Drew Meyer is either going to be mountain biking or kayaking this weekend, but he hasn’t made any firm plans. He doesn’t need to. Ever since he bought his minivan this year, he’s had it packed for camping and mountain biking on a moment’s notice, and he has a rack on top for his kayak. This, after years of poking fun at his friends who drove minivans. Mr. Meyer, 43, became a convert while renting one for a February business trip. “I got in and started driving and pretty much knew I was going to ...
Jun 02, 2022•4 min•Ep. 31
Wages for the median workers at the majority of big American companies are higher than they were before the pandemic, with the tight job market helping to lift paydays for many bank tellers, factory workers and software programmers. Compensation in 2021 for the median worker at 275 companies in the S&P 500 index was higher than in 2019 , including 150 companies where it increased 10% or more from 2019, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Half as many firms reported their median work...
Jun 01, 2022•5 min•Ep. 32
Wages for the median workers at the majority of big American companies are higher than they were before the pandemic, with the tight job market helping to lift paydays for many bank tellers, factory workers and software programmers. Compensation in 2021 for the median worker at 275 companies in the S&P 500 index was higher than in 2019 , including 150 companies where it increased 10% or more from 2019, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Half as many firms reported their median work...
Jun 01, 2022•37 sec•Ep. 33
The battle for tech talent is entering a new phase—and the winners are likely to be the world’s biggest tech companies . Apple , Amazon , AMZN 3.66%▲ Microsoft , Google and Facebook FB 1.83%▲ parent Meta Platforms have spent years battling for engineers and other skilled workers with each other and the rest of the tech landscape —including legions of cash-drunk startups dangling stock that might someday spell megawealth. Now, as the tech industry is hit by tumbling stock prices and recalibrated ...
May 31, 2022•43 sec•Ep. 34
The battle for tech talent is entering a new phase—and the winners are likely to be the world’s biggest tech companies . Apple , Amazon , AMZN 3.66%▲ Microsoft , Google and Facebook FB 1.83%▲ parent Meta Platforms have spent years battling for engineers and other skilled workers with each other and the rest of the tech landscape —including legions of cash-drunk startups dangling stock that might someday spell megawealth. Now, as the tech industry is hit by tumbling stock prices and recalibrated ...
May 31, 2022•6 min•Ep. 35
Andy Hall recently drove his Tesla Model 3 from his home in Big Horn, Wyo., to Washington, D.C., for his daughter’s graduate-school commencement ceremony. He turned what is normally an 1,800-mile affair into a 10,000-mile, 15-day odyssey with more than 80 stops in places such as Miami Beach and Quebec City. Dr. Hall, a retired ophthalmologist, is part of a cadre of die-hard Tesla owners who are racing to visit as many of the company’s fast-charging stations, called Superchargers, as possible. It...
May 27, 2022•38 sec•Ep. 36
Andy Hall recently drove his Tesla Model 3 from his home in Big Horn, Wyo., to Washington, D.C., for his daughter’s graduate-school commencement ceremony. He turned what is normally an 1,800-mile affair into a 10,000-mile, 15-day odyssey with more than 80 stops in places such as Miami Beach and Quebec City. Dr. Hall, a retired ophthalmologist, is part of a cadre of die-hard Tesla owners who are racing to visit as many of the company’s fast-charging stations, called Superchargers, as possible. It...
May 27, 2022•4 min•Ep. 37
Vast settlements dating back to the Middle Ages and featuring earthen buildings and pyramids as tall as eight-story buildings have been discovered hidden in the Bolivian Amazon, scientists said Wednesday in a paper published in the journal Nature . The landmark findings, made possible with the help of advanced laser-mapping technology capable of penetrating the dense vegetation that has long stymied research efforts in the region , upend long-held beliefs among many experts that the region lacke...
May 26, 2022•36 sec•Ep. 38
Vast settlements dating back to the Middle Ages and featuring earthen buildings and pyramids as tall as eight-story buildings have been discovered hidden in the Bolivian Amazon, scientists said Wednesday in a paper published in the journal Nature . The landmark findings, made possible with the help of advanced laser-mapping technology capable of penetrating the dense vegetation that has long stymied research efforts in the region , upend long-held beliefs among many experts that the region lacke...
May 26, 2022•4 min•Ep. 39
Growth in the U.S. and global economies slowed in May as high inflation and rising interest rates dented demand, business surveys said Tuesday. Business activity at services businesses in the U.S., eurozone, U.K. and Australia all grew more slowly in May amid rising prices, according to S&P Global surveys. The firm’s purchasing managers index surveys also reported Tuesday that factories in major global economies face supply-chain disruptions related to and as well as higher fuel costs and ri...
May 25, 2022•58 sec•Ep. 40
Growth in the U.S. and global economies slowed in May as high inflation and rising interest rates dented demand, business surveys said Tuesday. Business activity at services businesses in the U.S., eurozone, U.K. and Australia all grew more slowly in May amid rising prices, according to S&P Global surveys. The firm’s purchasing managers index surveys also reported Tuesday that factories in major global economies face supply-chain disruptions related to and as well as higher fuel costs and ri...
May 25, 2022•5 min•Ep. 41
People are thinking twice before opening that ride-share app on their smartphones. The practice isn’t going anywhere, but the slow pace at which ride volumes have recovered from their pandemic depths is the latest sign the industry might not become as pervasive as once hoped. As dreams of world domination fade and investors watch the bottom line, the cost of that ride might be pushing some potential customers to more economical forms of transportation. Lately, market leader Uber UBER +0.00% Tech...
May 24, 2022•58 sec•Ep. 42
People are thinking twice before opening that ride-share app on their smartphones. The practice isn’t going anywhere, but the slow pace at which ride volumes have recovered from their pandemic depths is the latest sign the industry might not become as pervasive as once hoped. As dreams of world domination fade and investors watch the bottom line, the cost of that ride might be pushing some potential customers to more economical forms of transportation. Lately, market leader Uber UBER +0.00% Tech...
May 24, 2022•5 min•Ep. 43
Old Navy set out to make clothes shopping more inclusive for women of all body types. It ended up with too many extra-small and extra-large items and too few of the rest, a mismatch that frustrated customers and contributed to falling sales and a management shake-up. The stumbles at Old Navy are a problem for its parent, Gap Inc. GPS -2.32%▼ The chain accounts for the majority of the company’s sales and profits and helps prop up the weaker Gap and Banana Republic brands. It also shows the challe...
May 23, 2022•38 sec•Ep. 44
Old Navy set out to make clothes shopping more inclusive for women of all body types. It ended up with too many extra-small and extra-large items and too few of the rest, a mismatch that frustrated customers and contributed to falling sales and a management shake-up. The stumbles at Old Navy are a problem for its parent, Gap Inc. GPS -2.32%▼ The chain accounts for the majority of the company’s sales and profits and helps prop up the weaker Gap and Banana Republic brands. It also shows the challe...
May 23, 2022•5 min•Ep. 45
PITSEA, England—The great names of English soccer ring with the echoes of Britain’s industrial past—Liverpool’s docks, the railway works that gave birth to Manchester United, the foundries that built West Ham. Then there’s Hashtag United. The club sprang to life through a group of friends led by Spencer Owen, who played video soccer games and streamed them online. He built a large following on YouTube, and now Mr. Owen and his brother have turned their digital team into a real-life soccer team t...
May 20, 2022•40 sec•Ep. 46
PITSEA, England—The great names of English soccer ring with the echoes of Britain’s industrial past—Liverpool’s docks, the railway works that gave birth to Manchester United, the foundries that built West Ham. Then there’s Hashtag United. The club sprang to life through a group of friends led by Spencer Owen, who played video soccer games and streamed them online. He built a large following on YouTube, and now Mr. Owen and his brother have turned their digital team into a real-life soccer team t...
May 20, 2022•5 min•Ep. 47
There are signs Elon Musk may be getting cold feet a few weeks after he agreed to buy Twitter Inc. for $44 billion. The billionaire Tesla Inc . TSLA -7.13% chief executive recently tweeted that the deal is “on hold” until he gets more information about the portion of the social-media platform’s users that are spam accounts . Twitter TWTR -3.72% has for years said in filings that it estimates they represent less than 5% of its daily active users, though has cautioned the number could be higher. T...
May 19, 2022•48 sec•Ep. 48
There are signs Elon Musk may be getting cold feet a few weeks after he agreed to buy Twitter Inc. for $44 billion. The billionaire Tesla Inc . TSLA -7.13% chief executive recently tweeted that the deal is “on hold” until he gets more information about the portion of the social-media platform’s users that are spam accounts . Twitter TWTR -3.72% has for years said in filings that it estimates they represent less than 5% of its daily active users, though has cautioned the number could be higher. T...
May 19, 2022•6 min•Ep. 49
Happy the elephant will soon have her day in New York’s highest court. The 51-year-old Asian elephant won’t attend–among other impediments, the 8,500-pound animal lives at the Bronx Zoo–but her lawyers have filed a writ of habeas corpus, arguing she is a legal person. If she had such status, her detention at the zoo would be unlawful and she could be sent to an elephant sanctuary, her lawyers argue. “The elephant is being imprisoned against her will,” said lawyer Steven Wise, who represents Happ...
May 18, 2022•59 sec•Ep. 50
Happy the elephant will soon have her day in New York’s highest court. The 51-year-old Asian elephant won’t attend–among other impediments, the 8,500-pound animal lives at the Bronx Zoo–but her lawyers have filed a writ of habeas corpus, arguing she is a legal person. If she had such status, her detention at the zoo would be unlawful and she could be sent to an elephant sanctuary, her lawyers argue. “The elephant is being imprisoned against her will,” said lawyer Steven Wise, who represents Happ...
May 18, 2022•5 min•Ep. 51
The pandemic has turned a lot of things upside down. That includes the week. For years, Mondays sort of haunted the weekend, a looming day when the fun would be over and it was time to get serious again. But as employers start asking their work-from-home people to come in part of the time, a different day is taking center stage: It’s Wednesday. At lunchtime on a recent Wednesday in Midtown Manhattan—a place that still bears plenty of pandemic vacancy—most tables were full at Oceana, Del Frisco’s...
May 17, 2022•37 sec•Ep. 52
The pandemic has turned a lot of things upside down. That includes the week. For years, Mondays sort of haunted the weekend, a looming day when the fun would be over and it was time to get serious again. But as employers start asking their work-from-home people to come in part of the time, a different day is taking center stage: It’s Wednesday. At lunchtime on a recent Wednesday in Midtown Manhattan—a place that still bears plenty of pandemic vacancy—most tables were full at Oceana, Del Frisco’s...
May 17, 2022•5 min•Ep. 53
A breed of cryptocurrencies touted for their purported stability has come under scrutiny as regulators, individual investors and veteran digital asset traders watched one spiral from its $1 peg to pennies . The recent fall of TerraUSD and its sister stablecoin Luna saddled investors with billions of dollars in losses and ricocheted back into other cryptocurrencies. Their plunge has raised urgent questions about the regulation of digital assets, and undermined crypto developers’ claims they could...
May 16, 2022•41 sec•Ep. 54
A breed of cryptocurrencies touted for their purported stability has come under scrutiny as regulators, individual investors and veteran digital asset traders watched one spiral from its $1 peg to pennies . The recent fall of TerraUSD and its sister stablecoin Luna saddled investors with billions of dollars in losses and ricocheted back into other cryptocurrencies. Their plunge has raised urgent questions about the regulation of digital assets, and undermined crypto developers’ claims they could...
May 16, 2022•6 min•Ep. 55
At the heart of our galaxy, between 26,000 and 27,000 light-years from Earth, lies a black hole four million times as massive as the sun. For the first time, scientists have captured an image of this cosmic body at the Milky Way’s center—a region of space so dense that nothing, not even light, can break free of its gravitational pull. The image, released Thursday during simultaneous news conferences hosted by various institutions in seven countries, reveals the black hole, named Sagittarius A*, ...
May 13, 2022•55 sec•Ep. 56
At the heart of our galaxy, between 26,000 and 27,000 light-years from Earth, lies a black hole four million times as massive as the sun. For the first time, scientists have captured an image of this cosmic body at the Milky Way’s center—a region of space so dense that nothing, not even light, can break free of its gravitational pull. The image, released Thursday during simultaneous news conferences hosted by various institutions in seven countries, reveals the black hole, named Sagittarius A*, ...
May 13, 2022•7 min•Ep. 57
The pandemic might have killed the sick day, but the mental-health day is thriving. With workplace burnout at high levels, nearly two-thirds of U.S. workers say they would take a day off from work for mental health now, compared with 45% before the pandemic, according to a February survey by LinkedIn. Yet taking a mental-health day delivers few benefits if it is spent binge-watching shows, scrolling apps or tackling the errand list, health and workplace experts say. It is useful to start a menta...
May 12, 2022•43 sec•Ep. 58
The pandemic might have killed the sick day, but the mental-health day is thriving. With workplace burnout at high levels, nearly two-thirds of U.S. workers say they would take a day off from work for mental health now, compared with 45% before the pandemic, according to a February survey by LinkedIn. Yet taking a mental-health day delivers few benefits if it is spent binge-watching shows, scrolling apps or tackling the errand list, health and workplace experts say. It is useful to start a menta...
May 12, 2022•5 min•Ep. 59
Enervise Inc. recently found someone to fill a $75,000-a-year job. The new hire said he would move to Cincinnati and report to orientation at 8 a.m. on his first Monday. The day before, he emailed to say he had changed his mind. Taken aback, Aaron Dorfman, the recruiting manager for the facility-services and plumbing company, emailed back. No response. “I called, too, and it was just crickets,” he said. Add another head-scratching new feature to the post-Covid employment landscape: A job isn’t f...
May 11, 2022•37 sec•Ep. 60
