Sunday Soup: Lorne Michaels, Gen What? Bill McDermott, VW Goes Analog, Bourbon
These are the articles, streaming ideas, and books that caught our attention this week.
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While you continue to use the weekend to recover and get ready for the coming week, one that includes the Fed’s next policy meeting, kick back and peruse this collection of articles we flagged for your attention.
Lego’s Icons flowers were big this past holiday season but the company is now focused on Formula 1. How do we store memories and why they can change each time we access them. What is Generation Alpha? Why Ireland is becoming known for its… seafood? ServiceNow NOW CEO Bill McDermott on selling enterprise software. Top it off with a new book about how Tom Bulleit disrupted the bourbon industry.
If you have a recommendation to share, we’d love to hear about it in the Comments section below.
Now enjoy this latest offering of Sunday Soup.
Articles 📰
Generation Xanax: The Dark Side of America’s Wonder Drug
"Over the past six decades, hundreds of millions of people have taken Xanax (the brand name for alprazolam) or one of its cousins in the benzodiazepine family—Klonopin (clonazepam); Ativan (lorazepam); and Valium (diazepam)—to lull them to sleep or deliver instant calm in an age of abiding anxiety… But as concerns increase about potential adverse effects of these drugs, some patients who try to quit are suffering what amounts to a hangover they can’t escape."
"What comes after Z? Lots of names have been pitched for the world’s youngest generation, born roughly since 2010. Some are predictable, such as 'iPad kids' and 'Generation ai.' Others are perplexing, as with 'Polars,' which nods both to growing polarisation and shrinking ice caps. One name has caught on in the English-speaking West: 'Generation Alpha.' It symbolises a fresh chapter, says Mark McCrindle, the Australian demographer behind it. He canvassed people for ideas nearly 20 years ago; many suggested the name 'Gen A.' But rather than go back to the start of the Latin alphabet, he pivoted to the Greek one."
How Lorne Michaels Manages Creative People After 50 years of 'Saturday Night Live'
"A lot of big personalities and even bigger egos have been part of the SNL team over the years, and there’s no one-size-fits-all management strategy Michaels could deploy with them all. Instead, as the book details, Michaels became a student of how creative people respond to various approaches. By supervising hundreds of the kinds of people over the years that former cast member Mark McKinney refers to as 'broken comedy toys,' Michaels learned to act as father figure, CEO, and all points in between—depending on the person."
Volkswagen Realizes Touchscreens Were a Mistake, so It’s Bringing Back Knobs and Buttons
"Automakers have increasingly moved controls for functions like air conditioning and volume onto touchscreens, and Volkswagen has been no exception. But now, the German car company is reversing course. VW is going analog, and will bring back physical buttons and knobs for essential cabin functions in future models. Volkswagen design chief Andreas Mindt told the British car magazine Autocar that beginning with its electric ID 2all due out in 2026, the volume, heating, fans, and hazard lights will all have physical buttons again."
Lego F1 Sets Let You Put the Full 10-Team Racing Grid on Your Desk
"Formula 1 entering into a partnership with the world's largest tire manufacturer is something you expect. Not so obvious is the fact that the tiremaker in question is Lego. It's true: producing about 300 million tiny rubber wheels each year makes Lego the leader in tires. Now the toy legend is rolling out a huge number of scale-sized Formula 1 cars this year."
"Research suggests that kindness yields positive outcomes for businesses. If you’re an emerging leader, being kind to your employees can help you retain top talent, establish a thriving culture, increase employee engagement, and enhance productivity. When people receive a compliment or words of recognition, it helps them feel more fulfilled, boosts their self-esteem, improves their self-evaluations, and triggers positive emotions. The result: happier, more engaged employees. At an individual level, when you engage in acts of kindness, it boosts serotonin and dopamine — neurotransmitters in the brain that promote feelings of satisfaction and well-being. It also releases endorphins, your body’s natural painkillers."
Science of Forgetting: Why We’re Already Losing Our Pandemic Memories
"To understand why we may forget parts of pandemic life, it helps to understand how we hold on to memories in the first place. Your brain has at least three interrelated phases for memory: encoding, consolidation and retrieval of information… Notably, memories are not fixed and permanent. The memory is subject to change each time we access and reconsolidate it."
Forget Meat and Potatoes, Ireland’s Seafood Era Is Upon Us and It’s Delicious
"In the past decade, though, a new cohort of chefs has turned to the rivers, oceans, and shorelines for inspiration, blending Irish traditions with influences from western Europe and Asia, while charting their own course at a time of well-founded concerns about overfishing. Eager to experience this sea change firsthand, I charted a cross-country adventure that would take me from the center of Dublin to winding country roads, with plenty of time built in to explore Ireland’s stunning coastline."
What We’re Streaming 📺📲
ACQ2: The Art of Selling Enterprise Software with ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott
What’s Lost When the Human Drivers Are Gone?
The Reading List 📖📚
"The compelling story of how one man took a 150-year-old family recipe and disrupted the entire liquor industry one sip, one bottle, one handshake at a time.
"Tom Bulleit stood on a stage before a thousand people inside a tent the size of a big-top. It was both his thirtieth wedding anniversary and his birthday. But there was another thing to celebrate: the dedication of the new Bulleit Distillery in Shelbyville, Kentucky. His great-great-grandfather, Augustus, created his first batch of Bulleit Bourbon around 1830. A century and a half later, Tom fulfilled his lifelong dream, revived the old family bourbon recipe, and started Bulleit Distilling Company. Eventually, Tom was named a member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, and elected to the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame. Thinking back on all his achievements, Tom was overcome by a wave of emotion. He looked into the sea of faces and said, 'I don't believe our lives are told in years. . . or months. . . or weeks. I believe we live our lives in moments.'"
