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Will Varner
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IN THIS ISSUE
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Jordan Fisher on Broadway's return
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The gender-neutral revolution in toys
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Kanye's Wyoming ranch is for sale
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Good morning. I’m
home in Western Massachusetts to see my parents for the weekend, but
with all due respect to them, the real party here is the #foliage.
At first glance,
the sea of yellow, orange, red, and brown might seem like a random
medley of colors...but it’s not. When chlorophyll abandons a tree in the
autumn, it leaves behind a mix of other pigments that are distinct from
one species to the next.
The sugar maple,
which rules the fall foliage world in North America, glows a brilliant
orange. Dogwoods turn reddish-purple. Beech and hickory trees get their
yellow on. And oak leaves—well, most of the poor fellows fade to brown
before they become raking fodder.
I like to think of it as each tree leaving its individual signature on nature's canvas before retiring for the winter.
—Neal Freyman
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Stock Watch
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Icebreakers With...Broadway's Jordan Fisher
Jordan Fisher
Jordan Fisher has appeared in TV shows since 2009, but the actor got his big break on Broadway in 2016 with a role in Hamilton. In December 2019, Jordan was selected to play the lead in Dear Evan Hansen and
then...well...no one got to play any theater roles, anywhere. Now,
Jordan will finally get the chance to wear his cast on Broadway starting
December 11.
We caught up with Jordan to see how he’s feeling now that Broadway’s back.
Tell us what it means to be heading back to live theater again with Dear Evan Hansen. Do you think anything will be different after being away for so long?
Just to be in
the theater again...I didn't anticipate the range of emotions that I
would feel walking into a theater. I missed that energy. So I'm thrilled
to be able to take the stage again for Dear Evan Hansen and wear that polo and wave through windows all over again.
What are the top three songs you've been listening to right now?
I've been listening to a lot of Lawrence. Their new album, Hotel TV,
just came out, and they have a song on there called “False Alarms” that
I've been listening to a lot. I've also been listening to “I Feel It” by Jon Bellion, and “The Jackie” by Bas with J-Cole & Lil Tjay.
Speaking of music, what's the hardest thing you've ever had to sing?
The hardest song
any artist ever has to sing ever is the US national anthem. That will
always be the answer. It's just very difficult. It requires a lot of
you. It takes a lot of energy and it's usually a cappella, and there is
very, very minimal room for error.
You’re 27 now, what are some things you wish you knew when you were 20 years old?
Everything that I
know now. It's funny because everybody is either in a rush to grow up
or doesn't want to grow up at all. And I feel I'm somewhere in the
middle. I think that my appreciation for time as a kind of currency has
grown as I age. But at the end of the day, I would never go back and
tell my past self anything because everything that's happened in my life
has happened for a reason. This is what has led me to this point. And
I'm very happy with my life.
So, I think if I had to go back in time and tell my past self anything, it would be like, *fist bump* “Let's just keep going.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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I Don't Have Anything to Do At Work. Should I Leave?
Each week,
our workplace whisperer Shane Loughnane answers a reader-submitted
question about work in 2021. Anything bothering you at work? Ask Shane here.
I
started a new job last month and they haven’t given me much guidance on
what my role is. Most days I’m twiddling my thumbs for eight hours. Is
it worth sticking it out to see if the environment changes?—Lily,
Baltimore
I read somewhere
this week that 4.3 million people (and presumably 8.6 million thumbs)
quit their jobs in the US this August. While “sticking it out” may not
be trending right now, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should be in a
rush to join the exodus.
Short of
identifying something toxic or egregiously incompatible, a month is a
pretty short time period to make a judgment call one way or another
about a job. There’s a decent chance your boss is trying to ease you in
and doesn’t realize how truly idle you are. It’s equally possible that
you’re simply experiencing lackluster onboarding and/or management.
Either way, you’ll need to take the reins. You’re 30 days in—what do you
expect to be doing in 60 days? 90 days? Reflect on what attracted you
to this job. If there’s not a clear path to you doing those things in a
reasonable timeframe, it may be time to look elsewhere.
As you seek out
more to do, be careful not to get yourself saddled with “busy work.”
It’s always easier to add to your plate than to take away, so view this
as an opportunity to handpick high-value tasks that interest you.
Remember that a valuable work experience doesn’t always mean you’re
churning out high priority emails. Especially early on in your career,
it’s important to consider if there are experiences (and people) worth
learning from.
Bottom line:
Sticking it out in hopes that the environment changes isn’t the answer,
but taking advantage of a chance to mold your own environment is a rare
opportunity that may pay off down the line. Just promise us you’ll
never get too busy to twiddle your own thumbs.
Have a question about work you want to ask Shane? Write in here. And remember, we're also compiling work horror stories ahead of Halloween. If you've got a good one, share it here.
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Toys Will Be Toys
Giphy
Just over a week ago, California passed a law that requires large department stores to create gender-neutral sections with a “reasonable selection” of nongendered toys and child care items.
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To be clear: Stores can still have boys’ and girls’ sections, but they also need to have an unlabeled section.
The woke and the
anti-woke are duking it out in Facebook comments over CA’s new bill,
the first of its kind passed in the US, with supporters saying that it
helps counter gender stereotypes and opponents arguing it’s government
overreach. But the fact is...the toy industry has been moving toward
gender neutrality for the better part of the past decade—without
lawmakers forcing its hand.
On the retail side:
-
Toys“R”Us (which is back from the dead FYI) announced it was doing away with gender signage in its stores in 2013 and deleted the “boy” and “girl” filters from its website in 2015.
- Target nixed gendered aisles and labels in 2015.
- Ditto for Walmart’s aisles, except you can still search by gender online.
Even if stores leave their “girl” and “boy” signs up...they may have a hard time sorting toys into binary aisles:
The latest brand to board the genderless toy train is Lego
Lego announced
this week that it would completely scrap gendering its little
blocks—which already don’t discriminate between the bottoms of
feet—through marketing efforts or otherwise. It based that decision on a
big survey that showed girls “remain held back by society’s ingrained
gender stereotypes as they grow older.”
Parents of 6-to-14-year-olds took the first half of the survey, and their kids took the second half, which led to some eye-opening learnings around ingrained gender stereotypes, like:
- 76% of parents said they’d encourage their sons to play with Legos, but just 24% would recommend Legos to their daughters.
- 71% of boys worry they’ll be made fun of for playing with
feminine-coded toys, compared to 42% of girls for masculine-coded toys.
These
discrepancies don’t stop at the toy aisle. Parents said they’re more
likely to encourage girls to cook and bake than boys, and more likely to
encourage boys to play sports than girls.
Zoom out: For proponents of gender neutrality in the toy aisle, this stereotyping of what a “girl” and “boy” can do limits what kids think they can be when they grow up.—JW
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One quintillion operations per second, thank you very much. If
that number makes your head spin, you’re not alone. That’s how quickly
the next generation of supercomputers will be able to process data. See
how exascale computing will transform the way we fly, consume energy, and predict major climate catastrophes in our latest article with HPE.
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Open House
Welcome to Open
House, the only newsletter section dedicated to showcasing what Kanye
doesn’t want anymore. We’ll give you a few facts about a listing and you
try to guess the price.
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DBW Realty Today’s property
is none other than the West Lake Ranch—3,888 acres of open land outside
of Cody, Wyoming. Kanye West bought the ranch two years ago and had big
plans to turn it into a Yeezy compound that could support clothing
manufacturing, architectural projects, and maybe even making good music.
But he decided to scrap all that and put the ranch up for sale.
Amenities include:
- 1 bed, 2 half-baths (but plenty of room for camping)
- Go-kart track
- View of the Absaroka Mountains
- No income tax and one of the lowest property taxes in the country
How much to do like the other billionaires do?
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1. A secretive hedge fund is gutting newsrooms. (The Atlantic)
2. MLB is testing ways to fix baseball’s boredom problem. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
3. How I hacked all displays in my high school district to play Rick Astley. (The Next Web)
4. Dwayne Johnson lets down his guard. (Vanity Fair)
5. Remarkable trees throughout the world. (Moss and Fog)
6. Meditation on sleep. (Mn Artists)
7. True crime is rotting our brains. (Gawker)
8. Opening up about my search for direction. (Founder’s Journal)
9. The wildlife photographer of the year 2021 winners. (The Guardian)
10. Can New Yorkers tell the difference between cryptocurrencies and cannabis strains? (Morning Brew)
Automated *chef’s kiss*.
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*This is sponsored advertising content
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Meme Battle
Welcome back to Morning Brew's Meme Battle, where we crown a single memelord every Sunday.
Today's winner: Drew in Ann Arbor, MI.
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$11 million
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FEATURED BIOGRAPHY
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Mae Jemison
American physician and astronaut
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FEATURED EVENT
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1979
Mother Teresa awarded Nobel Prize
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| Advertisement |
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1972: American rapper and actor Eminem, who was one of the most controversial and best-selling artists of the early 21st century, was born. [Take our hip-hop quiz.]
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1962
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Mike Judge
American animator, writer, director, and producer
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SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY
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