A crash course on tech Twitter's favorite new show, ‘Ted Lasso’

Best of Protocol

A tiny team of House staffers could change the future of Big Tech. This is their story, by Emily Birnbaum

• The Congressional antitrust investigation was spearheaded in large part by some very behind-the-scenes people. But their work, and the 449-page report it produced, could change the way the tech industry operates forever. Emily's story gets into why the investigation was such a messy process, and how tech regulation — one of the more bipartisan issues right now — is still so hard to make happen.

How to get the first COVID-19 vaccines to people who need it most, by Issie Lapowsky

• OK, so let's say we get a COVID vaccine. Who gets it? When? How? Where? Este Geraghty, Esri's chief medical officer, does a terrific job here of explaining the massive logistical hurdles it requires to move a vaccine around the world.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson on gaming in 2020, by Seth Schiesel and Shakeel Hashim

• Have you subscribed to Protocol Gaming, our newest newsletter? You should! The first issue has a great look at the next-gen console race, an interview with Facebook's Vivek Sharma and a lot of talk about FIFA 21. Which is out now, actually. Anybody want to play FIFA?

Google will give up direct control of the Knative open-source project, by Tom Krazit

• We've heard a lot in recent months about Google's complicated relationship with the open-source community. What does it mean when, for instance, Chromium is technically open-source but is in practice very much run by Googlers? In this case, as Tom describes, Google's actively getting out of the way to let a crucial Kubernetes tool run itself.

Amazon Halo's principal medical officer talks privacy, shortcomings with competitors, and why it's now or never for the device, by Kevin McAllister

• The Halo is a perfect microcosm of health tech. Remarkable, useful capability! With huge potential to be completely creepy! We'll see if Amazon's struck the right balance, but Dr. Maulik Majmudar's perspective on things like privacy, localization and implicit bias was really interesting to read.

A MESSAGE FROM PHILIPS

Stronger care … from more efficient operations

In a defining moment for healthcare, it's even more crucial to deliver patient-centered care efficiently. At Philips, we are committed to providing intelligent, automated workflows that seek to improve patient care. More efficient healthcare means stronger, more resilient healthcare.

Learn more.

Best of Everything Else

From garden streets to bike highways: four ideas for post-COVID cities — The Guardian

• This is from a couple of weeks ago, but was interesting to read with fresh eyes after seeing Google's proposal for turning a chunk of San Jose into its new office / park / ecological biosphere. One clear side effect of sending everybody home for a year or so is that many of us will see the outside world with new eyes.

Silicon Valley is famously liberal. Then, investors and employees started clashing over race. — The Washington Post

• I'm not sure there ever was an overarching Silicon Valley Liberal Viewpoint, but if it ever existed it's long gone now. From Coinbase's "mission focus" to the things happening on platforms from Facebook to Clubhouse, the political war being fought in America is turning into a culture war in tech. This is a good interrogation of how we got here, and what's on the table now.

Snapchat has turned London into an augmented reality experiment — Wired UK

• The best way to understand why AR is going to be huge is to walk down the street, point your phone at a building or sign, and watch it suddenly come to life. What Wired UK refers to as Snap's "1:1 digital copy of everything on the planet" is a remarkable thing, and coming true faster than you might think.

How Google Drive can make every corner of your life easier — Forge

• To call this guide "thorough" would be like calling Elon Musk "talkative." This is a monstrous, all-encompassing traipse through Google Drive, with a laundry list of interesting tips and hacks for using it for work, school, family and everything. If you use Drive, bookmark this one.

The inside story of MacKenzie Scott, the mysterious 60-billion-dollar woman — Marker

• Billionaires will save the world! Or something. Lots of folks in tech are trying to find useful ways to give away or invest their fortunes, but fewer are doing it faster or bigger than MacKenzie Scott since her divorce from Jeff Bezos. What she's doing might change the rules for everyone else.

WEEKEND PROJECT

The many powers of 'Ted Lasso'

I hope I'm the 600th person to tell you to watch this show — it's certainly Tech Twitter'sfavoriteright now — but seriously, you need to watch "Ted Lasso" on Apple TV+. The first season just ended and it's the sort of heartwarming thing we don't see enough of. It's also an interesting milestone for the new streaming service: You can't win without a big hit, and "Ted Lasso" might just be it for Apple. Who would've thought one goofy soccer coach could change the streaming wars?

Anyway, the show is nine roughly half-hour episodes, so you can easily binge it between now and tomorrow's newsletter. (Though you technically have until February, since Apple just extended everyone's free TV+ trial.) In between, here's some useful side reading and viewing, so you can be the No. 1 Lasso stan in your exec meeting tomorrow.

• The commercial that started it all. I know "here's a TV show based on an NBC Sports ad" isn't much of a pitch, but at least it's a good ad! (Even the follow-up was pretty funny.)
• Frisco Uplink's thoughtful threadon the show: "This is the most interesting, intelligent show I've seen in quite awhile, and I think you should give it a look." (Ted Lasso's Twitter is also worth a follow.)
• MG Siegler's interesting blog postabout how the show rolled out. Can a show be so good it's rude to not let us binge it? (Luckily for you that's a moot point now.)
• TechRadar's survey of TV+'s performance so far. Is it Disney-level stuff? Not exactly. But a lot of people, including your friendly neighborhood newsletter writer, didn't think Apple had a chance. It now definitely has a chance.
• What Apple TV+ has coming next. Apple has won some awards, created a couple of bonafide hits and is sitting on an increasingly impressive slate. It also has the budget and the brand to turn TV+ into one of the biggest streaming services out there.

A MESSAGE FROM PHILIPS

Stronger care … from more efficient operations

In a defining moment for healthcare, it's even more crucial to deliver patient-centered care efficiently. At Philips, we are committed to providing intelligent, automated workflows that seek to improve patient care. More efficient healthcare means stronger, more resilient healthcare.

Learn more.