by 2028 (roughly 17% of the total number of commercial pilots), per McKinsey's “Flying cab drivers wanted” report.
- Indian telecom giant, Jio Platforms, has raised $13 billion in funding the last two months.
- Tech event CES 2020 took place in January with around 175,000 attendees, 2.9 million square feet of exhibition space, and almost $300 million in economic impact to Las Vegas. The show is currently slated as a “go” for January, 2021, according to organizers.
- Dr Kathy Sullivan, 68, who flew three space shuttle missions, was the first American woman to walk in space in 1984, has now become the first human to have been in space and also go to the lowest know depth in the ocean at about 7 miles. The location is about 200 miles southwest of Guam and the area is knows as Challenger Deep. Sullivan celebrated by making a phone call from the submerged mother ship to the astronauts on the ISS. The ISS is circling the earth at 254 miles above surface.
- In 2014, 33% of Americans believed the police are likely to use excessive force against African Americans. Today, that figure is 57%. (According to Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster, “In my 35 years of polling, I’ve never seen opinion shift this fast or deeply.”
III. Name that Tune!
As I write this email, I am listening to one of my favorite bands of all time, Beastie Boys. The band was formed in 1981 by three Jewish friends from Brooklyn, NY, and the name Beastie was actually an acronym (Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Inner Excellence). The band trio of Michael “ Mike D” Diamond (vocals/drums), Adam ”MCA” Yauch (vocals/bass) and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz (vocals/guitar) broke music barriers by bridging elements of punk, jazz, hip hop, and rock. I was a fan of albums License to Ill and Paul’s Boutique but it was the third album, Check Your Head, released in 1992, that cemented my fascination with the group. The opening song on the album is "Jimmy James,”
a tribute to rock legend, Jimi Hendrix, and contains samples from several Hendrix songs including “Foxy Lady”, “Happy Birthday”, and “Still Raining”. Beastie Boys have sold 20 million records in the US, making them the biggest-selling rap group since Billboard began recording sales in 1991. They had seven platinum-selling albums and in 2012 became only the third rap group to be induced into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In the same year, Adam “MCA” Yauch died of cancer at 47 and the Beastie Boys disbanded.
Happy reading and have a great weekend!