Hello Quartz members,
Welcome to Sunday Reads! It’s been a week unlike many others. Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt and chose the uber-ambitious, one-time Peter Thiel lieutenant J.D. Vance as his running mate. Joe Biden is still standing, but that’s more than can be said for the stocks of AI chipmakers, which took a dive this week. Well, it’s Sunday, so take a gander at our favorite reads of the week.
5 things we especially liked on Quartz
Mark Cuban says it’s all about the Bitcoin: Donald Trump is getting support from some of America’s richest men, largely because, according to former Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban, the tech bros just want their Bitcoin to be worth more and their income taxes to be lower. Quartz’s William Gavin has more.
If you get seasick, Dramamine ain’t gonna help: Getting sick on a cruise ship could cost you as much as the vacation, Quartz’s Bruce Gil reports. That’s because most cruise ships don’t accept health insurance in the event of a medical emergency, and many insist that sick passengers pay before they disembark. Cruise lines advise passengers who get dinged for medical services to sort it out with their insurance companies. Good luck with that. Medicare, for instance, won’t cover you if the ship is more than six miles from a U.S. port.
Teens don’t want your stressful tech job: Scared off by the innumerable rounds of layoffs, and less enticed by tech firm freebies, Gen Zers are turning away from jobs at the tech titans and looking at healthcare as the new hot profession. Earlier this year, according to a newsurvey by the National Society of High School Scholars, Google fell to seventh place among preferred employers — three spots down from 2022. In 2018, Google had been the second-highest preferred employer for high schoolers, and it topped the list in 2017. Quartz’s Britney Nguyen has the details.
Disney plus Disney+ = TV? Disney is working on updating its streaming platform Disney+ with a slate of new features, including live channels and algorithms, that will make it look like a mashup of regular TV and Netflix. Disney is trying to make its the streaming platform profitable by the end of its fiscal year in September, largely by increasing “hours per subscriber,” as Bruce Gil reports.
What comes up must come down — space edition: Elon Musk’s SpaceX has won a NASA contract worth at least $680 million to use its “space tugboat” (yes, there is such a thing) to knock the International Space Station from its orbit and crash it to Earth when the station is decommissioned sometime in the early 2030s. Quartz’s William Gavin has the details on the Space Tug’s new mission.
1 sneak peek
Artificial Intelligence isn’t the only technology that’s about to change the world. Quartz’s Britney Nguyen takes us on a journey through the world of emerging world-changing technologies: Xenotransplantation! Planet-saving livestock feeds, including insects! Microorganisms engineered to capture greenhouse gases! Elastocaloric heat pumps that change shape when they change temperature! Visit qz.com on Monday morning for a look atthe future of everything.
What to watch for this week
- Monday: Verizon reports earnings before the bell.
- Tuesday: GM, Tesla, Lockheed Martin and Alphabet all report earnings.
- Wednesday: Carmakers and Chipotle report earnings.
- Thursday: Yet more earnings (Southwest Airlines,AstraZeneca, Nissan and Stelantis), plus Donald Trump will speak at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville
- Friday: The Olympics start in Paris.
Thanks for reading! Here’s to the week ahead, and don’t hesitate to reach out with comments, questions, feedback, joy, or what you’d like to watch on Disney+Plus. Sunday Reads was brought to you by Peter S. Green, Morgan Haefner and Audrey McNamara.