From health tech to surfer beaches

Best of Protocol

State of play: Health care after the pandemic, by Mike Murphy

• Mike says: "We spent the week diving into the changes the pandemic has already made to our health care system and what's likely going to stick around after. We had stories digging into different parts of health care, from wearables to electronic health records and telemedicine, and spoke to tons of people in the industry on what comes next. This one's a good place to start to dive into the topics we break down in later stories."

Quibi hoped for 7.5 million subscribers in year one. An analyst says it's at 72,000, by Janko Roettgers

• Janko's on vacation, so I'll just say: The Quibi saga never stops being interesting. For what it's worth, the company has seriously contested these numbers, but you can tell even in the cultural winds that Quibi's not working. Quibi stories aren't about the shows or the movies or the tech — they're about the chaos inside the company. Which is never what you want.

Salesforce COO Bret Taylor on getting back to the Tower, succession and COVID-19 opportunities, by Tom Krazit

• Tom says: "Bret Taylor is one of the few driven, accomplished people in Silicon Valley that everyone seems to like. A two-time successful entrepreneur, he can claim a fair share of the credit for two of the most used products in the history of the web — Google Maps and Facebook's 'like' button — and he's now the heir apparent at one of the most groundbreaking companies in the history of enterprise software. His one weakness? A fondness for Stanford football."

The PPP loan data is out, but companies say it's a mess, by Biz Carson

• Biz says: "After months of speculation of who received PPP loans (and lots of public pressure to return them), there's still little clarity. The data that the government unveiled was a mess, leaving more questions than answers."

Republicans say Democrats are excluding them from talks with Big Tech CEOs, by Emily Birnbaum

• Emily says: "Democrats likely thought they were ensuring a smarter, tidier hearing when they announced that only the 13 members of the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel would participate in the upcoming blockbuster hearing with Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai. That's definitely not going to be the case."

Best of Everything Else

When a critic met Facebook: 'What they're doing is gaslighting' — The New York Times

• If you want to understand how tech, race, power, politics, moderation and the future meet, one very good strategy is just to listen to everything Rashad Robinson says. He was also on "Masters of Scale" and "Pod Save America" this week, has been all over TV, and is an excellent Twitter follow.

New stuff – Gary Larson

• Sounds like Gary Larson got himself an iPad and has been publishing new things for the first time since "The Far Side" ended. His story about the joys of digital drawing is fun — "I was feeling like I was sitting at the controls of a 747" — but the stuff he's making is even better.

Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley's war against the media — The New Yorker

• I've spent the last few weeks not entirely sure how to write about the burgeoning spat between (some people in) tech and (some people in) media. It's complicated and it's ugly, and I think threading the needle between "telling the truth" and "rooting for the future" is a really complicated thing. But! This story, which digs deep into the Slate Star Codex drama we covered here a few weeks ago, doubles as a really good way to think about the whole mess.

How ecommerce platform Elliot fell back down to Earth — ModernRetail

• This is both a terrific palace-intrigue story and a look at why so many new direct-to-consumer online brands seem to follow the same path. Hype like crazy, grow like crazy, and try to build something sustainable before the house of cards collapses around you. Most can't pull it off.

Mmhmm

• It's rare that an app seems to get everyone on the Protocol staff excited, but Mmhmm did just that. It's video chat, but also a virtual stage for presenting or performing, a nifty tool for YouTubers, and honestly just so much better than the stupid old way of sharing screens and presenting decks. Heck of a demo video, too.

A MESSAGE FROM PHILIPS

In the face of COVID-19, many healthcare providers turned to remote patient monitoring and virtual visits to continue caring for vulnerable patients while minimizing risk of virus transmissions and reducing the strain on scarece hospital resources. At Philips, we're pioneering stronger care networks with technologies we've spent decade innovating - and we believe our homes are destined to play a central role in the healthcare system of the future.

Read more.

One Person’s Opinion

Arun Sundararajan, NYU Stern School of Business

Arun Sundararajan is a professor at NYU's Stern business school and the author of "The Sharing Economy." He's been researching and writing about tech for years, studying gig economies, moderation, the future of work, competition and much more. Which is to say: There are some things happening in the tech world that interest him.

For more of my conversation with Arun, check out this week's Source Code Podcast. As always, I asked him to share a few of the things he's been into recently:

• "The Gift," by Lewis Hyde. "I read this beautifully written book during the early days of the sharing economy and find myself going back to it frequently. On the face of it, a treatise on the anthropology of gift-giving and the inseparability of art and gifting. But, if one reads between the lines, also the beginnings of a manifesto for a new model of production and exchange, one that could be especially compelling as AI and platforms usher in a post-capitalist era."
• "New York: A Documentary Film." "Stumbled across this while searching Amazon Prime Video for new crime dramas a few days ago. A fascinating 400-year journey through the creation and evolution of New York City, this documentary (but also, in many ways, real-life crime drama) brings to life how the building of Manhattan was by far the most impressive story of urban development in history, defining the modern city and reshaping America's economy and society. China may build new megacities at warp speed today, but the blueprint was laid here in Gotham."
• Meiji Jingu in Tokyo. "My favorite urban oasis. A Central Park-sized garden in the middle of central Tokyo, but with no commercial activity whatsoever. As you walk from the gate to the shrine at the center, the sounds of the city slowly fade away, and you feel like you're entering another world. No park benches, ice cream vendors or frisbee games, just nature and silence, punctuated occasionally by the gentle sounds of leaves being raked. A magical escape from the intensity of Shibuya. "
• Shoji at 69 Leonard in New York. "Take-out only right now, but this will be my first stop when indoor restaurants reopen in NYC. Pre-pandemic, it was a joyous dining experience. You enter, sit at a counter (a maximum of 12 people inside at a time), and the American shokunin Derek Wilcox literally hand-feeds you his masterful sushi creations for between two and three hours."
• Ditch Plains Beach in Montauk. "You no doubt know it well if you're a surfer who lives on the East Coast. But even if you're not, it's the best nearby beach. Not nearly as crowded as some of the others on Long Island, a little off the beaten path, good mix of locals and tourists, and an excellent place for an early-morning summer run."

A MESSAGE FROM PHILIPS

In the face of COVID-19, many healthcare providers turned to remote patient monitoring and virtual visits to continue caring for vulnerable patients while minimizing risk of virus transmissions and reducing the strain on scarece hospital resources. At Philips, we're pioneering stronger care networks with technologies we've spent decade innovating - and we believe our homes are destined to play a central role in the healthcare system of the future.

Read more.