Rachael McKelvey

• Life aboard the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• Post Pandemic “Skills gap”
• Why every vote counts
• Why is it so difficult to unsubscribe
• More rubbish plastic records

Life aboard the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
So it turns out thousands of marine creatures called nuestons have unexpectedly hitching a ride across the ocean on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a patch of human made debris that stretches for hundreds and thousands of square miles in the North Pacific. Species including a violet sea snail, bright-blue jellyfish and blue sea dragons have been found on the 1.6million square kilometre patch.

The official paper High concentrations of floating neustonic life in the plastic-rich North Pacific Garbage Patch was published this week off the back of the beautiful amazing if not slightly hideous discovery was made when long distance swimmer and environmental activist Benoit Lecomte embarked on his swim from Hawaii to California with the intention of swimming through the garbage patch. Ben and his team collected samples throughout the patch in the name of science.

Now the paper is live it has raised some interesting questions – there are other garbage patches, five in fact, are they also now fully functioning ecosystems? And now raises the questions over whether its right to clean up the plastic in the seas when it yields and supports so much life now?

I think we can all agree we need to stop plastic getting into the sea, but what do we do with it now its there?

Post Pandemic ‘skills gap’

This week saw PwC and Deloitte acknowledging the ‘skills gap’ amongst new recruits whose education was disrupted by lockdown by offering additional coaching to support both communication and teamworking skills to support their adaptation to a working environment.

I think Ian Elliott CPO at PwC put it more positively than Deloitte’s partner for people and purpose who said it was “understandable that students who missed out on face-to-face activities during Covid may now be stronger in certain fields, such as working independently, and less confident in others”. Starting to think I joined the wrong Big Four!

This was talked about on one of our lunchtime walks this week with children once again off school as a result of striking, which everyone supported by the way, but just pondering the impact on students in the long term of the last few years and possibly the few years to come.

Is it time for an education over hall?

Why every vote counts
While I hope everyone voted in their local elections, I do understand why people don’t. I understand it, but I don’t get it. Life is full of hard choices & voting unfortunately just fits in that category. Go in & spoil you ballot if you can’t decide, partake in the process because it’s an absolute privilege…even more so now you need photo ID, another rant for another day when they have all the data.

The most comment no point in voting opinion you hear is that it doesn’t matter and while sometimes it feels that way, especially in first past the post, a local council seat changed hands by a margin of 4 votes to a different party? Imagine if those 4 people had been like ‘not today my vote doesn’t matter’, your vote matters, even when it doesn’t seem like it.

Also just by way of fact’ing this out a bit, the Conservatives lost 60% of their councils in which they held majorities and you can now walk from Dover to John O’Groats without walking through a Conservative council. Result.

Why is it so difficult to unsubscribe
I have been spring cleaning my inboxes, well trying too, but it’s increasingly hard to unsubscribe from anything…to the very hidden terms and conditions to the endless ‘we miss you and want you back’ emails…Calm down corporate America, we know where you live. If I want you back I’ll find you!

After a little bit of looking around I stumbled around this brilliant but of storytelling from The Pudding on why it really is so hard to unsubscribe and what exactly Dark Patterns are. The article by Caroline Sinders follows an experiment she ran at the end of summer 2022 in which she signed up for and subsequently cancelled 16 different services with some interesting side effects. Encountering 20 instances of dark patterns across the 16 companies, which seems like A LOT.

In the day and age where we have to sign up to so many things, it really does make you think if it’s really worth signing up in the first place.

More rubbish plastic records
This weekend Adrift labs announced on twitter that had removed over 400 pieces of plastic from one baby sea bird and over 50g from another, which were new records for the research team on Lord Howe Island in the Tasman sea between Australia and New Zealand.

Adrift are a research team dedicated to seabirds and marine plastics research, they want to gather as much information as they can for as long as they can to help shape marine and waste policy in influence positive change at individual and community level to help our Oceans survive.

In March they had released a paper about the ingestion of plastics by wildlife another incredibly sad read, so the turn up of a recording breaking amount of plastic in a baby sea bird hits hard.

Current watch:  Colin from Accounts – Don’t panic its not about accounting. It’s and Australian comedy picked up by the BBC written and starring husband and wife duo Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, playing to single genuinely flawed human beings bought together by a car accident and an injured dog.

It’s funny in a laugh out loud and on a deep soul level, it’s cutting and brave as you watch two people learning to be brave with one another to navigate life. It’s very bingeable and heart-warming.

Current read: Gene Eating The Story of Human Appetite by Giles Yeo – I was very influenced by the episode of Diary of a CEO with Giles Yeo and even more surprised to stumble across the book in the library and was surprised at how interesting I found the book, it is exactly the right balance of informative and engaging, it’s incredibly well researched but also funny and engaging on a real human level and I think it’s an important read.

There is so much out there right now about weight loss and it’s hard to tell the real from the pseudo-science because everyone has a podcast. Giles is at the cutting edge of obesity research and while this book is hailed as anti diet, I think it’s more nuanced than that, it explains why they work and why they don’t and really how your genes impact your body’s ability to lose weight or even gain weight. I certainly feel it gives a kind perspective on why your body might not behave in the ways you’re led to believe it will be.

Most Impactful Listen: More of Less: Behind the Stats – How much is the Coronation crown worth – A really wonderful short explainer on the truth behind the numbers quoted in the media, I was surprised and learnt a lot in 10 minutes.

Historian Dr Anna Keay and CEO of the Gemmological association of Great Britain Alan Hart talk with Charlotte McDonald about the truth worth of 2kg of gold and 444 gemstones and what it might really be worth today.

• Real life Succession
• Reluctantly accepting we are “worse off”
• Why good leadership matters
• Every now and again something reminds you the world is mad
• Avoiding the world

Real life Succession
Absolutely no spoilers about the fate of Waystar Royco but it’s hard to say how much more the Murdoch Empire can withstand, and while I desperately wanted to see Dominion Voting Systems squash Fox News like a tiny little bug in open court, I can understand why they took the settlement, you’d like to think truth was an open and shut case, but we live in interesting post truth times. I’m also not sure as a shareholder following the offer of £631 million ($787m), a life changing amount of money for a business, that I wouldn’t have also voted to take the deal.

The only other upside to this was that Tucker Carlson has stepped away by “mutual agreement” after saying he would see everyone on Monday…the market reacted in the only way the market can, by dropping 3% of the share price only to recover it pretty quickly, do not let the door hit you on the butt on the way-out Carlson. I think the greatest irony is that right now the biggest existential threat to the Murdoch Empire is Prince Harry and the irony being that if Prince Harry had done literally anything else you know the Murdoch press would have slapped it over every single one of their front pages and have as the flagship story on all their new channels. Grab some popcorn and settle in.

Reluctantly accepting we are “worse off”
On todays episode of I’m rich you’re poor how is reluctantly accepting that, “yes, we’re all worse off, and we all have to take our share” working out for you? Against a backdrop of continuing strike action, a decline in public services and the inarguable statistic that the richer have in fact got richer how is being poor working out for you?

This week England’s top Economist spoke on Columbia Law Schools Beyond Unprecedented podcast which is all about the economy in a post pandemic world and having listened to the episode, in the context it is in and very objectively if we were looking back at this as a historical event it’s potentially not an unfair comment, but it definitely feels a little off the mark outside the podcast.

It’s the comment about taking our share that sticks a little with me, because we all know that those share’s are not equal and disproportionately impact those who suffer the most at times of high inflation.

Why good leadership matters
I think the state of British politics right now is the perfect example of why good leadership matters, because look what happens when the leadership you have is average at best and well beyond hideous at worst.

The fact that the resignation of Dominic Raab has more people talking about civil service reform rather than ministerial behaviour is astounding, off the back of a resignation letter that might as well have just been a post it that said ‘sorry not sorry’ and while I don’t think anyone would disagree the civil service needs some reform, at this moment in time its not that and that not even where the conversation is going.

LinkedIn is awash with people don’t quite bad jobs they quit bad managers and there is a reason it keeps doing the rounds, its true, but also not everyone has the luxury of quitting and some bad managers never leave, you just have to look around bad organisations to see it, the good people go and those that are left are bad people and hostages and so the cycle continues.

Every now & then something reminds me that existence is mad
For me it is Moore’s Law, what is yours? The hypothesis being that for the next 10 years from 1965 onwards that the number of transistors on computer chips doubles approximately every two years…and it has been right for over half a century!

For decades people think this will be the year Moore’s law becomes obsolete and here am I just thinking everything is mad because how can we put a billion of anything on something as small as a microprocessor and how do we use those exceptionally tiny things to do millions of different things. They basically keep all this *gestures vaguely around* going. It’s absolutely mad to me.

If you haven’t stopped by Our World In Data may I highly recommend that you do, there is a brilliant article on Moores law with some interactive charts and some other interesting charts on other examples of exponential growth in technology.

Mad little planet we live on.

Avoiding the world
Last weekend I spent 3 nights in a geodome in a field in the middle shires, it was glorious. I went all in and turned off my mobile data the minute I grabbed the last bag from the car. I was in two minds, I had a charging block that would have lasted me till the Monday, there were mod cons, this was not wild by any stretch of the imagination, but electricity from solar panels and hot water from a calor gas boiler and the other method of heating spaces and water was burning wood. It was glorious and I didn’t miss the scrolling or the contact.

Reunited this week with a friend who’d spent 10 days in Bali, also relatively off grid without wifi connection and we compared notes, it was surprisingly easy to drop into presence and gratitude, both commenting how nice it was to just use our phones as cameras, check in only if necessary and feel like there was enough time. I found that I didn’t spend more time reading but the time I spent reading was more intentional and the by the time I was home to my own bed on Monday evening I had finished a book I had only started at the bedtime on the Friday by the light of the fire.

Current watch:  Unstable – Quite literally a father son comedy about the interesting family dynamic when you are just opposite ends of the spectrum, an eccentric genius in bio tech and his shy socially awkward son who both need each other to survive in the wake of the loss of their glue, their wife and mother.

Sian Clifford plays the part of CFO in the middle of these two, one who adores being the centre of attention and the other who just doesn’t. It’s a very watchable, very relatable and sometimes really silly look at a father son dynamic. Made only greater by it being John Owen Lowe and Rob Lowe playing the roles, John Owen Lowe is his fathers biggest troll on Instagram and the world loves it.

Current read: Damage by Josephine Hart – In advance of sitting down and watching the Netflix series, this has been in my TBR for a while and boy am I glad I picked it up, I rarely read non fiction but when I do it has be a page turner and this did not disappoint. I couldn’t put it down, part car crash part absolute fascination. This is an incredibly well written portrayal of betrayal and obsession at all costs, it is cleverly written and compels the reader to read and think between the lines, right until the very end. In the novella class this definitely deserves a hot drink of choice and an afternoon of no plans.

Most Impactful Listen: Word of Mouth – Psychiatrist and Patient – Michael Rosen speaks to Neuropsychiatrist Anthony David about the dialogue that takes place between him and his patients. I found myself stopped in the supermarket a few times to concentrate and want to listen better. It was fascinating to hear about the experience from the opposite chair in the room. Rosen is his usual insightful and useful voice, this as with most other episodes so far are well worth your time.

• Rock Dad get his eaglet
• Parisians voters opting to ban e-scooters
• An evening with Russell Jones
• Taking a hedgehog to the hospital
• Avoiding the news

Rock Dad gets his Eaglet
In March you could barely move online for the news of a 31 year old bald eagle called Murphy and his rock, because the World Bird Sanctuary had to put a sign on Murphys enclosure explaining to passers-by not to be alarmed if Murphy was on the ground, that it was “not hurt, sick, or otherwise in distress” the reason being that “He has built a nest on the ground, and is very carefully incubating a rock!”…the sign goes on say “We wish him the best of luck!”

Well, this week Murphy met his Eaglet…Murphy was a dedicated rock Dad to the distress of the other eagles in the enclosure, so the decision was taken to move him to his own private enclosure and on the same day an orphaned eaglet was surrendered to the sanctuary and the rest his history. Murphy met his eaglet, and their bond began, and Murphy has proved to be the best chick Dad you can imagine.

Parisians vote to ban rental e-scooters from the capital
An overwhelming 90% of votes cast opted for a ban on rental e-scooters in the city in a referendum on the matter following the rise in numbers of people involved in accidents and killed in the French Capital. With a population of nearly 1.4 million people based on the electoral register only 8%, just over 100,000 people took to the ballot.

Paris was one of the first cities to adopt electric vehicles to boost urban transport options and reduce emissions and while all forms of rental vehicles are fundamentally a good idea, practically I completely understand why Parisians that voted did vote to ban.

In Milton Keynes we have tiny delivery robots (the best) that use the paths, no place is immune from curb mounted cars, and we have a growing amount of abandoned scooters and bikes cluttering up the paths making it hard for people to move around, even with an amazing cycle network which you would assume would mean better assimilation, but no, I understand the frustration.

An evening with Russell Jones

I don’t think you can be on twitter these days and not know who Russell Jones is, the moderate mild-mannered project manager and proud dog dad from the north, who just used to catalogue all the mad things the government had managed to achieve in a week in twitter threads, arguably before the government got as mad as they are now. They were always perfectly curated and backed up with sources and were very much a highlight of my week in the early days…but as with most things in the last decade they come with a side dose of absolute despair. When the weekly thread tipped out at 120 mad things in just one week

Turns out Russ had enough material to create a book and so The Decade in Tory was born, Russ graced the south with his presence last night for Milton Keynes Literary festival and what a lovely evening that was. Russ read an exerts from both his books, talked about how a working class kid from the north found himself writing the book and how his upbringing has influenced his ability to always find the humour…even in the Toriest of times. Russ has a new book on the way, Four Chancellors and a Funeral to bring the decade up to date and having heard a preview, it’s one also not to be missed.

Taking a hedgehog to the hospital
Today has hopefully concluded a briefly stressful time amongst our neighbourhood wild life friends, which started last Monday with a hedgehog in the road at about 9am and while not always immediately alarming…proceeded to become rather alarming when it appeared to only be able to walk in circles & then it started to rain.

A quick google just to check TiggyWinkles took walk ins while creating a makeshift cardboard box home complete with towels and my as yet mostly unread weekend newspaper. Alas one miss step from me in an attempt to get him boxed and he scurried off into some scrub but I had taken enough correct steps to determine he was blind and hungry.

The only heart being that he was least out of the road, fast forward to Wednesday morning when there is a notification from the camera in the hedgehog feed station in the garden and its Mr Crusty Eye out once again in the day at about the same time. A back and forth with TiggyWinkles confirmed they would want a hog in his condition to check over and then the fun really started. The box was ready, we just needed Mr Crusty Eye to return.

Queue a mad dash downstairs in pyjamas following 6am phone buzzing on Sunday and he is in the box, a quick slide of the box up to the wall and he now cannot escape, and he is safely transferred into the cardboard box, where he immediately balls and then loafs on the towel. Safely delivered to a local hog rescue, who will get him to the vets tomorrow. We have requested that if he is eligible for a return to wildlife that we bring him back home where he belongs.

Avoiding the news
I know this is like Wellness 101, remove the constant negativity that is the news, news in the format that we consume isn’t inherently good, you have to search out the stories about Rock Dads and very much will always remember exactly where you were as a teenager when you got to watch hundreds and thousands of people die when the planes crashed into the World Trade Centre, you get endlessly mocked for wasting your time online finding the former but somehow praised for being on top of all the harrowing things

I haven’t intentionally been avoiding the news, but it happened as a by-product of having a fortnight absorbed in a podcast series, two books and some TV shows, it has also come about by not spending 3 mornings a week in the same house as my partner, who loves to put the news on when he gets up and I prefer the radio and or sleeping long enough to just do the bare minimum for starting the working day.

All this extracurricular activity had the upside of reducing my news summary options as well, social media usage was also down and other podcasts did not get a look in and while this all seems great and I am sure there are some people out there who would be like this is amazing and has changed my life, I definitely feel less connected, less like I know what is going on and while I think that’s nice for a while, it definitely feels too long and a bit jarring for me. Am I more than happy to step back for a couple of days? Yes but could this be my life? Absolutely not. Normal service will be resumed.

Current watch:  Wellmania – Based on the book of the same name Celeste Barber brings to life of Liv Healy a 39 year old women who returned home during a health crisis who is lead to trying anything she can to be well so she can return to New York to advance her career. The cast are incredible, the story line probably rings true to most women in their late 30’s and is well worth 8 episodes of your time, you’ll laugh a lot, you’ll die of a little bit of the cringe and you might find yourself welling up a little bit too.

Current read: Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell – An absolutely fascinating and entertaining guide through the history and origins of gendered language, the book holds no punches in places, in then language it looks to explain but does the perfect mix of history, culture, science and humour. The answers the book provides illuminate the path of the actions to take to affect real social change. The book is brash  but even if you are not a fan of curse words it still is an important and recommended read.

Most Impactful Listen: New Economics Podcast – How we can all have a home – Regular host Ayesha Thomas-Smith was joined by Kieran Yates and Vicky Spratt to talk about how private renting became to prevalent, why tenants rights are so precarious and how this impacts the ability to make a home. Vicky is the housing correspondent at the i newspaper, author of the book Tenant and tireless housing campaigner and Kierans book “All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived in” that is out soon really acts as a rallying cry for change following the highs and lows of navigating a housing system in chaos. Both contributors bring a depth and richness to the conversation from different perspectives that too often get overlooked.

• Say what you see: Is University Challenge biased?
• We have now entered the plastic age
• Are you kind to AI?
• New Pepsi, who dis?
• April Fools Day

Say what you see: Is University Challenge biased?
Currently on its 52^nd series and its 61^st year on air the question has finally been asked, is University Challenge biased towards the Oxbridge Institution? Spoiler alert: They’re not hiding it, but kudos to Frank Coffield emeritus professor of education at University College London for putting in that information request and campaigning for fairer entry rules for the show.

Both Cambridge and Oxford have over 30 colleges and each of them are all eligible under the entry criteria, with the current series of University Challenge featuring the lowest number of entries from across the Oxbridge institution…eight. While other Universities of multi colleges are not eligible.

Not the only complaint about University Challenge this month, with the age of a certain UCL competitor of question, even against the average age of the opposing team. I know its not very on brand, but University Challenge has always been very much say what you see…Questionable “students” from many a fine but usually Oxbridge or other legacy red brick institution.

We have now entered the plastic age
So here we are, its happened. The geology of the Trindade Islands is now made up rocks made of plastic debris…Trindade being an uninhabited volcanic island off the coast of Brazil that is a site of great significance for the protection of green turtle populations.

So while there is no one on the island purchasing and discarding said plastic, no island is immune from marine currents. The rocks found upon testing were made up of a mix of sedimentary sand and debris that was held together by melted and fused plastic from fishing nets. Once dislodged and washed ashore with the rises in temperature the plastic melts and fuses with natural beach material.

Pollution reaching geology is alarming, it’s now in the Earth’s geographical record…and history does what history has done…the stone age…stone, the ice age…ice and now we have plastic in the record.

New Pepsi, who dis?
So I’m one of those rare ones who answers the question “is Pepsi okay?” with its better! Ahead of its 125th birthday Pepsi is rebranding, again. I say again unfairly, it’s been 15 years since the last rebrand but that feels like minutes because I’m old now & I didn’t (& don’t still) love the current design, it’s just not my thing, it feels too flimsy and it’s kind of funny looking.

Fortunately for me, focus groups around the new birthday redesign strongly favoured the earlier designs from the 80’s and early 90’s with the name into the logo & the bolder look. The new design certainly delivers. First launching in North America this year but being let loose on the rest of the world in 2023, the new logo feels like a very bold design, tangibly digital and very lift and shift stick on anything anywhere which I think is the point, hello licensing options. It is very early mid 90’s soda stream vibes. 

Pepsi has always trailed Coke for market share and since the spin off of both its juice brands in recent years it’s revenue growth is entirely down to pricing strategy and increase in customers, does this new design give away any ideas of what lies ahead?

Are you kind to AI?
I think you might have had to be living under a rock to have missed the open letter from the Future of Life institute from some pretty big players in the field of AI proposing a hold on development in order to avoid “loss of control of civilisation” amongst some other things…And if you have been living under the rock is there room for one more because I’m tired.

But is now the time to invoke Roko’s basilisk just to hedge ones bets? While a thought experiment now might be the time to start thanking your AI of choice for its contribution to the world, just in case it really does go on to create a virtual reality simulation to torture anyone who didn’t contribute to its advancement or development.

I’ve yet to ask a question or make a direct contribution to the current wave of AI bots, of which in March alone…exploded exponentially, but I figure in terms of the digital footprint my lifetime has seen, there is probably enough data to consider that I’ve made a contribution. Much like the Enron corpus you have to thank for predictive text, everything we do online creates fodder and I over contributed to group work as a kid, never again.

April Fools Day
Can we all agree its awful and just cancel it? On account of it being dreadful and now just marketing cringe. PLEASE?

It’s fair to say I also think its quite mean spirited it, in a world that is quite frankly mostly awful pranks and jokes are just well not funny and I do find them the exclusive preserve of people I don’t really like. Mostly because I am what other people would call “gullible” and what I like to think of as everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt even the people I don’t really like to be allowed to trustworthy even if I don’t trust them.

That aside it’s now just unfunny marketing jokes that then have to recounted for days and its just tiresome. Can we just call is March 32nd and be done with it?

Current watch:  Ross Edgley attempts 72 hours non-stop swimming world record – If you’ve never heard of Ross Edgley, get comfortable and prepare to be amazed. Ross’ latest adventure he attempted the longest non-stop open water swim in Loch Ness, the outcome was either win or nearly die trying. This gorgeous short film by GymShark Originals captures the challenge perfectly.

Ross Edgley is no stranger to weird and wild challenges, Triathlon carrying a 100lb tree? Nailed it. Marathon pulling a 1.4 tonne car? Nailed it. 100 miles barefoot with a 50kg backpack? Nailed it. Climbed the equivalent of Everest up a rope? You can guess. And there is more.

Current read: Fight Like A Girl by Clementine Ford – A no holds barred walk through 21^st century feminism and should be essential reading for everyone. It’s not an easy read, harrowing statistics alongside awkwardly honest anecdotes really do act as a call to arms to march on with the emotionally draining task of showing up in the world as a women and challenge the patriarchy and fighting for equality for all.

Most Impactful Listen: People I (mostly) Admire – Adding Ten Healthy Years To Your Life  – Another podcast from the Freakonomics podcast, Steve Levitt talks to Physician Peter Attia, for his second appearance on the show about longevity, in a world obsessed with living the longest but still fairly rare to focus on making sure those years are worth living. 

The hour is spent discussing the limits but also the potential for modern medicine and Peters best advice on playing the aging game, the discussion around medicine 3.0 was fascinating. The Hippocratic oath of economists also made me laugh and is something I think I shall endeavour to remember in times of strife. 

• Repopulating a city
• Friendship with Elizabeth Day & Phoebe Waller-Bridge
• Shou Zi Chew and all the cringe from Congress
• US Book Banners hit the books hard
• John Lewis: Dismantling an institution

Repopulating a city
Would you go do your job abroad with a concierge service to help repopulate a city? Venice needs you. The city is actively looking to entice digital nomads, the totally remote workers and freelancers to move to the city to help bolster city population, fill vacant properties and office and boost spending in the local economy.

With Venice looking to embrace being a city for residents, rather than a city for tourists with the new tourist tax and cruise ships no longer docking in the centre, there wouldn’t be a better time to want to live a life in Venice than now.

Oh boy do I wish something like this was possible when I was younger and would I encourage any young person I met now with even a vague hint of wanderlust to look into doing a scheme like this, absolutely. There will soon come a time where life gives you reasons it’s not feasible, even if you don’t have children.

Friendship with Elizabeth Day & Phoebe Waller-Bridge
I had the absolute pleasure of seeing Elizabeth Day in conversation with Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the absolutely gorgeous National Theatre at the Southbank Centre to celebrate the release of Elizabeths new book on Friendship, as a self-proclaimed friendaholic the book explores all things friendship, from both a philosophical and research perspective to real life case studies.

The book is in my tbr pile, but I would like some kudos for not panic buying a hardback and sticking with my pre-order of the kindle edition, because don’t need another physical books, but just from the conversation between Elizabeth and Phoebe I definitely think it’d going to hit me in the feels and while I don’t think I have a problem determining the difference between when I mean friend vs when being friendly I do wonder if the time I put into my “friendships” is as well spent as it could be.

Elizabeth went to the lengths of interviewing some of her best friends to do that audit (Phoebe did her best to deflect her questions) and while I absolutely will not be doing that with my friends I definitely think it’s something in the relationships area of my life that needs work

Shou Zi Chew and all the cringe from Congress
Well the balance of cringe has at least been restored, on this side of the pond it was the person getting questioned who set off our collective cringe glands and after seeing some of the coverage of Congress questioning TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, it was those asking the questions who set our collective cringe glands, so net effect from official government questionings this week is net nil.

Shout out to those survived over four hours of questioning and those who asked questions for over four hours but honestly. Tech experts rarely get an easy ride in front of Congress but I think this was next level mind melting…so rarely do Republicans and Democrats agree on anything but they are united in thinking that TikTok poses a threat to national security and want to ban the app entirely from the US and it felt like there was little Chew could do convince Congress otherwise when he could get a world in edgewise and when he was asked an actual question that made sense.

While the UK government has mandated that TikTok needs to be removed from government devices, I’m inclined to agree with the conclusion from the discussion between Hannah Moore and Alex Hern on Tuesdays Today in Focus podcast – Should you delete tiktok, that if you think you should delete TikTok from your phone because of security concerns then you definitely should have already deleted it based on the impact it’s having to your brain.

US Book banner hit the books hard
This week the Friday newsletter from Chartr shared some data around the attempted book bans in the US and just how far they have soared post pandemic, where they slumped by about half to less than 200 in 2020.

Over the last to year have reached a whopping 1,269 demands to ban or restrict access to resources in America’s public and school libraries last year with 2,572 unique titles being targeted for censorship with the majority of books challenged written by or about LGBTQ+ and people of colour…in 2022.

This is one to keep an eye on as the American Library Association are going to release the top 10 most challenge books on Monday 24^th April for National Library week and all this in the same week that Bloomsbury raised their profit forecasts with readers turning to fantasy books to escape reality.

John Lewis: Dismantling an institution
It was announced this week that the John Lewis Partnership are looking to explore the sale of a minority stake in the business to raise funds, if successful the business would not longer be 100% owned by its staff which it has been for 70 years. The Partnership is looking for up to £2billion in new investment and with the cost of the restructure that would be required to take Waitrose and John Lewis out of employee owned hands this is a significant moment.

It’s not secret that the retail group is struggling with inflation an falling sales with pre-tax losses of £234m to year ended January, up from a quite significant smaller loss last year of £27m. The high street is hardly the first place anyone goes for anything anymore and its chicken and egg. If you do venture the high street you want fantastic customer service but with staff shortages and cost pushes staffing is one lever to pull to close the gap but then that further disincentivises people to venture to the high street.

Current watch:  Panorama – Surviving the pay squeeze – Wages are not keeping up with inflation and it feels like a real terms pay cut, how do you absorb the price increases when there is little you can do to move the needle on your income, but why does it feel like this? The Government say one thing, but the reasons are many and go back many years. Ros Atkins goes back to the town he was born in, in Cornwall, to meet people struggling to make ends meet and explains why wages are stagnating and living standards are declining compared to other wealthy nations.

Current read: Alchemy: The Magic of Original Thinking in a World of Mind-Numbing Conformity by Rory Sutherland – Ogilvy advertiser Rory Sutherland explains why logic is one thing but how casting aside that logic is the real insight to solving any problem. A real master piece in the need to always remember behavioural science can trump any business forecast, economic outlook or governmental strategy. People are weird and its well worth remembering that. Any advocate of thinking less, is a friend of mine, I do this thing with my hands when I offer a solution my right hand moves from top to bottom to mimic the logic and thought that has gone into the solution, then my left hand does this like this outline of a cloud motion to indicate all the other stuff and I usually say ‘there is all this other stuff’. Rarely have I been so excited to read a book as I was this one.

Most Impactful Listen: Today In Focus – Should you delete TikTok – it couldn’t not be! With the UK government joining other big nations in ordering government officials to remove the TikTok app from their work devices amid security concerns Alex Hern and Hannah Moore explore how likely it is that Chinese Tech owners ByteDance would allow access to sensitive data to the Chinese government given the questionable history of how it has used data in the past. Worried at all about the impact of TikTok, this is a must listen.