U.A.W. Narrow Win at Ford Battery Plant Sparks Labor Fight in the South

Unions notch a razor thin win at a Kentucky Battery plant, raising questions about whether organized labor can rebuild the middle class in America's new industries. Sports gambling explodes into a $14 billion business. But with addiction rising and states raking in billions from lotteries is a backlash. Finally, here in New York City, politics Zoran Mamdani pushes a radical platform while dressing like an establishment insider. We'll look at why conservative fashion choices can be a powerful political tool. Atlanta says goodbye to its printed newspaper after 157 years. The journal Constitution will publish its final edition at year's end. And at the US Open, Taylor Townsend triumphs over Yelena Ostapenko, only to be told she has, quote, no education in a heated courtside exchange. Welcome to Filtered with TJ Walker. Hello and welcome. Thank you for joining me today. It is Friday. Looking forward to spending time with you. Looking at the top stories of the weekend in the last 24 hours. This is Filtered, where we look at the top business stories, economic technology stories and culture stories filtered through the lens of communication skills, all with the goal of building your own success, improving your communication skills and personal development. So let's hop right into story one. According to the New York Times, workers at a Kentucky Battery plant partly owned by Ford narrowly voted to join the United Auto Workers. The final tally was 526 to 515, with 41 contested ballots that could still flip the outcome. The fight goes beyond this one factory. It's about whether unions can regain strength in the south and in the fast growing electric vehicle sector. Historically, when Americans talk about the golden age of the middle class, the post war years, when a single factory job could buy a house and send kids to college, they often forget the key ingredient wasn't the assembly line itself, but union bargaining power. In the 1950s and 60s, more than one in three private sector workers belonged to a union. Today that figure is closer to 6%, a measly 6%. As Cornell professor Ian Greer told the Times, the footprint has shifted from Michigan southward. It's a very challenging environment for the United Auto Workers. The outcome in Kentucky will test whether organized labor can reassert itself in the industries of the future. Okay, what's the real message here? People in Kentucky voted to unionize a factory making cars. For all this talk about make America great again and the good old days and bring back manufacturing, everyone always forgets to hear the real message, which is the reason it was the good old days is 35% of the American workforce. Private sector was unionized. The unions were the Ones that got them weekends off and benefits and pay raises. Without that union power, a job in a factory is just a job in a factory, often a low paying one. Let's dig a little deeper here. So you gotta give credit to American business owners and capitalists. They came up with this great rhetoric of we want to be a right to work state. What does that really mean? Well, a lot of states across the country, especially in the south, passed a law saying you have the right to work. Well, again, it sounds great. That's great rhetoric. That's great messaging. What it really means is unions have their power stripped away. Unions lose their ability to negotiate on behalf of workers. And when that happens, the wages go down, down, down, down, down. And everyone seems to forget this when they talk about the good old days and making America great. And whatever happened to the middle class? Well, what happened to the middle class was that unions were decimated. There was a class war in America. Yes, there was. There really is a class war and there was a class war. And guess what? As Warren Buffett points out, we won. My team won, meaning the billionaire class won, the capitalist won. And that's why we've seen wages continually go down in relative terms because there's just aren't many unionized jobs. Used to be if you were a Teamster truck driver, you made a good living. These days, truck drivers, most of them are not, they're really not doing very well. Let's not kid ourselves. And it's because this lack of union power. Now I'm going to alienate a lot of people today on every side because there is one growth area in the United States where unions have done well and that's government. And, and I say this as someone who worked for several years in state government. I worked for about a year in the federal government. I'm not anti government. I'm really not. But I can tell you from my perspective, the area where government employees need the least protection, the last six months notwithstanding, is in government. It's the private sector, which, where the incentives for capitalists are to lower, lower the pay, increase the hours, not worry about work conditions. So do school teachers sometimes need more? Yes. But there's nobody really profiting by keeping school teachers salaries below market rates because then there's no teachers for that school system. So I think the far bigger problem has been, if you just look at the private sector, which is, well, at least until recently, we've been considered a free market country where most things need to take place in the private sector. Again in the 50s and 60s, 35%. More than one third of people working in the private sector belong to a union today. It is a tiny, tiny percent. It's closer to 6. This doesn't get a lot of attention, but this is the real reason why we don't see a family of four with a stay at home spouse being able to afford a four bedroom, 1800, 2000 square foot home on one person's salary. Because the non union jobs don't have to pay. You get a gig job at Uber, you don't have any protection, you don't have any bargaining power, you don't have any guaranteed cost of living increases. People did in the 50s and 60s and 70s and even beyond when they were members of organized unions. So to me this does come down to messaging. The capitalists did a great job. Let's face it, the capitalists, the billionaires, they get to hire people like me and other PR people and communications people. So they came up with this ingenious technique of just saying let's pass. First of all, they figured out their goal. The goal was how can we pass a law to take all the power away from the unions and to put it more in our pocket. That was step one. Step two is how do we package this law so that it sounds so good no one would vote against it. So they called it right to work. Now that's part of the problem. But I won't kid you, that's not the only part of the problem. The other part of the problem is the rest of the world says we want to be a part of capitalism. The United States was the beacon of democracy after World War II and was telling people, stop being dictatorships, stop being monarchies, stop being communists. Most of all, join us in the world of capitalism and free market enterprise. And a lot of countries from South Korea to Malaysia and other places said, okay, sounds like a good idea, count us in. So they built factories and their workers want to sell their stuff to us. Pretty hypocritical for us to say, well, we've been badgering you not to be communist, we've been badgering you to make things, we've been badgering you to adapt to the Adam Smith mentality of, you know, everyone focuses on what they're good at producing, where are they marginally better than others, and sell it in the worldwide market. So be kind of silly if we said, okay, we're not going to buy your stuff just because it hurts the living standard of our own employees. That's what happened. And those who want to just vote for populists thinking you're magically going to go back to these good old days. You're only fooling yourself. You're absolutely fooling yourself. Am I saying that if we could just unionize 35% of the American workforce, all would be great and we could go back to everyone having a nice home and only one spouse, having to work and two cars? No. Because of international competition, it's not that easy. But this is, make no mistake about it, part of the problem. Germany has to compete on a worldwide economy and yet a huge, huge percentage of the workforce in Germany is unionized. And they do have a much more vibrant middle class. So please keep that in mind. And let's be honest, let's chalk up a huge victory for the billionaires, the capitalists, for people who own manufacturing companies. This fundamental messaging decision they made of just saying let's, let's take power away from unions and let's just call it right to work was brilliant. Was brilliantly effective. I'm TJ Walker. I want to thank you for joining me on FILTER today. This is where we look at top news stories and we filter it through the lens of communication and personal development skills, all with the goal of helping you become more successful in your life. Back in a moment. We'll be right back after this break. Want more? Grab my Five Book Success Library for $9.95 at tjwalker.com books. It's the fastest way to level up your communication. Imagine being the most confident person in the room whether you're on zoom or on stage. That's what thousands of professionals are learning to do right now. Through my online communication courses at Media Training Worldwide. You can access my complete training library on demand, affordable and actually effective. Whether you're preparing for media interviews, client presentations or TED style talks, I've got you covered. Check it out mediatrainingworldwide.com you'll never wing it again. Want to advertise here? You better be legit. No crypto, no junk food, no supplements. Go to tjwalker.com advertise. According to the Dispatch, sports gambling in America has grown into a 14 billion dollar industry, with nearly half of men age 18 to 49 now betting regularly. Yet the public is souring. 58% want aggressive federal regulation and two thirds support the Safe Bet Act. The scale of today's access is astonishing. In the 1960s, if you wanted to gamble legally, you typically had to hop a plane to Las Vegas, which had fewer than 50 casinos. Today, sports betting is legal in more than 30 states. And if you carry a casino in your pocket. And yes, you do carry a casino in your pocket with your smartphone. And it's not just private sports books fueling this culture. State governments themselves aggressively market lotteries, often targeting working class communities. Americans spent nearly $110 billion on lottery tickets in 2023, making it the most popular form of gambling in the country. States spent hundreds of millions of dollars annually on advertising to keep people buying those tickets. The result, addiction has nearly quadrupled since sports betting was legalized in 2018. Debt and bankruptcies are rising, and the calls for reform are growing. Okay, let's be honest here, folks. What's the real message here? The message our society is sending people, especially young men, is you don't need to work, you don't need a new skill, you don't need a job. Just bet on the next football game, baseball game, basketball game, and you'll be rich. And you know what? It is the biggest lie out there. People who bet on sports, by and large, are losers. And if they bet a high percentage of their income or their net worth, they're big time losers. Okay, let's dig a little deeper here. This is a bizarre cancer on our economy, our culture, in our society. It's hard to even watch a sporting event without being bombarded with familiar friendly faces, respected athletes, coaches saying, you know, come on in, come into the water, join us. This gambling thing is really fun. Of course, we have to call it gaming. We can't call it gambling. And it's permeated every part of our culture. It used to be people could actually watch a football game and care about who won because they like the team. Now it's about, oh, boy, they better win or I can't pay rent. They better win or my kid's not going to be able to eat next week because of all the money I lost last week betting on the wrong team. I got to get this team, this win right with my bet today. And it's. It's bizarre. The addiction rates are skyrocketing. According to Bulwark, there are 2.5 severe cases of gambling addiction in America. 5 to 8 million moderate cases. Bankruptcies are skyrocketing, and a lot of critics are now saying this is like big tobacco. It gets you hooked, it gets you addicted. It sucks the life out of you. In one case, you know, literally with your health and your lung capacity. But the other, your economic life is sucked right out of you. In which case a lot of people do frankly, kill themselves. You lose too Many sports games, you're bankrupt, especially if you have family depending on you. And a lot of people think, you know, let me just kill myself, be less of a loser for my family. 58% want strong regulation, two thirds back. This, this legislation called a Safe Bet Act. The problem is all these gambling companies are now really doling out the cash in the form of campaign contributions to politicians on both parties. This is a bipartisan problem. Let's not kid ourselves. Now, look, I'm not a prude. I understand some people like to bet. I personally don't really see the appeal to it. But have I ever gone to a casino and played blackjack? Sure I have. Have I ever played a slot machine? A couple. And I really, I really do mean a couple. But to me, the gateway drug for all of this is as horrific as sports gambling is today in the world. And I do think it's a tremendous blight on our culture, our economy, especially for young men. The gateway drug I see is the lottery tickets. Now, I understand you may like lottery tickets. You may think what I'm about to say is condescending. But as a 19th century wit once said, the lottery's attack is a tax on the stupid. It's a tax on the stupid and the uneducated. I'm going to get some flack for this. I'm going to call it like I see it. I'm not trying to be politically correct here or pander to everyone. I'm going to say if you buy lottery tickets, you're not very bright. You're not really understanding math. You don't really understand statistical odds. So I beg you, the next time you want to buy a lottery ticket, take that money and just throw it down the garbage can, throw it down your toilet, you'll be pretty much as successful. It's just completely irrational. Well, but dj, I know somebody who won. Guess what? You know, thousands of people who lost. Because anyone who, who has ever played the lottery, you know, in general, is a lifetime loser. They may have won $10 occasionally. They may have won $100, they may have won a thousand dollars occasionally. But lifetime, the lottery people get a lot more from that person. So now we have a culture where young men see their, their parents buying lottery tickets once a week. They start to gain an interest. As a child, a teenage. Now, let's say they're 19 years old, they like sports, and their favorite football coach is urging them to go on to this sports betting app. And why not? My parents gamble all the time. They buy lottery tickets. That's gambling. I like sports. All my friends are doing it. Let's do it. And before you know it, we're seeing a generation of people, especially young men, with this sports gambling, although not exclusively, where everything is about, oh, let me buy Bitcoin, let me buy this cryptocurrency, let me buy this meme stock, let me gamble it on the game, let me buy a lottery ticket. Everything is a lifelong gamble. Meanwhile, nobody's actually learning real skill. I don't mean to say nobody, but we are losing millions of people in our culture, millions of young men. You look at how they are faring so poorly compared to young women who don't seem to get sucked up into this. So, young women, let me give you some credit. I don't want to sound like I'm pandering, but let's face it, you are smarter than a lot of young men because most of you are not working for a job, taking that money and then gambling at all on the odds that a team youth, you somehow think you have inside information that that team is going to beat the spread. I mean, the presumptuousness, the arrogance of thinking, you know, not only who's going to win, who's going to lose, but by how many points they're going to win or lose by is absolutely delusional. Okay? Some of you are saying, well, T.J. you know, you're just being a snob, and I do it just for fun. And it's less than 1% of my income. And you might like to go to see Broadway shows or opera. I like gambling. And it's a time I've got it under control. Okay, fine. Let's make sure we keep it under control. Because for millions, according to these statistics, two and a half million people have severe, severe gambling addiction problems, and it's destroying their life. I have one former associate where I've been led to believe that is the reason he took his own life because of excessive gambling debts and the shame it took in his life. Now, back to the feeder drug, which doesn't get talked about as much. I still remember the very day that the lottery went into effect in Florida. I had just moved there. This is the first time I moved there in 1986 and the lottery went into effect. I can't remember if it was that year or the next year. And I'm there at the state capitol where I was working with a politician I was working for. And the very first tickets were sold that day, and the guy with his ticket turned to my boss and Said, hey, did I win? I can't read. Tell me what it says. Sounds like a cliche, but it really did happen. Now, I do have one confession for you, and you're going to say I'm a hypocrite, but I've actually won the lottery. And I don't mean metaphorically, I mean literally. Back in the late 1980s, I was regularly hosting a talk radio show talking about how awful lottery tickets are and the state lottery and my producer for my talk show bought me a lottery lottery ticket. It was a $1 ticket. I didn't pay for it and it did in fact win. It won $2. So I consider myself lucky. I am up. I'm net positive on the lottery. One other gambling story I will share with you. For my 40th birthday and a friend's 40th birthday, we went to a casino, Foxwoods in Connecticut, Had a boys weekend celebrating our 40th, our respective 40th birthdays. My friend liked to play blackjack, and he's a responsible gambler. And believe me, he's never won or lost anything close to even 0.001% of his net worth. So he wanted to play blackjack. I thought, okay, I'll participate. I Put down 20 bucks lost. Put down another 20 bucks lost. Put down another twenty bucks lost. And I said, this is the least fun I've ever had in my life. And I said, I'm out. And it was about 20 minutes into the two and a half day boys weekend at the casino. So then I went to the bar, waited for my friend, and there was a video poker game. And this was at a time when Bill Bennett, a very prominent right wing, scold, prominent official from the Reagan administration who'd gotten rich writing books about how immoral Democrats were because they didn't have personal control and didn't believe in traditional moral values. It had just come out that this guy had lost like $6 million playing video poker. And everyone thought, what a hypocrite, what a fool. So in honor of Bill Bennett and to mock him, I said, okay, I'll play a little video poker. I put a quarter in lost. I put another quarter in lost. I put another quarter in lost. I put one more quarter in. All of a sudden, a thousand quarters came out of this video poker machine. And I gotta tell you, I felt euphoric. That was so incredibly exciting. It was intoxicating. But I gotta tell you, it was profoundly scary. I said to myself, wow, I really see how someone could get addicted to this and not in A good way. And I did not gamble anymore that weekend, or really trying to think maybe ever again. And I went home that weekend, had taken a bus there, dinner, meals, hotel. I got home, opened up my wallet, and I had $6 more when I got home than when I left. And I said to myself, you know, this makes me a winner. Because very few people actually come home from a trip to the casino with more money than they left. And I decided at that point, let's just stop right there and call it a win. For my own record, I say that not to brag because that's a. That's a ridiculously small amount. I say that as a warning to all of us, myself included. Let's not get sucked in. There's too much gambling. If you like football, just watch football. If you like soccer, root for your team. This idea that you need all this supercharged extra excitement of whether or not you're going to win a million dollars or $2,000 or $500, it's not healthy. It's really, really not constructive. And ultimately it's corrosive. It sends a clear message from society. But don't worry about a work ethic. Don't worry about building real skills. Don't worry about developing clients, customers, prospects. Don't worry about starting a business. Just do it the easy way. Place a bet on bitcoin, place a bet on the bills. Bet, bet, bet, bet, bet. And hey, we're all big winners, right? No. They build those big casinos because they take in a lot more money than they give out. They're able to pay these celebrities, these star athletes and these coaches millions and millions of dollars to appear in the ads because they take your money and give it to them. It's a transfer from essentially stupid people. Sorry if that sounds condescending to people who are already rich. Why? Why do you want to do that more in a moment. Hey, if you're enjoying this kind of take and want to hear more stories filtered through the lens of communication, make sure you're following the show, whether you're watching or listening. New episodes drop every single day in it. There's a little notification option where you are now. Go ahead and turn it on. It helps you stay in the loop. According to the Wall Street Journal, New York City mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani, a self described democratic socialist, has made one fashion choice almost non negotiable. He's always in a suit and tie, slim cut suits, polished shoes, a simple watch, even subtle accessories. He's projecting professionalism. Now, that's not just vanity. Fashion can be a political strategy. The New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman notes. Dressing like an establishment guy offers a counter argument of its own. In other words, if your ideas are radical, your look had better reassure. This is not new. Nelson Mandela, long before his global elder statesman status, was known as the dandy in Johannesburg in the 1940s and 50s, he spent heavily on bespoke suits from expensive tailors. His reasoning was simple. To be taken seriously in the halls of power, he had to look the part, even while plotting revolutionary change. For Mamdani, as for Mandela, the suit is armor. It makes radical ideas seem less threatening and helps younger leaders project authority beyond their years. So what's the real message here? Mamdani is sending a message. He's saying, hey, my ideas might be radical, but you can trust me because look how conservatively I'm dressing. I'm dressing like the establishment. You can see me in a meeting with top developers. Rupert Murdoch, anyone. You can trust me. Let's go a little bit deeper here. What you wear, like it or not, does send a message. There's the old cliche, you are what you wear. I'm not really going to go that far. I don't think that defines who you are as a person, but it can have an impact on your success. It certainly can have an impact on how people perceive you. There's no doubt about it. And again, this is a sexist thing. I don't mean to trot out sexless cliches. We can update it. The clothes make the man. We can say it. The clothes make the man and the woman is the old cliche. People do judge you. They might not even be conscious of it, but they are judging you based on what you wear. Now, Mandani is a man of the left, so he is trying to be more reassuring to moderates and centrists. So looking like a businessman wearing a conservative suit and tie does that. He's also, I think, legitimately concerned. Many people feel like he doesn't quite have the gravitas and the experience needed since he's only 33 years old. And we are talking about the arguably second most powerful job in all of America, administrating, administering over tens and tens and tens of thousands of employees in the city government. So it's a big, big job. By dressing like an older, mature person, he's sending a message. Hey, I know this isn't child's play. This isn't a kid's job. So he's dressing like an adult in the way that Andrew Cuomo, like him or not, nobody thinks he's not an adult. He's 67 years old and is obviously seasoned having been a three term governor. So you often will see Andrew Cuomo dressed more casually as politicians do these days. So I think it's a smart choice what Mamdani is doing. And there is a long, long history of political people, of activists adopting this strategy of essentially the more radical you want to be, the more conservatively you need to dress. Saul Alinsky, well known radical activist in the early 1970s, talked about that. Margaret Sanger, the pro contraception and Pro Choice Advocate 100 years ago talked about this. She very much believed that you have to dress in a way that is acceptable to the establishment. It sends a clear cut message. Now we've seen this recently in Washington D.C. so much was made of the fact that President Zelensky of the Ukraine didn't wear a suit to the White House. He got so much criticism. How could you be so disrespectful? Now Zelensky has a clear cut strategy for what he's wearing. He wants to send a message to the world, we're in a war. This is a war. I'm dressed for warfare. I'm not dressed for business as usual. So I don't think Zelinsky made a mistake. It was a part of his overall branding that I think has served him very well in cultivating support, world opinion and being a recognizable, instantly recognizable figure in the world media. When he shows up wearing his more, more casual clothes, you know, more like a guerrilla soldier would wear. He did wear a suit last time he came to Washington D.C. i think just to avoid more incessant criticism from you know who and the media. But he did it in his own style. He did it where I believe it was entirely black clothing. He didn't have the traditional light shirt, colorful tie and a dark suit. So keep in mind, what is it you're trying to project? I don't mean everyone should wear a suit. Salvador Dali, one of the most wildly successful and loved and commercially successful artists of the 20th century, certainly did not walk around in a banker's suit and a tie. He dressed in a flamboyant way, capes, mustaches, waxed out to here, extravagant costumes. He wanted every time someone saw him to think, wow, that guy's interesting. That guy's creative. That guy thinks differently. Am I asking you to go around with a big wax mustache? No, I'm not. I do want you to think about what is the image you are projecting if you are right out of college and going for an interview at your first job, read the room and figure out what are people in your industry actually wearing. So if you're going for a job at a high tech firm, if you're going for a job at Google or Microsoft or Facebook, you probably don't want to wear a suit and tie because that's not what people in that industry wear, regardless of whether they're at the beginning of their career or the end. If you are going for a a job at a very traditional white shoe law firm in the capital of your country, chances are everybody, at least some of the time and on job interview days, they're wearing suits and ties. They're wearing that in court. There are still some judges in the world that will kick you out of the courtroom if you're not dressed with to what they consider the professional standards. And if you're a man, that would be a suit and tie. If you're a woman, it would be some kind of a jacket and something that does or a dress that does not look overly casual. Why am I wearing this today? Well, I'm wearing a jacket. I'm not wearing a tie because I don't want to look too stuffy and I don't want to look like I'm pretending to be just a traditional cable news anchor. But I'm also not just wearing a shirt or a T shirt because I do want you to see this show as a business news show where we look at serious business issues and we analyze them based through my experience as someone who's worked for 40 years with Wall street executives, billionaire fund managers, Fortune 500 executives, as well as presidents of countries, prime ministers, Nobel Peace Prize winners. So I'm wearing more or less what I would typically wear when I'm working with those people because. Because I'm trying to send a message that this show is not just another guy in a basement sharing an opinion. What is the message you are trying to send to people? I want you to think about that, reflect on it and figure out and ask yourself, is what I'm wearing sending a message that will help me achieve my goals? That's really what I want to do, is help you achieve your goals. We'll be right back after this break. Want to advertise here? You better be legit. No crypto, no junk food, no supplements. Go to tjwalker.com advertise Most people can't afford a full time coach and even if you could, good luck finding one who's available when you need them. That's why I created the TJ Walker AI clone. It's built on my 40 plus years of real world coaching and training. You get my exact advice, style and frameworks instantly. Ask it how to handle a tough question. Get feedback on your elevator pitch. Rehearse your next big talk. This is the next generation of communication coaching. It's smarter than an app, more personal than a course, and always ready. Start using it today at tjwalker AI. You'll wonder how you ever did without it. Want to advertise to ambitious, upscale professionals who actually care about communication, success and Results? Go to tjwalker.com advertise and no, we don't take ads for crypto supplements or junk food. If you've ever struggled with nerves, unclear messaging or just not being taken seriously, this is for you. I created the T.J. walker Success Library as a crash course in professional level communication. You get five downloadable books for just $9.95 that walk you through public speaking, media training, persuasive communities, communication, confidence building and daily practice routines. This is the same training I've delivered to presidents, CEOs and leaders in 45 nations, boiled down and instantly accessible. Go to tjwalker.combooks and download them now. According to the New York Times, the Atlanta Journal Constitution will stop printing newspapers at the end of the year, ending a tradition that dates back to 1868. Publisher Andrew Morris said the decision was about survival. Printing newspapers and putting them in trucks and delivering them on people's front steps, front stoops has not been the most effective way to distribute the news in a very long time. The Journal Constitution is one of the largest daily yet to abandon print completely. About a third of America's remaining 1,000 daily newspapers still print seven days a week, but circulation has collapsed. At its peak in 2004, the AJC's the Atlanta Journal Constitution Sunday edition reached 630,000 readers today. To take a stab at how many today, the print run is closer to 40,000. Cox Enterprises has invested $150 million into the digital transformation, hiring video teams and expanding coverage across Georgia. Morse said he hopes to reach 500,000 digital subscribers by 2026, though current totals are just 115,000. It's going to be a lot of change, he said. I love print, but I love journalism more. Okay, here's the real message here. Print newspapers, in case you hadn't been paying attention for the last 10 years, are going the way of the dodo bird. They're not going to be around much longer. The Atlanta Journal Constitution just announced they're ending it. My only question is, what took you so long? I loved newspapers my whole life. I love the touch and feel of them, but I haven't even picked up or bought a newspaper in 10 years. If you make your living printing newspapers, delivering newspapers, driving trucks of newspapers, you're going to have to wake up and start looking for another job right now. Okay, let's dig a little deeper here. I like what the publisher did, say that, you know, I like print, but I like journalism more. Journalism is about the act of asking questions, telling stories to people about what is happening in the world to them. Now, print is just one way of doing that. It used to be scrolls. Used to be just. It used to be clay tablets where you're hammering it out. I don't think anyone is really mourning the idea that we don't have to chisel tablets, stone tablets, or clay tablets anymore. I don't see that many people upset by the fact that we don't have to, you know, find a feather and ink and dip it into the inkwell. So the technology of how you communicate, communicate ideas, has always changed a newspaper. The actual paper part is just one technology. Technologies come and go. Blogging was a really big thing 20 years ago, 18 years ago. Most people don't really blog now, but they do have newsletters on substack. There's always some new technology, and these days, of course, the most powerful way. What I'm excited about what I'm doing right now is doing a video and audio podcast. If you want to call it a podcast, you want to call it a YouTube show. Right now, I'm coming to you live on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, and a whole bunch of other platforms. And coming next Tuesday, which is not that far off, September 2nd, this show is going to be on every major podcast platform, audio as well as video. That is the new technology. Who knows, maybe 10 years from now, no one will be doing it this way. Maybe you'll have journalists and creative news analysts and other people just sitting in the room thinking, and they're able to automatically, telepathically send their thoughts directly to their fans. And don't even need the Internet or YouTube or Spotify, I don't know. The one thing I do know is technology is going to continue to change and evolve. But what stays the same is individuals want to know what's going on in the world. They want news, they want information. So that stays the same. And people who are going to be successful and savvy are always going to be looking for. What is the technology people are using right now. Now you can make the case that I was slow to the game with this podcasting thing, although I did do a daily podcast 10 years ago for an entire year and just did not figure out how to make it resonate with the audience. But it's not too late to start an audio podcast or a video podcast or both. It's not too late to start a newsletter. People are doing it every day on substack. It's not too late to communicate news, information, stories and entertainment to people in the world and extract value. But you've got to do really two things. You've got to figure out what is the best medium today for reaching the people I want to reach and what is going to be the best way tomorrow. Where are people headed? Maybe it's not taken off yet, but where are people headed? That's why I spend a lot of time on my AI video interactive clone. It's not that popular yet, but I do think that as people become more and more comfortable using artificial intelligence and chatbots and and OpenAI and Grok and Claude and all the others, they are going to get more comfortable talking with AI clones, especially in a video format. So if you haven't checked out tjwalker AI, you may want to do that. But will the Atlanta Journal Constitution be around in five or 10 years? I don't know. I certainly think the New York Times will because we live in a society and an economy and a wired economy where there's kind of a winner take all mentality and the big superstars, increasingly you're getting higher percentages of the spoils. We're seeing this everywhere in the economy. The top 1% and the top 0.1% are increasingly getting a bigger piece of the economic pie. The New York Times is increasingly getting a bigger percentage of the news consuming public. I actually pay for a subscription to the New York Times. I'll occasionally go to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, their website, but I'm not a regular. And we are living in a world where news has become nationalized and internationalized, so the biggest brands do well. I hope the Atlanta Journal Constitution can survive. I'm sure their their strategy is let's cut cost on old fashioned ways like newspaper and printing presses and trucks and paper boys and paper girls. And instead what they're probably doing is investing more and more in more podcasting because that's become extraordinarily lucrative for not only the New York Times, but a lot of traditional media and upstarts as well, where people don't have all those legacy costs involved that traditional media companies do. Because the Atlanta Journal Constitution is like a lot of newspapers. It was a pretty easy, cushy business for a long time, for so many years. For a good 100 years for them, you could kind of sit back, do interesting stories and you had a monopoly. Anyone who wanted to place a 1 ad, a job ad, a classified ad, had to give you money. Craigslist ruined all that. So it's not coming back. The want ads, the easy revenue coming from monopoly status is not coming back anytime soon. There's more to come. I'm T.J. walker. This is filtered where we look at the top news stories of the day that relate to business, economics, technology and culture, and then filter it through the lens of communication skills and personal development skills, all with the goal of making you more successful. Hey, if you're enjoying this kind of take and want to hear more stories and filtered through the lens of communication, make sure you're following the show, whether you're watching or listening. New episodes drop every single day and if there's a little notification option where you are now, go ahead and turn it on. It helps you stay in the loop, according to the New York Times and the Athletic Tennis turned ugly at the US Open this week after a American, Taylor Townsend upset Yelena Ostapenko in straight sets, 7, 5, 61 at the net handshake. Ostapenko scolded Townsend for not apologizing after a net cord shot. The exchange escalated and Ostapenko appeared to tell her opponent three times, you have no education. Townsend fired back, telling us to pay go to learn how to take a loss better, she later told espn. She told me I have no class, no education, and to see what happens when we get outside the U.S. i beat her in Canada outside the U.S. so I'm looking forward to it. Ostapenko defended herself on social media, saying she only meant Townsend was disrespectful, while Townsend said she refused to tolerate disrespect in my face. Townsend also stressed her pride as a black woman, saying she wanted her young son to see her stand tall. The thing that I'm most proud of is that I let my racket talk. Okay, so what's the real message here? It is important to know the etiquette of your society, the people you're dealing with, your industry and in this case, your sport. But it's also important to realize that if not everyone respects etiquette the same way you do or observe the same etiquette tools and tricks, it doesn't mean you should call them out on it because that's also a breach of etiquette. Let's dig a little deeper here. So I'm going to confess to you. I played tennis for more than half a century, more than 50 years, and I had no idea about this rule. And what we're talking about is when you hit the ball and it otherwise would have gone out, but it hits the net and just drops in. Apparently it is an etiquette norm to say, oh, I'm sorry, or to do something making your opponent realize, oh, I realized I was just locked. And I don't really get any credit for that. But the points fall where they may, and this is apparently what upset the tennis player here. But it's not written in any rule book. And it does differ from continent to continent, apparently. And even, you know, I've been on the North American continent my whole life, I never heard this rule. I have noticed many times in the past, especially if I'm playing doubles with someone and my partner hits it in the net and it goes over and we win and they apologize. I say, well, what are you apologizing for? That's great. Do more of it now. I guess I look like a person of bad etiquette, or did when I did that. Apologies if anyone was offended by my own behavior. But you know, part of having class, part of really taking etiquette to the next level, is always making other people around you feel comfortable. That's real social grace. Ultimately, all these rules of etiquette are about helping other people, not about showing how you're smart and you know everything and other people are stupid. There's a well known anecdote, perhaps apocryphal, where a very famous person was having dinner with someone, didn't know what a finger bowl was, and that person was drinking out of their finger bowl. And the person who knew the etiquette knew you weren't supposed to do that, also drank from the finger bowl to make the other person feel at ease. I'm not going to call this tennis player a racist for what she said. I'll leave that if others want to interpret it that way. But I do think that this person needs to study fundamentals of etiquette more. It's not about following every single rule. It's about creating an environment where everybody feels more comfortable, everyone feels respected. Somebody didn't say, I'm sorry the ball hit the net and I won the point. Why don't we just forget about it? Let's spend more of our time being gracious when we win and when we lose. That's really what I think is a lot more important here. I want to thank you so much for joining me today. Today it's been fun, as always, spending time with you, diving deep into the top stories of the day, analyzing things through the lens of communication skills. See you tomorrow.