0:00

Welcome

0:02

to Skimm this. The

0:04

first week of January is

0:06

always a tough week to go back

0:09

to work. And no one

0:11

feels that more than house Republicans

0:14

who've been locked in a tense battle over

0:16

who should be the speaker of the house.

0:19

We're skimming while the GOP can't

0:21

seem to get their house in order. Plus,

0:24

everything else you need to know about the one

0:26

hundred and eight teenth session of Congress.

0:29

Also on the show, we've got an update

0:31

on NFL player, Demar Hamlin.

0:34

The heavy storms hitting

0:35

California, and predictions

0:38

about what to expect in twenty twenty

0:40

three. think in retrospect

0:42

that the pandemic marked the end of a period

0:44

of stability in quite a lot of ways.

0:47

And to wrap things up, we're focusing

0:49

on the one New Year's resolution we

0:51

can all get behind. Being

0:54

happier, which surprisingly

0:57

starts with talking to strangers. Stay

1:00

tuned because we're here to make you smarter,

1:02

and the news less overwhelming. I'm

1:05

Alex Carr. Let's skim

1:07

this. The

1:13

one hundred and eighteenth congress officially

1:15

started on Tuesday.

1:17

And so

1:18

far, lawmakers can't seem

1:20

to get their house in order. No

1:23

persons haven't received a

1:25

majority of the whole number of votes cast

1:27

by surname, a speaker

1:29

has not been elected. Between

1:32

a fight over the speakership, and

1:35

an elected representative sketchy

1:37

past? There was a lot

1:39

of drama during the first week back.

1:42

So today, we're breaking down

1:44

three things you need to know about Congress's

1:47

not so hot start to the new year.

1:50

First, let's talk about the unprecedented

1:53

fight over who should be the speaker

1:55

of the house. I rise today

1:57

to nominate gentleman from California Kevin

2:00

McCarthy as Speaker of the House to lead

2:02

America's New Republican majority.

2:06

Republican representative Kevin McCarthy

2:09

who's been the house minority leader since

2:11

twenty fourteen, tried

2:13

not once, not twice,

2:16

but nine times to get the

2:18

gavel. And it's the first

2:20

time in over one hundred years

2:22

that we've seen this level of chaos

2:25

for the speakership. A speaker has

2:27

not been elect Usually,

2:29

this is a one ballot kind of process.

2:33

So what happens? Well,

2:36

a group of twenty GOP politicians

2:38

didn't think McCarthy made enough

2:41

concessions in favor of the right

2:43

wing of the party. They

2:45

also argue that Republicans only

2:47

took the majority in the house by a

2:49

slim margin. Despite

2:52

all signs pointing to a red wave

2:54

before the midterms, And they

2:56

say McCarthy was kind of responsible

2:58

for that

2:59

failure. We want to turn the page.

3:01

We want new leadership. We want fresh

3:03

faces and new ideas. This town

3:05

desperately needs

3:06

change. And if it's a few of us who have to stand

3:08

in the breach to force it, we are willing to do

3:10

so for as long as it takes. And

3:13

when there was no speaker, Congress

3:15

can't actually do anything. Like

3:18

swear in new members or dole

3:20

out committee assignments, So

3:23

this takes not being able to

3:25

get anything done to a whole new

3:27

level. As

3:29

of the time we publish this, the house

3:31

still hasn't found its speaker.

3:34

And it's hard to say what will happen

3:36

or whether McCarthy will eventually get

3:38

the job. This

3:40

disagreement amongst GOP lawmakers

3:43

shows just how fractured the Republican

3:45

party is ideologically. And

3:48

that it's not just a house divided

3:50

between the GOP and the DEMS, but

3:52

Republicans can't show a united

3:55

front within their own party. And

3:57

that could have major implications for

4:00

how committees are run and

4:02

could lead to potential internal fights

4:04

over legislation. But

4:06

luckily for McCarthy, there was

4:09

another GOP politician in the

4:11

headlines this week for all

4:13

the wrong reasons. Which

4:15

is also our second thing to know.

4:18

Congressman-elect George Santos

4:20

actually headed to Washington this

4:22

week. In case he missed it

4:24

over the break, Santos is an elected

4:26

GOP representative from Long Island.

4:28

He is set to be sworn in this

4:30

week. Even though he confessed

4:33

to falsifying qualifications on

4:35

his resume. If I disappointed

4:37

anyone by resume

4:40

embellishment, I'm sorry.

4:42

You may have seen some of these crazy headlines

4:44

on the news or in your group chat.

4:47

But basically, Santos lied

4:49

about working at two different Wall

4:51

Street firms, about attending college

4:53

in New York, and about

4:55

having a college degree at all.

4:58

Santos also shared some other

5:00

eyebrow raising stories on the campaign

5:02

trail. He's claimed he's

5:04

both Jewish and Catholic. That

5:07

four of his employees died in the two

5:09

thousand sixteen Pulse nightclub shooting,

5:12

that his home was vandalized in twenty

5:14

twenty one, and that his mom

5:16

died during nine eleven. Investigators

5:19

reporting from The New York Times and

5:21

other outlets have found that all these

5:23

stories appear to be completely

5:26

made up. Talk

5:28

about lying on your resume, but

5:31

can that prevent him from serving

5:33

in office? Well, it's

5:35

TBD. Santos is now

5:37

under scrutiny by law enforcement in

5:39

multiple countries. In

5:42

the US, federal and local prosecutors

5:44

are investigating whether or not he

5:46

committed a crime by lying. While

5:48

in Brazil, officials announced this

5:51

week they're reopening a two thousand

5:53

and eight check fraud case that Santos

5:55

is involved in. And

5:57

on top of all of this, Sandoz'

5:59

shady campaign finance moves are

6:01

also raising red flags. Including

6:04

a mysterious six figure personal

6:06

loan he made to his own campaign

6:08

last year, which raised

6:10

some eyebrows since Santos has

6:12

been named in multiple eviction

6:14

and debt collection cases. It's

6:17

too soon to say what those investigations

6:19

will find. But in the meantime,

6:22

Santos's colleagues and constituents

6:24

have called for his resignation. Finally,

6:31

let's get to the third thing you need to

6:33

know about the one hundred and eighteenth congress

6:36

What they might actually get done in the

6:38

next two years? A

6:40

GOP controlled house means Republicans

6:42

now have oversight power. GOP

6:45

leaders have said they're planning to investigate

6:47

the Biden administration for things like

6:49

the withdrawal from Afghanistan and

6:52

the use of pandemic funding. Republican

6:55

house members have also expressed interest

6:57

in using oversight powers to investigate

6:59

the FBI, Hunter Biden

7:02

and the January sixth committee.

7:04

We could also see GOP lawmakers

7:07

pursuing legislative slation on border security,

7:09

immigration policies, and

7:11

spending cuts, including on the

7:13

war in Ukraine. But

7:16

given how long it's taken Republicans to

7:18

pick a speaker, it might

7:20

be a minute before we're talking bills.

7:23

Not to mention, Democrats still

7:25

control the senate, and Biden

7:27

Skimm the White House. So any

7:30

GOP legislation in the House is

7:32

unlikely to make its way to the president's

7:34

desk, at least for now.

7:40

Want us to break down another question

7:42

from the news? Send us your suggestions

7:44

to audio at this game dot com.

7:53

Let's get to some other headlines from the

7:55

week's news. And give you some

7:57

context on why they

7:58

matter. First, we're

8:01

starting with an update on NFL player,

8:03

Demar Hamlin. So this is the

8:05

part of football. No one wants to see

8:07

the reaction of the players on the field,

8:09

waving medical teams over,

8:11

said it all about how serious this was.

8:14

Buffalo Bill's safety, Demar Hamlin,

8:16

remains critically ill in the hospital.

8:19

After he went into cardiac arrest

8:21

during the Bill's BANGL's game on Monday

8:23

night. It's where Joe Faroe

8:26

is so good, and now another

8:28

Bill's player is down. Just

8:30

minutes after off, Hamlin took

8:32

a hard hit to his head and torso

8:34

during a tackle and collapsed

8:36

to the ground. Players

8:39

and fans watched in shock,

8:41

while the NFL initially

8:43

ruled the game should continue. But

8:46

that didn't happen. When

8:48

players headed back to the locker rooms and the

8:50

league announced they'd postpone,

8:53

Hamlin was taken to the University of

8:55

Cincinnati Medical Center, and this

8:57

incident stunned fans

8:59

across the country. We've seen

9:02

players go down with head injuries

9:04

before and see them stay down for

9:06

a little while, get back up

9:08

give the thumbs up. And that's all we were all

9:10

hoping for. On

9:12

Wednesday, a representative for Hamlin

9:14

said he's moving in a positive

9:16

direction. And said doctors are pleased with

9:18

his progress, but that he still

9:20

has a long journey to go.

9:23

Today, we learned Hamlin is on

9:25

a ventilator. And is able to

9:27

communicate in writing. The

9:29

bills resumed practice on Wednesday,

9:31

and the NFL has also

9:33

said all regularly scheduled games in the

9:35

next week will continue as

9:37

planned. But for

9:39

many, it's hard to return to

9:41

business as usual. NFL

9:44

player's health and safety has been a

9:46

talker for years, and this

9:48

season has brought to light more

9:50

concerns. Earlier in the

9:52

season, the Miami dolphins in the

9:54

NFL were under fire.

9:56

After dolphins QB to

9:58

Atagaviloa, went back on the

10:00

field after suffering multiple head

10:02

injuries in back to back games.

10:05

And just this week, Indianapolis

10:07

Cold's QB Nick Foles can vossed on

10:09

the field after a tackle. And

10:12

looking beyond this season, More

10:14

than three hundred former NFL

10:16

players have been diagnosed with CTE,

10:19

a degenerative brain disease

10:21

linked to repeated blows to

10:23

the head. It's an issue the league has

10:25

avoided talking about and

10:27

didn't even acknowledge until twenty

10:29

sixteen. Even though the

10:31

NFL has since poured tens of

10:33

millions of dollars into concussion and

10:35

helmet research, many worry

10:37

it's not enough. Not to

10:39

mention, all of these health threats are

10:41

dis proportionately being felt by

10:43

people of color as the

10:45

majority of players are black.

10:48

And what happened to Hamlin is

10:50

another example of how America's

10:52

most popular game leaves its

10:54

players with life altering and

10:56

life threatening injuries. And

10:59

it's renewed calls for the NFL to be

11:01

held accountable to a higher standard

11:03

of safety and respect for

11:05

players health. Alright.

11:11

For our next headline, let's take a

11:13

look at a major change COMING TO A

11:15

PHARMACY NEAR YOU. THE

11:17

FDI HAS FINALIZED A RULE

11:19

CHANGE THAT BROADINS AVAILIBILITY OF

11:21

ABORTION TELLS. On

11:23

Tuesday, the FDA said

11:25

certified pharmacies can now provide

11:27

abortion pills, a move

11:29

that could significantly expand

11:31

abortion acts success across the country.

11:34

Previously, you could only receive

11:36

the pills in person at a medical

11:38

clinic, office, or hospital.

11:41

Abortion pills like Mifapristone

11:43

have been authorized by the FDA

11:45

to terminate pregnancies up to ten

11:47

weeks, and they're used in more than

11:49

half of abortions in the US.

11:52

With this new regulation change,

11:54

patients will need a prescription to

11:56

access the pills. But pharmacies can

11:58

decide whether to provide them in person

12:00

or through the mail. And

12:03

following the FDA's announcement, Major

12:05

pharmacies including CVS and

12:07

Walgreens said they plan to start

12:09

offering the pills. Still,

12:12

as more states move to ban a

12:14

restricted portion, pharmacies

12:16

will need to comply with the laws of the

12:18

state they're in. Meaning,

12:20

it's unlikely this move will have much of

12:22

an impact in state where abortion is

12:24

already banned. And

12:26

it's also likely more states

12:28

will move to restrict access to

12:30

abortion in the future. Leaving

12:32

pharmacies to navigate the political

12:34

landmines. Zooming

12:37

out, medication abortion had already

12:39

become the focus of the legal and

12:41

political fight over abortion access

12:43

since Rovi Wade was overturned. And

12:46

this latest decision from the FDA could

12:48

face legal challenges in the months

12:50

to come. For

12:55

our next headline, let's take a look

12:57

at what's going on on the West Coast.

12:59

State of Emergency in California

13:02

where tens of millions are under flood and

13:04

wind alerts as yet another major

13:06

storm of bomb cyclone as

13:08

forecasters describe it threatens

13:10

the state. Over the past

13:12

week, California has been hit

13:14

by back to back winter storms.

13:16

The latest knocked out

13:18

power for hundreds of thousands of

13:20

people as of Thursday morning, as

13:22

heavy rain and high winds swept

13:24

the region. All this

13:26

repeated rainfall we've seen this week

13:28

on the West Coast has kept the

13:30

ground wet. And that

13:32

means there's nowhere for new rain

13:34

to get absorbed, which drastically

13:37

increases the likelihood of mudslides

13:39

and flooding. And areas

13:41

damaged by wildfires over the past few

13:43

years are also particularly vulnerable.

13:47

So far, California Governor

13:49

Gavin Newsom has already declared a

13:51

state of emergency. And

13:53

authorities have reported two deaths

13:55

related to the storms. Alright.

13:59

Our final headline is

14:01

more of a PSA. After

14:03

a disastrous holiday travel

14:06

meltdown, Southwest Airlines appears to be

14:08

back on track. The airline

14:10

CEO apologizing and

14:12

promising to reimburse frustrated passengers.

14:14

That's right. If you got caught

14:16

in the Southwest hot mess travel

14:19

express over the holidays, we've got

14:21

some good ish news.

14:23

The airline has apologized for

14:25

canceling over fifteen thousand

14:27

flights this holiday season and is

14:29

offering twenty five thousand reward

14:31

points to those customers, which

14:33

translates to about three hundred dollars in

14:35

value. The CEO

14:37

also said the points never expire

14:39

and don't have blackout dates.

14:42

So if you were unlucky enough to

14:44

be stuck in an airport for more than

14:46

three hours waiting for a southwest

14:48

flight between December twenty fourth and

14:50

January second, Check your email for

14:52

an apology and, more

14:54

importantly, those points. At

15:02

the start of every year, we

15:04

like to take some time to think

15:06

about wants to come in the next

15:08

twelve months. For ourselves, for our

15:10

friends and family, but

15:12

also for the world. Last

15:15

year, we heard whispers of

15:17

recessions wars and

15:19

revolutions. Some of

15:21

those happened and some

15:24

didn't. So we

15:26

wanted to know what exactly is

15:28

in store for twenty twenty three.

15:30

To help us read the tea

15:32

leaves, We spoke to someone whose

15:34

actual job it is to make these kinds

15:36

of predictions. Meet

15:39

Tom Standich, the Deputy

15:41

Editor of The Economist. He puts

15:43

together the magazine's world

15:45

ahead issue, which

15:47

forecasts the global trends for the years

15:49

to come. Alright. Let's

15:51

give him a call. So

15:55

I read the world ahead issue

15:57

every single year. And I'm so

15:59

excited to talk to you because I'm

16:02

curious first how you even go

16:04

about compiling an issue like

16:06

this because I think if you told

16:08

me, Alex, you have to sit

16:10

down and predict everything that's gonna happen

16:12

next year. I'd be like, that's pretty

16:13

daunting. I don't know where to start. So I'm

16:15

just Curious what that process is like.

16:17

Sure. It's a process that starts

16:19

in May and it starts with

16:21

a sort of brainstorm among the

16:24

editorial staff at The Economist. And for many

16:26

years, but obviously not for the past couple of years,

16:28

this was a a tea that would happen

16:30

on a Monday afternoon, very English.

16:32

Perry English. There would be lots of tea and

16:34

coffee and lots of sticky buns,

16:36

and then everyone would have a massive kind of sugar

16:38

rush, caffeine rush and come

16:40

up with well, you know, here are some of the things I

16:42

think we should be keeping an eye on for the for the

16:44

coming year. And it's not just the

16:46

themes. In some cases, people would say, oh, this is definitely

16:48

happening next year. Because there are some things that you

16:50

know are going to happen like the Olympics

16:52

or an election, but it's also

16:54

the people to watch because

16:56

The second place that we look for ideas

16:58

is the guest writers that we have, and so we

17:00

have people from politics business,

17:02

science, and the arts. And then the

17:04

other sources are rather

17:06

more technical, I suppose. We have our colleagues

17:08

at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

17:11

they do a supplement in the middle of

17:13

the world ahead with forecasts for particular

17:15

industries and countries. And then we have the

17:17

super forecasters, and this is

17:19

the team that won the US government's

17:21

geopolitical forecasting contest two years in

17:23

a row. So we're very lucky that they produce a

17:25

handful of forecasts for us every year.

17:27

And so we've got basically the hunches of

17:29

journalists. We've got the views of

17:32

outsiders. We've got the bean counters at

17:34

the EU, and then we've got the super

17:36

forecasters as well. And if you

17:38

could summarize those trends

17:40

or forces that you've predicted

17:42

will happen in twenty twenty three,

17:44

what would you generalize or bucket

17:46

them into? I feel like for me when

17:48

I read it, coming out of two years

17:50

of the pandemic, the one thing that really stood

17:52

out to me was there's kind

17:54

of no normal or no

17:57

stability

17:57

anymore. That's exactly right. The

17:59

main force obviously driving what

18:01

was happening around the world for A COUPLE

18:03

OF YEARS THAT WAS THE PANDEMIC. IT'S BEEN MORE

18:04

THAN two and A half YEARS SINCE THE FIRST REPORTED

18:07

COVID CASES AND THAT WAS STORY NUMBER ONE.

18:09

AND NOW THE BOARD, NEWCRANE

18:11

HAS has become the most significant driving factor.

18:13

Millions of lives have been disrupted

18:15

by the war in it because it affects

18:17

so many things. Dollars. But I think more generally,

18:19

if you look back, we

18:21

had a period that some people have called a holiday

18:23

from history, people have given it different

18:25

names. But the past couple of decades, and some people would

18:27

even go back a bit further actually. Into

18:30

the late twentieth century has actually a much

18:32

better period of relative stability. So

18:34

it's most obvious in economics where we have

18:36

very low interest rates and

18:38

very low inflation for a very long time. But we

18:40

also didn't have major wars.

18:43

We didn't have world powers

18:46

engaged in, you know, the level that we're now seeing

18:48

in conflict. And so that was

18:50

something that we all sort of were worried

18:53

about in the late I grew up in the the

18:55

fear of nuclear wars was sort of always

18:57

with us. That went away from it,

18:59

and now it's come back. So I think in retrospect,

19:01

the pandemic marked the end

19:03

of a period of stability in quite a lot of ways, which has

19:06

definitely come to an end. And it's not just

19:08

that economic volatility

19:10

is back.

19:11

Inflation sick or shock is hitting millions

19:13

of Americans hard. Inflation

19:14

is back, stock inflation, all these words that

19:16

people have not used since, you know, the nineteen

19:19

seventies and the nineteen

19:20

eighties. And also that great power conflict

19:22

to worries about nuclear war and that kind of thing

19:24

is back. Bringing

19:24

back cold war memories from It's also

19:26

that on top of that, we now have things like

19:29

climate change. To worry

19:29

about weather chaos around the

19:32

world. We have extreme weather and so on. So

19:34

there are an awful lot of sources of

19:36

uncertainty and instability. And I think

19:38

that's why the world feels really unpredictable right now

19:40

because it is. You

19:44

mentioned the major destabilizing

19:46

action this year was the war in Ukraine.

19:48

How do you predict or

19:51

think about the effects will feel from

19:53

that war now that it's heading into its

19:55

second year. Yeah. So

19:57

I I think there's the sort of the media

19:59

culture about what happens on the ground in

20:01

Ukraine itself. And we think it's

20:03

looking increasingly like stalemate there

20:05

now. It's very difficult for either side to make

20:07

much progress. It's a war of attrition.

20:09

It's a war of logistics and who runs

20:11

out of supplies first and and that

20:13

kind of thing, which does favor Ukraine obviously

20:15

because it has the the production capacity of

20:17

the west behind it. And

20:20

so we think that means that there's

20:22

probably going to be some Ukrainian

20:24

advances during twenty twenty three, but

20:26

we don't bet there to be an end to the conflict. And the main

20:28

reason we don't is that I think Putin at this

20:30

point wants to slow things down and freeze

20:32

things as much as possible. Because

20:34

he's hoping that the external environment, some

20:36

change outside Ukraine itself, will come

20:38

to his aid. That could be that

20:41

support for Ukraine in Europe

20:43

or in America starts to falter.

20:45

So that's the sort of position on the ground

20:47

in in Ukraine. And then there's the

20:49

kind of broader implication of of course, this is changing the

20:52

security calculation for for everyone all

20:54

around the world. It's replummed the

20:56

energy supply system and that's changing

20:58

energy prices, but it's also replummed the

21:00

system of global alliances. And then the

21:02

big area that people are looking at is

21:04

Taiwan and what this means for China.

21:07

So, yes, this raises questions

21:09

in all sorts of ways all around the world.

21:11

It's not just a kind of regional conflict

21:13

in Europe. You mentioned

21:15

the impact of this war on global economies,

21:18

and something that seems to be on a lot of

21:20

people's minds. I keep hearing

21:22

about it. Is a

21:24

global recession, which I

21:26

think feels inevitable to some people.

21:28

It depend so a global recession is defined in

21:30

a rather different way. Yeah, we do think there are gonna be

21:32

recessions in much of the world. So the I think the

21:34

prediction is about a third of the world is

21:36

gonna go through recession next

21:38

year. We think, yes, they'll probably be a short

21:40

but brief, not very deep recession in

21:42

the US. And there'll be a deeper

21:44

one in Europe because The US has this

21:46

sort of post pandemic inflation hangover.

21:49

And in Europe, we have that, but we

21:51

also have the fact that we're trying to weed

21:53

ourselves off Russian gas.

21:55

And in Britain, we have both of

21:57

those problems, plus we have to hangover

22:00

after effects of Brexit, where we'd essentially

22:02

cut ourselves off in many ways from our

22:04

biggest trading partners. But actually, globally,

22:06

there are parts of the world that are doing well

22:08

out of this. So exporters of

22:10

food, exporters of hydrocarbons

22:12

are benefiting from higher prices. For

22:14

example. So it's a very, very mixed picture. And when it comes

22:16

to a global recession, that's actually defined in

22:18

a different way, which is whether the GDP

22:21

per capita globally goes down. So that's

22:23

if you look at all the

22:25

people in the world and you divide a global GDP between all of them. Does that

22:27

go down? And that depends both

22:29

on the GDP growth and also on

22:31

the population growth. So we

22:33

may get technically a global recession, but my point is

22:36

that on the ground, it's gonna feel really

22:38

terrible in some places and actually not so bad

22:40

in others. And what

22:42

kind of silver linings are you

22:44

seeing even out of some of that bad

22:46

news? I'm thinking about

22:49

a forced rethinking of where we get our energy

22:51

from and a faster

22:53

switch to cleaner energy. Yeah.

22:55

No. I think that's the big one. I think that's the

22:57

big one. So the head of the Energy

22:59

Agency has said that the war in Ukraine

23:01

is a historical turning point in

23:03

in the history of energy, and that it's going to

23:05

accelerate the transition clean energy. And I think

23:07

that's absolutely true because it

23:10

gives countries a reason

23:12

to adopt renewable energy,

23:14

which has got nothing to do with

23:16

climate change. This is most visible in Europe because

23:18

obviously Europe was most dependent on

23:20

Russian gas, and so many European

23:22

countries have raised their targets for how

23:24

much of their electricity they want to

23:26

get from renewable sources by twenty

23:28

thirty. And then just your

23:30

individuals are saying, well, I'm gonna buy an

23:32

electric car. I don't wanna be

23:34

paying high prices at the at the pump. Oh, I'm

23:36

gonna look at, you know, look at my heating bills.

23:38

I'm gonna spring for a heat pump. And it's

23:40

gonna be expensive, but there are lots of

23:42

incentives. I mean, you know, the inflation reduction

23:44

act in America, very misleadingly

23:46

named because it's actually a climate change act.

23:48

It absolutely throws money at

23:51

renewable technology, which is exactly the right thing to do.

23:53

But I think this is a high class problem to have when

23:55

you've got big economies arguing about the

23:57

extent of their green energy subsidies.

23:59

I'll take that. That's fantastic because that means

24:01

that we're moving in the right direction.

24:03

Something else that was

24:05

on my mind just while I

24:07

was reading your issue, but something I've just been thinking

24:09

about a lot this year is The

24:11

state of women's rights and twenty twenty two

24:13

seemed to be a year of

24:15

major backsliding from the US

24:18

to Afghanistan and

24:20

Iran I'm curious if you think

24:22

we'll see more of that in the coming

24:25

year or if twenty twenty

24:27

three will really be a year of

24:29

women rising up and voicing their

24:31

opposition in a stronger

24:32

way. But

24:33

I think that's the latter. I think it's

24:35

exactly what we're seeing already. So we saw in the

24:38

midterms that lot of women were

24:40

motivated to vote because of the supreme court

24:42

ruling on robustness's way.

24:46

That's very, very clear. Similarly, the

24:49

Iranian, I won't quite call it a revolution

24:51

because it hasn't got to the point where it's brought

24:53

down the

24:53

government, but there's a good chance it

24:55

will. That's been led

24:57

by women. Absolutely. And then

24:59

one of the things we cover in the edition is

25:01

the state of women's rights in China.

25:03

And surprisingly, this is an area

25:05

where the government sort of allows

25:08

a certain amount of of dissent and

25:10

protests because it doesn't think it's a a existential

25:12

threat to the government. And so

25:14

that has meant that there has been quite a

25:16

vocal women's rights movement emerging

25:18

in China. And in fact, the government's just

25:20

changed the law to enhance women's

25:23

rights. But I thought that was a very interesting

25:25

development that you may not be able to

25:27

make progress in other areas politically within

25:29

the Chinese political system, but actually women's

25:31

rights is something that has moved up the

25:33

agenda. So I think actually we are

25:35

going to hear more about this and there's signs

25:37

that this is making a real difference.

25:39

So In that sense, it's a positive

25:41

sign. So interesting. I wanna

25:43

end, I know that The

25:45

Economist, your head issue always gives people a

25:47

little dictionary of what kind of keep

25:49

in mind three years ago, I remember learning what mRNA

25:52

meant and super spreader. Could

25:54

you tell me three or four words

25:56

that you think our audience needs to

25:58

know to prepare themselves for the

26:00

new

26:00

year, so we can all add it to our

26:03

mental dictionaries.

26:05

So we actually had twat City, which is

26:07

what? Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday working

26:10

has been called in in some

26:12

places. And another one that relates to

26:14

changes in the workplace is productivity,

26:17

paranoia. So this is the disconnect between what

26:19

workers think about remote working and what

26:21

managers think. And there was big survey done by

26:23

Microsoft of like tens of thousands of workers in in

26:25

about twenty countries. And it found that

26:27

eighty seven percent of workers who

26:29

work remotely record they are just as productive

26:31

or more productive, but only about ten

26:33

percent of managers agreed. And so this

26:35

is a sort of recipe for distrust

26:37

because the managers worry that the workers

26:39

aren't working and the workers worry

26:41

that the managers think they aren't working and that's

26:43

a problem.

26:44

And then

26:44

I suppose I should choose I

26:47

should choose one more.

26:49

Let me just get the list. The

26:51

one I probably have the most

26:53

sort of enthusiasm for is

26:56

pass keys. And pass

26:58

keys are a new technology that are

27:00

intended to replace passwords.

27:02

You know, people have tried to get rid passwords in the past, but this

27:04

technology is supported by Apple,

27:06

Google, and Microsoft and essentially

27:09

just happened on its own. If you've got the latest version of the

27:11

software on your phone and your watch

27:13

and all your other devices, it just

27:15

works. But it means that your password can't be

27:17

guessed forgotten or Stolan, which I think

27:19

would be very good for

27:21

improving security of online transactions

27:23

because it means phishing attacks

27:25

face he can't work anymore. But

27:27

what I'm particularly keen on as

27:29

a dead exer is that I basically have to

27:31

do tech support for my parents' generation. From

27:33

my parents my parents friends and I'm the person that

27:35

they call when they have these problems. I'm

27:38

hoping that that will make life much

27:40

less

27:40

confusing. For that generation. Okay.

27:44

Twenty twenty three is the year of Passkeys

27:46

and productivity paranoia. You heard

27:48

it here first. Tom, thank you

27:50

so

27:50

much. Thank you very much.

28:00

It's

28:04

January, which means

28:06

it's New Year's resolution season.

28:08

What's your new year?

28:11

What's your resolution? To

28:13

get better at that? It makes maybe your

28:15

resolution should be too gosh, it's less.

28:17

Lose weight and be healthier. Every year my New

28:20

Year's resolution is to touch a

28:22

ten foot basketball room. Get my shit

28:24

together. Clearly,

28:27

everyone has different goals for the year.

28:29

But there's one resolution pretty

28:31

much all of us can get behind,

28:34

that you might not have thought

28:37

about. You know what? I am gonna be

28:39

happy this year. I am gonna make

28:41

myself happy. Ross actually

28:43

has a point there. It turns

28:45

out Harvard researchers have

28:47

studied how to live a happier life for

28:49

over eighty years. And

28:51

in the longest study ever done on

28:53

the subject, they found that

28:56

happiness doesn't lie in eating more

28:58

vegetables or making more

29:00

money. It's actually all

29:02

got to do with the strength of

29:04

our relationships. So

29:07

today, we're taking a page out of

29:09

Ross' book. And exploring how we

29:11

can strengthen our relationships in

29:13

order to live a happier life in

29:15

twenty twenty three and beyond. To

29:18

help us out, we called up an

29:20

expert. My name is Dr.

29:23

Marissa G. Franco. I'm a psychologist and a

29:25

professor at the University of Maryland. And I the

29:27

book photonic how the science of attachment can

29:29

help you make and keep friends.

29:31

According to doctor Franco,

29:33

The reason we even talk about relationships

29:36

and happiness in the same sentence

29:38

is because strong relationships

29:40

actually affect us physically.

29:43

When we connect with people, we release this hormone

29:45

called oxytocin and funny

29:48

enough oxytocin is also considered the

29:50

fountain of use. Which is why how

29:52

socially connected we are

29:54

determines how long we live even more so than

29:56

our diet or how much we

29:58

exercise. It also decreases things like

30:00

cortisol, which are stress hormones. And we also know

30:02

that our social connections are one of the biggest predictors

30:04

of our mental health and well-being.

30:07

And so it's part of our hardware as humans

30:09

just like we need food, we

30:11

oxygen, we need

30:11

water, we need social connection to

30:14

function well. And we're

30:16

not just talking about the relationship you

30:18

have with a significant other

30:20

or a best friend. We

30:22

actually need to be focused on

30:24

strengthening and starting relationships

30:26

of all kinds. So

30:28

if you're thinking about chatting it up

30:30

with your barista, your

30:32

yoga instructor, or the stranger next

30:34

to you on the

30:34

plane, do it. There

30:37

are a ton of benefits. There

30:39

is research that finds that we tend to

30:41

underestimate how much it will impact our happiness.

30:43

And we tend to think that we will enjoy

30:45

being alone and not talking to someone

30:47

more, but in fact, when people

30:49

are told to actually engage and they're compared

30:51

to the people that were alone, the people that were

30:53

told to engage, like, with the computer on

30:55

the train, for example, they're

30:58

actually happier and they also

31:00

underestimated how happy they would be

31:02

from that connection. Even a short

31:04

chat with people that you don't know that well can boost

31:06

your happiness and sense of well-being

31:08

because for social creatures, other

31:10

humans play a huge role in us regulating

31:12

our own emotions. Okay.

31:16

Now that we know strong

31:19

relationships equal happier lives, let's

31:21

walk through some simple tips to improve

31:23

our relationships with our acquaintances

31:25

friends, family members, and

31:28

romantic partners. Let's

31:30

start with those acquaintances

31:32

in our lives, like our

31:34

coworkers, or people we meet at the

31:36

gym. Doctor Franco's first challenge is

31:39

to try something called repotting.

31:42

RepOTting means you bury the setting

31:44

in which you interact. So if you're an

31:46

acquaintance and let's say I've seen you at my running

31:48

club and you've seen cool, can we

31:50

now hang out outside the running club? Or

31:52

if I like you at work, can we go to

31:54

half the hour outside of the workplace? So you're

31:56

gonna have to initiate and ask

31:58

the person to meet up in a setting that's

32:00

distinct from where you typically interact with

32:02

them. As for how

32:04

we can strengthen our friendships,

32:06

doctor Franco says, try being a

32:09

more active listener this

32:11

year.

32:11

One thing

32:11

I've been thinking about is, like, to

32:14

become a more attuned conversationalists. When

32:16

people are sharing something with you, you often think

32:18

about what is this trigger in myself. Right? So

32:20

someone's like, oh, I bought a

32:23

new car and you're like, oh, yeah, I was thinking about buying a new car.

32:25

But instead to think about what is that person

32:27

trying to convey to you, like, maybe they're

32:29

trying to convey happiness, or

32:32

excitement or their pride, and

32:34

so responding to what they're trying to

32:36

convey instead of what their words triggering

32:38

you would look like wow,

32:40

that's so exciting. You bought a new

32:42

car, tell me more about it. So it's

32:44

just when we take our communication

32:46

style and make it more person

32:48

centered. On the other person and what they're sharing. Another

32:51

thing you could try is penciling in

32:53

time on your calendar to talk with

32:55

a friend. And no, we

32:57

don't mean texting. Let's catch up

32:59

and never actually catching

33:02

up. Set aside actual time

33:04

and do it. Even a call

33:06

as short as ten minutes can bring you

33:08

closer to a friend. And

33:10

after you make that first call,

33:12

try committing to one catch up with a

33:14

friend every week for the rest of the month,

33:16

and let us know how it goes.

33:23

Now, let's talk about some of the

33:25

deeper but sometimes trickier

33:27

relationships to

33:28

navigate. Like the ones we have

33:30

with our family members.

33:32

We kind of tend to put our relationships

33:34

in a box like we treat

33:36

family like this and friends like this and romantic partnerships like

33:38

this. But what would it look like if we took

33:40

the relationship wherein we

33:43

are our most quality selves and tried to

33:46

take that higher standard and apply it to all of

33:48

our relationships. So for our most

33:50

quality self around a friend, can

33:52

we hold standard around family?

33:55

So for example, instead of getting

33:57

annoyed or ignoring a family member when

33:59

they ask you a personal

34:00

question, Think about how you'd

34:03

respond to your friend or

34:05

partner. Maybe you don't give your family all the

34:07

details, but sharing something is a

34:09

way to deepen your connection. And

34:12

we couldn't talk about relationships

34:14

without addressing the elephant in the

34:16

room. Our

34:18

romantic partners who hopefully are tuning into

34:20

this. When it comes to strengthening those

34:22

relationships, doctor

34:24

Franco says, This

34:26

month, challenge yourself to focus on how you

34:28

react when things get

34:29

tense. During conflict, spend

34:32

a lot of time pausing.

34:34

Our first reaction when someone tells us they have an issue is

34:37

often defensiveness. And that's not our true

34:39

reaction. It's guarding against feelings

34:41

of guilt, feelings of shame, and instead of acknowledging

34:44

that we are getting defensive. Maybe your

34:46

first instinct is to say, you don't appreciate

34:48

me, I do this this and this, or why don't you clean

34:50

the kitchen? You never do this and that

34:52

reactivity that makes you wanna just defend

34:54

yourself. And instead, make sure

34:56

you pause and choose

34:58

your reaction instead of acting

35:01

reactively and times of conflict. And no

35:04

matter what kind of

35:06

relationship you're trying to strengthen,

35:08

remember this one piece of advice.

35:11

I like tell people who are trying to connect with people

35:14

to assume people like you, when you

35:16

assume people like you, research finds

35:18

that it actually makes

35:20

you warmer and more kind versus when

35:22

you assume rejection, you become cold and

35:24

withdrawn and you actually reject people. So

35:26

just remind yourself if

35:28

this is mission's ambiguous and you don't know, start with assuming

35:30

that they like you.

35:36

Strengthening relationships is a great resolution to start with

35:38

because it can actually help you achieve

35:40

all those other things on your list that you

35:42

wanna do

35:44

this year. I mean, having a friend to try to

35:46

reach a goal with makes you more likely to reach

35:48

that goal. People that are more

35:50

connected at work or more productive, less likely to

35:52

leave their

35:54

job, more build. So I do think it's the foundation

35:56

through which we might reach a lot of

35:58

our other goals. And so I think it

36:00

is such a

36:02

worthy goal. To focus on building deeper connections twenty twenty

36:03

three. To learn more

36:06

about the link between

36:08

happiness and relationships, check

36:11

out our show notes.

36:13

Thanks for listening to Skim this.

36:15

This podcast was Skim By Me,

36:17

Alex Carr. Along with our producer,

36:19

Will Livingston and

36:22

our associate producer, Blake Lou Merwin. We had additional help

36:24

this week from Malaysia

36:26

Key. This episode was engineered by

36:28

Ellie McPhehan and Andrew

36:30

Callaway, and the

36:31

Skimm had of audio is Grailyn Brashear. Skimm will

36:34

be back in your feet again next week.

36:36

Until then, check out the Skim's

36:39

Skimm podcast. It's called nine to five

36:41

ish and it's where we talk all things career with

36:43

our founders Carly and Danielle. You can

36:45

find it wherever you're already

36:47

listening to us.