đ If you havenât heard back from that dream job, donât get discouraged. Or maybe do â but for a different reason than you thought: One in five jobs advertised is a âghost jobâ that will never be filled, according to internal data from hiring platform Greenhouse. If youâre hunting for a role in construction, the arts, food and beverage, or legal, be particularly wary: Those industries had the highest percentage of fake jobs.
đ§ On the pod:Whatâs behind Big Alcoholâs downfall?
NEWS FLASH
ââïž Budget airline Ryanair wants to kill your buzz. Ryanair is asking European authorities to implement a two-drink maximum in airports in hopes of limiting onboard disruptions from unruly passengers. The airline, citing an incident that cost it $15k+ last year, suggested enforcing the limit with boarding pass stamps, and it limits in-flight sales of alcohol when needed â especially when flying to popular party destinations like Ibiza. Perhaps US airlines should follow suit? The FAA reported 915 cases of unruly passengers in the first half of 2024, 106 of which involved intoxication.
đ Told ya this might happen: Jeff Bezosâ Blue Origin called off the launch of its New Glenn rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station early Monday morning. The company didnât immediately share what had gone wrong, but disclosed during a livestream that engineers were dealing with âanomalies.â For those who donât speak aerospace, that means issues with the rocket. New Glenn has no relaunch date on the books yet.
đ” News to us: People donât like making music, per Mikey Shulman, CEO of Suno AI, an AI music generator. In an interview on the 20VC podcast, Shulman said it takes time and practice to master an instrument or production software, and that âthe majority of peopleâ donât enjoy the âmajority of the timeâ they spend doing it. This erosion of art and craft is a bit jarring on its own, but extra funny when you consider that Suno AI is being sued by the recording industry for training its tool on copyrighted music made by humans who, presumably, did employ the time and patience to become good at it.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
RIP, free Starbucks bathroom: Since 2018, the chain has allowed the general public to freely use its cafes without purchase. Not anymore. Starbucks will start requiring all guests to make a purchase this month.
Sonos CEO Patrick Spenceresigned after eight years, replaced by Pandora co-founder Tom Conrad as interim CEO. The announcement follows last yearâs notoriously buggy software update.
Mastodon, the decentralized social networking platform that hosts 835k monthly active users, is creating a nonprofit organization in Europe to distribute ownership and avoid total control by one leader.
THE BIG IDEA
Youâve got mail, and an outdated web browser
In the â90s, America Online helped carry the masses into a burgeoning digital utopia known as cyberspace.
In 2025, AOL is somehow still around â even as itâs been completely outclassed by modern web browsers and email providers.
But how⊠and why?
YouTuber Michael MJD recently provided a tour of what AOLâs desktop web browser looks like in 2025:
The company was once the nationâs biggest internet provider, but as broadband internet (and free browsers) replaced dial-up, AOL was left in the past.
In 2015, 2.1m people were still paying for AOLâs dial-up internet.
By 2021, that number reportedly fell to the âlow thousands,â but 1.5m users were still paying for AOL services.
AOL email addresses have been free since 2004, but even without the barrier, it still pales in comparison to Gmail â the Coca-Cola, the McDonaldâs, and the Ford F-150 of email â which boasts 1.8B+ users.
And yet, AOL Desktop Gold still gets regular updates, so there is an audience there. Who knows, maybe having an AOL email address will soon become a status symbol? (It wonât.)
You donât get a second chance at a first impression. See 30 tips on starting a sales call so that prospects donât hang up on you.
Look no further: Weâve got the ultimate guide to B2B marketing right here.
DATA POINT
Americaâs big bet: After a 2018 Supreme Court ruling ended a federal ban on sports betting, it exploded from a hush-hush hobby to a full-blown craze.
With online sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel making betting from your phone a breeze, sports gambling has become increasingly popular, and the moneyâs adding up.
Americans wagered an estimated ~$150B on sports in 2024, up from ~$120B in 2023, perBusiness Insider.
The gambling fad doesnât stop at sports, but it does raise some ethical questions: Platforms like Polymarket let users wager on everything from elections and pandemics to war in the Middle East and, most recently, Californiaâs wildfires.
AROUND THE WEB
đ” On this day: In 1967, the Human Be-In saw 20k+ people gather in San Franciscoâs Golden Gate Park for music and appearances from counterculture figures like Timothy Leary and the Grateful Dead.
