Extensive listening: Know your worth, and then ask for it

Your boss probably isn't paying you what you're worth — instead, they're paying you what they think you're worth. Take the time to learn how to shape their thinking.

Pricing consultant Casey Brown shares helpful stories and learnings that can help you better communicate your value and get paid for your excellence.

Casey Brown is a pricing geek and professional speaker. She leads an organization that helps companies improve profits through better pricing. She speaks at conferences, trade associations and networking groups around the world. She is on a mission to correct the injustice of underpricing.

You can read the full transcript here.

Extensive listening: Why we shouldn't trust markets with our civic life

In the past three decades, says Michael Sandel, the US has drifted from a market economy to a market society; it's fair to say that an American's experience of shared civic life depends on how much money they have.
 (Three key examples: access to education, access to justice, political influence.)

 In a talk and audience discussion, Sandel asks us to think honestly on this question: In our current democracy, is too much for sale?

Michael Sandel teaches political philosophy at Harvard, exploring some of the most hotly contested moral and political issues of our time.

You can read a full transcript here.

I always wanted to grow Christmas trees

Clive Collins used to have one of the most physically active jobs there is - a forester but one day he fell out of a tree, which paralysed him from the waist down. After the accident he was determined to keep working outdoors, following his dream to start a Christmas tree farm.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and complete the blanks in the transcript with the missing words.



I’m Clive Collins, from Catsfield Christmas Tree Farm. My business is growing Christmas trees and selling them. I worked as forestry contractor in Sussex and I was pruning a tree and I fell out of this tree, (1) ___ feet, and landed on my feet and broke my (2) ___. This ended up with me being paralysed from the waist down and it meant I couldn’t walk.
When I was lying in hospital, I thought to myself, I’ve always wanted to grow Christmas trees. I started growing some Christmas trees but I was really… didn’t take any advice from anybody, so I made a lot of mistakes. I became quite (3) ___ about the great change in my life. I did tend to rely on drink a little bit, which didn’t do me any good either, made me more (4) ___.
I think I really started getting my business together when I met a Christmas tree specialist who came over, looked around my farm and gave me a business plan and he was definitely at a place in his life where I wanted to be.
We have a retail business which sells about (5) ___ trees. They are grown on (6) ___ acres and we have about (7) ___ trees in all.
Looking back on my career so far, I would say you’ve got to look for people who can help you to make your business successful, both listening to them and taking their (8) ___, and usually following it to the letter.

Key:
1 30
2 back 
3 depressed 
4 depressed
5 3,000
6 25 
7 25,000
8 advice

Extensive listening: Are you a giver or a taker

In every workplace, there are three basic kinds of people: givers, takers and matchers. Organizational psychologist Adam Grant breaks down these personalities and offers simple strategies to promote a culture of generosity and keep self-serving employees from taking more than their share.

In his groundbreaking book Give and Take, top-rated Wharton professor Adam Grant upended decades of conventional motivational thinking with the thesis that giving unselfishly to colleagues or clients can lead to one’s own long-term success.

Grant’s research has led hundreds of advice seekers (and HR departments) to his doorstep, and it’s changing the way leaders view their workforces.

Grant’s new book Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World examines how unconventional thinkers overturn the status quo and champion game-changing ideas. 

You can read a full transcript of the talk here.

The Art of Shoji

At Miya Shoji, a father-son team takes a different approach to business and to life, keeping craft as the guiding principle.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1. What analogy does Hisao Hanafusa, the father, use to describe a business?
2. What did Hisao Hanafusa make for his mother and father as a child?
3. How did Zui Hanafusa, the son, apply for the job in his own father's shop?
4. How big was the workshop back in the 70's?
5. What is Hisao Hanafusa's approach to his work?
6. What do they not think about when they talk about their business?


Our business philosophy is something like every day we go to work, we try to make something beautiful, so it’s more of an artist’s way of thinking through business.
Many people ask about how we run the business or how business is successful or how does it actually revolve within the shop itself. My father always said it was like a bicycle business. You pedal, bicycle can move. No profit. But sometime, down he'll come. You don't have to pedal.  Still go. Then hit the bottom. Then you have to get off.  You have to push the bicycle with it. So it's going this.
Woodworking.  I'm always interesting philistine.  I was maybe nine years old. My mother said, I wish I had a window here. So I was nine years old. Cut the wall.  Made the window for her. Then my father say, I wish I had a fireplace. So I made a fireplace. I liked it something to make.
When I was in the corporate world, I was there constantly. One day I was walking down the street, heading towards the shop. And everything looked very not kept well. And my father was actually working on some designs. But you could see him from outside. I thought, one day, I should hang out next to him. Not just learn in depth about the business itself, but learn more about our family itself. That's where the whole thing kind of took off. Like, maybe I should just be here full-time. I applied for the job with a resume. And my father actually thought it was a joke, since most of the times I'm kind of taking everything for fun. I started the next week.
Growing up back in the 70s wasn't exactly like the situation we have now. Workshop was maybe 3/4 of the space. And the showroom was only 1/4. But every day after school, come back to help out, clean up, watch several carpenters working.
Why I create? Fun. Fun.  Should be fun, not serious. I check all my family.  They don't have a business mind, traffic mind. Nothing. Just art kind of stuff.
When people talk about certain things like, what's your business model? Do you have any annual reports?
You know, it's not about money that we're thinking. Actually, the first thing we're thinking is about the business itself, which would be the design.
With nature it’s easy. We don't have to work anything. We don't have to design anything. Just find a nice old wood. Slice it. Beautiful, you use it. If not beautiful, you don't use it. Very simple. We never learn business. More like a craftsman. 

Key:
1 He compares a business to a bicycle.
2 A window for his mother and a fireplace for his father 
3 He sent a resume.
4 Three quarters of the space
5 He wants to have fun and doesn't have the business in mind
6 Money

London coffee shop gives the homeless a second shot at life

From pastry chef to heroin addict and now trainee barista, Ecevit Tihsinhatga is rebuilding his life, through his job at Second Shot Coffee shop.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 When did Julius Ibrahim move to London?
2 What passions does he mention?
3 How did Ecevit Tahsin end up living in the street?
4 What did he start using while he was on the streets?
5 How long has he been working at Second Shot?
6 What’s Emilio’s responsibility at Second Shot?
7 What does Second Shot also give to the homeless, apart from training people?
8 What was the increase in the number of people living on the streets in England last year?

We take people here at face value, we don’t judge, whoever you are, whatever you need, if we can help, we will.
In East London, a coffee shop has opened, employing people who have experienced homelessness in the past. Second Shot was founded by Julius Ibrahim. He dropped out of university and started a crowd fund campaign to get the social enterprise off the ground.
I moved to London in 2013 and I was just kind of surprised that there wasn’t anything more being done to alleviate the problem. So, I just wanted to kind of do something and the raise the profile of the issue, really and yeah, I just had a passion for coffee and passion for the industry.
Ecevit Tahsin, also known as Edge, works at Second Shot.
My own experience of homelessness is a very dark, very cold place. I used to be a pastry chef. I was with a partner at the time. I came home one night from work to find that she was messing about with someone in the house. We split up and because everything was in her name, I ended up on the streets. If you can imagine winter, freezing cold in a sleeping bag, trying to keep warm, trying to sleep.
During his time on the streets, Edge started using heroin.
Being on the drugs, I’m not gonna say it helped me, but it makes you numb, so you don’t feel what’s going on around you. But once my family found out I was on drugs, they kind of pushed me away. Nobody really understood me, what I was going through, what I was feeling and I was very isolated.
Edge managed to get himself off heroin and after living in hostels and temporary accommodation, he’s now being given his own flat. He’s been working at Second Shot since it opened in May 2016.
Being here has really given me a sense of purpose and helping me to re-establish my life.
Emilio is the head of coffee at Second Shot. He’s been training the homeless employees working at the café.
We started the training two weeks before we open. The idea of working with people who have been under a lot of like disadvantages, and they don’t trust people, you see, they don’t, they have a lot of issues in terms of like they don’t think that they are good enough for anything. We are trying to get the best coffee we can and at the same time helping the community around here.
As well as training people who’ve lived on the streets, Second Shot also gives free food and drink to the homeless.
With our loyalty card, after six times, each customer can get a free coffee but if they want to after three, what you can do is rip it half and hand it to someone on the street, that they can use to come in and get a free coffee. Our ‘pay it forward’ system is where our customers pre-pay for something, so that later someone off the streets can get it for free. Our customers have really embraced the idea and got behind it. We’ve given away almost 300 meals.
I’m a homeless person at the moment. I come in here every day and to get a free coffee and every time I come in here I always get a big ‘hello’. In fact, these people, sometimes wouldn’t have anywhere to get anything to eat.
The average person in the UK is only two paycheques away from becoming homeless. So, literally it can happen to anyone, and breaking down that social stigma, and getting people to understand, and getting people to give you a second shot is really challenging.
Last year there was a 30% increase in the number of people living on the streets in England. Lack of work is a major cause and consequence of homelessness.
The most rewarding part for me is doing what I love the most and also having it, making it for a good reason. Every day our customers come here and they are really happy with us, they love what we do.
I’ve been given a lot of responsibility. There is not many places like this where someone from the street can come in and feel like a part of the community. That for me really hits it home.

Key:
1 In 2013
2 Passion for coffee and for the industry
3 He split up with her partner.
4 He was on drugs, on heroin.
5 Since May 2016.
6 Training new staff.
7 Free food and coffee.
8 30%.

Extensive listening: 4 larger-than-life lessons from soap operas

Soap operas and telenovelas may be overdramatic, but as Kate Adams shows us, their exaggerated stories and characters often cast light on the problems of real life.

In this sparkling, funny talk, Adams, a former assistant casting director for "As the World Turns," share four lessons for life and business that we can learn from melodramas.

TED speaker  Kate Adams spends her days dissecting digital communications to find a better way to tell brand stories and connect with customers.

You can read the full transcript here.

Changing face of California agriculture

Mark Bittman visits the Central Valley to learn how Hmong farmers can sustain and expand their businesses in the face of huge cultural changes.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 Where and when can you buy a Japanese eggplant in California?
2 How far from the market do the Hmong families live?
3 When did the Hmongs arrive in US?
4 What are some of the challenges that the Hmong farmers are facing?
5 On how much land does Bentley Vang grow his crops?
6 What is the new project Jennifer is initiating with Hmong farmers?
7 What is the other project that she mentions?
8 What are some of the new measures the Hmong farmers have implemented as a result of the second project?

I'd like pretty much everyone to know that I've never had more fun cooking than I have since moving to California. One recent meal was a simple eggplant sandwich, but it wasn't your normal run-of-the-mill globe eggplant but a Japanese eggplant, which you can pick up at almost any decent market in the Bay Area, or for that matter, the state, most times of the year.
At the downtown Berkeley farmer's market there are several Hmong families selling their produce. They drive more than three hours from Fresno, which is home to the nation's largest Hmong farming community.
On a chilly morning, I was joined to the market by UC Berkeley's Jennifer Sowerwine. She helps small scale Hmong farmers sustain and expand their businesses. I sat down with Jennifer to learn more about what she calls the changing face of California agriculture.
The Hmong farmers, they've been farming since they arrived from Laos, beginning in around the 1980s or so. They were able to access small plots of land and adapt a lot of their cultural practices in farming here in the Central Valley, you know, in this hotbed of corporate agriculture. And so they began slowly cultivating a lot of the crops they were familiar with and then they began looking, seeking out markets.
So I was out there in Fresno a couple of years ago, saw some Hmong farmers. And I thought it was really interesting. They were struggling, needless to say. You have all these small farmers doing real food, mostly for their communities, but when you go to standard supermarkets you might as well be in Boise. What's happening with the food in Fresno that small farmers are growing? Where is it getting to?
You're right. The Hmong farmers, you know, are up against a lot of challenging odds. They've had huge challenges with limited English language and limited ability to access connections. So a lot of them have turned to farmers markets where, you know, it's fairly easy to get in. And they produce a lot of these vegetables for their customers all across the state.
One of those farmers is Bentley Vang, who leases land in Fresno County and is a regular vendor at the Berkeley farmer's market. Like many Hmong farmers he fled Laos and the aftermath of the Vietnam War. But since arriving in the US he's been farming, and he now grows a huge number of crops on around eight acres.
Jennifer travels often to the Central Valley to work with local regulating agencies to provide more culturally accessible training for Hmong farmers.
So what's your current work and what are you hoping to get done?
I'm just initiating a new project to look at the impact of the drought on Hmong farmers. So what we're going to do is interview about 150 farmers just to get a sense of what strategies are they using to cope with the drought and the extent to which they're able to access the government support programs. Another project we're looking at, too, is food safety. There already have been some implications where the buyers are requiring the Hmong to have food safety certification, and that's very costly. So we are already seeing evidence that some of the Hmong farmers are losing market.
Wow. Oh, that's delicious.
So we developed a very straightforward training program for a number of Hmong farmers in the Fresno area and it's a very hands-on applied food safety class. I mean, it's just washing your hands, making sure that you have a hand washing station next to the bathroom and you have paper towels. And one of the farmers, because he went through the food safety training, now he's able to sell to Fresno Unified School
District. And so it was really exciting to see the benefits of those classes on some of the farmers instituting a lot of the practices. And we would like to see more farmers being able to access markets like this.
Meanwhile, the stands at Bay Area farmer's markets do brisk business as new and repeat customers like Jennifer and me pick up tender cooking greens, squashes, and yes, the best eggplant.
I love these little eggplant.

Key:
1 at almost every market in the state most times of the year
2 a three-hour drive 
3 in the 1980's or so
4 limited English, limited ability to access connexions
5 eight acres
6 the impact of the drought
7 food safety 
8 washing their hands, using paper towels

Listening test: Passport for sale

Listen to a short report on the famous St. Kitts and Nevis passport and complete the gaps in the sentences below with UP TO THREE words. 0 is an example.

source: Deep English

0 Example:
According to the United Nations, there are 19.5 million refugees around the world.

1 In the US foreigners can get a permanent visa by investing $_________________ in a US business.

2 In the late 90’s, the economy of St. Kitts and Nevis was _________________.

3 Apart from the collapse of the sugar industry, _________________ hit the islands in 1998 and 1999.

4 Lawrence’s plan meant foreign companies giving donations or investing a lot of money in _____________ .

5 Lawrence calmed down the citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis by saying that the new citizens would not be given the _________________.

6 Citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis can travel to over 100 countries ________________.

7 The problem with St. Kitts and Nevis passports started when ________________ started using them.

8 Lawrence has ________________ about his plan because it brought a lot of money to St. Kitts and Nevis.

According to the United Nations, there are 19.5 million refugees around the world. Most of them are poor and in need of support. What most people don’t hear about are the ultra-rich who can easily buy their way into a new life abroad. In the US, for example, foreigners who invest $500,000 in a US business can get a permanent residency visa.
The country of St. Kitts and Nevis has taken it one step further. This island country has beautiful oceans, jungles, and mountains, but it doesn’t have much else. In the late 90’s, the economy of St. Kitts and Nevis was in trouble. Wendell Lawrence found a solution.
Lawrence worked for the finance ministry at a time when the government was in massive debt. The sugar industry, which employed a quarter of the country’s citizens, had collapsed. To make matters worse, a massive hurricane hit the islands in 1998, and in 1999 two more hit. Major rebuilding was necessary, but they had no money.
Lawrence found a foreign company that wanted to partner with St. Kitts and Nevis to sell passports. The plan was simple. For a $250,000 donation or a $400,000 investment in real estate, anyone could get a passport and citizenship.
Not everyone was on board. For many people citizenship is sacred. Some people said that foreigners might take over the country. Lawrence told them not to worry. They would be citizens, but they wouldn’t have the right to vote.
The plan was given the green light. While some customers were looking for a place to hide their money from their home countries, others were looking for the visa-free travel that a St. Kitts and Nevis passport would give. Being a member of the British Commonwealth, citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis have access to over 100 countries without a visa.
The product was a big hit. At its height, they were selling 2,000 passports a year. The plan eventually came to a head when international criminals started using St. Kitts and Nevis passports. Suddenly, countries started to scrutinize this once respected passport. Canada even said that non-native St Kitts and Nevis passport holders would not be allowed in without a visa. The market for these passports like the previous market for sugar collapsed.
Lawrence says he has no regrets. The plan raised a lot of money and improved the economy of the country. Other people disagree. One local woman said, “It’s wrong. There are ways to get money. Do it some other way. Don’t sell us out.”
St. Kitts and Nevis may have been one of the first, but they are not the last. Malta now sells citizenship, but EU passports don’t come cheap. The current price is 1.5 million Euros.

Key:
1 500,000
2 in trouble
3 (some/three massive) hurricanes
4 real estate
5 right to vote
6 without a visa
7 international criminals
8 no regrets

Why is New York City cracking down on Airbnb?

Airbnb, the short-term housing rental industry giant, now lists more than 1 million rooms available in 192 countries. The platform's largest market is in New York City, with more than 25,000 listings per night, but it's also where the debate over how to regulate short-term rentals is the most contentious.

In light of a new report by the NY Attorney General that says nearly three-quarters of Airbnb's listings in the city are technically illegal, the city is cracking down.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and asnwer the questions below.



1. Why does Jennifer rent her place?
2. How does this scheme benefit the community and the visitors?
3. What does '25,000' refer to?
4. Why might Jennifer be acting illegally?
5. Why have hotel rates gone down in New York?
6. How much tax does Airbnb pay in New York?
7. Why do residents also complain about Airbnb?
8. What additional problem is mentioned by Senator Liz Krueger and the reporter?
9. Why does Airbnb make the housing situation harder in New York?
10. How does the rental system help the residents who decide to rent out their apartment? 
11. How is this issue dealt with in Santa Monica?


HARI SREENIVASAN: So it’s a two bedroom?
JENNIFER: Yeah, two bedrooms.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Three years ago, Jennifer and her husband began listing their two bedroom apartment on what was then an up-and-coming website Airbnb.
JENNIFER: My husband travels a lot for work. We also have family all over the country. And so when we knew we were going away, I would just make the apartment available. We have a space that sleeps six. So people almost always rented it. It just kept going well and we kept having all these good experiences
HARI SREENIVASAN: Airbnb connects hosts who want to share their homes with guests who are looking for a place to stay – short term, typically for a weekend or a vacation. Airbnb lists the property, connects the two parties, and collects a booking fee.
Jennifer – she did not want us to use her last name – charges up to $200 a night to rent her place when she and her family goes away, up to a week every month.
JENNIFER: I think it’s great for the local communities, I can kind of, direct people to my favorite restaurants in the neighborhood. I’m able to help people come in here and really experience what the city has to offer, you know.
HARI SREENIVASAN: What sounds like a win-win situation for Jennifer and her guests is not so simple. What Jennifer is doing may be illegal in New York City, where city and state laws restrict short-term rentals.
The short-term home rental industry is booming. Platforms like Homeaway, Flipkey, VRBO are popular. And Airbnb has emerged as the giant in this space, especially in cities. Airbnb now lists over one million rooms available in 192 countries. And New York City, with more than 25,000 listings a night, is the platform’s largest U.S. market.
New York is also where the debate over how to regulate short term home rentals like Airbnb is perhaps most contentious.
According to a report by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman last year, nearly three-quarters of Airbnb’s listings between 2010 and 2014 were essentially ‘illegal hotels’– short term rentals that violate state and city laws against renting out an apartment for less than 30 days unless the occupants are also present.
Schneiderman found 94 percent of Airbnb hosts are like Jennifer and her husband. They have only one or possibly two listings.
VIJAY DANDAPANI: Those are rooms that would have gone to the hotel industry and should have gone to the hotel industry given what we’ve invested in the city and our buildings.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Vijay Dandapani chairs the New York City Hotel Association and is President of Apple Core Hotels, which owns five in Midtown Manhattan, including this ‘La Quinta’. He says competition from Airbnb has driven down his hotels’ room rates.
VIJAY DANDAPANI: Rates have not gone back up to pre-financial crisis despite the fact that tourism has gone up. That’s because, let’s say you had 100 rooms, now you’ve suddenly got 140 rooms, 40 of those rooms being not hotels.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Dandapani complains Airbnb and its hosts not only steal business, they also do not follow the same rules and regulations as hotels.
VIJAY DANDAPANI: We have a fire command system, security systems that give you protections from intruders, and so on. The moment you get into converting your house into a hotel, which is de facto what is being done nowadays, none of those protections are there.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Then, there’s the issue of taxes. Airbnb collects a hotel occupancy tax on behalf of hosts in many cities but not New York.
Chip Conley, Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality, says the company is looking at how to do that.
CHIP CONLEY: The annual taxes that we would be paying would be 65 million dollars if the state and city of NY would allow us to be a collector of taxes and a remitter of taxes. Currently they are not allowing us to do that.
HARI SREENIVASAN: City officials counter that allowing collection of taxes legitimizes activity that is largely unlawful.
CHIP CONLEY: So what’s odd to us is that actually New York is actually sort of a laggard here relative to so many other communities across the US who have said, let’s create sensible legislation and let’s make sure we’re actually collecting taxes as well.
HARI SREENIVASAN: New York Airbnb hosts Jordan and Joshua — who also prefer us not to use their last names — say they’d be willing to pay a hotel tax for renting out their two bedroom apartment. They already declare the income: about a $180 a night.
JORDAN: If Airbnb collected the tax right when it was booked; then we wouldn’t have to worry about it.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The hotel industry is not the only group fighting Airbnb. So are residents of apartment buildings where neighbors’ apartments are rented out to total strangers. New York State Senator Liz Krueger represents the east side of Manhattan.
SEN. LIZ KRUEGER: Constituents started coming to me and saying, “There’s something strange going on in my building. The apartments seem to be being rented out on a nightly basis. There are groups of tourists wandering in and out with luggage, with keys to the buildings."
HARI SREENIVASAN: Krueger, who has often been dubbed Airbnb’s Doubter-in-Chief, was the primary sponsor of the 2010 state law that effectively banned short-term apartment rentals in New York City.
SEN. LIZ KRUEGER: They encourage illegal activity. They don’t have to, but they choose to do so as a business model.
HARI SREENIVASAN: And the short-term rental activity that troubles officials like Krueger and Attorney General Schneiderman most is what they call ‘commercial users’ of Airbnb and similar websites.
SEN. LIZ KRUEGER: People becoming entrepreneurs and renting one to 100 apartments, claiming that they’re their own homes, and turning them into ongoing illegal hotel arrangements.
HARI SREENIVASAN: In fact, the Attorney General’s report found that while only 6 percent of Airbnb hosts advertise three or more listings, they account for more than a third of Airbnb’s business in New York.
The report also found thousands of Airbnb listings were rented for three months or more of the year.
We found that New York Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal went on what she terms an undercover sting operation this spring to find these commercial users.
ROSENTHAL: Do you live here? You don’t live here, oh ok.
In one of the videos that she released to the press, Rosenthal is seen visiting a host who, she says, was renting seven apartments in a building, none of which he lived in.
HOST: “But in case anybody asks something, you don’t know what’s Airbnb is."
ROSENTHAL: “Oh, OK."
HOST: “That’s why Airbnb always calls you guests.”
HARI SREENIVASAN: Airbnb has taken steps to remove users who have a large number of listings.
CHIP CONLEY: We, like the Attorney General, support the idea of cracking down on illegal hotels and unscrupulous landlords. In spring we took down 2,000 listings, what we were calling bad actors who we just felt shouldn’t be using the site
HARI SREENIVASAN: But State Senator Krueger argues Airbnb is enticing landlords like the one in the undercover video, to convert apartments into short-term rentals, which can be more profitable than renting them to long-term residents. And that, Krueger says, makes it harder for New Yorkers to find affordable housing in a city where the housing market is already tight.
SEN. LIZ KRUEGER: Airbnb has told me, “If you could just do one or two, it would be okay,” and the answer is no, because if 10,000 people decide to rent out two apartments fulltime, that’s 20,000 units off the market.
HARI SREENIVASAN: So we’re sitting in an illegal hotel room, according to the State Senator.
JENNIFER: Yes, I have a difference of opinion with her, for sure. It’s really hard for me to feel like my home is a hotel. I feel like someone who is welcoming a lot of people who become friends. I think the key is just making sure that it’s people are, it’s something that people are doing with their primary home. Financially, it really helps my family. Rents here have skyrocketed in the 10 years that we’ve been here.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Airbnb argues it helps residents stay in their homes by allowing them to earn supplemental income to pay their rent or mortgage.
JOSHUA: It affords me as an artist to be an artist. I use part of this income to survive on.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Joshua also says that the Airbnb system allows them to be very choosy about who they let stay in their home and when.
JOSHUA: It’s up to us as hosts what we want to do. I say we deny 8 out of 10 people that ask us to stay here. And we get a lot of requests, a lot. So that’s how I regulate it. The question that people ask is do we feel safe having people we don’t know in our home and the answer is yes.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Arun Sundararajan is a business professor at New York University. He says cities like New York should partner with companies like Airbnb and residents to forge new ways of regulating the activity on those platforms.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Why is the AirBNB model so different than the model for lodging that we’ve had all the rules and regulations around so far?
ARUN SUNDARAJAN: The fundamental innovation is in tapping into underutilized capacity: repurposing what used to be residential real estate and sort of converting it into a new form of mixed-use real estate where for some of the time it is short-term accommodation, and for the rest of the time it’s residential.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Cities across the country are grappling with these questions.
Like New York, Santa Monica banned short-term rental of entire homes when the host is not present and additionally imposes a 14-percent tax when a host rents out a room in his house.
Other cities have recently forged a middle ground.
San Francisco residents are permitted to rent out homes a maximum of 90 days a year.
In Philadelphia, the maximum is 180 days and hosts must pay an eight-and-a-half percent hotel tax to the city.
ARUN SUNDARARAJAN: I think that there’s a growing recognition among cities that this kind of sharing economy activity can be good for a city.
HARI SREENIVASAN: But for now, New York City is cracking down. It has expanded the office tasked with investigating complaints of illegal hotels and is proposing higher fines for violators.

Key:
1. her husband travels a lot for work and they have family all over the country
2. Jennifer directs visitors to specific places (restaurants) in the neighbourhood; visitors are advised on interesting places to drop by
3. the number of Airbnb houses available in New York
4. Jennifer and her family rent their apartment when they are away
5. there are many more rooms available thanks to platforms like Airbnb
6. none
7. total strangers keep coming up to the buildings
8. a small percetage of individuals are renting out hundreds of apartments, which means 1) it is not possible they live in those apartments they rent and 2) they have created an illegal business
9. empty apartments are rented short-term because it is more profitable and so New York residents who would be willing to rent the apartmemts long-term do not have the option to do so
10. they get extra cash that help them pay very high rents
11. Santa Monica banned short-term rental of entire homes when the host is not present and additionally imposes a 14-percent tax when a host rents out a room in his house

Reading test: Spain home of the luxury espadrille

In this week's reading test we are going to practise the multiple choice grammar and vocabulary test. To do so, we are going to use El Pais article Spain: home of the luxury espadrille.

Read the text and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each blank. 0 is an example.

Spain: home of the luxury espadrille

Back in the 1970s, Isabel and Lorenzo Castañer, a Spanish couple with a small artisanal business (0) … espadrilles, or alpargatas as they are known in Spain, (1) … Yves Saint Laurent in Paris. When the fashion designer discovered what they did for a living, he asked if they would be able to make a wedge version of the traditional sandal.
“My father, (2) … was always looking for new challenges, accepted,” says Antonio Castañer, now CEO of the family firm that dates back six generations.
The offer to work with Yves Saint Laurent came at a time when Castañer was facing a(n) (3) …: its traditional market, made up of farmers and villagers, was getting smaller as rural Spaniards left the countryside for the cities in search of work and better opportunities, leaving their espadrilles behind.
Now, four decades on from that meeting in the French capital, tastes have changed and the time-honored simplicity of the original espadrille is (4) … . Around a third of Castañer’s production are designs for luxury (5)… .
The espadrille’s rustic (6) … has always had its admirers but an increasingly varied range of models are now available, making it an haute couture option. In 2011, Karl Lagerfeld took Chanel’s famous two-tone dress shoe and adapted it to the traditional espadrille. A year later, Valentino created a sensation by using delicate designs (7) … the usual strong canvas for the top part. Since then, both pret-à-porter luxury companies and high street (8) … have helped put the espadrille in the center of attention. There is something special and (9) … about it, says Antonio Castañer. “It’s a return to something natural, to something hand-made, Mediterranean.”
Barcelona-based company Naguisa, a newish firm that (10) … a name for itself by reviving traditional, hand-made espadrilles, brought out its SOC model in 2012 by copying the traditional model using unusual colours. “Eight years ago we (11) … to see a trend developing for home-grown, sustainable shoes using natural materials,” says Claudia Pérez Polo, the firm’s co-founder. Naguisa exports more than 70% of its (12) … to more than 25 countries. Its designs, many of which have been copied and recopied, are sold in US trendy women’s fashion chain Anthropologie.
“When we started out, the truth is that I (13) … espadrilles,” says Pérez. But conscious it needed to attract a younger clientele, Naguisa was able to combine tradition with local know-how to build a business that could establish an international presence. Since then, other Spanish fashion designers (14) … Paloma Barceló, Like Mimika, and Prism have begun making luxury espadrilles now found in the best-known stores around the world by combining Spanish tradition with cutting-edge design.

0 Example:
A constructing
B doing
C making

1
A bumped into
B came up with
C encountered

2
A that
B which
C who

3
A downturn
B improvement
C rise

4
A in fashion
B into the fashion
C out of fashion

5
A brands
B makes
C marks

6
A exterior
B layout
C look

7
A instead
B instead of
C rather

8
A customers
B retailers
C shoppers

9
A appalling
B appealing
C disgusting

10
A had made
B has made
C made

11
A begun
B had begun
C has begun

12
A output
B input
C handouts

13
A had never worn
B never wore
C would never have worn

14
A as
B like
C such

traditional espadrille

wedge espadrille

KEY:
1A 2C 3A 4A 5A 6C 7B 8B 9B 10B 11A 12A 13C 14B

The Pint-Size CEO

Moziah Bridges started making bow ties when he was 9 years old. Now he is 13 and at the helm of his own company, Mo’s Bows. But when it comes to the business, who is really in charge?

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 How much money has Mo made so far?
2 How long has Mo's grandmother been in the sewing business?
3 What does $5 and $40 to $60 refer to?
4 Who is the most important person is Mo's life?
5 Where does most of the money the business makes go?
6 What's the biggest challenge for Mo's mom?
7 Why does Mo have problems at school?
8 What are boys who are Mo's age into?
9 What criticism do Mo's parents get?
10 Why does Mo feel he has a lot more freedom at 13?

I'm a little guy. But I'm a little guy with the big business.
He's the bow tie guy.
Let me tell you something about bow ties.
You've made about $165,000.
He does have a CEO of Mo. And that's Mama. And Mama makes the decisions.  We are not going to sacrifice his childhood for the business.
Bow ties make you look good and they make you feel good.
When they asked me about my bow ties, I told them my story. When I was nine, I just wanted to look good.
I asked my lovely, lovely grandmother, who's been sewing for over 50 years, to teach me how to sew. And after that, ba-zam. My company took off.
He was his own walking model. He started selling them for $5.  And fast-forward to three years later, he's selling them for $40 to $60. I worked in sales when we started Mo's Bows, and it quickly took off. And I decided that my boss could be 12.
I have five seamstresses -my mom, my grandmother, my whole family, basically.
Also, if you're getting it for a gift for someone, he can certainly include a personal note.
You have people loving each other, and still achieving a dream or a goal. I don't think I would be able to be where I am without my mom. She's the one who holds Mo's Bows together. She's doing pretty good, I can say.
We don't live an elaborate life. We're still very conscious of what we have and where we want to go.  So a lot of the profit definitely goes back into the business.  Ultimately, he wants to have a clothing line. We're looking into neckties.  We recently added pocket squares. We definitely want to make Mo's Bows a household name.
Red.  You out of green.
Oh, really?
Yeah. They took them all.
Dealing with my mom, that's probably the most challenging part.
Maybe 20 more times be good?
We didn't sell too many.
By we you mean?
Me.
Really.
We're like fire and ice.
Ma, I love you.
But at the end of the day, we come up with a good solution.
Sometimes we have to walk on eggshells. You just never know what day it is for him. So it's kind of having to work around him as a teenager, as a child, and as a student and a businessman. Just really keeping the balance has been the biggest challenge.
What is this on your tie?  Is that toothpaste?
Yes, it is.
Good morning, Mr. Bridges.
How you doing, sir?
Great.
Great.
Belt?
Thank you, sir.
Socks?
Hands.  Feet.  Lips.  Go ahead.
We've run into problems at school with him sitting in business meetings, and then having to sit in class and be quiet.
Dimples is a recessive trait.
It seems ridiculous to me, because I want to talk.  But you have people who tell you, it's time to be quiet. No, it's not time to be quiet.  So I think I should talk.  So I'm going to talk.
Boys his age, they're not really into fashion.  A lot of them are into sports, rap music, and all that good stuff.  And it's just not what he's into.
Can you talk a little bit about some of the bow ties you brought with you today?
Well, some of the bow ties…
I would hope to see that Mo will grow up to live out his dreams, no matter what it is.  I feel like Mo is the future we want to see in our children. And I believe that's why everyone is so proud of him.
I was going to try to get you to make a sale before you leave here.
He called you an innovator. Do you know what that is?  Something that not everyone else is doing. Right?  What do you think?  Does that fit you?  You can understand what a big deal this is. You're the youngest inductee.
I'm being inducted into the Tennessee State Museum.  And that's a big thing, because it's my family history that is going to be in the museum.  It's going to be here forever.
Our first recipient tonight- we've just hugged him all night long. He's probably got sore bones by now… is Moziah Bridges.
Thank you for having me, everyone.
Bring this here, Mo.
Gonna sit here, at the head of the table?
You're an official teenager.
Dear Father, we come to you through your son Jesus Christ.
We get criticism not very often, but sometimes it's the fact that this is not Mo's business, it's his parents putting him in the spotlight. But I always tell Mo, any time you feel like you are overwhelmed and you need to pull the plug, it's OK.  I will need to be prepared for that.
I appreciate y'all coming over and helping us celebrate 13 years.  I was telling Mo this morning, I was like, Mo, you don't understand. This is a big deal.  When I brought you home, you were this little. And I had no idea what I was doing. I had to feed you and clothe you. And with a lot of love and nourishment, you turned out pretty good.
13 feels great. I have a lot more freedom, like staying up past eight. That's the main thing. 

Key:
1 $165,000
2 fifty years
3 the price he started selling his ties for ($5) and the price he's selling them for now ($40 to $60)
4 his mom 
5 into the business
6 keeping the balance, as Mo is a teenager, a child, a student and a businessman.
7 he has to keep quiet
8 sports, rap music, and all that good stuff
9 this is not Mo's business, it's Mo's parents putting him in the spotlight
10 He can stay up past 8.

Alison Chung, a digital detective

Alison Chung is not wired like most people. This can present challenges socially, but from a business perspective, it’s her competitive advantage as the owner of a consulting firm that is essentially a digital detective agency.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 How often does Alison use digital devices when she's with her family?
2 What was Alison's upbringing like?
3 In what languages did she read detective stories?
4 What subject did she excel at?
5 How much was the write-off the client had written to the law firm?
6 How long had Alison been answering questions when she was enquired about box 97?
7 Who usually hires her company?
8 What is the worst part of her job?

Sometimes people ask me, you know, ‘when does it get busy for you?’ And I say, you know, ‘whenever there’s lying, cheating and dishonesty, it’s busy. And I’m sorry to say, we’re a little bit on the busy side.’
TeamWerks is a technology consulting firm with a particular focus in computer forensics. Whenever there’s a question as to who did what when, it is probably on some digital device, ready for somebody like me to find. We can tell you the text messages that were sent even if they’re erased. 
My family members will not allow me to be in the presence of their digital devices. When I visit, everybody locks everything up.
I had a very traditional upbringing. My parents were very strict. When I was naughty and my mother would say go to your room, I was thrilled because behind closed doors I would be doing puzzles and pretend to solve crimes. I read every detective novel in English and Chinese that was available.
I really liked math because it was easy for me. I was good with numbers.
That was a time during the tech boom so there was a lot of business to be had. So I just kind of went with my gut and said, you know what, I just want to form a small company and I just want us to work on tech projects.
Ok, we just received this hard drive.
We fell into the forensics. I received a call from some law firm partners I had known and they said we need somebody to go through more than 20 boxes of computer code because their client had written a one-line $50,000,000 write-off and the IRS’ questioning whether or not that write-off is valid.
I’ll never forget this; there were five men in half-glasses and they looked very stern and they said ‘Good morning. Who is that girl?’ And, one of the attorneys said ‘Oh, that’s our expert.’ The five IRS lawyers started laughing and they said ‘How much do you want to bet that we can break her down?’ And the first half-glasses looked at me and said, ‘Yes, Ms. Chung, our expert witness here, would you care to explain to us what happened in box number 78?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I would be delighted to.’ And so, the inquiry went on and on, and box after box. I think it was at the end of the fourth hour, the question was ‘OK. What happened to 97?’ I said ‘Oh, that was an exciting time. 97 was a good box.’ And at that point, I smiled to myself, I knew I had them.
When they said that we won, I was screaming for joy and I said ‘Give me another one! Give me another one!’
Embedded in all this code, that is a nugget of information that will be prove to be useful.
We get hired by the lawyers to examine computers and then, it’s not until you get into the bowels of the system and you look at who is talking to whom, and you realize, ‘oh my gosh, this is organized crime.’ And so at this point, I have a decision to make: I could resign or just tell the truth. It is dangerous, it is risky.
I have thought that I might be in physical danger doing this job because of the robberies but because I am Buddhist, I believe that when it’s my time, that’s when it will be. I’m not fearful. But I have taken the necessary precautions and I think that’s enough.
I always wanted to solve mysteries, I just didn’t know that I was going to be a digital detective. I think differently, I look at things differently. I mean, sometimes, I go to social events and see somebody and I’m wondering, ‘Wow, I wonder what’s on their computer.’

Key:
1 never
2 strict
3 English and Chinese
4 maths
5 $50,000,000 
6 four hours 
7 lawyers
8 the risk of physical danger

Extensive listening: 3 lessons on success from an Arab businesswoman

Professional Arab women juggle more responsibilities than their male counterparts, and they face more cultural rigidity than Western women. What can their success teach us about tenacity, competition, priorities and progress?

Tracing her career as an engineer, advocate and mother in Abu Dhabi, Leila Hoteit shares, in this TED Talk, three lessons for thriving in the modern world.

You can read a full transcript here.

Listening test: Sugar tax

Listen to a report on the British government's plans to set a tax on sugary drinks and complete the blanks in the sentences below with up to THREE WORDS. 0 is an example.

source: Gerry's News Digest

0 Example:
UK citizens are expected to pay a tax on sugary drinks in two years' time.

1 The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the government's plans in the latest government _______________________ .

2 The tax will be imposed on what is UK's biggest single source of excess sugar: _______________________ .

3 The tax will be imposed on the volume of sugary drinks that a company _______________________ .

4 Both milk-based drinks as well as _______________________ will not be taxed.

5 The money collected will be used to _______________________ in schools.

6 The effect the tax has had in some other countries has been positive, at least in the _______________________ .

In two years the UK is going to have a new tax on sugary drinks. I’ve talked before about the latest thinking on the links between sugar consumption and medical problems such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes and so on. In the latest government budget statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that he’s responding to demands from the health sector to do something about reducing our sugar consumption by imposing a tax on what is our biggest single source of excess sugar: high sugar drinks, which are particularly popular with children and teenagers. The drinks that’ll be affected are things like classic Coke and Pepsi, energy drinks, Fanta and tonic water. The tax will not be on the product as such but on the company. The tax will be on the volume of sugary drinks that a company produces or imports. The tax will be in two bands: one for drinks with more than 5g of sugar per 100 millilitres, and the second band for drinks with more than 8g. The price of a can of Coca-Cola will rise by about 10%. Milk-based drinks as well as pure fruit juices will not be taxed. The drinks industry has two years to get ready, and I’m sure they’ll be lobbying until the last moment against the tax. A feature of the tax will be that the money raised will be kept separate from general taxation and it’ll be used specifically to promote sport in primary schools.
So will the tax have its intended effect of reducing national sugar consumption? Other countries that have already tried something similar include Mexico and Hungary where the short-term result at least has been positive. The debate goes on, however, about the morality of the government trying to control what we consume. 

KEY:
1 budget statement
2 high sugar drinks
3 produces or imports
4 pure fruit juices
5 promote sport
6 short term

Brooklyn’s Most Cluttered Bookstore

John Scioli, the owner of the Community Bookstore, in Brooklyn, prepares to shutter a neighborhood institution.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.



1 John Scioli has a bad reputation in the neighbourhood.
2 He knews where each book is.
3 Nobody knows how many books there are in the bookshop.
4 John Scioli is making a lot of money.
5 His second wife died in 2002.
6 John is turning 69 next month.
7 John is planning to open another bookshop.
8 He's planning to keep living in the same area.

I don't know if I'm allowed to curse on here, but the first impression was holy shit. It's like a cavern of books.
It's my first time in here. I've gone by this place several times in the past seven or eight years.  I've never come in.  And tonight, we had dinner across the street. The door was open, the lights were on, and this place is definitely incredible. It reminds me of my grandmother's basement.
What's up with this guy?
Wh… what is… like, what is this black hole of a hoarder's nest?
I… I don't know.  I… I don't know if I could work through that, but whoever owns this… clearly, it works for them.
He has a compulsion, obviously. 
Certainly not a neat freak.
I would imagine him to be a bit of a pack rat.
In my mind, it's somebody who lives somewhere in the building and, like, never leaves. That's what I want it to be. 
He seems nice.
An eclectic man of the neighborhood. He's always extremely helpful.
Yeah, it's just a person who knows that, like, the place that we find ourselves is in literature.  Even if it were better organized, it's kind of like, well, no, fuck it, like, let's just give them as much as we can possibly give them.
How do you find anything?
He knows where every book is, this guy.
"Man's Search for Meaning," Viktor…
Frankl.
… Frankl.
All the way in the back.  I might have a new one, a new paperback. I don't think I have a used one.
Take a look.
Don't…
Yeah, I have one. I have a new one.
Oh, good.
Now…
How many books do I think are in here?
Oh, this is like a jelly bean jar question?
Oh, my god, millions. 
Infinite.  There are an infinite amount of books in here.
This is like high-stakes Jenga in here.
You don't have to worry about knocking anything over, because it's going to happen.
Oh.  I did not do that.  I didn't even touch a book!
Fuck!
Sir, I'm telling you right now…
I didn't even touch a book.
No, OK, all right.  That's all right.
Oh.
I'm attached to it. Yeah.  I love it and I hate it.  It's a lot of work.  It's a very difficult business, yeah. It gets harder and harder to make ends meet. You know, one year at a time.  It's like… I came here in 1985.  Then I met my second wife in about 1988. She helped a lot with the store.  She passed away in 2002.  It was hard just to live, not just to go on with the bookstore.  She was like the opposite of me, because she was always straightening everything out. Now it's gotten to the point where even she couldn't straighten it out.  It's just too much. It's too much work.  I'm 69 years old.  I just can't go on doing it. You can make a lot of money and kill yourself. And what good is that?
Every time I pass here, I think, I mean, I wonder how John's doing.  I haven't seen him in so long.
I'm still half sane.
You have so many more books than even a couple years ago. This is amazing to me. 
I sold the building, so…
Oh, you did?
Yeah, next May, I'm gonna close the store.
Oh, no.
I have to close the store.
Yeah.
So is it gonna be like a… like a restaurant or something?
And I heard that it's somebody… the people who bought it own a Victoria's Secret or something in Herald Square, which is really sad.  I find it really sad.  I mean, it's sad to lose things like this, but I feel like it's more of a responsibility on the next generation to make things like this happen. We can't just expect them to, like, stick around forever.
Where do you see yourself going?
You mean to live?
Not as a bookstore. I wouldn't start another bookstore.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Perhaps eventually buy me a small apartment. But I'd like to stay in the neighborhood, because it's a wonderful neighborhood.
Yeah.
It's fun and then it's very difficult, too. So I just decided to stop.
Good for him.  That's sad, though, for us. 

Key:
1F 2T 3T 4F 5T 6F 7F 8T

The necessity of failure

Nancy Jean Dubuc is the current President and Chief Executive Officer of the American media company A&E Networks. Here she talks with The Times’s Corner Office columnist, Adam Bryan about leadership, management and success.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and complete the gaps in the transcript below with the missing words.



The drug of success is great but it’s (1) ... . You know, the exercise and the nutrition that you have to do to get the drug of success is failure.
Nancy, you’re in the business of making big (2) ... and you’ve made a lot of them over the years. Famous shows you greenlit like Iceroad Truckers, the miniseries Hatfields McCoys – that’s a creative process. How do you do that? How do you think through those things?
We take risks every day and not all of them work but everyone remembers the successes. And, you know, for every Iceroad Truckers, there was an evolution – Jurassic (3) ... ... – there were other shows that didn’t work.
Was there a moment early in your career when you started to feel like, “I have a gut for this.”?
Yeah, you know, I’ve always loved television. I’ve loved watching television. I look for things I want to watch and I think that’s an interesting balance in our business. Too often companies are making very creative decisions based on (4) ... ..., based on data, brand. There’s a lot of things that wouldn’t get through brand filters that are huge hits on our air today. It does, at its (5) ..., come back to gut.
I’d love to talk about Abbe Raven, your predecessor at A&E, your mentor for many years. It’s so rare in corporate America for a woman CEO to pass the (6) ... to another woman.
Yeah, it’s pretty lonely being a CEO and there aren’t that many people that you can talk to in confidence with no agenda. You know, Abbe and I understand the symbolism of a woman CEO handing off to a woman CEO but the interesting thing about our relationship is that we never put it in the context of woman-to-woman. She doesn’t tell me what she knows I’m going to discover on my own but she (7) ... ... at the right moment to say, “I know what you just discovered. Are you okay?” and that’s invaluable.
Have you had some moments over your career where you felt like you were being treated a certain way just because you were a woman?
I wouldn’t even say it’s deliberate but it does happen where women who are, you know, strong-minded, strong-(8) ... and (9) ... , there’s this likeability factor – there’s lots of studies around that. That you know, attributes are likeable in men, those same attributes are (10) ... in women. I don’t think women alone can change that. I think women and men have to work together to change that. And in a world of social media, where all of the (11) ... is liking something, I worry that that’s going to get even more complicated for this next generation of women.
Now you’re CEO and you’re mentoring other people in your company.
You know, I think mentorship has become a management (12) ... but it often boils down to: What’s stopping you from doing what you think should be done? What’s keeping you from taking that (13) ... ? You know, when you’re growing in a—from a career standpoint and when you’re really advancing, it’s uncomfortable and you’re going to feel uncomfortable and you have to somehow find some comfort in the discomfort.

KEY:
1 fleeting
2 bets 
3 Fight Club 
4 financial return
5 core
6 baton 
7 pops up
8 willed 
9 opinionated
10 unlikeable 
11 currency
12 buzzword 
13 swing

Listening test: Streaming music

Listen to part of a radio programme where the reporters are talking about streaming music and complete the sentences below with up to THREE words. 0 is an example.



0 Example:
Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Prime and Apple Music are examples of streaming service companies.

1 These companies have a huge _______________ , which the listener can listen for free.

2 Premium members of Spotify can enjoy unlimited access to _______________ for $10 a month.

3 We must differentiate between streaming music and the _______________ .

4 iTunes takes _______________ of the price the user pays.

5 The money the label pays the songwriter is called _______________ , which is about 8 cents per song.

6 The artist usually gets between _______________ percent of the list price.

7 The artist usually has to pay back _______________ to the record label for publicizing.

8 Taylor Swift makes about $3 _______________ , download or physical record.

So let’s start off with just explaining how streaming music works. So there are many different streaming service companies out there. Uh, the most famous being Spotify, Pandora, uh, Amazon Prime and now most recently Apple Music is joining the group and most of them are free listening so they have a huge library of music and, uh, a listener can sign up and listen for free as long as they’re willing to hear advertisements once in a while. But most of the services like Spotify, you can upgrade to a premium membership which usually charges about $10 a month and that is for unlimited access to ad-free music.
Hmm, and if you think about what your music budget, what your entertainment budget is for the month, $10 a month for unlimited music, you know, for the price of a CD a month is just astronomically a good deal for, uh, listeners.
Sure. It is a great deal from the listener’s point of view but, uh, I wonder what it’s like for the artist. Uh, Sam, can you tell us a little bit about the digital download model versus this new streaming model?
Yes. So digital downloads have been a long, uh … around for a long time as well and, uh, they’ve started to see … they had their controversy from when they initially started as well. Let’s get an idea, say, you buy a download off of iTunes. So iTunes takes it cut which is about 30% of the list price and then they remit the rest of that to the label then the label pays the songwriter, the songwriter, I think, that’s not the performer and necessarily, not all of the time it’s called a mechanical royalty which is typically about 8 cents per song. So for a 10 song album, you get about 80 cents for the download. Um, then the label also has to pay the artist who is signed to their label, um, is not necessarily always the same person. As I said, it’s the songwriter so the royalty that’s typically between 12 to 18 percent of the list price. So on a $10 list price of a download say, the artist would see about a dollar 50 per download. Now, also the artist has, remember–that is signed to that label, also has to payback depending on what their contract said, um, marketing costs back to the record label for, um, publicizing, uh, recouping some of the cost that the label has already spent to market their record in the first place. So, around $1.50 per download which doesn’t, say, seem like a lot but it’s something. At least they could make something from it. So for artists and especially for big artists like Taylor Swift who writes and co-writes the majority of her music anyway, um, she’s one of the rare artists who she of course recoups the money that her label spends on making the record and marketing her records as well. Uh, so she’s set in the vicinity to make about $3 per record sold, um, download or physical record sold and when we’re talking the millions and millions and millions that Ms. Taylor sells, she’s making herself a lot of money.

Key:
1 library of music
2 ad-free music
3 digital download model  or digital downloads
4 30%
5 (a) mechanical royalty
6 12 to 18
7 marketing costs
8 per record sold

Listening test: Social entrepreneurs

Listen to a radio report on social entrepreneurs and match extracts 1-6 with their corresponding heading. There are two headings you do not need to use.

A - In the public eye
B - Main priority
C - Money for the projects
D - Part of the education system
E - Receiving lots of awards
F - Some disadvantages too
G - Some examples
H - Who are social entrepreneurs

1
Social entrepreneurs – people who create startup companies that would help the environment, healthcare or agriculture – are on the rise. These entrepreneurs use innovation to tackle important economic and social problems. They can be for-profit or non-profit entities.

2
Funding for social entrepreneurs is increasing. This is coming from foundations, institutional investors and individuals. Kiplinger is a personal finance publication in Washington, D.C. It reported that the amount of assets in socially responsible investing – focused on companies doing good in the world – almost doubled,
from $3.74 trillion in 2012 to $6.57 trillion in 2014. Globally, interest in socially responsible investing is growing even faster. The 2014 Global Sustainable Investment Review said that between 2012 and 2014, global assets rose to $21.4 trillion from $13.3 trillion – an increase of 61 percent.

3
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, in Geneva, Switzerland, is an example of a foundation that advances social entrepreneurs around the world. Each year, working with the World Economic Forum, the foundation searches the globe “for outstanding social innovators, with business models that are proven to drive social and environmental change,” said their website. Getting rich is not the primary aim of social entrepreneurs. Instead, their focus is on fulfilling their mission to improve society. “While profits are ideally generated, the main aim is not to maximize financial returns for shareholders, but to grow the social venture and reach more people in need,” said the Schwab Foundation website. Usually, social entrepreneurs reinvest their profits in the enterprise to expand it.

4
Kristin Groos Richmond is co-founder of Revolution Foods and one of the social entrepreneurs selected by the Schwab Foundation. Her company, in Oakland, California, is dedicated to providing fresh food, prepared daily, for families and schools, and is active in 11 states across the U.S. and Washington, DC. Richmond said social entrepreneurs are driven by their values. She gave the following advice to aspiring social entrepreneurs: “Align yourself with a team, a board and investors who believe in your mission.” Many social entrepreneurs create novel solutions to solve world problems. Bart Weetjens, a Belgian social entrepreneur, is an example. He kept rats as childhood pets, then realized they could be put to work detecting land mines. He founded the non-profit organization APOPO in 1997. APOPO has used specially trained rats on leashes to clear more than 13,200 unexploded bombs from minefields in Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola and Cambodia, according to the National Geographic. APOPO uses African giant-pouched rats, which are huge, cat-sized rats native to central Africa. They have “an extraordinary sense of smell,” said the National Geographic. The rats are lightweight enough to walk across the mines without setting them off. And their sensitive noses can sniff out explosives buried in the ground, even decades after a war has ended.

5
In addition, many business schools – both in the U.S. and other countries – now offer courses in social entrepreneurship. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania is an example. It is ranked by US News & World Report as one of the nation’s top business schools. Wharton Online offers a five-week class on social entrepreneurship, four to six hours a week, through Coursera, a global e-learning platform. Graduates of the course receive a certificate and “learn how to develop, test and deploy high-impact solutions to society’s toughest problems,” according to Coursera’s website.

6
Social entrepreneurs have also won increased media attention. For example, Forbes showcased “30 Under 30” – the top social entrepreneurs younger than 30 from around the world. One honoree, Sejal Hathi, age 25, was a molecular biology student at Yale, who sought to help girls globally. She founded Girltank, a for-profit start-up, to identify and develop girls with potential to be high-impact leaders. The website refers to it as “the she lab for social entrepreneurship.” “Girltank creates a virtual tank for young women interested in social entrepreneurship to utilize the collective genius of the group to brainstorm ideas and solutions, crowdsourcing funding for their ventures, and receive peer-to-peer mentoring,” according to the website.

Key:
1H 2C 3B 4G 5D 6A

Stacy Ratner, Founder of Open Books

Stacy Ratner, founder of Chicago-based Open Books, has built a high-impact literacy nonprofit by applying everything she learned as a serial tech entrepreneur.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 What are the real working hours for Stacy?
2 What does Open Books collect?
3 How many students benefit from the literacy programmes Open Books funds?
4 What did Stacy use to do as a child in summer?
5 Who did she work for when she was at law school?
6 What difficulties do people with literacy problems have?
7 What did Stacy have difficulty in finding when she had already decided to set up Open Books?
8 How many students benefit from the Creative Writing Workshops?
9 What is the prize for those participants in the worshops who decide to read their work?
10 How many people work for Open Books?

When the Open Books idea came along in 2006 and I started really working on that, that was the first moment to say, "This is what I have really had in my heart my whole life and now I think I would like to do it," I would say nine-to-five, but it is really like 7 in the morning 'til 9 at night, every day for as long as I can continue to work those kind of hours because I think this is really the thing that I am supposed to work on.
Open Books is a non-profit literacy organization headquartered in Chicago. We collect used books. We sell those in our two bookstores and online. We use that money to fund literacy programs, reading and writing, for about 5,000 students a year, across the city.
I liked to read. That will not be a surprise to anybody. My parents were both teachers and so many summers we would be out of the country. We lived in Denmark for several summers; we lived in Israel for several summers. I was the kind of kid who reads a lot and plays with my brother.
I really cared a lot about working with words, so I wanted to be a copy editor from the time I was about six, and I went off to college to become a copy editor many years later.
Halfway through my first year of law school the big legal publishing firm in Boston closed and moved to Minneapolis. So, there I was in law school thinking I'm not really sure what comes next.
My brother said, "I am going to start a company. Do you want to work with me in my first start start-up?" and I said, "Like when we were little and we would have companies and you would be CEO and I would be everything else?" And he said, "Exactly like that." So we did. He was the CEO of our first company and I was everything else until we could hire some people.
I decided that the really big challenge I wanted to devote myself to was something in the non-profit sphere and literacy was on the list because literacy has been sort of a thread throughout everything in my life.
And when we say "basic" literacy we are talking about beginning at the level of difficulty reading the label on a can of food, difficulty filling out a job application, difficulty deciphering a bus schedule. And one of the reasons that we’ve chosen to focus on children is of course those are the adults of tomorrow.
The Open Books concept from the beginning was: Let's have a used bookstore. If my cost for picking up a bag of books is a couple of dollars and I can sell each of those books for a couple of dollars I have just made a profit on that particular bag of books and now I can make it work to scale.
It was so hard to find the right space because we had very specific set of needs. We were looking for a retail facility which could also have offices and classrooms, which was near public transportation, that was in a part of the city that students could access, that had ideally some processing space and a loading dock because the books had to come in and out.
That was really the driving challenge for the first three years. I looked at envelope factories. I toured a not-entirely-cleared-out funeral home that was on the market. True. And when we eventually did find the first Open Books location it was a Wizard of Oz "no place like home" moment.
Creative Writing Workshops is our largest program in terms of students served – about 4,000 a year. Those are two-hour writing workshops for third through twelfth grades. And at the end of the session, those who choose to can share their work with the class.
The year turned on and the water, uh . . .
They then each go into our bookstore and choose a book to take home. And then a few weeks later they get a published, bound anthology of all the writing that the class did.
Is it a whole bunch of Portuguese stuff or just that one?
Oh, just this one.
Cool.
We now have 18 people on staff, 500 volunteers a year. Every single one of those people is here because they care deeply about the mission. So, my job as founder is going to be to support all of that. We are all heading for the same ideal vision, which is, turn Chicago into 100 percent literacy. We all want to be a part of that.

Key:
1 from 7 in the morning till 9 at night
2 used books
3 5,000 
4 Travel round the world, read and play with her brother
5 Her brother
6 Difficulty reading the label on a can of food, difficulty filling out a job application, difficulty deciphering a bus schedule.
7 The right space/premises for the business 
8 4,000 a year
9 They can choose a book from the store and they have their work published
10 18