Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 26

Milli Vanilli Could Have Been Heroes Today … Maybe?

If you are a certain age, you might remember Milli Vanilli. I still have a cassette tape of their album that I could have resold for the same price I probably bought it for … since it was officially recalled. Back at the time, that fact alone made me want to keep it. In case you don’t know the story, Milli Vanilli was the name for a German singing duo who had exotic looks, long hair and a catchy pop sound that got popular quickly in the late 1980s. The rapid rise ended in flames once it was disc...

Modern Artist Consults a Lawyer Before Not Stealing Coin from British Museum

The British Museum has faced plenty of criticism for its continued policy to hold onto its archives that were built from artifacts that were looted from native cultures around the world. To offer the museum “a taste of its own medicine,” Brazilian conceptual artist Ilê Sartuzi spent a year planning the oddest of heists. His piece of performance art involved attending a community event where patrons were allowed to handle old coins as part of an interactive exhibit and replaced a valuable 1645 si...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber

Here in the US, it’s time for summer jobs, August (almost!) introspection, family holidays, and the last glimpse of sanity before we get bombarded with election news and into the Fall. For some of you, this time might include some thinking about what you’re doing for work and how you’re spending your time. It might also bring up the notion of bullshit jobs. This week’s book recommendation features a title that is about exactly what you think … jobs that suck.

In the book, Graeber show...

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week

Here in the US, it’s time for summer jobs, August (almost!) introspection, family holidays, and the last glimpse of sanity before we get bombarded with election news and into the Fall. For some of you, this time might include some thinking about what you’re doing for work and how you’re spending your time. It might also bring up the notion of bullshit jobs. This week’s book recommendation features a title that is about exactly what you think … jobs that suck.

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The Importance of Local News

This month was a big one for political news, obviously … but as we come closer to the U.S. election, one of the elements that will probably never get as much attention as it deserves is the importance of local news and the role that it plays in helping people understand who is running for all the local elections that will be contested this year too. The critical role local news can and must play is a topic Pew Research explores in a multi-part series that just released its continuation this week...

Is Katy Perry Holding Empowered Women Back, Or Are We Missing the Joke?

There is a moment in Katy Perry’s new video for “Woman’s World” where she sticks a gas pump into her backside and turns the clock backward to a 2010s era pop video that had Rolling Stone magazine offering some heavy criticism: “rarely has someone so misread the room.” For her part, Perry defended her video suggesting that it was supposed to be satire and “a bit sarcastic,” which had others wondering whether the video and ensuing controversy was just another example of how our culture seems unabl...

This Journalist Tried to Make a New Friend in 30 Days and It Went … Badly

What if you set out to make a new friend and gave yourself 30 days to make it happen? That’s the intriguing challenge that forms the backdrop for an article from this month’s issue of Esquire magazine where journalist Kelly Stout tries everything from taking a mommy and me swimming class to signing onto the “Bumble for Friends” app in an effort to find an “entirely new person entering my life and becoming a friend.”

Publicly declaring this goal to family and current friends is an impressi...

Welcome to a Future Where Food Is Made from Thin Air

Last year when Henry and I were writing The Future Normal, we wrote about a trend we named Unnaturally Better and profiled Solar Foods, a company that had created a protein called Solein synthesized from carbon dioxide. Literally food from air. This week, I came across another story of a similar company called Savor that can create fats from air and is starting specifically with a butter product that looks and tastes like “real” butter produced from dairy sources. Some reports share that the rea...

The Art of Gathering – How We Meet and Why It Matters

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week

Several years ago, I read this wonderful book by Priya Parker and it really stayed with me so I thought I’d resurface it this week as you may be in the midst of some summer gatherings yourself. While the book may seem to focus more on events, it’s equally valuable as a primer on how to become a better and more social host and attendee in any situation. Parties, meetings, and casual encounters alike—if you approach them with more intention, you can create memor...

Custom Fragrances Recreate What a Book Character Smells Like (and more)

Red wine spilled in a Birkin bag, smeared lipstick on suede, Maraschino cherry juice and stale cigarette ash. These are just a few ingredients in a new fragrance called Die Hot With A Vengeance, which also happens to be the name of a new book of essays by Sable Yong, a former beauty editor at Allure magazine. To accompany the book, she commissioned a scent from boutique parfumier Hoax Parfum, starting with the creative brief that she wanted the perfume to “smell like a rich, evil woman’s Birkin ...