Looking Sideways: 10 Things
RIP Sly Stone, the 'Endurance Bro' era, and a fascinating B Corps discussion.
1. I’m back in the UK for a couple of weeks and have been busy catching up with pals and colleagues around the country: including an old pal who is well known in the music industry. Our conversation turned to Sly Stone (RIP), and then his and Santana’s classic Woodstock performances.
To my surprise and delight, she’d never seen the latter. It’s rightly considered one of the greatest live performances ever, with a back story to match: the terrified band had all done acid just before going on stage; legendary drummer Michael Shrieve was a babyfaced 19.
Anyway, if you’ve also yet to be acquainted with this classic performance: watch it above and thank me later.
2. I thought this Grace Cook piece on the sheer number of ‘endurance bros’ running across various countries at any one time right now was great.
3. Another day, more absolute madness unfolding in America. I found this on-the-ground report by Baratunde Thurston in LA a hopeful and much-needed antidote to the relentless assault of negativity that is the news cycle right now.
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4. A very interesting discussion with Erinch Sahan and Vincent Stanley on the ‘unresolved tensions’ of the B Corps movement.
5. Another plug for my forthcoming panel at next month’s MAD//Fest. I’ll be discussing what effective activism for brands looks like with Lauren MacCallum, Finisterre CMO Bronwen Foster-Butler, and author Thomas Kolster.
6. On topic: it’s truly remarkable how quickly the second Trump era has impacted the entire notion of progressive politics in general and ‘business for good’ in particular. Here’s Fast Company declaring the end of the latter….
7. …and the Guardian asking whether ‘woke’ can ever come back. (Yes, the above is an actual comment I received on an recent Instagram post promoting my recent Looking Sideways episode with Wes Siler 😂).
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8. Year ago I wrote a long-running series of columns for Transworld Snowboarding examining the impact of the IOC’s decision to give control of snowboarding in the Olympics to FIS (the ski federation) rather than the ISF (the snowboard federation that had run competitive snowboarding until that point.
Colour me not-in-the-slightest-bit-surprised that a similar story is now unfolding in the US around who gets to control surfing’s Olympic access (and that author Chris Dodds doesn’t appear to know that this was a huge story in snowboarding for years. Either that, or he doesn’t know what the word ‘unprecedented’ means, which seems unlikely).
9. Misha Glenney’s new book on how AI is impacting organised crime and impacting geopolitics looks like a must-read. Here’s a taster.
10. This week’s read: Enlightenment, by Sarah Perry. As with Patrick Radden-Keefe, David Grann, Ben Myers, Sue Prideaux and John Banville, I will read anything by Sarah and this, her latest, is just lovely.
Don’t forget: I just launched the new Looking Sideways book store. Buy anything from here and you’ll be supporting independent UK book stores, as well as helping finance Looking Sideways (I get a 10% commission) in a really simple way.
Click here to see my 2025 Reading List (including Enlightenment), and here to add your own recommendations.
"Maybe men are lost and they’re running towards meaning." Grace Cook FTW
Excellent selection of mental stimulation. Thanks Matt.