The Future of Events, Lab Grown Wood and 25 Lessons In Diversity

Why Were We So Cruel To Brittany Spears?

I watched the documentary about Brittany Spears. It has gone viral recently, along with the movement of people who care perhaps too deeply about helping Brittany emerge from the legal conservatorship of her father. This isn't the type of story I usually spotlight for this newsletter, but are moments in that documentary where Spears is brought to tears by the mob of paparazzi photographers following her every move. The moment when the sleazy tabloid editor talks nonchalantly about paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for pictures made me angry. It should make all of us angry.

The fact that an economy exists around this type of harassment is tragic. It is tempting to blame the photographers, or the media for her story ... but the truth is it is our fault. The consumer's fault. The economy is fueled by our curiosity and someone makes money from it. Our attention keeps them in business ... so consider how you might remove yours as a source of income for them. Refuse to click or share stories from sensationalist media. Unsubscribe. If any type of media deserve to be made obsolete, it's tabloids.

Are Gender Neutral Language and Products Going Too Far?

Last summer a 23 year old Dutch woman "realized traditional playing cards were racist and sexist." She decided to create a gender neutral set of playing cards and now she can't make them fast enough to meet demand. Two other stories this week pointed to shifting guidance around the language that hospital staff should be using in the delivery rooms. The Australian National University suggests "changing the term “mother” to “gestational” or “birthing parent” and using “non-gestational” or “non-birthing parent” instead of “father”. Health officials in the UK are asking people to stop using the term "breast milk" and, instead use more inclusive terms such as "chest milk" or "human milk." "Chest feeding" is the term that should replace "breastfeeding."

Are these good first steps to create a more inclusive hospital experience for new diverse parent or just empty and overblown symbolism? Clearly that's a big question, but it's been on my mind this week in particular, as you'll see from the next story that I'm sharing below.

25 Lessons In Diversity & Inclusion

This week I wrote the post that took me three weeks to curate. Coming off the heels of our big diversity summit, I wanted to spotlight some of the biggest lessons and takeaways about diversity and inclusion that I learned from the summit. Those were just published in a LinkedIn article you can read here. As you will also read on that article, I have some big news to share related to the book that will be coming out of the summit ... I just announced that I will be co-authoring and editing the book (Beyond Diversity) with longtime diversity & inclusion expert Jennifer Brown. The book is coming this summer and you'll be getting more updates about it in the months leading up to release!

Lab Grown Wood, Plastic Bricks and Construction Materials of the Future

If we can grow meat and other edibles in a lab, why not building materials? This week there were stories of a Kenyan woman who found a way to recycle plastic into bricks that are five times stronger than concrete. The discovery published this week from a team at MIT that wood fibers could be lab grown may be even more significant given not only the potential applications in building but also the potential that we could lab grow paper too.

Join me exclusively on Clubhouse this week ...

This week I will be taking a break from my usual Non-Obvious Insights Show and hosting a few conversations on Clubhouse TODAY at 2pm EST all about what it takes to write a better guide (for writers) and another one at 3:30pm EST all about anticipating trends and big ideas for the future with my co-author for The Future Normal, Henry Coutinho-Mason.

Join "Dummies Guides Suck. Secrets To Writing a Better Guide Book" live on Clubhouse at 2pm EST >>

Join "The Future Normal: Big Ideas for 2025" live on Clubhouse at 3:30pm EST >>