Book Recommendations From Business Leaders and Cultural Influencers
By Fang Block
Tue, Dec 15, 2020 4:41am
2 min
2 min
Jenny Johnson
President and CEO, Franklin Templeton
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II, by Sonia Purnell
“This is a remarkable story of an American woman who served as a secret undercover agent in France during World War II—first as a spy for the British Intelligence agency SOE, because the U.S. state department refused to let her join, and then later for the U.S. She had unbelievable success in mobilizing the French resistance—fortunately, unconscious bias worked in her favor, as the Germans could not imagine that a woman with a disability could be so effective at undercover work—including bold prison breaks! Despite her success, the SOE refused to promote her, until finally it became abundantly clear that she was far more effective than her
superiors, and she was appointed to a leadership position.”
Greg Norman
World Golf Hall of Famer, Chairman and CEO, Greg Norman Co.
Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations, by Ronen Bergman
“The book was recommended by a few of my friends. I recently went on a trip to Israel and was fascinated by how such a small nation has had such a difficult history. This book really showcased how hard Israel has fought and continues to do so for its sovereign rights.”
David Hunt
President and CEO, PGIM
The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind, by Raghuram Rajan
“While the globalization of capitalism has been responsible for lifting millions of people out of poverty, in an age of rising inequality, many are rightfully questioning the system as a whole. Rajan’s The Third Pillar offers an
excellent framework to understand the problems associated with market-based economic systems and help us think about solutions.”
Dana Canedy
Senior Vice President and Publisher, Simon & Schuster
White Ivy, by Susie Yang
“I absolutely love fiction with characters that are so richly realized and that defy stereotypes and show us new ways to see cultures and the people who make them so complex and vibrant. Yang does not disappoint, with this brilliant work of literature that offers a unique view of the immigrant experience and left me thinking about class and character in unexpected ways.”
Cristina Mariani-May
CEO, Banfi Vintners
Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds, by David Goggins
“I was inspired by Goggins ’ perseverance and drive. As a working mom who recently reorganized her business after 100 years of being family owned and operated and who worked to reposition it for today and the next generation, I really loved the role model I found in Goggins. I am also an ultra-marathon runner, and David tells amazingly detailed stories of long-distance trail runs. If you want to feel empowered, read this book!”
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Meta is betting on a human-first AI future, but growing legal battles and declining public trust are putting Mark Zuckerberg’s vision to the test.
By Adam Levine
Thu, Aug 13, 2026 3 min
3 min
“Call us optimists. Call us dreamers. Call us whatever the hell you want, but we’re betting on people, and we like those odds. The future is for everyone.”
That ad copy is from the voice-over of a July Meta Platforms META -3.38%.
spot that’s been part of a public-relations blitz to position Meta as the humanist AI company. The message was undercut by the ad’s inclusion of David Bowie’s “Five Years,” a brooding 1972 song about an impending apocalypse. But this week CEO Mark Zuckerberg left no ambiguity, publishing a 6,500-word manifesto—about 10 times the length of this newsletter—with a title that echoed the ad: “The Future is for Everyone.”
That seems to be Meta’s new tagline. In light of sinking public opinion and the company’s thousands of lawsuits from states, school districts, parents, and users, Meta’s public relations have been defensive. This push represents a return to offense, with a chance to distinguish Meta’s approach to AI from other labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, or SpaceX SPCX +9.65%.
“It is surprising that the discourse from many developing AI is so filled with doom,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I do not understand why anyone who believes that AI will eliminate most jobs and much of humanity’s relevance would rush to build that future.”
Zuckerberg frames what sort of future we build with AI as the central issue of our time. “We believe that delivering superintelligence to everyone is the way to answer this question,” he says. “This has the potential to begin a new era of personal empowerment where individuals can use this powerful new capability to reach their full potential, pursue their interests, and improve their lives and the world more than ever before.”
The flood of words belies the situation on the ground in mid-2026. Americans, at least, have a love-hate affair with social media. A November Pew Research Center poll reported that 71% of U.S. adults used Facebook, and 51% used Instagram. Worldwide, 3.6 billion people use at least one Meta app every day.
But in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in July and August, 61% of respondents said they wanted more government oversight of social media, and two-thirds supported laws to keep children under 16 years old off the platforms. When it comes to Meta in particular, in the 2026 Axios Harris 100, an annual poll about corporate reputation, Meta placed 96th out of 100. It’s only above two other social media companies, Chinese ultracheap retailer Temu, and Spirit Airlines, a defunct air carrier. Regarding ethics, Meta came in last, and it was only ahead of TikTok in trust.
The steady drip of headlines in the teen social media trials isn’t helping. Last week, Meta lost a judgment in New Mexico state court that raised their liability in that relatively small jurisdiction to nearly $1 billion dollars. On Wednesday, jury selection began for a federal case with four states suing Meta over addictive product design, and false marketing that said its platforms were safe for teenagers. In July, Meta claimed that the states are asking for a total of $1.4 trillion in damages, in addition to design changes in the apps. This is part of a multidistrict litigation, where thousands of federal trials with social media defendants are coordinated in Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ district courthouse in Oakland, Calif.
There is a separate such group of thousands of cases in California state court, mostly with individual plaintiffs. The steady drip of bad headlines from the courts will continue unless Meta decides to settle en masse.
Meanwhile, in the second quarter, Meta booked “$2.40 billion of charges related to legal proceedings,” according to its quarterly filing. That may be just the beginning.
Zuckerberg spent 6,500 words getting his utopian message out, but I can sum it up in two: Trust us. The evidence is that Meta has a long way to go to win back that trust.
