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Science non-fiction. With the effects of climate change increasing every day, it seems the line between science fiction and real life is beginning to blur. Scientists are exploring unconventional solutions for the rising threat, and one of the ideas is straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster: solar geoengineering. The thinking is that by reflecting sunlight back into space, they can cool the planet back to pre-industrial CO2 levels. But the strategy comes with some risks... like creating new environmental issues altogether.
Where’s Gerard Butler when you need him?
In other news… TikTok-sized education takes off, first-time home buyers struggle, and Hollywood’s blurred lines.
Top Trends
YouTube → Haunted Mansion
Twitter → Jenna Ortega
Google → Donnie Yen
Reddit → Martin Short
TikTok → “Collide” - Justine Skye
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ENTERTAINMENT
Good ole’ Bill // Illustration by Kate Walker
Edutainment makes learning bite-sized
The Future. Between popular education-focused TikTok and YouTube accounts and a raft of educational tech startups, a new movement to mix education with short-form entertainment is taking off… and people are showing up for class. The trend can make learning more dynamic, responsive, and fun… as long as rampant misinformation can be avoided.
Bill Nye the TikTok guyTeaching is tough when attention spans are short. But Forbes reports that a short-form “edutainment” movement is proving popular.
Bill Nye the Science Guy, the OG edutainment pioneer, has 9.2 million followers on TikTok watching his science-based videos — most 13 to 90 seconds long. (Even in the 90s, he had a rule that bits shouldn’t be longer than a minute and 49 seconds).
Hank Green, a science communicator and entrepreneur (and brother of The Fault in Our Stars author John Green), answers random questions like “Why is space, which is full of stars, so dark?” and “How do induction cooktops work?” to his 7.4 million TikTok followers.
Sal Khan, the founder of online education non-profit Khan Academy (which has 147 million registered users), built his following by posting math-explainer videos to YouTube. Most of those videos now run two to six minutes.
Not wanting to be left out, even textbook giant McGraw Hill launched a TikTok-like study app called Sharpen.
Bachelors in EdutainmentWhere there is an audience, there is VC money ready to capitalize…
GSV Holdings founder Michael Moe calls this TikTok over textbooks trend the “Hollywood meets Harvard” model and “Invisible Learning.” His firm has made investments in 16 of these kinds of companies.
Avalanche VC’s Katelyn Donnelly calls the movement “efficacious edutainment.” Avalanche has made seven investments in the space.
And there are plenty of startups to pour money into, including Edgi Learning (which runs an education-focused AI chatbot called “edgi bot), Zigazoo (which makes videos and gamified learning experiences for kids), and Revyze (which makes educational videos focused on teens).
Looks like education is getting an update.
CULTURE
Pie in the sky // Illustration by Kate Walker
Every home seems to be out of budget for new buyers
The Future. Thanks to skyrocketing prices, a shortage of inventory, and competition from investors with all-cash offers, it’s becoming harder than ever for young people to buy their first homes. And with unaffordability reaching a four-decade high, many people may turn to more communal home-buying options to have their slice of the American Dream.
The mythical mortgageHere are some of the forces making buying a starter home so frustrating.
The National Association of Realtors reports that first-time buyers were only behind 26% of sales last year.
The average age of first-time buyers has jumped from 29 in 1981 to 36 in 2022.
They’ll also need a household income of about $90,000 (good luck with that in California) — especially as interest rates are staying high at about 6.65%.
According to Zillow, it would take an individual ten years of saving 5% of their median household income to afford a typical home.
Nicole Bachaud, a senior economist at Zillow, said that “this will be the norm until we get more inventory in the market.” The supply of the typical starter home was down 1.5% in January, while it spiked 37% for McMansions.
Your parents’ roofWith the price of homes far “outpacing” wages, according to Zillow chief economist Skylar Olsen, many people have had to turn to mom and dad to become owners.
In 2021, about 40% of first-time buyers relied on a gift or loan from family or friends for at least part of their down payment — certainly a higher percentage now.
Freddie Mac says that young buyers with a co-borrower over the age of 55 are also way up in recent years.
And in big cities all across America, the stats are even direr. Real estate agent Connie Segovia said that at least half of young buyers in Dallas are getting help from their families — mostly the entirety of their down payment.
That’s just not sustainable.
TOGETHER WITH OCEANS
Calmer business waters
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Join the cool kids and get your next hire via Oceans. (And if you still want to break a sweat, hit up an actual CrossFit gym or something.)
ENTERTAINMENT
Unsplash
The agent vs. manager debate
The Future. Hollywood’s major talent agencies have all experienced a stream of departures over the last few years, creating a new generation of managers who understand dealmaking. As Hollywood tightens its belt amid the rise of streaming, the decline of cable, and the erosion of the theatrical business (not to mention a potential writer’s strike), talent may find themselves between a rock and a hard place. When the going gets tough, do they keep their agent or manager?
What’s the difference, anyway?The distinction between agents and managers can seem blurry. Here are the key differences:
Agents represent people in a specific area of the entertainment business and focus on landing their clients new work.
Managers offer career guidance. While they can’t negotiate deals, they can produce film and TV and invest in their clients’ brands — and potentially earn more than agents.
Who’s made the transition?To keep up with the changing entertainment landscape, many agents pivot into management, where they can focus on building their clients’ careers.
Peter Micelli, formerly the co-head of CAA’s television department, launched the talent management firm Range Media Partners in 2020. Since then, he has grown the company to over 160 employees and more than 500 clients, including M. Night Shyamalan, Busy Philipps, Shailene Woodley, and Mariah Carey.
Ben Jacobson and David Stone, former agents at UTA and WME, launched The Framework Collective to manage TV writers in 2020.
Theresa Kang-Lowe, who also left WME, now manages Alfonso Cuarón, Lena Waithe, and others while producing TV shows like the Apple series Pachinko.
Why work at an agency?The infamous mail room is still one of the best places to learn about the entertainment business. And even with all the changes in Hollywood, there still exist opportunities for young, hungry agents to discover new talent on platforms like TikTok.
Seems like agents will be “hugging it out” for the foreseeable future.
Future Forecast
For those of you who like to stay a step ahead, here are a few things we’re excited about right now:
Cheat codes. We grew up using them in video games… why can’t we use them as adults?! We can. Life-Changing Concepts is a newsletter with all the best cheat codes. Get useful mental models and actionable ideas when you sign up. It's free.
Mini-labs. Everything is at home these days. We work from home, we take classes from home, we interview from home, and we have an app for almost everything. Technology is fun (and we write about that a lot), but it’s also functional. In honor of Women’s History Month, we wanted to highlight Mira, a product revolutionizing fertility tracking for women. It’s fast, convenient, and boasts 99% lab-grade accuracy without pricking, travel time, or spending thousands of dollars. Women deserve this.
SXSW 2023. The only thing we’re slightly more excited about than the return of Party Down is heading back to the Lonestar state for South by Southwest®. Some of us (i.e., the person writing this) are native Texans who now live in California. Wild. We know. But that means going to SXSW each year is extra special. If you’re headed to the Live Music Capital of the World this month, let us know. We'll hook you up with our events grid for all the best happenings!
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Senators doubt the metaverse’s safety
After a leaked memo revealed that Meta might open its VR platform Horizon Worlds to teens, senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA) wrote a letter to Mark Zuckerberg urging him to halt these plans. “Any strategy to invite young users into a digital space rife with potential harms should not be driven by a goal to maximize profit,” they wrote. Although some beginner experiences have community moderators present, much of the platform can feel like a free-for-all since it can be difficult to moderate interactions on a large scale. Maybe Meta should create a virtual world exclusively for teens...
Read More → techcrunch
Bing’s behavior becomes less unhinged
Microsoft has created a new feature for its chatbot that lets users select different tones for its responses. There are currently three options: creative, balanced, and precise. The creative mode produces responses that are “original and imaginative,” while the precise mode leans on accuracy and relevancy for more factual and concise answers. Bing defaults to the balanced mode, which should strike a balance between accuracy and creativity and help counter its originally wild outbursts.
Read More → theverge
The dollar store is now the $1.25 store
Amid soaring inflation in the fall of 2021, Dollar Tree began raising its prices from $1 to $1.25. While fewer people have been visiting the discount chain since then, they’ve been spending more. In Q4 2022, same-store sales jumped by 8.7% compared to the same time the year before. CEO Rick Dreiling says that Dollar Tree has been “aggressively expanding” its range of frozen and refrigerated products priced at $3, $4, and $5, including proteins like eggs, meat, and fish, as well as pizza and ice cream. When customers buy these items, they typically spend more than twice as much as other shoppers.
Read More → insider
MrBeast studies every moment a video loses watchers
Even though he released just 15 videos on his YouTube channel in 2022, MrBeast still became the world’s most-subscribed-to individual YouTuber with 125 million subscribers. He pulled off a similar feat on TikTok, where he now has more than 77 million followers. MrBeast’s videos drive an international business that generated $110 million in 2022 and spans consumer-packaged goods, merch, and the MrBeast Burger chain. “We’re going to keep playing around with even sub-one-minute stuff,” says Marc Hustvedt, president of MrBeast. “It’s an existential-like threat to long-form YouTube.” Keep doing what you’re doing.
Read More → fastcompany
The FDA rejects Neuralink’s application for human testing
Neuralink made its bid for human testing in 2022 but was allegedly turned down for the following reasons: the “neural lace” that forms the implant could migrate through the brain’s soft tissue; the device could overheat; the battery could fail; and removal under any circumstances could damage the brain. It’s normal for medical devices to be initially rejected for safety concerns, but it’s difficult to gauge Neuralink’s progress because the company is very secretive. While a working implant in animal testing is encouraging, it’s not quite proof that the tech is ready for humans.
Read More → techcrunch
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Today's email was brought to you by David Vendrell and Kait Cunniff.Editing by Nick Comney. Publishing by Sara Kitnick.