Can you believe what this coronavirus outbreak is doing to us? It has everyone jumping, and in the midst of mass-hysteria toilet paper stockpiling and stock markets crashing, we should take stock of ourselves. Let’s take a sober, rational look at the madness that has taken hold in the last few days, all over the world...
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Imagine being the responsible parent in a family where the other parent has spent every cent, saved nothing, borrowed against the house, taken on mountains of credit card debt and siphoned off whatever cash could be found to their lover and their children. That’s what Tito Mboweni has to manage...
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Are you ready for the best decade in humanity’s history? No matter how much the news media, politicians, celebrities and climate change activists tell you we’re about to enter the gates of hell, we’re not. Things are pretty fantastic for humans...
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For as long as I can remember, I’ve been called an optimist. I think the people who called me that didn’t mean it as a compliment. Throughout human history, the cynics, stoics and mystics had more respect than the optimists - but it turns out that history is on the side of those who have a generally positive view of their existence and the overall trend for humanity. 2019 has been the year of Greta Thunberg, Hong Kong, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jussie Smollett, Venezuela, Christchurch, Notre Dame and Jeffrey Epstein - so you’d be forgiven for thinking things aren’t great. But you’d be wrong… completely wrong.
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Siya Sangweni (CliffCentral Brand Manager), Rina Broomberg (CliffCentral co-founder) and I were in New York last week for a series of meetings, a conference and some interesting experiences in the world of podcasting. It’s always reassuring to hear other people’s stories of pioneering their businesses and ideas in new media and to compare them to your own. You quickly realise that the distance between Johannesburg and New York is shorter than it has ever been - and that we’re having similar experiences, challenges and discovering clever solutions to the flux that all media businesses find themselves in...
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People abuse the term ‘community’. A community is defined as "a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.” It doesn’t mean the million things politicians want it to. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram talk about their community - but we’re certainly not in the same neighbourhood and we don’t have much in common (especially if you look at your feed on Twitter)...
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Turns out we’re not just vapid and superficial. Turns out we want more than 280 characters. Turns out we like complex stories with lots of characters and plot lines. Turns out we like interviews where people talk about philosophy, life and meaning. Turns out we’re smarter than the media people thought.
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I remember the school run fondly. My mom would load me, my brother, and sister into the car and take us on the 30-minute drive to school. The journey had a familiar routine - passing by the same places, chatting and laughing. Someone else was always in the car though - the radio. There was a DJ cracking corny jokes at the same time every morning, making a predictable prank call, playing the number one song on the charts for that day (in 1992, it was Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’, which meant that we all had to hear that song every day for months, so that it was tattooed on the inside of our skulls and infected our dreams), and someone reading the news headlines. Those morning drives were the context for my teenage years...
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Young people in South Africa are given lip service by government, big business and even educators. Everyone talks about the youth, a few talk to them, but not enough people listen. We’re proud to be pioneering a series of intelligent, thoughtful debates with some of the smartest young South Africans - along with Tshimong and Absa. Every day we’re exposed to meaningless drivel and rhetoric on social media, but most of us crave substance... the meat in conversations about the things that really matter and that are most relevant. That’s what The Interchange will deliver, and I can’t wait.
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Lockdown Lowdown
Time to level with each other, ok? You don’t have to prove you’re exercising at home during lockdown - we’ll know at the end when you roll out of your house if you did or not. I believe you’re working from home. Thanks to all the holidays, April was a write-off anyway, so we were only expecting 50% from you. Don’t feel bad if you’re not the most productive person on Earth - you’re not...
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