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10/10/2017: The sock industry is "wildly misunderstood"
Oct 10, 2017

10/10/2017: The sock industry is "wildly misunderstood"

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The venture capitalists who just gave $110 million to a sock company said that. And that's today's good news. Nearly everything else revolves around two men at the helm of their respective organizations who are losing popularity this week: Harvey Weinstein, whose business affiliates in Hollywood are fleeing from deals with his eponymous production company after years' worth of sexual assault allegations were reported, and Donald Trump. His tactics renegotiating NAFTA were described as an "existential threat" by the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, his big infrastructure plan is in limbo after he made comments trashing the public-private partnerships that had been expected to fund it, and data shows that the coal industry won't be coming back anytime soon despite his reversal of greenhouse gas emissions regulations. And we answer a listener's question: "Why are bottles of soda sold in liters but milk is sold in gallons?"

 

 

Segments From this episode

Why does soda come in liters and milk in gallons?

Oct 10, 2017
Pepsi's 2-liter bottle brought more soda into households while the nation flirted with the metric system.
Pepsi worked with DuPont to come up with a bottle that was 10 times bigger than the classic 6.5-ounce Coke.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

Can the Weinstein Company rebrand itself?

Oct 10, 2017
Rebranding can be especially challenging when the man himself is, in many ways, the brand.
Film producer Harvey Weinstein was fired as CEO and co-chairman of the Weinstein Company after allegations of sexual misconduct were reported by the New York Times. Above, Weinstein speaks at the Zurich Film Festival on September 2016 in Zurich, Switzerland.
Alexander Koerner/Getty Images

If there has been a war on coal, Obama’s Clean Power Plan was never the main front

Oct 10, 2017
The Environmental Protection Agency has started the process to repeal the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era measure to reduce emissions from power plants. In his announcement, Scott Pruitt characterized the repeal as an end to a “war on coal.” But in the real world of energy markets, not a whole lot is expected to change. […]

Is your car at risk from Kobe Steel's potentially sub-par aluminum?

Oct 10, 2017
Kobe Steel in Japan has admitted that some of its employees falsified strength data of some of its rolled aluminum. That metal is used in a lot of things worldwide, like cars, planes and trains. Investigations are underway, but what will the consequences be for the company and the wider Japanese manufacturing sector? Click the […]

Trump's NAFTA negotiations see opposition from the business sector

Oct 10, 2017
In the midst of NAFTA negotiations, a schism has grown between President Trump and the business sector. Tom Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — the pro-business U.S. Chamber of Commerce — called the Trump administration’s negotiating tactics on the trade deal an existential threat to it. Donohue’s comments come as negotiations to […]

Investors put $110 million into a sock company. No, really.

Oct 10, 2017
Stance is a venture capital-backed company that calls itself a “premium sock startup.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wears Stance Chewbacca socks while taking part in a panel at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in September in New York City.
John Moore/Getty Images

The venture capitalists who just gave $110 million to a sock company said that. And that’s today’s good news. Nearly everything else revolves around two men at the helm of their respective organizations who are losing popularity this week: Harvey Weinstein, whose business affiliates in Hollywood are fleeing from deals with his eponymous production company after years’ worth of sexual assault allegations were reported, and Donald Trump. His tactics renegotiating NAFTA were described as an “existential threat” by the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, his big infrastructure plan is in limbo after he made comments trashing the public-private partnerships that had been expected to fund it, and data shows that the coal industry won’t be coming back anytime soon despite his reversal of greenhouse gas emissions regulations. And we answer a listener’s question: “Why are bottles of soda sold in liters but milk is sold in gallons?”

 

 

Music from the episode

Nothing Mauno
Paranoid Times (feat. Tre Hardson) Alex Lilly, Tre Hardson
Polypel Nitemoves