Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Indra Nooyi is out at Pepsi, Joanna Coles is reportedly out at Hearst, and Melania Trump is nothing if not intentional. Make the most of your Monday.
EVERYONE'S TALKING
• Melania's message. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump caused yet another stir with his Twitter attack on LeBron James, insulting his intelligence following the NBA star's interview with CNN anchor Don Lemon. Their conversation touched on James's latest off-the-court project, the I Promise School for underprivileged children in Akron, Ohio.
Trump's tweet seemed to be in response to James's claim during the interview that the president has used sports to divide Americans.
"Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do," the president posted.
Lemon responded, as did CNN; both praised the basketball player's philanthropic work.
Then Melania Trump stepped in.
A statement from her spokeswoman said:
"It looks like LeBron James is working to do good things on behalf of our next generation and just as she always has, the First Lady encourages everyone to have an open dialogue about issues facing children today.
As you know, Mrs. Trump has traveled the country and world talking to children about their well-being, healthy living, and the importance of responsible online behavior with her Be Best initiative. Her platform centers around visiting organizations, hospitals and schools, and she would be open to visiting the I Promise School in Akron."
As the first lady's remarks reverberated around the Internet, a senior White House official suggested that they were being misinterpreted as the first lady "taking sides" in the debate.
But with this first lady—one who's arguably best known for staying out of the public eye—that's an awfully hard argument to make.
Her statement about James is not the first time she's waded into a tense social debate and challenged her husband in an eyebrow-raising way. Her comments about migrant family separations, for instance, diverged from the White House stance. "[W]e need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart," she said in June. And her "Be Best" campaign against online bullying directly contradicts the president's social media tendencies.
We won't pretend to have the first lady figured out—her cryptic "I don't really care, do u?" jacket still boggles the mind—but as someone who, at one point, wasn't seen in public for 24 days, when she does send a message, it's not by mistake.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
• Indra's out. PepsiCo's longtime chief executive Indra Nooyi is stepping down after 12 years in the role, the snack and beverage giant announced this morning. Her exit means the Fortune 500 is losing one of its few female CEOs. Fortune
• Walmart goes with Gobble. Fortune's Grace Donnelly has the exclusive on Walmart's partnership with meal kit company Gobble to sell its products through Walmart's e-commerce site. Gobble, founded by Ooshma Garg, has carved a niche in the crowded meal kit space by offering dishes that can be prepared in 15 minutes or less and that require only one pan. Fortune
• Golden girl. Bloomberg charts the career trajectory of Stephanie Cohen, the 41-year-old banker whose rapid rise at Goldman Sachs landed her on its most coveted decision-making body—its management panel—last week. Bloomberg
• What a trip. NASA has announced the flight crews of the first space missions to launch from U.S. soil since 2011. Nicole Aunapu Mann, an experienced test pilot and lieutenant colonel in the Marines, will be aboard the Boeing Starliner when it takes off for the International Space Station next year. It'll be her first trip into space. Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Joanna Coles, the chief content officer for Hearst, is reportedly leaving the company.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
• Protective instinct. Paula Kerger, CEO of PBS, speaks out about what it was like to oversee the broadcaster as it dealt with misconduct allegations against show hosts Charlie Rose and Tavis Smiley. “This was new territory,” she says. “All of it was happening pretty much in the public eye, and I was wanting to protect the women who were brave to stand forward.” Vanity Fair
• Mind the gap. There's long been an age gap among first-time mothers, but new analysis of the current divide—average age 31 and 32 in New York and San Francisco, respectively, versus age 20 and 21 in places like Todd County, S.D., and Zapata County, Tex.—may be more meaningful. Experts say the difference in when women start families points to inequality in the U.S., and since moving up the economic hierarchy is harder than it's been in the past, mothers' circumstances could have a bigger effect on their children’s futures. New York Times
• Outside the lane. Meet Jaimie Monahan, a 38-year-old recruiter at Deloitte who this month will attempt to become the fastest person to complete six marathon swims of at least 6.2 miles on six continents within 16 days. “I actually don’t see myself as superathletic,” says Monahan, whose six swims will take place in New York, Colombia, Australia, Singapore, Egypt, and Switzerland. “Kinda more like a penguin; clumsy on land but graceful in the water.” New York Times
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