Good morning and welcome to Friday. On today’s docket:

• What could the next decade of work look like?
• We look at a Syrian war crimes trial in Germany
• And it's Furry Friends Friday 🐶

⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today's newsletter takes 4.98 minutes to read.

"Success seems to be connected to action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit."

–Conrad Hilton (1887-1979)

According to Bloomberg, only a few podcasts in the top 50 (“SmartLess,” “The Michelle Obama Podcast,” “Frenemies”) are less than two years old. And none of them are in the top 25.

🤔 What’s going on?... While the podcasting audience keeps growing – 57% of consumers say they’ve ever listened to a podcast, up from 22% in 2009 – the amount of new shows is actually outpacing that growth. There are currently ~2 million podcasts, according to Podcast Insights.

• We rely on recommendations and algorithms to guide us, and podcasts that have been around longer have the benefit of years of referrals and appearing in search results.

🔥 Insights for days… Here’s a quick stat to whip out at the dinner table: every week, more Americans listen to podcasts than have Netflix accounts (80M vs. 69M). Want a few more?👇

• Podcasts seem to be almost like a gateway drug. On average, listeners consume 8 podcasts during the course of a week – and overall, more listeners are listening to more podcasts per week compared to 2020.
• Monthly podcast listening is growing fastest among older Americans. From 2020 to 2021, the percentage of Americans ages 55+ who listen to podcasts monthly increased by 18%. And at the moment, more than one-quarter of all Americans 55+ are listening to podcasts each month.
• The average podcast gets ~27 listens per episode. (~3,200 per episode puts you in the top 1% of podcasts.)

🎧 Looking ahead… Expect for a lot of production companies to look abroad when investing in new shows, Bloomberg reports. Spotify is already a leading podcast service in a lot of other countries, and investing a ton of money into podcasts in Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

Today, many workplaces look entirely different. The Great Resignation, mass adoption of remote work, and an acceleration of the gig economy have transformed the way we think about work.

🔢 By the numbers… Roughly 3.9 million workers voluntarily left their job each month in 2021, the highest average in recorded history.

• The pandemic also ushered in a growing acceptance of employees working from home, though there appears to be a sharp class divide.
• According to data from Gallup, 72% of full-time workers in white-collar jobs were working from home last spring compared to just 14% in blue-collar jobs (many of which are impossible to do from home).
• And while the popularity of gig work has been growing for years, the pandemic boosted those numbers. Forbes estimates there were 24% more gig workers in the summer of 2020 than previous years, and today more than 40% of employees are considered non-permanent workers.

👁️ Looking ahead… These trends appear to be continuing into 2022, along with a growing – but still fringe – movement pushing for a four-day workweek. And people are starting their own businesses at a record pace.

• Jobs specified as "remote” currently receive 300% more applications than jobs that are not, according to recruiting site ZipRecruiter.

+Anotha one: This week, Robinhood joined dozens of other major companies and told employees they can work from home permanently.

🥱 No worries. There’s nothing wrong with being safe and boring.

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🏈 After a wild finish to the first 17-game regular season in history, the NFL playoffs start tomorrow at 4:30 ET. Let’s get you up to speed:

• It’s the second year of the league’s playoff expansion, with seven teams now representing each conference instead of six.
• This year also promises the first three-day playoff weekend in league history, with the Rams facing the Cardinals on Monday night. Here’s the full schedule.
• Two playoff teams will be absent from this weekend’s slate of games – the Packers and Titans, who each received first-round byes as the No. 1 seed.
• According to Vegas, the most lopsided matchup of the weekend features the Chiefs (-12.5) against the Steelers in what could be QB Ben Roethlisburger’s final game, while the closest is projected to be the Cowboys (-3) vs. the 49ers.

+While we're here: After a successful debut last year, CBS will once again air an NFL wild card game on Nickelodeon Sunday afternoon. Here's what to expect.

+Fun fact: NFL games accounted for 91 of the top 100 telecasts on TV last year.

⚖️ A German court sentenced a Syrian intelligence officer to life in prison yesterday for crimes against humanity, concluding the world's second trial related to state-sponsored torture under President Bashar al-Assad.

• Anwar Raslan, 58, was linked to the murder of over 30 people and the torture of 4,000+ more while he oversaw a prison known as "Hell on Earth" in 2010 and 2011 during Syria's ongoing civil war.
• Raslan fled Syria in 2012 and gained asylum in Germany in 2014. He was arrested in Berlin in 2019 alongside another former intelligence officer, who was sentenced last February to four-and-a-half years in prison for lesser crimes against humanity.
• Usually, cases related to crimes against humanity are heard by an international tribunal. But in 2014, China and Russia vetoed a UN resolution that would have referred allegations of Syrian torture to the International Criminal Court.

+In the know: Germany and other European nations abide by a legal principle known as universal jurisdiction, allowing cases to be tried even if the alleged crimes were committed outside their borders.

⛳️ Pro golf is getting the Drive to Survive treatment. Netflix greenlit an all-access show in conjunction with the PGA Tour that aims to “capture the intensity of training, travel, victory, and defeat through the lens of a diverse group of players and their support teams.” The yet-to-be-titled docuseries will be produced by the same company behind the popular F1 show.

• Its film crew will receive unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to the four Majors and other big events like THE PLAYERS Championship and the FedExCup.
• Golfers participating in the series include Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Bubba Watson, and the world’s number one ranked amateur golfer Keita Nakajima, who will participate as he plays in the first major championships of his career.
• Filming began in early December at The Hero World Challenge, where Tiger Woods made his first public appearance since getting in a car crash the previous February.

👁 Looking ahead… If it follows the model of Drive to Survive, the show’s first episodes will likely be released as hype builds in early 2023 for the upcoming Tour season.

+The big question: Drive to Survive’s popularity has been credited with a significant uptick in F1 interest and viewership since its launch. Can this upcoming show do something similar for golf?

🤯 Did you know?… Roughly 50% of Canadians live below the red line. ☝️ Here’s why.

💬 Quoted… “That means a billion tests in total to meet future demand.”

• Context: The federal government is purchasing another 500 million at-home Covid tests for all Americans and will offer free, high-quality masks in the coming weeks, President Biden announced Thursday.
• The move comes as scientists believe the US is nearing a peak of omicron cases.

🔢 Stat of the day… Karex Berhad, the world’s largest condom manufacturer, saw sales drop 40% during the pandemic.

📖 Worth a read… To Get a Better Night’s Sleep, First Fix Your Day

• 👆 The Air Yacht is a flying boat concept from engineering firm Lazzarini Design Studio that’s lifted by two helium-filled blimps on either side; it can take off or land on water.
• 👑 Prince Andrew was stripped of his military titles and royal patronage – with the approval of Queen Elizabeth – over allegations he sexual abused a minor alongside Jeffrey Epstein.
• 🚫💰🎓 Navient, a former unit of Sallie Mae, will cancel $1.7 billion in private student debt for ~66,000 borrowers to resolve claims that it engaged in deceptive lending practices.
• 🍻 Monster Beverage is buying CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective (Oskar Blues, Cigar City) for $330 million to expand into beer and hard seltzer. 
• ⚖️ The Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for large businesses, but allowed its mandate for healthcare workers to remain in place. (From the Left | From the Right | The 360º View)

+Hours of entertainment: Brickit is an app that will scan and catalog your Lego bricks, then suggest models you can build with what you have.

🚨 Breaking news: Novak Djokovic's visa has been revoked by Australia for a second time just days before the Australian Open is set to begin; the tennis star had scored a legal victory that allowed him to start practicing for the tournament, but the country’s immigration minister decided to cancel the tennis star’s visa anyway on “health and good order grounds.”

DONUT HQ is located in the city of Austin, which has a motto: “Keep Austin Weird.” In celebration of that sentiment, we bring you the most unusual, off-the-wall, and occasionally laugh-out-loud stories from this week…

Woman forced to stay at blind date's apartment for days after snap lockdown in China

Reptile hailed as world's first 'four-legged snake' turns out to be just a lizard

Norwegian conscripts now have to return their used underwear due to shortages

Tesla owner mines up to $800 per month in crypto with his car

Man's failure to tip bartender leads to his arrest in burning of Key West landmark

New Hampshire resident Cam Laundry is counting his lucky stars after his dog Tinsley saved him and a friend from the bitter cold after his truck rolled off the freeway.

🐕 'Help' is a four-legged word... Stuck upside down with hypothermia already setting in, Tinsley wiggled her way out of the totaled truck and ran along the side of the busy highway until she found police cars. She guided the officers back to the crash site, and the men were quickly rescued and brought to the hospital. No major injuries were sustained. 

According to Cam, Tinsley has a well-earned reward for her bravery on the way – a tasty venison burger and all the back scratches one pup could want. 🥰 

• "She is my little guardian angel," he told WMUR. "It's a miracle... to do what she did." 

Where can you find the driest place on earth?

A) South America

B) Africa

C) Asia

D) Antarctica

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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D) Antarctica

The driest place on earth is in an area of Antarctica called the McMurdo Dry Valleys, which have seen absolutely no precipitation for nearly 2 million years.