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Uber’s New CEO, Taylor Swift Breaks Records, Arianna Huffington Deletes Stress

Kristen Bellstrom
By
Kristen Bellstrom
Kristen Bellstrom
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Kristen Bellstrom
By
Kristen Bellstrom
Kristen Bellstrom
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 28, 2017, 8:02 AM ET

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Taylor Swift breaks Spotify’s single-day streaming record, Arianna Huffington wants to delete your email, and Uber’s new CEO is… Have a productive Monday.

EVERYONE'S TALKING

•Uber tries to put the past in the rearview. After a chaotic nine-week search to replace Travis Kalanick, Uber's board has voted to make Expedia chief Dara Khosrowshahi the ride-hailing company's new CEO.

Numerous reports over the past several weeks suggested that the company was hoping to land a female chief, a move that might have helped signal that it is serious about addressing reports of discrimination and sexual harassment. But while many women's names were bandied about during the search, only one made it as far as this weekend: that of HPE CEO Meg Whitman.

Whitman herself repeatedly said that she was not interested in the job—though the WSJ reports that she gave a presentation to Uber’s board on Saturday. According to Recode's Kara Swisher, Whitman was concerned about the possibility of inheriting more undiscovered problems at Uber and had a list of requirements that would need to be met before she would accept the job (including that Kalanick be relegated to a "founder-only" role)—a list that apparently made her too problematic for some of Uber's board members.

While Khosrowshahi may end up being exactly the leader Uber needs right now—and clearly it needs one—it would have been fascinating to see how the company might have changed with a woman in the driver's seat.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

•Data deniers. Astrophysicist Alison Coil asks why men in science frequently dismiss the vast body of research showing that there is consistent prejudice against women in working in the field. Her conclusion: Acknowledging the research would mean admitting that they themselves harbor bias—an anathema in a profession based on objectivity—and imply that their status as men played a role in their own success. Wired

•Look what you helped her do. Despite a number of negative reviews, Taylor Swift's new single—released Friday—is already a commercial hit. "Look What You Made Me Do" broke Spotify's single-day streaming record, generated 19 million YouTube views in one day, and is on track to sell 500,000 downloads in its first week. Fortune

•Preach, Patty! After James Cameron suggested that Wonder Woman and its title character were a "step backwards" for women in Hollywood, director Patty Jenkins hit back with an unapologetic Twitter message, saying, "If women have to always be hard, tough, and troubled to be strong, and we aren’t free to be multidimensional or celebrate an icon of women everywhere because she is attractive and loving, then we haven’t come very far...There is no right and wrong kind of powerful woman. And the massive female audience who made the film a hit it is, can surely choose and judge their own icons of progress." Fortune

•Deleting stress. Arianna Huffington writes about her company's solution for stopping work emails from ruining employees' vacations: a tool that deletes any emails workers receive when they're out of the office. HBR

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Facebook has hired former New York Times public editor Liz Spayd to help manage the company’s efforts around giving users more “transparency” into how it makes decisions.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

•Getting equal. On Friday, the White House proclaimed Saturday Women's Equality Day, honoring the passage of the 19th Amendment (though the holiday is celebrated every year, the president must issue an annual proclamation in order to make it official). The Cut took issue with the statement, noting, "There’s no mention of the contribution women have made in fields like business, law, medicine, science, technology, arts, sports, politics, and media. [President Trump] also doesn’t discuss equal access to health care, the gender pay gap, gender-based violence, or violence against transgender women."

•Give back to get back. In the latest episode of our video series about the Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership, the mentors talk about why they make time to participate in the intensive three-week program. Fortune

•Allegations at Amazon. The Information reports that Amazon investigated an allegation that Roy Price, head of its TV and film studio, made unwanted sexual remarks to Isa Hackett, executive producer of the Amazon series The Man in the High Castle. The Information

•Heller says goodbye. Politico is reporting that crisis management consultant Risa Heller, who worked with Ivanka Trump on her ethics disclosures and book rollout, has dropped Kushner Cos., Jared Kushner's family real estate company, as a client. Politico

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ON MY RADAR

The wonder women of Botswana safari New York Times

Do men and women have different brains? WSJ

The latest use for Bitcoin? Fighting sex trafficking Fortune

When ‘weird Twitter’ and politics collide, you get Super Deluxe and ‘Ivanka Del Rey’ Washington Post

QUOTE

You don’t climb the mountain alone because you get to the top and it’s no fun. I’d rather climb the mountain with my girlfriends and get to the top and have a party.
Model Erin Wasson, on supporting other women
About the Author
Kristen Bellstrom
By Kristen Bellstrom
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