It's Fine, I'm Fine, Everything is Fine.

What I Read this Week and Validating that We Made it to Friday!

We have officially entered a spiral sprint to the election. Both candidates stepped outside their traditional media comfort zone to reach potential voters on “opposing sides.” Lots of reactions and wavering opinions on success, depending on what you read.

The Wall Street Journal has conducted the ultimate social experiment, via text message.

Casio is the latest victim of a ransomware attack in a year of skyrocketing cybercrime. A new program from Adobe aims to teach 30 million people AI, content creation, and marketing skills by 2030.

The women of Boston, for the Win! Speaking of women, Fortune hosted its Most Powerful Women’s Summit this week.

It just got a little easier to cancel your gym membership. Chandler Bing would approve. Walgreens announced it would close more than 1,000 stores.

The New York Times has picked another fight with AI. The media outlet sent Perplexity a “cease and desist” notice demanding that the firm stop accessing and using its content.

How stressed are you (at work), look no further – check your stress personality here. Is internal timekeeper sabretooth worrier people pleaser an option?

Speaking of stress… Here’s the list of “best” AI tools to make your life and work easier. To the average person, this seems interesting and helpful. To a PR person its pure panic that our client either missed the opportunity completely or wasn’t included. Joys of reading the news.

?Considering I’m in my geriatric era sharing this article and for anyone with neck or back pain highly recommend this pillow (nonclient, just a fan).

?In brand news, mascots, are making a comeback. Who’s your favorite? I didn’t know there was a wrong way to order takeout. Order from the wrong place or order the wrong dish, sure, but apparently there’s a better way and thanks to the Journal you no longer need to wonder.

?And lastly, if this doesn’t sum up Internet Culture (or just culture) at the moment, I don’t know what does. Good for you Temu Pig.

It's fine, everything is fine…. Right, that’s the motto from 2020 that still resonates when we get too stressed out.

It's fine, I’m fine, everything is fine.

What Else I Read This Week:

• International: Israeli Military Says It Is Investigating if It Killed Hamas Chief Sinwar
• Health: Why Controlling Blood Sugar Is Crucial for Your Health
• Retail: Attention Kmart Shoppers: It’s Closing Time
• Leadership: You don’t get to be 173 years old without this leadership trait
• Health: Medicare Plans Are Making Big Changes for 2025. Here’s How to Navigate Them.
• Politics: Gender Gap Is Defining Feature of Deadlocked Trump-Harris Race
• Crime: Family members stand behind Lyle and Erik Menendez as they await a decision that could see them released from prison
• News: Archdiocese of Los Angeles Agrees to Pay $880 Million to Settle Sex Abuse Claims
• Media: Inside the growing sports media empire where the business is all fun and games
• Energy: Biden administration races to approve clean energy projects before the election
• Workplace: Amazon AWS CEO says quit if you don’t want to return to office
• Tech/Workplace: Want Gen Z to use a workplace app? Keep it simple—and snappy
• Economy: Here’s why the gap between Americans’ perception of U.S. economic performance and reality has doubled since 2019, according to economists
• Media: This could be America’s first ‘podcast election’—just look across the pond

Oh and This Happened:

• Business/Workplace: America’s New Millionaire Class: Plumbers and HVAC Entrepreneurs
• Politics: Trump and Harris Both Like a Child Tax Credit, but With Different Aims
• Retail: Holiday Sales Growth Expected to Normalize in an Abnormal Year
• Climate/AI: AI is changing my work as a meteorologist—Hurricane Helene and Milton proved there’s no going back
• Economy: What 66 Economists Say About Where the Economy Is Headed, in Charts
• Health: By selling copycat weight-loss drugs, WeightWatchers has become a copycat business
• F+B: How Tom Holland’s struggle with ‘Dry January’ inspired this new non-alcoholic beer
• Workplace: Lunch breaks are shrinking as more workers say they skip meals to catch up on work
• Health: Italy Criminalizes Surrogacy From Abroad, a Blow to Gay and Infertile Couples
• AI/Compliance: Financial Firms Need to Focus on Cyber Risks Posed by AI, New York Regulator Says
• Personal Tech: Why the Oura Smart Ring Has a Cult Following
• DEI: The University of Michigan Doubled Down on D.E.I. What Went Wrong?
• Media/Music: What Should a Music Magazine Be in the TikTok Era? Pitchfork Alumni Have an Idea.
• Sports/Marketing: Soccer star Harry Kane just launched an app to change athletes’ relationship with fans
• Climate: What Ikea learned when it ditched its old climate goal—and got more ambitious
• Tech: New Chrome extension aims to detect deepfake AI-generated voices—but it’s far from perfect
• Politics: On the Campaign Trail With Elon Musk: Offering Young Men an American Dream
• Tech: The $14 Billion Question Dividing OpenAI and Microsoft
• Tech/Business: Google Executive Overseeing Search and Advertising Leaves Role
• Environment: A ‘New Day’? Justices Step Back, Slightly, From an Aggressive Climate Strategy.
• Tech: Ultimate guide to the best AI tools to make your life and work easier
• Housing: Housing market’s lock-in effect is so intense that existing home sales are at multi-decade lows
• Misinformation: TikTok approved election misinformation ads despite its own ban, says watchdog
• Tech/Mobility: Exclusive: Waymo engineering exec discusses self-driving AI models that will power the cars into new cities
• Health: Patients are relying on Lyft, Uber to travel far distances to medical care
• Health: Kellogg is under fire for using artificial food dyes. Here’s how they may affect your health and where else to find them
• Business: Starbucks taps former Chipotle executive as global chief brand officer

It's Over, You're Welcome.