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In April of this year, at the peak of the pandemic, the unemployment rates hit a historic 14.7%, which was  a post WWII high! Since then, the unemployment rate has decreased but that doesn't paint the full picture. In the turn of the year, there were 965,000 claims filed for unemployment insurance. After the new jobs report came out, we learned that 140,000 jobs were lost in the month of December. But economists agree that 2021 will look better.

Disparity in the Details
If we dig deeper into the details, the pandemic also shined a light on the current socio-economic issues that we've already faced. On THC, we've talked a lot about income and wealth inequality. if we look into the unemployment numbers specifically, we see that the most recent number is 6.7% but what that number doesn't tell you is WHO is losing their jobs.

The lowest paid workers are experiencing this unemployment much harder than what you probably think. The servers, waiters, fast-food workers, are losing their jobs at a faster rate. The lowest paid workers, mostly in the leisure and hospitality industry, are having a whopping 20% unemployment. Unsurprisingly, most of the people who have lost their jobs are either African-American or Latino. The black unemployment rate is 9.9%, hispanic rate is 9.3%, and for whites it lies at 6%. Further, women as a group accounted for all the job losses, losing 156,000 jobs, while men as a group gained 16,000. Women are disproportionately represented among the vulnerable workforce as well, accounting for 51% of these workers nationally, versus 46% in industries not at immediate risk.

But there are active efforts on a government level to address these issues.

Federal Reserve Response
Let's go back to the start of the pandemic. In anticipation for the recession to come, the Federal Reserve had taken actions to reduce interest rates (that were already historically low) to near-zero rates. They also went on a bond-buying spree to ensure liquidity in the markets. Some people think this may have averted a greater crisis, due to how the fed reacted in 2008. Another interesting monetary policy change is the choice of the federal reserve to keep rates low until recovery is shared across social classes.

CARES Act
The house also passed the CARES act which covers a few critical areas: Employee Retention Credit, which incentivizes businesses to keep their employees; Payroll Tax Deferral and Payroll Support, which ensures employers have some breathing room from the adjustments they've had to make in COVID; and a Loan program, to help people get through these tough times. Read more about it here.

COVID-based Recovery
We've lost around 3.4 million jobs since the pandemic started and there are more jobs at risk until we control COVID-19. According to a recent survey done by WSJ, economists think that the roll-out of vaccine will determine the rate of recovery of any nation. If you think about it, once people are vaccinated, businesses will be more comfortable having a more open economy.

As we look at these figures and learn about who is really suffering during these challenging times, keep in mind that you know who is being greatly affected by this crisis. We hope that this podcast can help you make informed decisions on how to help where it counts!

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2019 was the second warmest year on record and the end of the warmest decade (2010- 2019) ever recorded. Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rose to new records in 2019, but global carbon dioxide emissions fell an unprecedented 7 per cent in 2020 due to coronavirus restrictions.

Over the last decade, Wall Street poured hundreds of billions of dollars into U.S. oil, fueling a fracking boom that transformed America into the world’s leading crude producer. But, Oil-and-gas companies have been lousy investments in recent years.  Burned by those losses, many large investors are flocking to businesses that aim to wean the world off fossil fuels.

One of the leaders in the fight for Climate Change is founder of Sinai Technologies, Maria Fujihara. Listen to our full discussion with Maria (Building Corporate Carbon Solutions) on how technology is solving pollution in a financially conscious and sustainable approach.

There are steps being taken towards climate change but many still argue that it may not be enough. As we are going to see all these governments, multi-lateral organizations, and businesses walk the walk. 

Let’s hold them accountable.

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It happened not too long ago, the most complex board game (GO) with as many possible moves as atoms in the Universe was won by an Artificial Intelligence designed by Google to take on the smartest humans. Is this the end of board game gurus and the start of robot domination? We don't know...

AI has been a consistent theme within Things Have Changed over the past year. Episode 6 with Kristian Gebis covered trucking & transportation in the age of AI specifically the 5 levels of self driving autonomy, & Episode 12 dove into intelligent Fashion curation with Savitude Co-Founder Nick Clayton.  In Episode 7, our very own friend and early supporter , Juan Rodriguez from Evolution devices, is mastering the Machine Learning & AI algorithms that enable a wearable device to rehabilitate patients suffering from foot drop.

Looking back, AI has consistently disrupted old jobs while creating new ones. It’s created solutions while bringing up issues that we never had before. For example driverless cars will lower fatality rates, but who will be liable for accidents with robot drivers and how do we regulate this? This dilemma has happened in industries across the board with the computer and manufacturing factories.

Another challenge is the ethics behind it. Who has control over our data, how are they accessing it, and is it being used in a way that is helping us more than it’s hurting us. We saw this in the Social Dilemma, where Tech leaders have had a look behind the curtains of what AI is doing to us users. While tech companies profit from the use of our data, should there be a tax on using personal data and should there be a tax on creating robots that replace jobs?

While it’s scary to see those Black mirror episodes that warn us of the dangers that AI has on society, it still has a place in our lives that can help raise the standard of living and improve our lives in ways we never thought could be possible.

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There is no simple way to sum up this year. 2020 saw tremendous change and suffering as well as renewed hope and heroics. 

Join the conversation as we begin to make sense of this tumultuous, terrifying and hopeful time. 

Show Notes:

• Davos & Stakeholder Capitalism
• COVID19 & the Subsequent Economic Fallout
• Fighting the Virus
• Vaccine delivers hope around the globe

Finally a big THANK YOU to our listeners and supporters all across the world. As we bid adieu to the year, here's to being constantly curious, setting aside our differences through  collaboration and learning something new everyday :)

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So many of our family stories are formative to our personal background, traditions, and even 
our identity, so why hasn't there been an app to save and share it all? 

Amelia Lin, Founder and CEO of Saga took it upon herself to create an app that does all of that for you. Saga is a Private Family Podcast that saves and shares audio recordings that your family members can upload with a simple phone call. Your loved ones record their answer in their own voice, on their own time, with no pressure. It's made easy for anyone to use — you can record by dialing a special phone number, even without a smartphone or the app. 

Weekly questions can be recommended like "how did you meet mom?" or you can add your own personal questions that you want to hear. It's a digital solution to having the ability to pass down stories and experiences to future generations within your family. 

Tune in to hear how the idea for trysaga.com stemmed, how it works, and how you can use it to share and save your family memories with your loved ones.

Additionally, Saga has just been featured on NBC for the holidays! They have a holiday question pack update with AARP in the app for free, for families to connect this holiday during COVID. 

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The Cannabis Industry has been changing for a while. Years of activism and millions of dollars of investment have come and 2020 has been the year that served as the step right before federal acceptance. Today, 230 million Americans live in a state that has access to either medical or recreational cannabis. This would have been unimaginable in the 1970's during the peak of the drug war.

In the 70's, about 84% of Americans thought marijuana should be federally illegal! Today, about 67% of Americans think the opposite. The massive face-lift has upended the industry. More and more Cannabis reform is being passed through the isles of the American institutions and the people are demanding a better system for Cannabis Regulation.

We've summarized our thoughts from the two Cannabis entrepreneurs we've had on the show: Stacey Hronowsi and David Hua. Stacey Hronowski founded Canix, a company that helps entrepreneurs track the required seed-to-sale componenets of running a Cannabis company. David, or Hua, on the other hand founded a company called Meadow, if you live in California, you've seen their POS system in store! Meadow is more than that tho, they also build the back-end infrastructure for the companies to adapt to COVID lock-down restrictions by opening options for delivery, pick-up, and other activities that allowed Cannabis companies to stay open.

Both of these founders are advocates in the space and provide us with amazing insight into industry!

Check out our Year End Review of Cannabis!

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In a time when stress levels are high and many people feel stuck there are many mindfulness apps that help you destress and stay centered. Today we speak with co-founder and CEO of Hallow, Alex Jones.

With over 1.28 billion members of the Roman Catholic church, many people have struggled to stay connected in their faith. Hallow aims to help people combine the peace and stillness of meditation with the spiritual growth of prayer. The app is comparable to the popular mindfulness meditation apps trending today, but was built with a lens of Christian faith. It offers a variety of prayer techniques, a choice in audio guides, sessions organized by theme, and options for session length.

Since its inception in April 2018, Hallow has been downloaded 320,000 times helping its users become more mindful, get closer to their faith, and benefit from its abundance of meditation activities offered.

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The world is turning towards renewable energy and we've noticed the growing interest in the Electric Vehicle (EV) market.  From 2015 to 2019, annual EV sales rose from 450,000 to approximately 2 million! That is a lot of electric cars! Despite the growth, EVs still represent just 2.6% of total car sales, with internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles still making up the vast majority of the 75 million unit new car market. BUT! Battery prices have dropped 22% about every year since 2009 and this could mean a push towards the EV future!

Batteries are made out of multiple minerals like Lithium Graphite, Copper, Aluminium, and Cobalt. That is where it gets ugly... A large part of the Cobalt comes from a place called the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). There has been some mal-practice with the Cobalt mining that involves human rights abuses, child labor, and negative environmental effects. It is getting better but Companies and governments have slowly been introducing incentives to reduce the amount of Cobalt needed by exploring alternatives and pledging for a more responsible supply chain.

If the world is needing Cobalt to power it, and more than 50% of Cobalt is mined in the DRC, why is there no influx of wealth? The supply chains are complex and well, a majority of these megafactories are owned by Chinese Companies. China has been building the battery supply chain by securing the supply of raw materials for lithium ion production!

Check out our conversation on what is the future of battery supply chains. Will it be dominated by the Peoples Republic of China (PRC)?

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According to Kommando Tech, there are about 4.5 Billion users of the internet (More than half of the world population).  About 64% of those users access the internet through Google Chrome. There's a lot of eyes on Google Chrome, yet there are a few companies that take advantage of Google Chrome Extension Market.

There's over 1.23 billion installs across the 188,620 extensions BUT... 87% of Chrome extensions have fewer than 1,000 installs. However, there are 13 that have surpassed 10-million users. It is a polarized market where a few players take most of the market-share, very difficult to operate in!

Today, at Things Have Changed, we have one of those entrepreneurs that are willing to take that challenge to tap into the Chrome Extension market, Taylor Nieman. She founded a company called Toucan, a chrome extension that translates English text on the websites that you visit, into languages that you'd like to learn! Toucan is designed for anyone who wants to learn a new language but has not found the time or the motivation. Check it out!

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Journalist's are leaving media powerhouses for more personal platforms that allow them to build their own brand on.

In a time when the Murdoch Family owns the largest media companies globally including The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, and Fox News, we are seeing an unbundling of news as journalists are leaving big conglomerates to create their own media brands.

By creating personal brands, subscribers are more sticky and engaged with content due to their direct engagement and ability to use data to cater content that people want to consume. Social Media is a huge contributor to allowing journalists and publishers to go independent with their publishing.

In today's age the creator will be the brand, not the publisher. 

Tune in to hear about the future of journalism and what we can expect to see in the coming years.

Before you leave, ask yourself how biased is my favorite news reporter? 

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