The Navigator, Saturday, August 10, 2025
Bringing rents down, data train wreck, women leaving workforce, Gen Z electoral divide, SEO is dead—and more
Trust doesn’t announce itself with fanfare. It creeps in slowly—built brick by brick through consistency, vulnerability, and proof. And yet, it can vanish in a blink. One misstep, one contradiction, one half-truth too many, and the whole thing collapses like a house of cards. It’s funny how something so delicate can carry so much weight.
We talk a lot about trust like it’s a given—something owed to leaders, to institutions, to each other. But more often than not, it’s a loan with no guarantee of renewal. Once it's broken, there are no easy fixes. You need repair work: honest accounting, new behaviors, and a whole lot of patience. And even then, some cracks never close.
The problem isn’t that trust is too fragile—it’s that we treat it like it’s indestructible. But trust isn’t a renewable resource unless we treat it as such. It’s a choice we have to make, over and over again, with intention. If we’re serious about building a future that holds, we’d better start treating trust like the rare commodity it is.
How an NYC Suburb Is Actually Managing to Bring Rents Down (The Wall Street Journal)
New Rochelle embraces development and makes it easy to build, leading to thousands of new apartments
BLS Faces a ‘Slow-Moving Train Wreck’ in Collecting Data. There Are No Easy Fixes. (Barron’s)
Recent payroll revisions have highlighted the challenges facing U.S. statistics agencies. Politics isn’t the issue, economists say.
Why So Many Women Are Quitting the Workforce (TIME)
Labor force participation among women has started falling again in 2025.
The Gen Z divide that could decide the next election (Vox)
Active and passive news consumers are shifting America’s balance of power.
SEO Is Dead. Say Hello to GEO. (New York Magazine)
Search-engine optimization now feels dated. Generative-engine optimization is all about trying to trick AI chatbots.
China Turns to A.I. in Information Warfare (The New York Times)
Documents examined by researchers show how one company in China has collected data on members of Congress and other influential Americans.
Americans consume more than half of their calories from ultra-processed foods: CDC (ABC News)
Children consumed more calories from ultra-processed foods than adults.
The economy is cracking. This trend is most alarming. (The Washington Post)
The U.S. economy is growing ever more reliant on top earners. It’s risky — and tough for the middle class.
America’s barmy battle to ban bawdy books (The Economist)
Organized puritans are invading school libraries.
Inside the Leadership Success of a Millennial and Boomer Who Share the CEO Seat (The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
Co-leaders of a Louisiana community group share what makes their norm-defying intergenerational partnership a boon for their staff, their community, and their personal growth.
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Your thoughts on trust -- Wow, do I agree and need to think about all that you wrote. I do think of trust as a given, and I trip over that. We live in a house with all brick floors. I watched the man who laid the bricks, he'd been doing this for 40 years, measuring, slightly cutting, on his knees, laying each brick in place. We had a huge pile of bricks outside waiting to take their place. Trust, like you wrote, is "built brick by brick by consistency, vulnerability, and proof." That last word proof. Thank you. And, like you point out, how easily it can crack. Important words for this time.