Weekend Reading, Watching and Listening Recommendations (August 21, 2020)

Harvard Study shows business travel correlates to economic growth, Manufacturing Vaccines, The Power of Design in a Global Crisis, Where Will the Next Billion Internet Users Come From?

1.    Read: Stanford Study outlines five thermal energy grand challenges for decarbonization Approximately 90 percent of the world's energy use involves generation or manipulation of heat. Maintaining modern economies and improving life in developing economies while mitigating climate change will require five major advances in how we convert, store and transmit thermal energy, according to a new paper in Nature Energy

2.    Read: Harvard Study by Ricardo Hausman shows business travel correlates to economic growth. The world is benefiting enormously by mobilizing the knowhow in brains through business travel. A permanent shutdown of this channel would probably imply a double-digit loss in global GDP.

3.    Read: Manufacturing Vaccines: Without Vials and Needles, a Virus Vaccine Is Just a Formula. Making sure the world will have enough vials, hypodermics, and adjuvants.

4.    Listen: Reinventing the job interview: We've all answered our share of cringe-worthy interview questions -- and watched managers pick the wrong person while rejecting the right one. Is it time to delegate hiring decisions to algorithms? Find out what the experts recommend, and meet a pair of leaders who have reimagined the interview process by ignoring credentials and refusing to look at resumes. [from Professor Adam Grant of the Wharton School]

5.    Listen: Building a digital society for all: Why Estonia was better prepared than most countries for living life online. Helen Milner from the Good Things Foundations talks about how lockdown has exposed new digital divides. Stanford economist Nick Bloom about why home working is here to stay.

6.    Watch: The Power of Design in a Global Crisis | UNESCO network of creative design cities. In a world struck by a pandemic, we must reconsider our priorities. What is the significance and function of design today? How does a discipline often associated with luxury, style, or beauty help the communities of the world to deal with today’s challenges, adapt to changed conditions?

7.   Watch: Geoeconomics and the Balance of Payments. Fantastic panel moderated by Adam Tooze of Columbia University with Daniela Gabor, Izabella Kaminska, Matt Klein, Michael Pettis and Brad Setser

8. Chart of the Week: Where Will the Next Billion Internet Users Come From? [From the Visual Capitalist]