Description

🎙️Episode 014: Analog Skills, Digital Sports, and Chocolate Wars

In this episode of From Brian’s Desk, we explore how technology, tradition, and tenacity collide across education, economics, and entertainment.

Education:

Nisha Zahid’s Greek Reporter article dives into traditional skills disappearing in our tech-driven world. We explore why keeping these “analog” skills matters more than ever in a digital age.

Economics:

John Haddad of The Conversation traces the century-long chocolate rivalry between Hershey and Mars — from factory floors to theme parks — showing how business reinvention can turn sweet competition into market domination.

Sports:

🏀 NBA Cup: Anand Sharma of Total Pro Sports explains how the Emirates NBA Cup spices up the regular season with knockout rounds, Vegas finals, and financial incentives.

⚾ MLB: Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com discusses how baseball’s lack of a salary cap challenges small-market teams and fans’ faith in fairness.

🏈 NFL: The Packers’ recent losses raise questions about their playoff hopes.

🔥 ASU Sports: Despite losing QB Sam Leavitt, the Sun Devils remain bowl eligible, and Coach Bobby Hurley faces a pivotal basketball season with a nearly new roster.

Not a Sponsor:

Meet Analog Life™ — the fake sponsor reminding us that maybe it’s time to relearn how to fold a map, read a clock, and wait patiently (without scrolling).

Productivity:

Lauren Thomann’s Real Simple article highlights the “Worst First” decluttering method — tackling your messiest area first to boost motivation, decision-making, and momentum.

Technology:

Joe Rossignol of MacRumors covers iOS 26.1’s — replacement of the “stop” button with a “slide to stop” alarm gesture to help prevent those accidental sleep-ins.

Entertainment & Streaming:

Dylan Butts (CNBC) reports on the Disney–YouTube TV dispute upsetting sports fans, while Alex Weprin (MovieWeb) breaks down Disney’s merger of Hulu Live and Fubo

🎙️ Listen in for all these stories — plus some humor, insight, and a reminder that even in a digital world, there’s still value in staying a little analog.

⸻

----------------------------

Sources:

Education

https://greekreporter.com/2025/10/28/skills-quietly-disappearing-modern-world/

Economics

https://theconversation.com/how-hersheys-chocolate-survived-an-attack-from-mars-and-adopted-a-business-strategy-alien-to-its-founder-267722

Sports

https://www.totalprosports.com/nba/nba-cup-2025-explained-rules-format-prize-money-player-rewards/

https://www.nba.com/nba-cup/2025

https://www.cleveland.com/guardians/2025/10/baseball-salary-cap-money-will-they-ever-get-it-right-terry-pluto.html

https://www.packers.com

https://clutchpoints.com/ncaa-football/arizona-state-football-news-sam-leavitt-season-ending-injury-update

https://arizonasports.com/ncaa/arizona-state-football/big-12-now/3600952/

https://thesundevils.com/sports/football/schedule

https://arizonasports.com/ncaa/arizona-state-basketball/asu-prev/3600980/

Productivity

https://www.realsimple.com/the-worst-first-decluttering-rule-11835929

Technology

https://www.macrumors.com/2025/10/31/ios-26-1-includes-a-small-but-useful-change/

Entertainment 

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/31/disney-content-to-go-dark-on-youtubetv-amid-contract-dispute-.html

https://movieweb.com/disney-hulu-fubo-streaming-merger/

----------------------------

If you would like to support my work, please consider becoming a patron on patreon.com/brian8944 

You & I both get a free month of Setapp with a paid subscription: ⁠https://go.setapp.com/invite/f12ydwun⁠⁠

If you liked what you heard today, please be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss any episodes.  If you want to find me between episodes, I am often on MacVoices Live, which records on Tuesday evenings 8PM eastern, 5PM pacific.

Please visit my website, brian8944.com so you can keep up with all my ongoing and upcoming projects.  You can also contact me there with any feedback you may have.