Episode #61: Will the Pandemic Affect Paternity Leave?

Talking Shop Podcast

It was a busy show this week, with Ewan and Cam discussing everything from Covid vaccinations to Netscape; Christiano Rinaldo to Alexander Hamilton. So let's get started.

Paternity leave is a subject people love to debate. Policies on fathers taking leave to help out at home when a newborn comes along vary widely by jurisdiction -- but it could be just another fact of work life that is changing in a post-pandemic world. Millennials and Gen Zers are pushing for more progressive paternity leave policies and seeing some early victories. Ewan looks at the issue in detail, talks about what works and what doesn't, and why it's suddenly getting so much attention.

Cam talked about a big step taken by one of the most famous venture capital firms in the world, which decided to forego traditional media coverage and simply build their own tech news website. Tensions have been rising between Silicon Valley and the journalists who cover it, so the decision by Andreessen Horowitz to launch their own site, Future, could be a harbinger of things to come for other firms, too. Cam looks at why a16z felt compelled to build the site, and what it means for both in-house PR teams and journalists.

In Check This Out, Ewan debunks the crazy rumor that soccer star Christiano Rinaldo removing a Coke from a table led to a share plunge, while Cam recommends the new movie/musical In The Heights despite its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, coming under fire for "colorism" in casing the film. In the Heights was Miranda's first Broadway hit before he wrote Hamilton.

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Links and Show Notes

• A Fresh Look at Paternity Leave: Why the Benefits Extend Beyond the Personal -McKinsey & Company
• Andreessen Horowitz Looks to Launch Opinion Publication as its Media Ambitions Grow - The Information (Paywall)
• The Unauthorized Story of Andreessen Horowitz - Newcomer
• Tech and Crypto Funder Andreessen Horowitz Wants to Replace the Media. Is That Bad News? - Fortune
• Andreessen Horowitz Goes into Publishing with Future - TechCrunch
• Andreessen Horowitz's Future is a Media Machine - Protocol
• The New Media Mogul: Andreessen Horowitz - Axios
• Doubling Down on the Future - Future

Check This Out

• A Post-Truth World: Why Ronaldo Did Not Move Coca-Cola Share Price - Forbes
• Lin-Manuel Miranda Responds to "In The Heights" Colorism Criticism - Rolling Stone
• Sex, Deceit, and Scandal: The Ugly War Over Bob Ross' Ghost - Daily Beast

Hosts

Ewan Christie is an employment lawyer and partner at Duntrune LLP in Toronto, Canada.

Cam MacMurchy is a corporate communications executive with a multinational technology company listed in Hong Kong and curator of the Digital Bits PR and Communications newsletter. He also contributes to Apple news website 9to5Mac and shares his thoughts on PR, media, travel, and technology on his website.