#5SmartReads - March 9, 2022

Hitha on scammers, Spotify, and how ready we are for the next pandemic

March 09, 2022

It’s not if there will be another pandemic - it’s when. And we still have to get through this particular one…

How well we prepare will depend not just on public health officials who are developing the right plans, but Congress and how much they’re willing to invest in said pandemic preparedness program. I’m in alignment with Dr. Zeke Emmanuel and his take:

"We lost an estimated $7 trillion in lost economic output [due to COVID]. The government has pumped trillions of dollars into the economy," Emanuel said. "Investing another few hundred billion dollars to forestall those kinds of problems? That has a huge ROI."

Let’s not omit the hundreds of thousands of lives we lost in this country, and millions around the world.

Lolita Taub is an investor I’ve long admired, and how committed she is to delivering value to every aspiring entrepreneur and investor.

And I could not be more excited for her to launch her own fund, Ganas Ventures.

What I love about this interview is how honest Lolita is about raising and launching a fund, and how she explains the language of venture and how it’s typically operated versus how she’s building Ganas.

I can’t wait to see where she takes the fund.

This is such a smart - and infuriating article - on how Spotify makes money, and where the $11B in revenue they realized in 2021 actually goes.

As you’ve probably guessed, much of it doesn’t end up in artists’ pockets, which brings in publishing versus recording rights and who owns them, and who profits from them.

And let’s not forget that the major record labels also have their own equity stake in Spotify, nor the private equity firms that have been buying up music catalogs left and right.

I appreciate how clearly this article is written, and how easy it is to follow. Imagine if economics - or anything, really - was taught so clearly and in the context of our daily lives.

I can’t stop watching scammer shows, and it’s clear I’m not alone. But why?

Nancy Jo Sales has one theory:

“Whether we like it or not, social media has turned us all into scammers of varying degrees, as well as victims of the constant scam being perpetrated on us by tech companies. They promise they will connect us to the world – but their core profit-making plan is actually the tracking and selling of our data. Essentially, we live in the age of the scam.”

It’s fine to scroll social media and watch the shows/listen to the podcasts/read the books about scammers - I certainly do. But it’s equally important to spend just as much time offline to recharge, connect with those you love and actually know, and remind yourself of who you are and what YOU actually want, and not what an algorithm engineers what you want.

As if things weren’t already hard for birthing people in this country. Here’s one of the most infuriating reasons why:

“Some hospitals argue that these closures are not financially motivated, but labor and delivery services are not a moneymaker for them. More than 40 percent of births in the United States are covered by Medicaid, and the program’s low reimbursement rates have been cited in the past to explain a hospital’s decision to close its OB department.”

Politics, profit & loss statements are all impacting access to healthcare for birthing people. How many will have to suffer or die before we do what is right, simply because it’s the right thing to do?

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