David Lidsky's Blog, page 95

Build optimism—don’t debate it

Why 2025 needs fewer roundtables but more prototypes showing what’s possible.

“I know how this ends. I’m sitting here watching it unfold like a slow-motion movie—knowing exactly where it leads in 10 years from now, and feeling like I can’t stop it.”

A vision for America’s agricultural future

Food has healing powers, and that’s realized through soil health and organic farming.

As I reflect on my personal health journey, it’s hard not to draw a straight line from the food I ate growing up to where I am today. Food has always been central to my wellbeing. But it wasn’t until I became an adult, and sick with a disease that went undiagnosed for many months, that I fully grasped the power of food to either nourish or harm. During that extremely difficult period in my life, trapped in a cycle of inconclusive tests and debilitating symptoms, I came to understand food as medicine and realized that the way our food is grown impacts not just our bodies, but also the ecosystems that sustain us.

Why has Trump started using this weirdly formal sign-off on social media posts about Iran?

It might be his attempt at sounding ‘official’ or just the latest evolution in the president’s branding. Either way, it’s become another Trump-linked meme.

Several eyebrows were raised to full mast on Tuesday morning when a visibly upset President Trump dropped an f-bomb on live TV. In response to a reporter’s question about the tentative ceasefire between Israel and Iran, Trump replied that the two countries “have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f-ck they’re doing,” possibly the first time a U.S. president has purposefully unloaded that term on camera.

Why we need to redefine puberty culture for Gen Z girls

This generation wants more support and real talk for this emotionally-charged time.

The rise of misinformation aimed at young girls across digital underscores an urgent need for credible resources, empowering products, and emotionally safe communities.

Don’t hide that career gap on your résumé. Own it

Nearly half of U.S. workers have a gap on their résumés, yet many people still feel pressure to hide career breaks from potential employers.

Career gaps have become commonplace in people’s work history, yet job seekers still feel the need to hide them—a strategy experts warn is likely to backfire. 

Texas passes food additive warning law, but the list has inaccuracies

Texas would be the first in the U.S. to use warning labels to target additives to change American diets.

A new Texas law promoting the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda requires first-ever warning labels on foods like chips and candies that contain dyes and additives not allowed in other countries.

Mastercard partners with Fiserv to support new FIUSD token as stablecoin competition is expected to grow

The credit card giant will integrate the token in an effort to make the cryptocurrency more ‘mainstream.’

Mastercard has announced a partnership with global fintech Fiserv’s new stablecoin, FIUSD, in an effort to make the stabilized cryptocurrency “mainstream.”

Anthropic’s AI copyright ‘win’ is more complicated than it looks

Tech companies are celebrating a major ruling on fair use for AI training, but a closer read shows big legal risks still lie ahead.

Big Tech scored a major victory this week in the battle over using copyrighted materials to train AI models. Anthropic won a partial judgment on Tuesday in a case brought by three authors who alleged the company violated their copyright by storing their works in a library used to train its Claude AI model.

Public sector AI will succeed (or fail) based on context

AI is more accurate and useful for government employees when it’s built atop core data assets.

Public servants today face a double burden: They’re simultaneously charged with running our most important community functions—like disaster preparedness and administering elections—while the technology at their disposal is outdated and ill-fitted to the job. 

Why the big consulting firms are bad for healthcare

Health systems need actionable advice that advisors can help implement.

The healthcare industry has many ills. The payer-provider disconnect creates confusion, limits access, and exacerbates inefficiencies. Doctor and nurse burnout has led to widespread staffing shortages. This is compounded by aging infrastructure, outdated regulation, fragmented care delivery, and overly-complicated legacy systems. The list goes on. But there is a particular cancer that we could eliminate tomorrow: big consulting firms.