#5SmartReads is a Webby-honored weekly news digest that amplifies underreported news and underrepresented perspectives. My goal is to help you stay informed without being overwhelmed, and to embrace nuance and reflection over picking a side.
I’m lifting the paywall on today’s #5SmartReads to amplify these critical news stories, and to give you a peek at the full issue of this series. I take great care to carefully read/watch, analyze, and write about each piece I select and share, with no AI tools used at all in this process. As the majority of my content (both my books and this Substack) have been used to train these tools and to answer queries with no attribution, I try to protect my work as much as I possibly can. Dealing with the crushing costs of child care (CBS Sunday Morning)  If you’re a very online person (or even a moderately online one), you’ll likely have seen Reshma Saujani brilliantly make the case for the care economy and why affordable, accessible childcare is an economic issue as well as a humane one. If you’ve been here for a while, you’ll likely have seen the news of New Mexico’s free childcare program (first shared here). The state funds childcare through a Land Grant Permanent Fund (funded by budget surplus, largely from oil and gas revenue), and has lifted over 120,000 families out of poverty since it was introduced. It makes perfect sense—until I scrolled down to the comments section. “We already have a free childcare program in the US (and have for decades/centuries): 1) have a stay-at-home mom, 2) if the mom can’t afford to stay home, don’t have kids.” “Easy solution: abolish the minimum wage and reverse the majority of laws related to getting a daycare business license. There are too many regulations preventing people from opening their own daycares” “Mom needs to stay home. Drop your standard of living until Mom can stay home. That’s the solution.” “I do think that the modern “women can have it all” thinking is quite faulty. You cannot serve two masters. Historically, men prioritized working hard, acheiving, in order to provide for their families. As a result, they spent less leisure time with their families. Women also need to accept that life is all about trade offs.” For every one of these comments, there are hundreds—if not thousands—of people who feel this way, and many who are in positions of power in their private and public sectors. We have the data, the plan, and the storytellers to make this case. What we need is to be in these positions of power, if we’re going to make a change. Something I’ve been able to do at a small scale is to run my teams remotely, to work mostly asynchronously, with paid leave (3 months paid parental leave, and sick leave as needed) and equity (not options) in the company (in the case of Rhoshan Pharma). It’s one of the things I’m most proud of as a leader, and one I plan to build upon. AI Runs on Your Data: In Your State and On Your Screen (Tazin Khan)  First things first—go subscribe to Tazin Khan’s YouTube channel. She’s one of the smartest people working in digital safety and security. Her core thesis is that data regulation is the linchpin to the evolution of today’s technology (namely, AI) and how what’s being done to protect our data—and ourselves. Her new series “In Your State and On Your Screen” delves into how each state is approaching data regulation, which you can see ripple into how each state is approaching data center demand from the largest companies. National laws tend to follow what’s happening the states at critical mass, and I expect the same to happen for a national privacy law. I was surprised at how these laws are gaining traction nationwide in a nonpartisan manner. It’s a timely reminder of how much local and state politics impact your daily life, and to stay engaged in what’s happening locally instead of spiraling about the state of national politics (which….I just can’t right now). How the US created an ambulance crisis (Vox)  I’ve spent a fair amount of time learning about ambulatory healthcare (and a brief experience supporting a patient). I’ve never had to experience what it’s like to live in an ambulance desert, which is what over 4 million Americans face. When you couple ambulance deserts with the shuttering of rural hospitals. While ambulances are deployed as a part of essential services, they’re not covered by taxes the way that the police and fire departments are. This funding is a core factor in how ambulance services are vulnerable in rural settings. Ambulance services are reimbursed, rather than proactively funded. No matter what, these services need to be ready to go. Demand is central to the finances of these services. In cities, an ambulance case can take around 30 minutes from call to admission in the emergency department, before they’re back on the road. In rural areas, getting to the patient can take just as long. The demand is lower, and it’s nearly impossible for these services to break even financially. But the need for care is just as important, especially in a life-or-death case like stroke or cardiac arrest. It’s why these services rely so heavily on volunteers, and that base is shrinking. It’s another factor in why response times in rural areas are growing. What’s the solution? Designating emergency medical services as essential services is can help, and has shown success in some local pilot programs. Reimbursement has to change as well, which is more likely to be done at the state level. And we need to substantially increase our funding of rural health programs, to help bridge the funding until EMS is designated and funded the way other essential services are. Why America’s power grid is being rebuilt for the age of AI (CBS Mornings)  One of my nerdy (and terrifying) Roman Empires is the state of the power grid. Even before the rise of AI platforms and electric vehicle charging (both have high energy requirements), the grid was being held by thoughts, prayers, and electrical Band-Aids instead of a necessary overhaul. The public sector alone can’t modernize the grid. About $65B was allocated in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, which are being rolled out through a grant program. The private sector (especially the companies putting this increased burden on the grid) have to step up. Google has made a first step in announcing a $25B investment in our infrastructure. I see the need for it, and it also sets a troubling precedent of pay-to-play for industries having increased power in policy. We can already see how shareholder expectations and company goals are taking precedence over the quality of life for Americans (especially our most vulnerable ones), and AI’s demands are a stark example of this. Data centers have made the quality of life worse for those who live in their neighboring towns, increasing their energy bills and making them sicker with the local strain on climate and increased emissions. That said, the rise of data centers could spur the scaling of renewable energy sources. Google’s investment also covers a major investment in hydropower, and China has been investing significantly in a solar powered grid parallel to their AI investments. And these pilots in Sweden and Norway, recycling data center heat to meet the heating demands of their cities, reduces emissions while offsetting a significant energy output from the grid. The increasing strain isn’t going anywhere. But it can provide an opportunity to do things better—scale renewable energy, seek greater investments from the private sector, and set some level of regulation of these investments and protect communities (though I’m very pessimistic on the last item). How Shopping Malls Are Being Transformed Into Apartments In The U.S. (CNBC)  Last fall, I found myself walking through the mall that was partially defined my pre-teen years (Montgomery Mall in Lansdale, PA). Unlike my pre-teen years, it was a ghost town. Aside from the temporary Harris for President volunteer center, most of the storefronts were empty. This is not the exception. About 34 million square feet of mall space is sitting empty. As housing prices continue to increase and nearly 70% of all Americans living near a mall with a high vacancy rate, it’s logical to repurpose malls into housing units. It makes sense—and it seems to be recreating a small town, community experience within these walls (with doctors offices, gyms, restaurants and office space coming into these spaces). It’s not without its challenges—no burners in some of the apartments, shoppers or AirBnB guests assuming these homes are accessible to all. These spaces are zoned for commercial use, not housing, and these permits can be expensive and time-consuming to obtain. As these projects reach a critical mass, this process can be streamlined and standardized across the board. My pre-teen self would’ve loved this.
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would you live at the mall?
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