Talking Shop Podcast

This week's show opens with an announcement on the podcast's future, so give it a listen and see what's coming! We can't wait.

For our last show prior to the summer break, we sped through several issues including the White House stepping in to block non-compete clauses, Amazon's backtracking on its dispute resolution process after customers found an innovative way to make the e-commerce giant squirm, and speaking of 'giant', a massive inflatable rat has landed in court in the United States!

Tech companies have been experimenting with changes to their working styles, with some opting for more flexibility and others demanding employees return to the office. Twitter is focusing, instead, on the vernacular around remote work. In fact, the social network doesn't even like the term 'remote work' because it's not inclusive enough (which left us scratching our heads). You might be surprised what they prefer instead.

In Check This Out, Ewan looks at a documentary that looks back on the disaster that was Woodstock '99, while Cam looks back as well (much further) on the life of Joan Rivers and how she's viewed today in light of the #MeToo movement.

Don't miss any future episodes and get updates about the podcast by signing up to the PR & Law Podcast newsletter. We promise: no spam. Ever.

If you enjoy the show, please tell a friend or family member. It's the best way to get the word out and we are very grateful! We also frequently post updates to the stories we discuss on social media. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Soundcloud.

If you have a question we would be happy to answer it on the show! Just post it to social media with the hashtag #PRLawPod.

Links and Show Notes

• Takeaways from President Biden's Executive Order on Non-Competes - The National Law Review
• Amazon Ends Use of Arbitration for Customer Disputes - The New York Times
• Scabby the Rat Survives NLRB Blowup Over Inflatables at Union Protests - Chicago Sun Times
• Twitter Chief HR Officer Jennifer Christie Tweetstorm on New Office Culture - Twitter
• Logan Mailleux Taken by Montreal Canadiens in NHL Draft Despite Teen's 2020 Troubles in Sweden - ESPN
• Logan Mailleux Believes Being Drafted by Montreal Canadiens will Make Him a Better Person - ESPN

Check This Out

• The Nightmare of Woodstock '99 Persists in HBO's New Documentary - Pitchfork
• How Joan Rivers Got That Way - New Yorker

Hosts

Ewan Christie is an employment lawyer and partner at Duntrune LLP in Toronto, Canada.

Cam MacMurchy is a corporate communications executive with a multinational technology company listed in Hong Kong and curator of the Digital Bits PR and Communications newsletter. He also contributes to Apple news website 9to5Mac and shares his thoughts on PR, media, travel, and technology on his website.

With everything going digital in workplaces, it's getting harder and harder to keep secrets or speak with others in confidence. Three leaders in Netflix's marketing team found this out the hard way after they were fired for making disparaging remarks about the executive team at Netflix. Ewan walks us through what happened with advice on avoiding a similar fate. Cam mentions that several parts of the story haven't yet been made public, leading to damaging speculation.

In the PR segment, Cam walks listeners through creating a media brief or issues scan for executives. These are documents that companies, governments, NGOs and other organizations prepare for any executives about to do a media interview. Then he shares a list of terms of all professionals should avoid in their work. There's bound to be something in the list that you've used before!

In Check This Out, Ewan talks about the disruption facing the film industry while Cam goes hip-hop with a Canadian rapper talking about the birth of the music genre in the United States.

Don't miss any future episodes and get updates about the podcast by signing up to the PR & Law Podcast newsletter. We promise: no spam. Ever.

If you enjoy the show, please tell a friend or family member. It's the best way to get the word out and we are very grateful! We also frequently post updates to the stories we discuss on social media. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Soundcloud.

If you have a question we would be happy to answer it on the show! Just post it to social media with the hashtag #PRLawPod.

Links and Show Notes

• Netflix Fires Marketing Execs for Criticizing Bosses Over Slack - The Hollywood Reporter
• Recode Media with Peter Kafka - Vox
• Digiday Podcast - Digiday

Check This Out

• Why Disney's 'Black Widow' Premium VOD Reveal Rattled Hollywood - The Hollywood Reporter
• The Hip-Hop Evolution - Netflix

Hosts

Ewan Christie is an employment lawyer in Toronto, Canada.

Cam MacMurchy is a corporate communications executive with a multinational technology company listed in Hong Kong and curator of the Digital Bits PR and Communications newsletter. He also contributes to Apple news website 9to5Mac and shares his thoughts on PR, media, travel, and technology on his website.

Companies have more tools than ever to broadcast their own messages, whether it's via a website, podcasts, newsletters, social media, or all of the above. Breene Murphy from Carbon Collective and the Forbes Communications Council joins the show this week to share his own experience with content marketing, as well as examine Andreessen Horowitz's decision to launch its own publication called Future (which we discussed at length in Episode #61). Content can help give a company a louder voice in a noisy marketplace, but Murphy talks about some other benefits that comms people and marketers might overlook.

We talk a lot about the future of work these days, particularly as we emerge from the global pandemic. Ewan shares a new study done in Iceland about a four-day work week, something that was obviously popular with workers. The thing is, the experiment also proved to be useful for employers. Ewan explains why.

In Check This Out we return to Britney Spears and her controversial conservatorship, while Cam brings up cancel culture and the case of a brave musician from the band Mumford and Sons.

Don't miss any future episodes and get updates about the podcast by signing up to the PR & Law Podcast newsletter. We promise: no spam. Ever.

If you enjoy the show, please tell a friend or family member. It's the best way to get the word out and we are very grateful! We also frequently post updates to the stories we discuss on social media. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Soundcloud.

If you have a question we would be happy to answer it on the show! Just post it to social media with the hashtag #PRLawPod.

Links and Show Notes

• Episode #61: Andreessen Horowitz Launches Future - PR & Law Podcast
• Iceland's Four-Day Work Week Trial was a Triumph for All - Quartz

Check This Out

• Britney Spears's Conservatorship Nightmare - The New Yorker
• Substack: Winston Marshall was 'Bloody Terrified' to Quit Mumford & Sons. He Tells Me Why. - Common Sense with Bari Weiss

Guest

Breene Murphy is the vice president of strategy and marketing for Carbon Collective, an online climate friendly investment management platform. He is on the Forbes Communication Council, the advisory board for the University of California Irvine's Customer Experience Certificate Program as well as the advisory board for USC's Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. He's a second generation marketer and an avid literature fan and surfer. He lives in Laguna Beach, California with his wife and two sons. 

Hosts

Ewan Christie is an employment lawyer in Toronto, Canada.

Cam MacMurchy is a corporate communications executive with a multinational technology company listed in Hong Kong and curator of the Digital Bits PR and Communications newsletter. He also contributes to Apple news website 9to5Mac and shares his thoughts on PR, media, travel, and technology on his website.

We ran through more topics on Episode 63 than we have in any other previous episode! (And somehow managed to keep it under an hour...)

We kicked off the show by mentioning the major anniversaries that are clustered in early July: Canada Day falls on July 1, as does the anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty. There's Independence Day in the US on July 4, of course -- and one more: the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China. It might not get the same attention in western media, but it might be the most important anniversary among the group. Cam talks about why.

Ewan dives right back into the future of work this week with new questions over the value of meeting in person or via chat and video conferencing apps. Is innovation more likely to happen in person? Do we even know?

Cam touches on LinkedIn's decision to roll out new pronoun options, and also looks at Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's decision to call out a reporter in public on its website. It's a power move that we're starting to see done more often. We also get into the fall of Teneo CEO Declan Kelly and how the #MeToo movement has upped the ante on misbehaving executives.

In Check This Out, Ewan talks Tarantino (as in Quentin) while Cam carefully wades into the hottest debate happening in the US these days: critical race theory.

Don't miss any future episodes and get updates about the podcast by signing up to the PR & Law Podcast newsletter. We promise: no spam. Ever.

If you enjoy the show, please tell a friend or family member. It's the best way to get the word out and we are very grateful! We also frequently post updates to the stories we discuss on social media. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Soundcloud.

If you have a question we would be happy to answer it on the show! Just post it to social media with the hashtag #PRLawPod.

Links and Show Notes

• Meetings. Why? - The New York Times
• Do Chance Meetings at the Office Boost Innovation? There's No Evidence of It. - The New York Times
• LinkedIn Adds Pronouns - Coywolf
• Teneo CEO Allegedly Carried on an Affair with Senior Executive - Page Six
• The Rise and Fall of Teneo's Declan Kelly - Wall Street Journal
• How Teneo's Master of the Dark Arts Spun Out of Control - Financial Times
• Post #MeToo, There's No Hiding Offensive Conduct - Bloomberg
• A Statement by Declan Kelly - Teneo

Check This Out

• Quentin Tarantino - WTF Podcast with Marc Maron
• Fresh Air: The Battle Over Teaching Critical Race Theory - NPR

Hosts

Ewan Christie is an employment lawyer and partner at Duntrune LLP in Toronto, Canada.

Cam MacMurchy is a corporate communications executive with a multinational technology company listed in Hong Kong and curator of the Digital Bits PR and Communications newsletter. He also contributes to Apple news website 9to5Mac and shares his thoughts on PR, media, travel, and technology on his website.

Episode #62 marks our last show in June, so what better way to welcome in the summer months than by examining two high profile and embarrassing scandals.

Cam and Ewan return to the awkward Jeffrey Toobin apology and explanation live on CNN, but this time look at it from CNN's perspective. Unlike the New Yorker, where Toobin worked for 27 years, CNN didn't fire Toobin and found a way to bring him back onto the channel's airwaves. They didn't try and bury Toobin's return, either -- they went head-first into the scandal and asked Toobin very direct and personal questions to try and clear the air. It seems to have worked. The same can't be said for Chrissy Teigen, who is also mired in scandal after trolling people on Twitter for years. She hasn't found the same acceptance despite her apology, and the hosts discuss why.

We also look at the changing workplace and how COVID continues to change expectations and preferences for both companies and their employees. One trend on the rise - and was even gaining steam before the pandemic - is contract or freelance workers. Ewan walks us through what's happening, why this might be a good choice for employees, and what the pitfalls might be.

In Check This Out, Ewan shares an in-depth look at Amazon and its employee relations in light of the failed union drive in Bessemer, Alabama, while Cam shares this crazy thing. Yeah, we're not sure what it means either.

Don't miss any future episodes and get updates about the podcast by signing up to the PR & Law Podcast newsletter. We promise: no spam. Ever.

If you enjoy the show, please tell a friend or family member. It's the best way to get the word out and we are very grateful! We also frequently post updates to the stories we discuss on social media. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Soundcloud.

If you have a question we would be happy to answer it on the show! Just post it to social media with the hashtag #PRLawPod.

Links and Show Notes

• Workforce 2025: The Future of the World of Work - Randstad
• Jeffrey Toobin's CNN Comeback is a Crisis PR Primer for Scandal-Ridden Washington - MediaPost
• Episode #32: Jeffrey Toobin's Embarrassing Zoom Call - PR & Law Podcast
• Hi Again - Chrissy Teigen (Medium)

Check This Out

• Hard Bargain: How Amazon Turned a Generation Against Labor - Harper's Magazine
• "This Chart is a Work of Art" - Katelyn Gadd (Twitter)

Hosts

Ewan Christie is an employment lawyer and partner at Duntrune LLP in Toronto, Canada.

Cam MacMurchy is a corporate communications executive with a multinational technology company listed in Hong Kong and curator of the Digital Bits PR and Communications newsletter. He also contributes to Apple news website 9to5Mac and shares his thoughts on PR, media, travel, and technology on his website.

It was a busy show this week, with Ewan and Cam discussing everything from Covid vaccinations to Netscape; Christiano Rinaldo to Alexander Hamilton. So let's get started.

Paternity leave is a subject people love to debate. Policies on fathers taking leave to help out at home when a newborn comes along vary widely by jurisdiction -- but it could be just another fact of work life that is changing in a post-pandemic world. Millennials and Gen Zers are pushing for more progressive paternity leave policies and seeing some early victories. Ewan looks at the issue in detail, talks about what works and what doesn't, and why it's suddenly getting so much attention.

Cam talked about a big step taken by one of the most famous venture capital firms in the world, which decided to forego traditional media coverage and simply build their own tech news website. Tensions have been rising between Silicon Valley and the journalists who cover it, so the decision by Andreessen Horowitz to launch their own site, Future, could be a harbinger of things to come for other firms, too. Cam looks at why a16z felt compelled to build the site, and what it means for both in-house PR teams and journalists.

In Check This Out, Ewan debunks the crazy rumor that soccer star Christiano Rinaldo removing a Coke from a table led to a share plunge, while Cam recommends the new movie/musical In The Heights despite its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, coming under fire for "colorism" in casing the film. In the Heights was Miranda's first Broadway hit before he wrote Hamilton.

Don't miss any future episodes and get updates about the podcast by signing up to the PR & Law Podcast newsletter. We promise: no spam. Ever.

If you enjoy the show, please tell a friend or family member. It's the best way to get the word out and we are very grateful! We also frequently post updates to the stories we discuss on social media. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Soundcloud.

If you have a question we would be happy to answer it on the show! Just post it to social media with the hashtag #PRLawPod.

Links and Show Notes

• A Fresh Look at Paternity Leave: Why the Benefits Extend Beyond the Personal -McKinsey & Company
• Andreessen Horowitz Looks to Launch Opinion Publication as its Media Ambitions Grow - The Information (Paywall)
• The Unauthorized Story of Andreessen Horowitz - Newcomer
• Tech and Crypto Funder Andreessen Horowitz Wants to Replace the Media. Is That Bad News? - Fortune
• Andreessen Horowitz Goes into Publishing with Future - TechCrunch
• Andreessen Horowitz's Future is a Media Machine - Protocol
• The New Media Mogul: Andreessen Horowitz - Axios
• Doubling Down on the Future - Future

Check This Out

• A Post-Truth World: Why Ronaldo Did Not Move Coca-Cola Share Price - Forbes
• Lin-Manuel Miranda Responds to "In The Heights" Colorism Criticism - Rolling Stone
• Sex, Deceit, and Scandal: The Ugly War Over Bob Ross' Ghost - Daily Beast

Hosts

Ewan Christie is an employment lawyer and partner at Duntrune LLP in Toronto, Canada.

Cam MacMurchy is a corporate communications executive with a multinational technology company listed in Hong Kong and curator of the Digital Bits PR and Communications newsletter. He also contributes to Apple news website 9to5Mac and shares his thoughts on PR, media, travel, and technology on his website.

We've talked a lot about legal cases on the show, but this week Ewan brings our attention to other effective ways to handle disputes. Mediation can be a useful part of any dispute resolution process and help lower the temperature, especially in particularly charged cases. Ewan argues it's also a great way for companies to manage bad press as the mediation process is usually kept confidential. He shares why mediation is often a better choice and why it's not used as much as it should be.

Then Cam dives into the ugly saga of BrewDog, a popular beer brewer that hails from Scotland. Hundreds of former and current employees published an open letter blasting the company and its CEO, James Watt, for creating a toxic work environment driven by fear. The allegations are serious and could damage the brand, but maybe not as much as Watt's reply. The CEO published a hasty response to Twitter around the same time staff leaked an internal memo, exposing the contradiction in the beer brand's messages. As the old PR adage goes, when you're in a hole, stop digging! Unfortunately, Watt appears to only have a shovel. We look at each sordid twist and turn in the dispute, which is likely to give the company's leaders and investors the ultimate hangover.

In Check This Out, Ewan talks about the race to space while Cam looks at internet culture and how Gen Zers are ridiculing millennials.

Don't miss any future episodes and get updates about the podcast by signing up to the PR & Law Podcast newsletter. We promise: no spam. Ever.

If you enjoy the show, please tell a friend or family member. It's the best way to get the word out and we are very grateful! We also frequently post updates to the stories we discuss on social media. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Soundcloud.

If you have a question we would be happy to answer it on the show! Just post it to social media with the hashtag #PRLawPod.

Links and Show Notes

• Episode #59: Apple Employees Reject Work from Home Plan in Public Letter - PR & Law Podcast
• A Popular Podcast Dug Into Bon Appetit's Racism Scandal. Then its Own Host was Accused of Creating a 'Toxic' Workplace - Washington Post
• An Open Letter to BrewDog - Punks with Purpose
• Our Response from James Watt's Apology - Punks with Purpose

Check This Out

• What Space Billionaires Cost Us - What Next: TBD Podcast (Slate)
• What is 'Cheugy'? You Know It When You See It - New York Times
• How a 17 Year Old's Birthday Party Became the Biggest Thing on the Internet - New York Times
• Tik Tok Teens and K Pop Stans Say They Sunk Trump Rally - New York Times

Hosts

Ewan Christie is an employment lawyer and partner at Duntrune LLP in Toronto, Canada.

Cam MacMurchy is a corporate communications executive with a multinational technology company listed in Hong Kong and curator of the Digital Bits PR and Communications newsletter. He also contributes to Apple news website 9to5Mac and shares his thoughts on PR, media, travel, and technology on his website.

We have dedicated a whole show to a subject that will affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide: flexible working hours and "work from home".

While staff in many Asian countries have been back to the office for a while now, companies in the United States and Canada are now rolling out announcements for an imminent return to the office. The problem? Not everyone wants to go back.

Aside from the pandemic, Ewan looks at some of the demographic changes that are giving the WFH movement an extra push, and shares his ideas on how employers and employees can prepare.

Then Cam gets specific -- with Apple. The company's CEO Tim Cook told staff last week they can return to the office on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday each week, while granting remote work on Wednesdays and Fridays -- a step widely seen as very accommodating for a company with an old school outlook when it comes to work. But that change wasn't good enough for thousands of employees who penned a lengthy letter taking the company to task for not doing more.

We look at this issue from every possible angle and hopefully stumble on some solutions.

In Check This Out, Ewan recommends an editorial on a horrific mass grave found in Canada, while Cam has bookmarked a New Yorker piece on the strange radio waves targeting US officials worldwide.

Don't miss any future episodes and get updates about the podcast by signing up to the PR & Law Podcast newsletter. We promise: no spam. Ever.

If you enjoy the show, please tell a friend or family member. It's the best way to get the word out and we are very grateful! We also frequently post updates to the stories we discuss on social media. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Soundcloud.

If you have a question we would be happy to answer it on the show! Just post it to social media with the hashtag #PRLawPod.

Links and Show Notes

• Workers are Gaining Leverage Over Employers Right Before our Eyes - The New York Times
• New Report Says 'Demographic Drought' will Worsen Labor Shortage - Forbes
• The Decline of Young People in America - Emsi
• Real Estate Newsletter: Home Prices Hit an All-Time High - LA Times
• Apple Asks Staff to Return to Office Three Days per Week Starting in Early August - The Verge
• Employees are Quitting Instead of Giving Up Work from Home - Bloomberg

Check This Out

• Kamloops Residential School's Unmarked Graves a Painful Reminder of Why We Need Leadership - The Globe and Mail

Hosts

Ewan Christie is an employment lawyer and partner at Duntrune LLP in Toronto, Canada.

Cam MacMurchy is a corporate communications executive with a multinational technology company listed in Hong Kong and curator of the Digital Bits PR and Communications newsletter. He also contributes to Apple news website 9to5Mac and shares his thoughts on PR, media, travel, and technology on his website.

We faced some outright silliness this week.

Ewan brought up Amy Cooper, who we discussed way back in Episode #8 after she phoned 911 because a black man in Central Park - who was bird watching - asked her to put her dog on a leash in a section of the park that requires dogs be on leashes. The video left no ambiguity about what happened, but it seems Cooper wants to try her luck anyway: she's suing her former employer, Franklin Templeton, for how the firm handled the case and her dismissal. Does she have a chance of winning? Ewan fills us in.

Then Cam looks at how Ryanair, the discount European carrier, handled its communications in the immediate aftermath of its commercial flight being forced to land in Minsk, Belarus so the government could detain a political dissident. Ryanair didn't just mess up, it kicked off an entire new hashtag at #RyanAirSummaries. If you need a laugh, go check it out. Cam talks about what might have happened, and how Ryanair could have done better.

Then we touch on the Friends Reunion, a second major embarrassment for a Canadian politician, and how the media is now taking a second look at the lab-leak origin theory for COVID-19.

Don't miss any future episodes and get updates about the podcast by signing up to the PR & Law Podcast newsletter. We promise: no spam. Ever.

If you enjoy the show, please tell a friend or family member. It's the best way to get the word out and we are very grateful! We also frequently post updates to the stories we discuss on social media. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Soundcloud.

If you have a question we would be happy to answer it on the show! Just post it to social media with the hashtag #PRLawPod.

Links and Show Notes

• Amy Cooper Sues Former Employer for Racial Discrimination - New York Times
• Amy Cooper Sues Ex-Employer for Racial Discrimination after Viral Central Park Video - ABC News
• Episode #8: Amy Cooper's Racist Tirade in Central Park - PR & Law Podcast
• Belarus Ryanair Flight Diverted: Passengers Describe Panic on Board - BBC
• Ryanair said Belarus Refused Pilot's Request to Contact Airline - Reuters
• Ryanair Global Press Office Statement - Twitter
• Revealed: The Transcript Between Belarus ATC and Ryanair Pilots - One Mile at a Time
• The Ryanair Hijacking Pierced the Delusion of Flight - The Atlantic

Check This Out

• Liberal MP's Latest Exposure Incident Being Taken 'Extremely Seriously,' says Whip - CBC News
• The Media Lab Leak Fiasco - Slow Boring (Substack)
• 'Friends' Reunion Special Arrives on HBO Max on May 27 - CNBC

Hosts

Ewan Christie is an employment lawyer and partner at Duntrune LLP in Toronto, Canada.

Cam MacMurchy is a corporate communications executive with a multinational technology company listed in Hong Kong and curator of the Digital Bits PR and Communications newsletter. He also contributes to Apple news website 9to5Mac and shares his thoughts on PR, media, travel, and technology on his website.

What a show!

We covered a lot of ground this week, including the issue of social media and its impact on people's job prospects. Somehow we didn't touch on this fundamental issue in the previous 56 episodes of the show but certainly made up for it this week. Ewan provides information on how companies use social when screening candidates and Cam provides real examples from the workplace on how social media can also be used to monitor existing staff -- with sometimes disastrous results.

Then we dive deep into a lengthy investigative piece by the New York Times on Apple's business in China -- namely the compromises the company is making to protect its multi-billion dollar market. Cam peels back the curtain to shed some light on how Apple may have responded behind the scenes, and looks at three key accusations in the article and how Apple shrewdly addressed them in a statement. If you're a tech or PR nerd (or both), you'll not want to miss this.

Then the hosts share a few laughs over the camp Eurovision contest.

Don't miss any future episodes and get updates about the podcast by signing up for the PR & Law Podcast newsletter. We promise: no spam. Ever.

If you enjoy the show, please tell a friend or family member. It's the best way to get the word out and we are very grateful! We also frequently post updates to the stories we discuss on social media. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Soundcloud.

If you have a question we would be happy to answer it on the show! Just post it to social media with the hashtag #PRLawPod.

Links and Show Notes

• Censorship, Surveillance, and Profits: a Hard Bargain for Apple in China - New York Times
• Apple Statement - New York Times

Check This Out

• Eurovision Song Contest Rotterdam 2021 - Eurovision TV
• Tech vs. Journalism - Intelligencer

Hosts

Ewan Christie is an employment lawyer and partner at Duntrune LLP in Toronto, Canada.

Cam MacMurchy is a corporate communications executive with a multinational technology company listed in Hong Kong and curator of the Digital Bits PR and Communications newsletter. He also contributes to Apple news website 9to5Mac and shares his thoughts on PR, media, travel, and technology on his website.