The Best Paragraph I've Read...

Private Equity's Youth Sports Investment! How Did America End Up Spending $40 Billion to Watch Kids Play? What About those Who Can't Afford? Why Sports & Not Other Kid Activities? Is This A Bubble?

The Best Paragraph I've Read:This year, a team of researchers from Ohio State University and Oregon State University found that success in competitive youth sports might have more to do with money and opportunity than with talent and hard work. The researchers determined that 70 percent of 10th-grade high school students from families with high socioeconomic status played a high school sport, while only 43 percent of 10th graders from low socioeconomic status families played.This paragraph comes from The New York Times. The article is titled: "Youth Sports Are a $40 Billion Business. Private Equity Is Taking Notice." The authors are Joe Drape & Ken Belson. You can read the full article here:Youth Sports Are a $40 Billion Business. Private Equity Is Taking Notice. - The New York TimesZac & Don discuss the business of youth sports. They reflect on their own youth sport spending while also wondering what the impact is on kids and those kids who cannot afford to play. They wonder if America is identifying the best talent while also wondering what the end game is. The following article from the New Yorker is also referenced in the discussion:https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/30/heir-ball-how-the-cost-of-youth-sports-is-changing-the-nba

Fantasy Food Brand Draft!!! Pepsi, Hershey, Campbells, General Mills, Nestle, & More! Which Companies Can Turn their Stock Price Around? New Products or Spin Offs? Zac & Don Discuss their Picks!

The Best Paragraph I've Read:the big packaged food brands that dominated Americanpantries and refrigerators for decades are struggling as consumers spend less on brand-name cookies, spaghetti sauce and cream cheese. The companies are grappling with a number of stressors. Shoppers, feeling pinched by higher food prices over the past two years, are cutting back or trading down to less expensive private labels. Others areeschewing highly processed foods for healthier, more natural items. And the continued rise of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic are reducing cravings for sugary and salty snacks.This paragraph comes from the New York Times. The article is titled: "As Consumers Lose Their Appetite, Food Brands Fight to Keep Wall St. Happy." The authors are Julie Creswell & Lauren Hirsch. You can read the full article here. Zac & Don discuss the current plight of the large food brands that Americans have consumed for decades. They talk about some of the options that brands have at trying to grow again. Then Zac & Don have a fantasy food company draft with the following companies: Pepsi, Hershey, Campbells, Kraft/Heinz, General Mills, JM Smuckers, Mondelez, Conagra, and Nestle.Zac's Picks: Hershey, Pepsi, Kraft/HeinzDon's Picks: Nestle, Mondelez, CampbellsNPC Picks: General Mills, JM Smuckers, ConagraIn one year we will determine which set of three companies saw the biggest stock percentage increase. Here is the spreadsheet keeping track of the competition. Both Zac & Don invested $100 equally among their three companies. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12ITjfJdOovZj3-0V3LA5Ph9YK5P31bcK-QhTFvktjsY/edit?usp=sharing

Superintendent Heidi Mercer Joins to Discuss The Anxious Generation, Smartphones in School, Free Play, Her District's New Cell Phone Policy, & What Her Stakeholders Are Saying. About It All

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"Gen Z became the first generation in history to go through puberty with a portal in their pockets that called them away from the people nearby and into an alternative universe that was exciting, addictive, unstable, and - as I will show - unsuitable for children and adolescents. Succeeding socially in that universe required them to devote a large part of their consciousness - perpetually - to managing what became their online brand. This was now necessary to gain acceptavnce from peers, which is the oxygen of adolescense, and to avoid online shaming, which is the nightmare of adolescence. Gen Z teens got sucked into spending many hours of each day scrolling through the shiny happy posts of friends, acquaintances, and distant influencers. They watched increasing quantities of user-generated videos and streamed entertainment, offered to them by auto play and algorithms that were designed to keep them online as long as possible. They spent far less time playing with, talking to, touching, or even making eye contact with their friends and families, thereby reducing their participation in embodied social behaviors that are essential for successful human development. The members of Gen Z are, therefore, the test subjects for a radical new way of growing up, far from the real-world interactions of small communities in which humans evolved. Call it the Great Rewiring of Childhood. It's as if they became the first generation to grow up on Mars."This paragraph comes from the book The Anxious Generation. The author is Jonathan Haidt. Zac & Don are joined by Heidi Mercer, the Superintendent of Lake Orion Community Schools. The three discuss how children have grown up differently in the age of the smartphone. They talk about how family concerns and student behavior have changed over the past couple decades. They also discuss cell phone bans and how Lake Orion has arrived at its new policy as a new school year begins.

A Potential AI Scenario: 20-30% GDP Growth! Mass Unemployment! Higher Wages for Trades & Service Workers! 30% Mortgage Rates! Capital/Land Owners Win! 0% Saving Rate! Could this AGI Future Come True?

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"The likelihood that AI may soon make lots of workers redundant is well known. What is much less discussed is the hope that AI can set the world on a path of explosive growth. That would have profound consequences. Markets not just for labour, but also for goods, services, and financial assets would be upended. Economists have been trying to think through how AGI could reshape the world. The picture that is emerging is perhaps counterintuitive and certainly mind-boggling."This article is from The Economist. The article is titled: "What if AI made the world's economic growth explode?"You can read the full article here:https://www.economist.com/briefing/2025/07/24/what-if-ai-made-the-worlds-economic-growth-explodeZac & Don discuss an interesting GDP growth scenario if AGI becomes a reality. How is the economy impacted with 20-30% growth? What happens to labor markets, the stock market, and interest rates? What should a person if AI takes all the jobs?

More Lonesome Dove! Does the Book Get Too "Hollywood" In Action & Natural Disasters? Why Don't We Get the Native American Perspective? Why Is this Book So Captivating & Hard to Stop Reading? Spoilers

This is Part II of our Lonesome Dove discussion. Zac & Don discuss more of their favorite quotes while also wondering why the story does not get told from a Native American perspective. They wonder if the story gets a little too "Hollywood" and if they have interest in reading the sequels. Lots of spoilers.