Lately

Lately, LinkedIn has become  cringe... or cool, or more important than ever, depending on who you ask. So, is LinkedIn working well for us, or has it devolved into yet another shouty social media site?

Tim Kiladze is a Globe and Mail business reporter, Bay Street veteran and LinkedIn connoisseur. He wrote a compelling report on the evolution of LinkedIn: The tone has shifted to more performative “thought leadership,” the line between personal and professional has blurred – and now Bay Street executives are peacocking their post stats over lunch. But if you stay away from LinkedIn, are you sabotaging your career? 

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We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

A bonus episode from our Globe and Mail sister show Machines Like Us. How is Silicon Valley’s shift to the right affecting the US election? 

The tech lobby has quietly turned Silicon Valley into the most powerful political operation in America.

Pro-crypto donors are now responsible for almost half of all corporate donations this election. Elon Musk has gone from an occasional online troll to, as one of our guests calls him, “MAGA’s Minister of Propaganda.” And for the first time, the once reliably blue Silicon Valley seems to be shifting to the right. What does all this mean for the upcoming election? To help us better understand this moment, we spoke with three of the most prominent tech writers in the U.S. Charles Duhigg (author of the bestseller Supercommunicators) has a recent piece in the New Yorker called “Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster.” Charlie Warzel is a staff writer at the Atlantic, and Nitasha Tiku is a tech culture reporter at the Washington Post.

Machines Like Us is a Globe and Mail tech show about AI and people. It's hosted by Taylor Owen and comes out every other Tuesday. 

Mentioned:

“Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster” by Charles Duhigg

“Big Crypto, Big Spending: Crypto Corporations Spend an Unprecedented $119 Million Influencing Elections” by Rick Claypool via Public Citizen

“I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is” by Charlie Warzel

“Elon Musk Has Reached a New Low” by Charlie Warzel

“The movement to diversify Silicon Valley is crumbling amid attacks on DEI” by Naomi Nix, Cat Zakrzewski and Nitasha Tiku

“The Techno-Optimist Manifesto” by Marc Andreessen

“Trump Vs. Biden: Tech Policy,” The Ben & Marc Show

“The MAGA Aesthetic Is AI Slop” by Charlie Warzel

Lately, Big Tobacco says it wants to phase out cigarettes and promote, of all things, healthier options. But can the tobacco industry actually sell wellness? And is this pivot to vapes and pouches a smoking off-ramp or just a one-way ride to nicotine addiction?

Award-winning journalist Luc Rinaldi takes us behind the curtain of Big Tobacco’s machinations to report on how an industry built on addiction is looking to reinvent itself for the wellness age. His cover story "Blowing Smoke" appears in this month’s edition of the Globe and Mail's Report on Business Magazine. 

Also, Vass shares her secret to social success.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

And subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where we unpack more of the latest in business and technology.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

Companies in Canada are being bought up by private equity at an incredible rate. The list includes Rexall, MEC, Value Village, WestJet and Sleep Country.

But it also includes local businesses: vets, dentists, retirement homes and more. Critics say it’s an unchecked shift in the economy that results in negative, often dangerous outcomes – where the profit motive can mean higher prices and lower quality of care.

We’re speaking to someone who has brokered such deals: Rachel Wasserman is a lawyer and former investment banker who left that world behind to become a researcher for the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project. Her forthcoming paper is called The Private Equity Playbook: Understanding the Secretive Industry Hollowing Out the Canadian Economy. 

She joins us to talk about the cutthroat world of leveraged buyouts, the risks of corner-cutting, and what a private-equity future means for Canada’s economy.
Plus: producer Jay’s cat, Leo, is doing his own investigating to find out why his vet stopped giving out so many treats.

This is Lately. Every week, we take a deep dive into the big, defining trends in business and tech that are reshaping our every day.

Lately is hosted by Vass Bednar. Our executive producer is Katrina Onstad. The show is produced by Jay Cockburn. Our sound designer is Cameron McIver. 

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where we unpack more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

When Erika Ayers Badan beat out 74 men to become the first CEO of Barstool Sports, the company was small, dominated by brash bros, and indivisible from the controversial reputation of its founder, Dave Portnoy. But she corralled Barstool and turned it into a media empire with a $500-million exit.

So where do you go after helming a culture-quaking company? Ayers Badan became CEO of the cooking and lifestyle brand Food52 – new industry, new struggles. She was hired after layoffs, terrible Glassdoor reviews, and a predecessor who had lasted less than a year.

In a live conversation at Elevate, Canada’s tech and innovation festival, Ayers Badan speaks with Lately about how to manage the unmanageable, what she learned as a woman leading a fratty company that was sold twice in one year, and about her new book, Nobody Cares About Your Career: Why Failure Is Good, The Great Ones Play Hurt, and Other Hard Truths.

Also, Vass shares her secret for successful public speaking with Katrina: sour keys. But she doesn’t literally share them.

This is Lately. Every week, we take a deep dive into the big, defining trends in business and tech that are reshaping our every day.

Our executive producer is Katrina Onstad. The show is produced by Jay Cockburn. Our sound designer is Cameron McIver. Our host is Vass Bednar.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where we unpack more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

That creeping feeling that everything online is getting worse has a name: “enshittification,” a term for the slow degradation of our experience on digital platforms. The enshittification cycle is why you now have to wade through slop to find anything useful on Google, and why your charger is different from your BFF’s. 

According to Cory Doctorow, the man who coined the memorable moniker, this digital decay isn’t inevitable. It’s a symptom of corporate under-regulation and monopoly – practices being challenged in courts around the world, like the US Department of Justice’s antitrust suit against Google.

Cory Doctorow is a British-Canadian journalist, blogger and author of Chokepoint Capitalism, as well as speculative fiction works like The Lost Cause and the new novella Spill. 

This is Lately. Every week, we take a deep dive into the big, defining trends in business and tech that are reshaping our every day.

Our executive producer is Katrina Onstad. This episode is produced by Jay Cockburn and Andrea Varsany. Our sound designer is Cameron McIver.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where we unpack more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

Tupperware just filed for bankruptcy, but the direct sales model it pioneered lives on.

These days, the hustle might be candles, leggings or sex toys. You may be recruited to join via a Facebook friend, who calls it “social selling.” But really, it’s multi–level marketing – a $300–billion industry where the vast majority of salespeople make little to no money.

Our guest is Peabody and Emmy Award–winning investigative journalist Jane Marie, host of the podcast The Dream and author of Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans, an exposé of the dark side of MLMs.

Marie talks to us about how the business model attracts good people in a bad economy. And instead of #bossbabe independence, they find themselves broke and ashamed, drowning in unsellable stuff, wondering: “Hey, am I in a cult?”

This is Lately. Every week, we take a deep dive into the big, defining trends in business and tech that are reshaping our every day.

Our executive producer is Katrina Onstad. This episode is produced by Andrea Varsany and Jay Cockburn. Our sound designer is Cameron McIver.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where we unpack more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

Workplace productivity apps like Slack, Notion, and Trello are encroaching on our personal lives. According to a trending article in San Francisco Standard, new apps specifically for couples and families, like Lovewick and Coexist, are gaining traction in Silicon Valley. These tools promise to balance domestic labour by optimizing everything from your chores to your #couplegoals. But is life a project that needs to be perfectly managed? Could there really be an app for that?

Our guest, Oliver Burkeman is best known as the author of the weekly self-help column “This Column Will Change Your Life” for The Guardian. In this episode, we speak with him about the rise of productivity apps in our personal lives, whether technology can divorce-proof a marriage and what we might be missing when our relationships are too optimized. Oliver’s new book is Meditations for Mortals. He is also the author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. His newsletter, “The Imperfectionist,” is about productivity, mortality, and building a meaningful life in an age of bewilderment. 

Also, Vass and Katrina discuss Vass’ greatest organizational tool: her new pencil case.

This is Lately. Every week, we take a deep dive into the big, defining trends in business and tech that are reshaping our every day.

Our executive producer is Katrina Onstad. The show is produced by Andrea Varsany. Our sound designer is Cameron McIver.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where we unpack more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

Welcome to Lately. Every week, we take a deep dive into the big, defining trends in business and tech that are reshaping our every day. 

In an encore of our very first episode, we tackle the fake review economy: how online reviews got corrupted and if we can ever trust them again. Our guest is Joseph Reagle, an associate professor at Northeastern University and the author of several books, including Reading the Comments. He recently posted a positive review of a dog raincoat on Temu. 

Also, Vass and Katrina talk about what it’s like to find your own name on a review for a rug you never bought! 

Lately is a Globe and Mail podcast. 

Our executive producer is Katrina Onstad. 

The show is hosted by Vass Bednar and produced by Andrea Varsany. 

Our sound designer is Cameron McIver. 

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where we unpack more of the latest in business and technology. 

Find a copy of this episode's transcript here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions, or ideas to [email protected].

Shein and Temu have completely disrupted Amazon’s global domination plans by selling clothes and home goods for ultra-cheap prices, if not ultra-fast delivery – but at what cost?

Our guest, journalist Louise Matsakis, has covered technology, the internet and China for The Atlantic, Wired, The Guardian and NBC News. She also writes a newsletter about e-commerce in China called You May Also Like. She dives into the secretive world of made-in-China e-commerce, the stakes for competitors, and the ethical concerns for consumers who want to shop responsibly without breaking the bank. 

Also, Vass tells Katrina that she can’t figure out her Shein shopping cart. 

This is an encore presentation of an episode from our first season. We’ll be back with brand new episodes in the fall.

This is Lately. Every week, we take a deep dive into the big, defining trends in business and tech that are reshaping our every day.

Our executive producer is Katrina Onstad. The show is produced by Andrea Varsany. Our sound designer is Cameron McIver.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where we unpack more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].