The Daily Valet. - 11/13/19, Wednesday

✔️ A Showdown, Sonic's Glow-Up and New Podcasts

Wednesday, November 13th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Anyone else feeling overwhelmed with all the streaming options? I need a personal day to catch up.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

The Showdown Will Be Televised

The impeachment inquiry’s public hearings begin today

Today, the House Intelligence Committee holds the first televised hearing in its impeachment investigation of President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. A second hearing will be held on Friday. This is just the third time in US history that an impeachment inquiry will be televised.

The Democrats aim to build public support for one of the gravest actions Congress can take, reports the Wall Street Journal. Over the past week, the Democratic-led committees working on the impeachment inquiry have released thousands of pages of testimony from depositions and at least four witnesses have testified in private that they believed that there was an abuse of power for an explicit quid pro quo. This includes the acting ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor, who will testify today along with George Kent, a senior State Department official.

The Republicans, meanwhile, appear to be splintered in their defense of Trump's questionable actions, reports The Atlantic. "If the president did nothing wrong, then the act couldn’t have been inappropriate but not impeachable. If the president didn’t know what was going on, how would everything he’d done have been perfect and aboveboard?"

Such contradictions seem to undermine the effort to defend the president in the court of public opinion, not to mention against accusations of high crimes and misdemeanors. One thing is for sure, Trump will be watching. The Hill reports that the president has no events on his official schedule until noon, so brace yourself for realtime reactions on Twitter.

↦ How to Watch: The hearing starts at 10 am EST, airing on all cable news networks and will stream live on the websites for the three government committees overseeing the impeachment inquiry: the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Intelligence Committee.

Supreme Court Seems Ready to Drop the Dreamers

Justices heard arguments as supporters rallied

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court appeared likely to support the Trump administration's plan to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the federal program enacted by President Obama that has allowed nearly 800,000 young people, known as "dreamers," avoid deportation and remain in the US.

After hearing nearly an hour and a half of oral arguments, the court's conservative majority seemed to consider the current administration's arguments for ending the program sufficient enough, although Chief Justice John Roberts appeared less swayed.

He said the Supreme Court could rule in a humane way, minimizing the hardships people participating in the program would face if it were ended. At the same time, the President tweeted, "Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from 'angels.' Some are very tough, hardened criminals."

But that's false. NBC News reports that "dreamers" have a lower-rate of incarceration than native-born Americans, according to a 2017 study by the libertarian CATO Institute. And only qualified "dreamers" who have "not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor or three or more other misdemeanors" can even be considered for DACA status, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

↦ What's Next: The high court's decision is expected in June, but could come as early as January.

Got Milk?

America’s largest milk producer files for bankruptcy

Here's an ironic truth: I love all types of cheese and any flavor of ice cream, but I can't recall the last time I bought a gallon of milk. In my house, it's almond milk on my cereal and some alternative nut milk creamer in my coffee. But that might be more common than I think.

Dean Foods, the biggest dairy producer in the US, filed for bankruptcy Tuesday and said it may sell itself to the farmer's co-op known as the Dairy Farmers of America. The 94-year-old company has struggled recently as people consume less cow's milk.

For context, Americans drank around 24 gallons a year back in 1996, according to government data. That dropped to 17 gallons in 2018. It seems like I'm not so unique after all, because butter and cheese consumption is up since 1996.

Get Help Finding Your Next Podcast

The guy who suggested podcasts to Steve Jobs thinks he can predict your next favorite

Since the dawn of podcasting, creators have been asking, “Why isn’t anyone listening to my podcast?” They beg listeners to rate them in hope that it improves their status in the recommendation algorithm. Then they try to invite guests on their shows that have more popular friends, believing that it’ll expose them to a new and wider audience. Let's face it: finding a good podcast can be tricky.

But Fast Company has introduced us to a just-launched app, Spkr, which bills itself as the “first audio platform centered on short-form content,” which is the latest app trying to solve that problem. It's developed by veteran TV and radio executive Andy Schuon, who apparently introduced Steve Jobs to the concept of "iPod shows."

So how does this app work? An in-house team curates short clips from podcasts and uses AI to play a selection of the shows they think the user will like, a bit like how Netflix plays clips from movies or TV programs that it thinks suits your tastes. The clips definitely give you some insight into a show or the podcast's overall vibe.

↦ Download: Want to try Spkr for yourself? Download it from the App Store.

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Outfitting your bedroom for optimal sleep

The future of blockchain

The travel trends to know in 2020

Sonic Gets a Glow-Up

And the public rewards the effort

Paramount Pictures debuted an updated official trailer for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie, and fans are much happier with the appearance of the iconic blue hedgehog this time around.

When the character was first unveiled back in April, the reaction was a mixture of disappointment, outrage and a little freaked out by the lovable cartoon's weirdly anthropomorphic rendering. Following a massive public outcry, director Jeff Fowler himself addressed the backlash on Twitter and later announced that the film would be postponing its intended November release “to make Sonic just right."

And they did just that. Gone are Sonic's tiny eyes, human-like teeth and cringe-inducing proportions ... replaced with a much more familiar (and cuter) aesthetic reminiscent of its video game counterpart. Social media rejoiced. As one fan put it, "The Sonic Movie is a big PSA on how to listen to fans constructively. They took a DOA design and turned it into something special."

I definitely agree, though I think I most align with podcaster Seb Patrick's take that it's hilarious a Sonic movie, starring Jim Carrey, refers to something happening in 2020 and not something that happened in 1994.

What They’re Saying

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/ 1,720 reviews

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AmazonBasics Premium 18-Piece Knife Block Set

/ 797 reviews

“I use high quality (read: expensive) knives at work all day. My budget-conscious fiancé surprised me with these and I was skeptical ... So I put them to the test and I was truly shocked at how well these worked.”

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Cuisinart 15-Piece Stainless Steel Knife Block Set

/ 2,099 reviews

“Ergonomically, these knives feel really good in the hand. And functionally, they are actually really light despite being 100% stainless steel—a fact I attribute to the hollow handles.”

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