Amy Griffin's ‘The Tell' is Winfrey's new book club choice
Griffin's 'The Tell' was published Tuesday. It has been promoted as a 'journey of healing and truth-telling.'
'I've spent the last five years writing, drafting and considering every word I wanted to share about my experience,' Griffin, the founder of G9 Ventures, said in a statement.
'When Oprah called, I forgot every one of those words.'
Griffin founded her firm in 2017. Her investments have included Goop, Bumble and Hello Sunshine.
Winfrey established her book club in 1996 and currently presents it in partnership with Starbucks.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
23 minutes ago
- New York Post
Robo trucks take major step forward for tech in Texas
Self-driving tractor trailers are rumbling down Texas highways to haul cargo at night — a major step forward for the technology. The autonomous 18-wheelers — which still carry a driver behind the wheel — have been making the roughly four-trip between Dallas and Houston to transport food and dairy products, the Wall Street Journal reported. Aurora Innovation, a startup, said it was able to achieve driverless trucking after dark because of its LiDAR system, which casts laser beams to see items in 3D and measure the distance to those objects. 3 A self-driving tractor trailer on a test track in Pittsburgh in March 2024. AP The system used in the Aurora Driver is able to identify objects in the dark as far away as the length of three football fields, the company said Wednesday. That allows the trucks to spot pedestrians, other vehicles and debris on the road about 11 seconds quicker than a human driver. The technology is a crucial component of self-driving cars from brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volvo, as well as Waymo robotaxis, which have been operating around the clock in busy cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles for years. Until recently, autonomous trucks have only operated on roads while it's light out with good weather, fearful of risks that could arise amid more complex driving conditions. But operators of the robo-trucks claim the LIDAR system is more reliable than human drivers, who could be sleepy and distracted behind the wheel after cross-country routes. The nighttime capabilities are quite an accomplishment since 'it's even harder than it is during the daytime to be able to disambiguate, say, a person versus a piece of tire on a freeway,' Aurora CEO and co-founder Chris Urmson told the Journal. Critics have argued that autonomous trucks come with steep risks, such as handling traffic, bad weather and unexpected blockages in the road. 'Maybe they are good for less populated areas,' truck driver Troy Turnham told the Journal. 3 Aurora Innovation said it reached a new milestone with its LiDAR system. AP 'I'm not sure I would trust being around them when a severe storm hits, nor in the winter.' Kodiak Robotics has also started operating driverless trucks at night in parts of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. Five of these trucks operate on leased roads, not highways, without drivers on board to deliver loads of sand for use in fracking. The company also operates trucks in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Oklahoma City, but these vehicles have drivers on board at night. Several tests were performed before the trucks were permitted to drive at night, including test-runs with mannequins on a track. The use of the Aurora Driver has grown rapidly, completing more than 20,000 miles since it started on public roads in May across three trucks. 3 The interior of the cab of a self-driving Aurora truck. AP Now the company is testing a system between Phoenix and Fort Worth – a 16-hour route that usually requires two drivers. There are federal laws in place to regulate how much time long-haul truckers can spend on the road, placing a maximum of 11 hours behind the wheel in a 14-hour period followed by a mandatory 10-hour break. But proponents argue this could all change with autonomous trucks – allowing human drivers to take on shorter, less strenuous routes while self-driving trucks handle the long hauls, according to Richard Stocking, chief executive of Hirshback Motor Lines in Iowa. Using autonomous trucks for these less attractive routes could win over younger workers who want more of a work-life balance with more predictable schedules, he added. Human drivers could go home more often, 'if not daily, several times a week,' Stocking said.
NBC News
25 minutes ago
- NBC News
A key U.S. inflation gauge rose last month as Trump's tariffs lifted goods prices
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge ticked higher last month in a sign that President Donald Trump's broad-based tariffs are starting to lift prices for many goods. Prices rose 2.6% in June compared with a year ago, the Commerce Department said Thursday, up from an annual pace of 2.4% in May. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, prices rose 2.8% in the past year, the same as the previous month, which was revised higher. The figures are above the Fed's 2% goal. The uptick in prices helps explain the central bank's reluctance to cut its key interest rate this week, despite repeated demands from Trump that it do so. On Wednesday, the Fed left its key rate unchanged at 4.3%, and Chair Fed Powell suggested it could take months for the central bank to determine whether the import duties will cause just a one-time rise in prices, or a more persistent increase in inflation. Trump has attacked Powell personally and repeatedly, and did so again on Thursday for the Fed's reluctance to cut rates, calling him 'TOO ANGRY, TOO STUPID, & TOO POLITICAL, to have the job of Fed Chair.' On a monthly basis, prices ticked up 0.3% from May to June, while core prices also rose 0.3%. Both figures are higher than consistent with the 2% target. 'The above-target rise in core prices in June, upward revisions to previous months' data and the sharp rise in core goods inflation will do little to ease the Fed's concerns about tariff-driven inflation,' said Harry Chambers, assistant economist at Capital Economics, a forecasting firm. 'If these pressures persist, as we expect, a September cut looks unlikely.' The government's measure of gas prices jumped 0.9% from May to June, while grocery costs rose 0.3%. Many longer-lasting goods that are heavily imported saw clear price increases, with furniture prices up 1.3% just last month, appliances up 1.9%, and computers up 1.4%. The cost of some services fell dramatically last month, offsetting some of the price pressures from goods. Air fares dropped 0.7% from May to June, while the cost of hotel rooms plunged 3.6% just in one month. Thursday's report also showed that consumer spending rose 0.3% from May to June, a modest rise that suggests Americans are still spending cautiously. Adjusted for inflation, the increase was just 0.1%, the government said. Americans' incomes also picked up just modestly, rising 0.3% last month, a rebound after a 0.4% drop in May. But adjusted for inflation and taxes, incomes were flat in June. Consumers have been cautious all year. On Wednesday, the government said the economy expanded at a 3% annual rate in the second quarter, a solid showing but one that masked some red flags. Consumer spending, for example, rose at a lackluster 1.4% pace, after an even smaller gain of 0.5% in the first three months of the year. A sharp drop in imports in the April-June quarter, which followed a surge in the first quarter, provided a big lift to the government's calculation of U.S. gross domestic product. Earlier this month, the government reported that its more closely-watched consumer price index, its primary inflation measure, also ticked higher in June as the cost of heavily-imported items such as appliances, furniture, and toys increased.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
American Eagle's 'good jeans' ads with Sydney Sweeney spark a debate on race and beauty standards
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. fashion retailer American Eagle Outfitters wanted to make a splash with its new advertising campaign starring 27-year-old actor Sydney Sweeney. The ad blitz included 'clever, even provocative language' and was 'definitely going to push buttons,' the company's chief marketing officer told trade media outlets. It has. The question now is whether some of the public reaction the fall denim campaign produced is what American Eagle intended. Titled 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,' the campaign sparked a debate about race, Western beauty standards, and the backlash to 'woke' American politics and culture. Most of the negative reception focused on videos that used the word 'genes' instead of 'jeans' when discussing the blonde-haired, blue-eyed actor known for the HBO series 'Euphoria' and 'White Lotus.' Some critics saw the wordplay as a nod, either unintentional or deliberate, to eugenics, a discredited theory that held humanity could be improved through selective breeding for certain traits. Marcus Collins, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, said the criticism for the American Eagle ad could have been avoided if the ads showed models of various races making the 'genes' pun. 'You can either say this was ignorance, or this was laziness, or say that this is intentional,' Collins said. 'Either one of the three aren't good.' Other commenters accused detractors of reading too much into the campaign's message. 'I love how the leftist meltdown over the Sydney Sweeney ad has only resulted in a beautiful white blonde girl with blue eyes getting 1000x the exposure for her 'good genes,'" former Fox News host Megyn Kelly wrote Tuesday on X. American Eagle didn't respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. The discussion continued after eagle-eyed social media users noticed that Dunkin's promotion for its new summer drink features 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' co-star Gavin Casalengo attributing his suntan to genetics. A snapshot of American Eagle The ad blitz comes as the teen retailer, like many merchants, wrestles with sluggish consumer spending and higher costs from tariffs. American Eagle reported that total sales were down 5% for its February-April quarter compared to a year earlier. A day after Sweeney was announced as the company's latest celebrity collaborator, American Eagle's stock closed more than 4% up. Shares were volatile this week and trading nearly 2% down Wednesday. Like many trendy clothing brands, American Eagle has to differentiate itself from other mid-priced chains with a famous face or by saying something edgy, according to Alan Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce. Adamson said the Sweeney campaign shares a lineage with Calvin Klein jeans ads from 1980 that featured a 15-year-old Brooke Shields saying, 'You want to know what comes in between me and my Calvins? Nothing.' Some TV networks declined to air the spots because of its suggestive double entendre and Shields' age. 'It's the same playbook: a very hot model saying provocative things shot in an interesting way,' Adamson said. Billboards, Instagram and Snapchat The campaign features videos of Sweeney wearing slouchy jeans in various settings. She will appear on 3-D billboards in Times Square and elsewhere, speaking to users on Snapchat and Instagram, and in an AI-enabled try-on feature. American Eagle also plans to launch a limited edition Sydney jean to raise awareness of domestic violence, with sales proceeds going to a nonprofit crisis counseling service. In a news release, the company noted 'Sweeney's girl next door charm and main character energy – paired with her ability to not take herself too seriously – is the hallmark of this bold, playful campaign.' Jeans, genes and their many meanings In one video, Sweeney walks toward an American Eagle billboard of her and the tagline 'Sydney Sweeney has great genes.' She crosses out 'genes' and replaces it with 'jeans.' But what critics found the most troubling was a teaser video in which Sweeney says, 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.' The video appeared on American Eagle's Facebook page and other social media channels but is not part of the ad campaign. While remarking that someone has good genes is sometimes used as a compliment, the phrase also has sinister connotations. Eugenics gained popularity in early 20th century America, and Nazi Germany embraced it to carry out Adolf Hitler's plan for an Aryan master race. Civil rights activists have noted signs of eugenics regaining a foothold through the far right's promotion of the 'great replacement theory,' a racist ideology that alleges a conspiracy to diminish the influence of white people. Shalini Shankar, a cultural and linguistic anthropologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said she had problems with American Eagle's 'genes' versus 'jeans' because it exacerbates a limited concept of beauty. 'American Eagle, I guess, wants to rebrand itself for a particular kind of white privileged American,' Shankar said. As for Dunkin's social media video, Casalengo's burnished skin comes up in the context of the doughnut chain's Golden Hour Refresher drink. 'This tan? Genetics. I just got my color analysis back and guess what? Golden summer," the actor says, referring to the revived trend of wearing clothing that align with one's natural coloring. A Dunkin' spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment. A cultural shift in advertising Many critics compared the American Eagle ad to a misstep by Pepsi in 2017, when it released a TV ad that showed model Kendall Jenner offer a can of soda to a police officer while ostensibly stepping away from a photo shoot to join a crowd of protesters. Viewers mocked the spot for appearing to trivialize protests of police killings of Black people. Pepsi apologized and pulled the ad. The demonstrations that followed the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis pushed many U.S. companies to make their advertising better reflect consumers of all races. Some marketers say they've observed another shift since President Donald Trump returned to office and moved to abolish all federal DEI programs and policies. Jazmin Burrell, founder of brand consulting agency Lizzie Della Creative Strategies, said she's noticed while shopping with her cousin more ads and signs that prominently feature white models. 'I can see us going back to a world where diversity is not really the standard expectation in advertising,' Burrell said. American Eagle's past and future American Eagle has been praised for diverse marketing in the past, including creating a denim hijab in 2017 and offering its Aerie lingerie brand in a wide range of sizes. A year ago, the company released a limited edition denim collection with tennis star Coco Gauff. Marketing experts offer mixed opinions on whether the attention surrounding 'good jeans' will be good for business. 'They were probably thinking that this is going to be their moment," Myles Worthington, the founder and CEO of marketing and creative agency WORTHI. 'But this is doing the opposite and deeply distorting their brand.' Other experts say the buzz is good even if it's not uniformly positive.
