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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Sen. <keyword id="11930701" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kyrsten-sinema" source="Orion">Kyrsten Sinema</keyword>, an <keyword id="11907754" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="arizona" source="Orion">Arizona</keyword> Democrat, worked as a <keyword id="11963487" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="wine" source="Orion">wine</keyword> intern in 2020.</li><li>She didn't re-up her wine job in 2021, new federal disclosures indicate.</li></ul>Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is out of the California winery business, at least for now.Sinema reported no wine-related job wages in 2021, according to her annual personal financial disclosure report filed Tuesday with Congress.Such <keyword id="11893589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news" source="Orion">news</keyword> would be entirely expected for most any senator. But Sinema isn't most any senator, having <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kyrsten-sinema-coca-cola-boycott-stocks-congress-pete-sessions-2021-5">earned $1,117.40 in August 2020</a> from her work as harvert intern at <a href="https://www.threestickswines.com/">Three Sticks Winery</a> in Sonoma, California."Kyrsten worked harvest for <keyword id="13821270" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="three-sticks-winery" source="Orion">Three Sticks Winery</keyword>, and in accordance with California law, was paid an entry level harvest rate," a Sinema representative, Hannah Hurley, told Insider at the time. Hurley added that the Senate Ethics Committee preapproved Sinema's work. A Sinema representative could not immediately be reached for comment on the latest disclosure.Three Stick Winery <a href="https://www.winebusiness.com/classifieds/winejobs/?go=listing&amp;listingid=202508">describes</a> its harvest internship as a two-week job for people "passionate about wine, detail-oriented, excited to work hard, and have a positive attitude."It says interns "will assist in all facets of harvest work including cleaning and sanitizing equipment, sorting fruit, punchdowns, making basic additions and managing fermentations according to winemaker instructions, barrel work, and other winery-related tasks."Winemaker Ryan Prichard told Insider that "Kyrsten was extremely hardworking and was a fantastic part of our team."Sinema didn't end her relationship with Three Sticks Winery entirely after he internship, however. In August 2021, her re-election campaign purchased a "wine and a virtual tasting kit" from the winery in August 2021, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kyrsten-sinemas-wine-winery-internship-campaign-expense-three-sticks-2021-10">according to federal records</a>.Sinema did work one side hustle in 2021, earning an "approved teaching fee" of $22,964.93 at Arizona State University, according to her disclosure.She also reported an education loan balance of between $15,001 and $50,000.Sinema has become a pariah among many of her fellow Democrats for her idiosyncratic policy positions, which include her <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sinema-still-supports-filibuster-dooming-federal-abortion-protections-2022-5">refusal to help kill the Senate filibuster</a> that's preventing liberals from acting on any of several Biden administration priorities, from voting rights to abortion rights.<div type="image" title="Kyrsten Sinema ad from Ruben Gallego" height="796" width="776" msid="91329439" hostid="261"></div>Rep. <keyword id="12314681" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ruben-gallego" source="Orion">Ruben Gallego</keyword> — a fellow Arizona Democrat and potential primary challenger to Sinema in 2024 — even sponsored Facebook advertisements on Tuesday that chide Sinema."Tell Congress — and Senator Sinema — it's time to pass legislation codifying Roe v. Wade as the law of the land and no <keyword id="12087729" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="filibuster" source="Orion">filibuster</keyword> by ANY Senator should stop it," said the ad, paid for by Gallego's campaign committee.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema did not reprise her side hustle as a California winery intern: documents

Back in 2014, the people of the Hamptons went into collective panic <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-hamptons-is-running-out-of-ros-2014-8">as it was reported</a> that some of the area's hottest restaurants were running out of rosé before the summer season was over.Three year later, it appears the Hamptons' rosé obsession hasn't slowed down a bit. To keep up with demand, Wölffer Estate Vineyard has introduced a new drive-thru service so that customers can stock up on rosé without even having to leave their cars. Rosé bottles are available by the case only: $195 for a case of the estate rosé and $260 for a case of the "summer in a bottle" rosé, a more fruit-forward wine. The winery's staff will even load the cases into the car for you. Courtesy of Wölffer Estate Vineyard"The rosé drive-thru had been a dream of mine for awhile and we are so glad it's come to fruition," the winery's co-owner, Joey Wölffer, said to Business Insider. "We are all about serving our community and this is just another example of that!"Many <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2015/08/when-did-rose-wine-become-a-thing">have credited</a> Wölffer Estate with making rosé popular in the US. It made its first batch - 82 cases - of the sparkling pink wine back in 1992. In 2016, <a href="https://ny.eater.com/2017/5/14/15638100/wolffer-kitchen-amagansett-rose-menu">according to</a> Eater, it made 40,000 cases of rosé, up from 22,000 cases the year before.The drive-thru cart will be open at the brand's <a href="http://www.wolffer.com/about">wine stand</a> in Sagaponack on Fridays and Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., on holiday weekends. The wine stand also sells rosé by the glass and by the bottle if you want to stick around, but you have to buy it by the case if you want it to-go. Courtesy of Wölffer Estate Vineyard <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sound-wine-expert-sommelier-terms-dry-tannin-2017-3">Know these terms to sound like a wine expert</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

People in the Hamptons are so obsessed with rose, this winery created a 'rose drive-thru'

Jon Sebastiani saw fancy marshmallows for the first time in Paris, and thought they looked like money.A scion of a <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/spade-sparrows-enlists-don-sebastiani-sons-as-producer-and-north-american-sales-representatives-1031525004">big-deal winemaking family</a> from California, Sebastiani was already rich. He ran one of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.winespectator.com/articles/sonomas-viansa-winery-changes-hands-2607">family wineries</a> for a while, but that wasn't his big hit. "When you grow up in a small town like Sonoma, in a notorious family business where everybody knows who you are — it was important to me to carve my own path," he says.That path led to snacks. In 2009, inspired by the offerings at a local butcher shop, Sebastiani founded an upscale beef-jerky business called Krave. Easier to chew and sweeter than convenience-store jerky, Krave got huge during <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-rise-of-the-meat-protein-bar-2016-4">the paleo craze</a>. In 2015, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/krave-jerky-and-hershey-2015-1">Sebastiani sold the company</a> to Hershey, the chocolate-bar people, for $240 million.He ran the company for Hershey for a year, then left to found a food-focused investment firm. But Krave had been more than a financial success. It created a whole new category in the snack industry. And Sebastiani found himself jonesing for that high. In search of it, he went to Paris. There — in cute bakeries, in nice shops, on haute dessert menus — he discovered next-level marshmallows.These weren't the pot-bellied, chemical-laden puffballs that Americans roast on sticks and slap on s'mores. They were toothsome little pastel-shaded cubes, in a range of classy flavors that called to mind meringues and Michelin stars. "When you peel back the layers of a marshmallow, it's actually a better product for you, with less sugar, than most candies," Sebastiani realized. "We could be a less-guilty, better-for-you sweet indulgence."The plan: Create a premium snack by using (nominally) healthier ingredients than commodity marshmallows and smashing together flavors and colors inspired by Paris. That was the source of the new company's name: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/smashmallow-healthy-gourmet-marshmallow-review-2017-7">Smashmallow</a>. "I don't want to say it was the Krave playbook," Sebastiani says. "But it was my next concept that I believed was going to disrupt a category."Maybe you've heard of Smashmallow; maybe you even bought some. In the couple of years before the pandemic, they were everywhere. Now? Pfft. The problem wasn't the marshmallows — they were, by all accounts, delicious. The problem was scale. Smashmallows were designed to look like an artisanal, boutique product, but that wasn't enough for Sebastiani: He wanted to manufacture billions of them, to build a company that would bestride Candyland like a squishy colossus. That meant he had to grow fast and figure out the engineering on the fly — the classic entrepreneurial strategy of Silicon Valley. When it works, you get Tesla; when it doesn't, you get Theranos.This is the story of the Theranos of marshmallows.<div type="image" title="Square shape marshmallows falling" height="3983" width="2131" msid="108181707" hostid="261"></div>Like their denser cousins nougat and taffy, marshmallows are, formally, <a target="_blank" href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61742-8_11">aerated confections</a>. Dissolve sugar in water with a goo-like gelatin or egg white, then whip until tiny bubbles form. The gelatin locks the bubbles in place. Cook it gently and you get an airy bite of sweetness — a "foam made of finely dispersed air bubbles within a sugar candy matrix," as one candymaking textbook puts it.It wasn't hard to make a better version of store-bought marshmallows. Jens Hoj, a former chef at the renowned restaurant Chez Panisse, had figured out the cooking process that turned Krave into a giant of the jerky world. He was confident he could do the same for Smashmallow. "We wanted a marshmallow to have a little bite to it, not just be a foamy air," he says. First, he replaced the corn syrup in commercial marshmallows with tapioca syrup and invert sugar. Then he cooked the mixture at a slightly higher temperature, to give the marshmallow more texture than the basic Kraft offering.It took only a few months to get all that right. But then Hoj ran into a problem. He couldn't find anyone to make his marshmallow.Typically, when someone turns a food into a business — mom's chili, auntie's kimchi, whatever — they end up moving to an industrial-scale facility called a copacker. Copackers for meat are common; finding them for Krave had been simple. Locating one that could handle a delicate, airy confection proved a whole lot tougher. Which, in retrospect, should have served as a warning.Hoj's team eventually found a commercial bakery in Los Angeles that was willing to learn. Smashmallow bought big, commercial Hobart mixers to combine and whip the sugar and gelatin. They poured the mix onto huge cookie sheets, on top of starch to keep it from sticking — a process called "slabbing." They bought special cutters to slice the hardened marshmallow into cubes, and learned how to dust them with sugar and cinnamon to make a churro flavor, to blend in other flavors like strawberry and root beer, to include chocolate chips or coconut flakes, to pour out multiple layers to get two-color versions. "It was all hand-done, so it was extremely expensive," Hoj says. "Imagine 30 people making marshmallows every day, seven days a week."Sebastiani had the contacts to get the product into stores, where it proved even more popular than he'd hoped. "This wasn't a novelty purchase where they go 'Oh, that's cute' and then never buy it again," Sebastiani says. "Customers were actually buying it and then buying it again in different flavors. Retailers were clamoring for more seasonality, for smaller packages so moms could buy it for grab-and-go for their kids' lunchboxes." It had taken Krave five years to reach $5 million in annual revenue. Smashmallow got to $5 million in its first year. The next year, its revenue doubled. Retailers like Target and Walmart were clamoring for more, and Sebastiani was bringing outside investors on board. "We got extra excited," he says. "We weren't just premium. We were — I call it a usage occasion disruption." Smashmallow had a killer brand — but the product was still basically being made one batch at a time, on kitchen counters. To automate the assembly line, Hoj knew they'd need to switch from slabbing the marshmallows on cookie sheets to "extrusion," the conveyor-belt process used for mass-produced marshmallows. Extrusion is cheaper, faster, and less labor-intensive than slabbing. It's basically a marshmallow printer, and it's why American marshmallows are so ubiquitous. But when Hoj went to visit Doumak, the company in suburban Chicago that pioneered marshmallow extrusion, the experts just shook their heads. "We love your product," they told Hoj. "But it's too complex for our system." <div type="image" title="A hand picking up a melting smashmallow" height="2467" width="3427" msid="108181709" hostid="261"></div>The colors and flavors Smashmallow was using were too thick for Doumak's mixers. The tapioca syrup and invert sugar would have required new tanks. Oh, and nobody had ever made a square marshmallow on a commercial machine, much less a marshmallow that wanted to mimic the rough-cut straight edges of a slabbed one. And that doesn't even get into the coatings and inclusions, like chocolate chips. Doumak's engineers told the would-be Wonkas that it couldn't be done.Look: Nobody was forcing Sebastiani to turn Smashmallow into a national brand. The company was already generating nearly $15 million a year. It had dozens of employees. It was making a product that people loved and wanted to buy. Rather than trying to blow the company up into another Krave-size winner, Sebastiani could have just … stopped."It could have been a boutique regional brand," Sebastiani acknowledges. "And there's something authentic and noble in not having to be defined by your revenue, or millions of customers, or the retailers you have. But for me, I'm driven by growing things — not to infinity, but to a high ceiling." He didn't just want to make marshmallows. Sebastiani wanted to change our eating habits.But if Theranos taught us anything, it's that a business model won't work if it hinges on a technology that doesn't exist. Sebastiani wasn't an Elizabeth Holmes-style grifter. Marshmallows are real! But he did ignore the experts, and proceeded without having the necessary technology in place. If there wasn't a machine that could mass-produce his marshmallows, he would just build one. How hard could it be? In Silicon Valley parlance, he would fake it until he could make it.At a Las Vegas trade show for food-equipment suppliers, Hoj saw a booth for Tanis Food Tec. Based in the Netherlands, Tanis was an internationally respected builder of candymaking machines, and it specialized in marshmallows. So Hoj walked over and broke open a bag of Smashmallows. "This is what we need," he told them. It wasn't the kind of confection the Tanis people were used to making, but they were willing to give it a shot.Hoj went to the Netherlands to see the Tanis facilities. The company even mailed samples of marshmallows it had produced to Smashmallow's specs. "Those met all the requirements," Hoj says. It was going to cost a lot. But that was fine — maybe even good! The new technology would be a trade secret that could protect Smashmallow from aspiring competitors. So Sebastiani agreed to buy a brand-new system from Tanis for $3 million, with a two-year exclusive on the unique, customized parts used for adding inclusions like chocolate chips.Tanis put Smashmallow in touch with a copacker in Pennsylvania called Wolfgang Confectioners, which agreed to build a whole new facility to accommodate the machine. It would be the size of two tennis courts: kitchen, mixers and aerators, heating system, extruder, and 100 feet of conveyor belts. But copackers hate new machines. They're expensive to install and maintain, and they're basically useless if the company using them fails. So Wolfgang's facility came with a condition. "We needed to make 1,200 to 2,000 pounds an hour," Hoj says. A ton of marshmallows every hour, all day long — otherwise Smashmallow would be required to pay penalties.<div type="image" title="A large steel machine, two big tanks and lots of ducts, in an all-white facility" height="480" width="640" msid="108181711" hostid="261"></div>Smashmallow fired the teams who had been slabbing its product. But when the Tanis machine finally arrived at the Wolfgang facility in August 2019 and Hoj's team spun it up, the marshmallow printer failed to print. "They couldn't get the kitchen to make a marshmallow for quite some time," Hoj says. "And we couldn't get the product onto the belt for another 2 ½ weeks. And then the belt wasn't functioning correctly, and pounds per hour were less than stated." The whole thing was a disaster, but Hoj was undeterred. "We were thinking, this is just startup," he recalls.Even more alarming, the coat of starch that was supposed to coat the extruded marshmallows went airborne, filling the facility with starch dust. Aerosolized dust isn't just an inconvenience. If a single particle catches fire, it can set all the particles nearby on fire as well, creating a rapidly expanding, three-dimensional zone of combustion. This is what's known, in technical terms, as an "explosion." An inspector, hired by Wolfgang, shut the whole thing down. "They were hesitant to produce product until it was fixed, which of course we hated hearing, because we needed the pounds," Hoj says. To get up and running again, Smashmallow was forced to bring in an all-new dust-handling system.The problems cascaded, one sugar-coated disaster after another. The conveyor belt that carried individual marshmallows to the bagging station turned out to be too short, so they didn't have time to dry, which caused the marshmallows to stick together in the bag. The machine's die and cutting blade couldn't replicate Smashmallow's handmade irregularity; it could only turn out perfect, identical-size marshmallows. When the machine tried to re-create Smashmallow's most popular flavor, churro, the cinnamon coating didn't stick and blew into the air. Workers had trouble breathing through the thick clouds of spice. Once they figured out how to get the cinnamon settled onto the belt, it turned out to be heavier than starch, and the motors couldn't handle the extra weight. They replaced the motors, but then the cut ends of the marshmallows didn't get as much cinnamon coating. So they had to take the cinnamon and sugar off the line and put it into a drum that could toss the marshmallows in the mixture. "It took about six or seven months to come up with that," Hoj says. And even that didn't work, because the cinnamon — heavier than starch, but lighter than sugar — prevented the sugar from sticking to the marshmallows. <div type="image" title="A conveyor belt with workers dodging from flying marshmallows" height="3724" width="3999" msid="108181713" hostid="261"></div>Then COVID hit, slowing things down even more. The production line wasn't fully "commissioned" — able to make things that could be sold — until 2021, nearly two years after it was delivered. Even then, Hoj says, it didn't produce the amounts Wolfgang was demanding: "Sometimes we hit 1,400 pounds. But the average, if you looked at a whole month, was about 850 pounds."Wolfgang's quotas weren't the only problem. The sales team had gotten Smashmallows into 15,000 stores, and those retailers were signing agreements for product up to 18 months in advance. Sebastiani had made a deal for coveted end-aisle displays for Halloween — "Malloween!" — in every Target store in America. "We were expecting a significant growth curve," Sebastiani says. "We were taking on investment dollars, not only from my firm, Sonoma Capital, but from limited partners and endowments. My reputation was on the line."The manufacturing team started hand-tossing marshmallows in the cinnamon-sugar mix. QA teams inspected every run, hoping for a salvageable product. "We had to deliver something," Hoj says. But customers could tell that the machine-produced marshmallows weren't as good as the originals. Sales declined. Stores cut back on their orders. "We were producing four days a week, and then we were down to three days," Hoj says. The relationship between Smashmallow and Tanis finally broke. Smashmallow threatened to withhold payment until repairs were made, and canceled the installation of the experimental component designed to improve the addition of inclusions. Tanis responded by ceasing tech support. An acrimonious meeting aimed at resolving the issues ended with the establishment of a payment plan tied to production levels. If Smashmallow couldn't produce enough marshmallows, Tanis wouldn't get its dough.In the end, Smashmallow couldn't keep up with its obligations to investors, retailers, and the copacker. Sebastiani's dream of candy dominance was dead. Wolfgang sued to recover the nearly half a million dollars it said Smashmallow owed for not keeping up with sugar quotas; Sebastiani settled by giving them components from the machine. He, in turn, sued Tanis to recover not only the costs of the entire fiasco but the potential value of the company, had it been a success. In 2022, Smashmallow shut down for good.In court, Tanis insisted that the machine had, at times, gotten up to full speed and satisfied the terms of the contract. It accused Smashmallow of slowing the assembly line's output by switching up the flavors too often, requiring time-consuming cleanup. But at trial, a Tanis engineer admitted that the samples Tanis had sent to Smashmallow to prove it could produce the product were actually made, in part, by hand. Apparently Tanis, too, had faked it to make it.Everyone agrees that it ought to have been possible, engineering-wise, to make a machine that made Smashmallows. Everyone also agrees that, in the end, no one was able to. "The fact that Tanis said they could do it was interesting," says Richard Hartel, a food engineer who leads the candymaking program at the University of Wisconsin. "Their engineers must have said, 'Well, this shouldn't be a problem.' They probably figured this was going to be easy, and it turned out to be harder than they thought." The jury agreed, awarding Smashmallow $20 million in damages. After some legal back-and-forth, the parties settled for an undisclosed amount. (Tanis and Wolfgang declined to comment for this story.)Sebastiani says he can imagine bringing Smashmallow back someday. Meanwhile his investment company is still running the premium-product-at-blitzscale playbook. Bachan's Japanese-style barbecue sauce is one of theirs. Guayakí yerba maté, too. The thing is, even though Smashmallow failed, Sebastiani didn't. During trial prep, his lawyers had a fun idea. They thought they might bring a bag of Smashmallows to trial, to show the judge and jury what they were talking about. One of the attorneys, David Kwasniewski, called a bunch of Bay Area stores, and a clerk at an REI in Santa Rosa said they had a bag in stock. "Come on by," he said.Kwasniewski hopped in a car and drove up from San Francisco — it takes about an hour. He walked into the store and found the clerk, who went behind the counter and handed him a bag of gourmet marshmallows. But they weren't Smashmallows. These were made by a small Colorado company called Hammond's, which sells cube-shaped premium marshmallows in toasted coconut, chocolate chip, and a two-layer strawberry créme, among other flavors. The lawyer was gobsmacked. Smashmallow had crossed over into that rarest of territories — a brand that's become synonymous with its product. "In that industry, a snackable marshmallow is a Smashmallow, like a copy machine is a Xerox," says Kwasniewski. Smashmallows don't exist anymore, "but the brand is still out there."Sebastiani really did disrupt people's usage occasions. He created a whole new category of snack, and changed people's eating habits. When he created Smashmallow, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/north-america-marshmallow-market-105434">annual market for marshmallows in North America</a> was about $250 million. By 2028, it's projected to hit $535 million. Sebastiani won't see a dime of that money, because his business plan required a technology that didn't — and maybe couldn't — exist. He built a sweet brand. But the product was mostly hot air.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/adam-rogers">Adam Rogers</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider.

Silicon Valley tried to mass produce fancy marshmallows. It got messy, fast.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>You could own a piece of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's personal used bike gear. </li><li>Sinema is selling a collection of items on Facebook Marketplace.</li></ul>After severing ties with the Democratic Party and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/arizona-sen-kyrsten-sinema-ditches-democrats-registers-as-independent-2022-12">registering as an independent</a>, undermining the party's narrow Senate majority, Kyrsten Sinema is doing what so many of us do after a breakup: cleaning out her closet.The Arizona senator is listing roughly 85 items on Facebook Marketplace right now. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/profile/10042921/?ref=permalink&amp;mibextid=6ojiHh">Per her personal profile</a>, much of the assortment comprises biking apparel and accessories from indie brand Betty Designs, whose slogan is "Badass is beautiful." Other items currently on offer include a pair of Christian Louboutin heels ($350), a Michele watch ($150), and a Cervelo triathlon bike (priced at $7,900.)Sinema has already sold several Oura rings and Airpod sets, a Nespresso machine, an Away suitcase, and some Christmas decor, according to her profile, where she is a highly-reviewed seller. Buyers have praised her pricing, punctuality, and communication.Sinema's Facebook Marketplace presence was <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/12/kyrsten-sinema-facebook-marketplace-senate.html">first reported by Slate</a> and subsequently confirmed by <a href="https://www.azmirror.com/blog/yes-that-really-is-kyrsten-sinema-selling-designer-clothes-and-bike-gear-on-facebook/">an Arizona Mirror reporter</a>, who says he's been Facebook friends with Sinema for roughly 15 years. The <a href="https://www.ethics.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/financial-thresholds-limits" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">limit for outside earned income</a> for members of Congress is $29,895 — and it doesn't appear that Sinema has come close to hitting that limit this calendar year.While it may sound odd for a sitting Senator—whose annual base salary is $174,000—to be hawking used clothes, this isn't the first time that Sinema has garnered headlines for an unconventional side hustle.In 2021, Sinema disclosed that she'd <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kyrsten-sinema-coca-cola-boycott-stocks-congress-pete-sessions-2021-5">worked as a paid harvest intern</a> for two weeks at a California winery, earning upwards of $1,100 for cleaning and sanitizing equipment, sorting fruit, and managing fermentations. The work was preapproved by the Senate Ethics Committee, a spokesperson for the Three Sticks Winery said at the time.

After breaking up with the Democratic Party, Kyrsten Sinema is cleaning out her closet, literally, on Facebook Marketplace

Welcome back to <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/10-things-in-politics">10 Things in Politics</a>. <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/10-things-in-politics">Sign up here to receive this newsletter</a>. Plus, download Insider's app for news on the go - click <a href="https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id554260576">here for iOS</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freerange360.mpp.businessinsider">here for Android</a>. Send tips to <a href="mailto:bgriffiths@insider.com">bgriffiths@insider.com</a>.Here's what we're talking about:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-guidance-trick-or-treat-celebrate-halloween-covid-coronavirus-mask-2021-10"></a><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/conspiracy-theories-smog-oil-denialism-trump-twitter-qanon-2021-10">The roots of denialism: How the birth of smog in 1943 led to Trump and QAnon</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-fully-vaxxed-americans-can-enjoy-holidays-with-family-2021-10">Fauci says full-vaccinated Americans can enjoy the holidays</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kyrsten-sinemas-wine-winery-internship-campaign-expense-three-sticks-2021-10">Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's campaign spent $1,180 at a winery</a></li></ul>With Phil Rosen.1. THE HISTORY OF DENIALISM: America's struggle with fake news and disinformation campaigns is a lot older than you think. In fact, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/conspiracy-theories-smog-oil-denialism-trump-twitter-qanon-2021-10">the roots of this denialism can be traced all the way back to 1943</a> and the birth of modern smog, Jack Hitt reports in a massive new piece for Insider. Here's a look at how the denialism of the insurrection was fueled years earlier:An enterprising Dutch immigrant first identified the cause of smog: Arie Haagen-Smit piped Los Angeles air through a series of traps that eventually yielded "several ounces of a vile-smelling brown sludge." His conclusion - that smog was born of emissions, mostly from refineries and cars, released into bright LA sunlight - answered a long-simmering question.But pollution-producing industries weren't happy: The American Petroleum Institute, in what's become a modern template, started a front group to trash the research. Their effort was poorly executed, and included firing a scientist who confirmed Haagen-Smit's theories instead of shooting them down.<ul><li>The tobacco industry soon returned to this playbook: But Big Tobacco approached research about cigarette smoke and cancer in a fundamentally different way. It viewed it more as a publicity problem, hiring the PR firm Hill &amp; Knowlton who spawned the message that there was "no proof" that cigarettes could be definitely linked to cancer. Cigarette makers fell back on this message for decades even as evidence grew.</li><li>Climate deniers broadened this effort again: One of the most successful examples was the amplification of a conspiracy theory based on hacked emails from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England. Initial stories gestured to a potential cover-up that later investigations found never lived up to the hype.</li></ul>Researchers have found modern denialism has a powerful pull: A small group of well-placed people can amplify false claims about vaccines or the election, sowing a vast amount of distrust in the process.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/conspiracy-theories-smog-oil-denialism-trump-twitter-qanon-2021-10">Read more about how researchers say QAnon shows the evolution of falsehoods and their fears about what may lay ahead.</a>2. Democrats face crunch time on Biden's agenda: Centrist Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are continuing negotiations over the party's massive social-spending plan. But some of their colleagues fear that time is running out a rare opportunity, Politico reports. "[W]e will be working on it for well over another decade," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said of what will happen to paid leave if it's axed from the final bill. A nationwide paid-leave program is one of the many policies Democrats are trying to squeeze in. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/17/democrats-agenda-last-chance-516160">Here's where talks stand.</a><div type="image" title="Kyrsten Sinema" height="2670" width="4005" msid="87105669" hostid="261"></div>3. Sinema campaign spent $1,180 at a winery: Sinema's campaign said the purchases were related to "meeting expenses." A representative for Three Sticks Wines in Sonoma, California, where the Arizona Democrat herself interned, offer additional details, saying the purchase was for wine and a virtual tasting kit. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kyrsten-sinemas-wine-winery-internship-campaign-expense-three-sticks-2021-10">It's unclear why Sinema's campaign would purchase wine - and the odd pairing could run afoul of campaign-spending laws.</a>4. China's missile capabilities reportedly surprised US intel: China demonstrated advanced space capability by testing a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August, the Financial Times reports. Although the missile missed its target by miles, the test demonstrated China's advanced space capability and took US intelligence by surprise. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-hypersonic-missile-surprised-us-spies-with-its-space-capability-2021-10">Why hypersonic missiles are a concern for the US military.</a>5. Pete Buttigieg's low-key paternity leave is generating controversy: The Transportation secretary is "ramping up" work after taking time off with his newborn children, offering what paid-leave advocates say is a high-profile model for the policy. Buttigieg's leave started in August after the arrival of his twins, Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pete-buttigieg-paid-family-leave-controversy-role-model-2021-10">Read more about why paid leave advocates are saying about Buttigieg's decision.</a>6. Fauci says fully-vaccinated Americans can enjoy the holidays: Dr. Anthony Fauci's latest comments came after he previously said "it's too soon to tell" if holiday gatherings were safe, noting that the focus should be on lowering COVID-19 infections earlier this month. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidance on how to safely celebrate. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-fully-vaxxed-americans-can-enjoy-holidays-with-family-2021-10">More on what federal officials are advising for the holidays.</a>7. Up to 17 missionaries were kidnapped in Haiti: The 16 American missionaries and one Canadian were taken as they were leaving an orphanage. The group they are working for is based in Ohio and is affiliated with Amish, Mennonite, and other conservative Anabaptist groups. A two-year-old and another young child are among the kidnapped. <a href="https://www.insider.com/christian-missionaries-from-us-kidnapped-in-haiti-by-gang-officials-2021-10">More on the news.</a>8. Strikes are sweeping the nation: Union officials and economists tell The Washington Post that the growing trend of employees taking to the picket line is part of a larger shift in the labor market that leaves some workers in high demand. This trend has given them new leverage in labor disputes, something many are feeling as their wages remain mostly stagnant compared to inflation. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/10/17/strikes-great-resignation/">Read more about a wave of strikes that covers everything from nurses to oil workers and cereal-factory employees.</a>9. Bill Clinton is out of the hospital: The former president was seen Sunday leaving a hospital in Orange County, California, six days after he was admitted for treatment for a urological and blood infection, to the Los Angeles Times. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-clinton-leaves-california-hospital-after-6-days-2021-10">Clinton flew back to New York with Hillary and Chelsea Clinton by his side.</a><div type="image" title="nasa illustration artemis moon lunar surface landing astronaut spacesuit stepping down ladder lander rover hls eva steps apr2020" height="1686" width="2249" msid="87105672" hostid="261"></div>10. Wi-Fi me to the moon?: A new study by NASA considers the possibility of building a lunar Wi-Fi network. It comes in an effort to address inadequate internet access across parts of the US, and could and help inform future missions. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-lunar-moon-wi-fi-network-earth-digital-divide-cleveland-2021-10">More on how this fits in with NASA's plans to return to a lunar landing.</a>Today's trivia question: Sunday marked 90 years since Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion. Two of Capone's brothers were also part of the underworld. But another brother took a different route. What did he do? Email your answer and a suggested question to me at <a href="mailto:bgriffiths@insider.com">bgriffiths@insider.com</a>.<ul><li>Friday's answer: President George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush had a back-and-forth feud with the fictional Simpsons that included her once calling the animated show "the dumbest thing I've ever seen." Marge Simpson wrote the then-first lady a letter about her insults. <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/barbara-bushs-letter-marge-simpson-revealed-by-series-showrunner-1103722/">It was revealed after Bush's death that, incredibly, she responded.</a></li></ul>

10 Things in Politics: Tracing Trump and QAnon's roots to smog

4. Trader Joe's No-Buck Chuck

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11895112" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="barcelona" source="Orion">Barcelona</keyword> has a wealth of cultural and historical sites that draw millions of visitors each year.</li><li>Here are some ways to escape the tourist crowds and discover a more authentic side of the city.</li></ul>Barcelona is jam-packed with attractions, from incredible architecture to world-class museums, lively markets, and fabulous urban beaches. Even exploring the warren of narrow streets and pocket squares of the medieval old city can take a whole afternoon. But as beautiful as my adopted home city is, it also suffers from over-tourism. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, this city of <a href="https://time.com/6072062/barcelona-tourism-residents-covid/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">1.6 million people saw nearly 12 million tourists</a> visit, plus many day-trippers arriving by cruise ship. Remarkable Gaudí landmarks — Sagrada Familia, Park Güell — and top sites like the Picasso Museum have become perpetually packed with tourists, especially in the summer high season.Fortunately, there are ways to support responsible tourism and avoid major crowds. I've lived in Barcelona for five years, and the key to enjoying your time is to balance visits to major attractions with stops at lesser-known cultural sites and venture a bit farther from the center to discover local neighborhoods. Poblenou, for one, has trendy bars and restaurants, plus some of Barcelona's best beaches.If you put some of my suggestions below onto your list of must-dos, I guarantee you will have a far more pleasant trip with fewer crowds, while also seeing a more authentic side of the city. <div type="image" title="A beige and white cathedral with a gate and trees surrounding the entrance" height="3840" width="5119" msid="91104446" hostid="261"></div>Sant Pau Recinto ModernistaA 10-minute stroll uphill from Gaudí's celebrated Sagrada Familia is the <a href="https://www.santpaubarcelona.org/en" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">world's largest Art Nouveau site</a>. Designed by Catalan architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner and completed in 1930, this former hospital complex stretches across nine city blocks and is made up of dozens of red-brick pavilions surrounding landscaped courtyards. Since the complex is so large, it rarely gets crowded, so you can take your time wandering around and admiring the buildings' wealth of ornamental details, including colorful mosaic tiles, elaborate ceiling frescoes, and stained-glass windows. The highlight for me is the main administration pavilion with a grand marble staircase leading to hallways lined in multicolored stained glass — it's a very Instagrammable spot.<div type="image" title="People in a museum with gray walls. Two people look at painted and children are visible through an asymmetrical archway with mirrors on side" height="3840" width="5119" msid="91104448" hostid="261"></div>CaixaForum BarcelonaThere's always something interesting going on at <a href="https://caixaforum.org/es/barcelona" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">this arts center</a> set at the foot of Montjuïc, just across from the National Museum of Catalonian Art. Traveling exhibitions put on by La Caixa Foundation run the gamut and are well-curated. I've seen retrospectives of Magritte and Warhol, the furniture designs of Jean Prouvé, and themed shows from opera to vampires. It's also free to visit the building, a former textile factory, and a beautiful example of industrial Modernisme architecture. I always make it a point to go up to the roof terrace for views of the sprawling red-brick complex and its crenelated roofs, turrets, and filigreed towers. <div type="image" title="A view of the Barcelona city behind an abstract statue shaped like a fork in a small pond and a woman standing next to it" height="3840" width="5119" msid="91104449" hostid="261"></div>Fundació Joan MiróArchitect Josep Sert designed <a href="https://www.fmirobcn.org/en/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">this gleaming all-white museum</a> atop Montjuïc to house the surrealist artwork of Joan Miró, a Barcelona native and one of the most celebrated 20th-century artists. Miró's bold, bright, abstract pieces, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, and textiles from all periods of his life, are perfectly at home in the spare, light-filled space. My favorite spot is the rooftop, where his colorful, whimsical sculptures are set against jaw-dropping views of the city. <div type="image" title="Two girls sit on a stone path with view of Barcelona downhill below them" height="3840" width="5119" msid="91104656" hostid="261"></div>Turó de la Rovira/Bunkers of CarmelWhen I want to show visitors the best views of Barcelona, I take them up to <a href="https://www.barcelona.cat/museuhistoria/ca/patrimonis/els-espais-del-muhba/muhba-turo-de-la-rovira" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">these hilltop bunkers</a> located 900 feet above the city. From here, you have panoramic vistas of the mountains, sea, and the whole of Barcelona spread out below. It's a favorite weekend picnic spot for locals, but history buffs can study the plaques dotted around the site to learn how these bunkers helped defend the city from air attacks during the Spanish Civil War. Buses 22 and 24 run from Plaça de Catalunya to El Carmel, and from there it's about a 10-minute walk uphill to the site.<div type="image" title="Pieces of wall and clay inside of exhibit with a pathway and a person standing next to it" height="3840" width="5119" msid="91104660" hostid="261"></div>Barcelona History Museum (MUHBA Plaça del Rei) Most visitors focus on Barcelona's medieval architecture or the works of Gaudí, but the city actually dates back more than 2,000 years, when it was a Roman colony called Barcino. I love showing people its lesser-known ancient history, with a visit to <a href="https://www.barcelona.cat/museuhistoria/en/heritages/els-espais-del-muhba/muhba-placa-de-rei" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">this mostly underground museum</a> located deep beneath the Gothic Quarter's Plaça del Rei. Walkways stretch over the excavated Roman streets, which reveal the commercial life of the city from the first century BC, including a winery (with giant terra-cotta vats), a fish-salting factory, and a laundry area. As you go up, each level reveals a different era; for example, you can see the remains of the city's first Christian community dating from the fourth to the seventh centuries, and the formation of the medieval city in the 13th century. It's an absolutely fascinating exploration of ancient Barcelona.<div type="image" title="A walkway with a white railing and beach with people lounging and swimming in the ocean in background" height="3840" width="5119" msid="91104665" hostid="261"></div>Poblenou BeachesInstead of fighting for a little wedge of sand on the crowded beaches of Barceloneta, do as the locals do and head east to strands of the Poblenou district. The beaches of Bogatell, Mar Bella, and Nova Mar Bella tend to be less crowded than those closer to the city center, and the atmosphere is far more relaxed, with fewer drunk, rowdy tourists. (Do keep in mind that one section of Mar Bella is a gay nudist beach.) You'll find all the same amenities as in Barceloneta, including chiringuitos (beach bars), sand volleyball courts, lifeguards, and most importantly, toilets and outdoor showers. After a few hours at Bogatell, I like to make my way to the neighboring Parc del Poblenou for a pit stop at the hip al fresco eatery <a href="https://campingcamping.onuniverse.com/home" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">Camping</a>, which serves excellent snacks and sandwiches, and organic drinks. <div type="image" title="A variety of whole raw shrimp, raw fish, and prawns on ice on a table and in baskets at market" height="3840" width="5119" msid="91104670" hostid="261"></div>Mercat de Sant Antoni (Sant Antoni Market)Tourists swarm the stalls of the famous La Boqueria market on the Rambla, but very few locals actually do their shopping there. For a more authentic market experience — in a building that's even more beautiful, in my opinion — stop by <a href="https://www.mercatdesantantoni.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">this vast indoor market</a>, occupying an entire block in the Sant Antoni district. Inside an elegant iron structure that dates back to 1882 is just about everything a foodie could want, like fresh produce, seafood, meat, cheese, bread, Spanish olives, olive oil, and wine. And of course, there are multiple stalls where you can watch vendors expertly slicing a leg of Iberian ham. I don't cook but I love coming to this market to soak in the atmosphere (and pick up some lovely local cheeses and wines). On Sundays, while the interior is closed, a market of secondhand books sets up shop on the periphery. <div type="image" title="Many people seated in red chairs and wire frame tables and chairs under yellow umbrellas beside apartment homes under large trees" height="3840" width="5119" msid="91104672" hostid="261"></div>Plazas of Gràcia One of my favorite pastimes is going café-hopping among Gràcia's pedestrian plazas (or plaças in Catalan). This district to the north of the city center was once a separate village and it counts around 15 squares — shady spots where residents come to mingle and catch up over coffee, wine, or vermouth. My top three picks are Plaça de Virreina, Plaça de la Rovira i Trias, and Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia — all within a short stroll of one another. Virreina, framed by elegant residential buildings and tall trees and anchored by the 19th-century stone church of Sant Joan de Gràcia, is a wonderfully peaceful spot. There are several cafés in the plaza, and a couple more alongside the church, so you can usually find a table if you're patient.Nearby is Rovira, which has some of the better dining and drinking options, including La Rovira, which specializes in local beers and good pub-style food. One of the largest, liveliest squares is Vila de Gràcia, marked by a tall clock tower at its center. Families love to gather here and let kids run freely around the plaza. If you're lucky, you'll find a seat on the terrace of <a href="http://nabuccotiramisu.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">Nabucco Tiramisu</a>, which serves excellent Italian coffee and pastries.<div type="image" title="Three bronze statues of Spanish figures on a display with a red background" height="3840" width="5119" msid="91104677" hostid="261"></div>Museu Frederic Marès Adjacent to the Barcelona Cathedral is <a href="https://www.barcelona.cat/museufredericmares/eng/museum" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">this fascinating museum</a> holding the eclectic collections of sculptor Frederic Marès (1893–1991). Skip the lower levels with their seemingly endless parade of medieval-era Madonnas and Jesuses, and make a beeline for the marvelous Collector's Cabinet on the top floors. Here, you'll find 17 themed rooms packed with hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of whatever struck Marès's fancy — everything from medieval armor to walking sticks to ladies' fans and pipes and cigarette cases. Pouring through the matchbook collection alone could take hours.I love perusing the many wonderfully weird items, like Victorian-era needlepoint portraits crafted from human hair and a whole section of bouquet holders, carried by the most fashionable 19th-century European ladies.<div type="image" title="A woman holds her phone and takes a picture of many multi-colored lights in a room illuminated in purple and green" height="3840" width="5119" msid="91104679" hostid="261"></div>Moco Museum BarcelonaWhen I lived in Amsterdam, I regularly visited this museum focusing on contemporary and street art, so I was excited when <a href="https://mocomuseum.com/moco-museum-barcelona-en/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">the new outpost opened in Barcelona</a> last October. Set in a 16th-century palace in El Born, just a stone's throw from the Picasso Museum, it displays a small but stellar collection of works across two levels.Downstairs are modern and contemporary masters like Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Julian Opie, while upstairs features pieces from street artists like Kaws and Banksy. Several rooms are dedicated to experiential and digital art, including an awesome immersive light-and-mirror installation by Studio Irma. And this is one museum where you won't want to skip the gift shop filled with cool prints, postcards, tote bags, T-shirts, and limited-edition merch. <div type="image" title="Casa Batllo in Barcelona, Spain lit up at night." height="2391" width="3188" msid="91104681" hostid="261"></div>Magic Nights at Casa BatllóI'd always avoided visiting <a href="https://www.casabatllo.es/en/online-tickets/visit-magic-nights/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">this masterpiece of Gaudí</a>, chiefly because of the long lines no matter the season. But then I discovered Magic Nights. Instead of queuing up with the daytime crowds, you can spend a bit more than the regular 35 euros admission for an intimate evening that also includes a live rooftop concert — plus free cava!Doors open to Magic Nights ticket holders at 8 p.m. for a tour of the house (with a free audio guide), followed by the concert starting at 9 p.m. There are three ticket levels — blue, silver, and gold — with the latter (priced at 59 euros) netting you a front-row table to the concert, plus an extra drink. But the blue tickets (49 euros) also give you the full experience, including a visit to the new Gaudí Cube, a spectacular immersive video-and-sound installation in the basement. What really makes it worth the extra cost is seeing the house without the throngs of tourists — there are times that I had the rooms nearly all to myself. Magic Nights runs seasonally, from April to November.<a href="https://www.insider.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-traveling-to-barcelona-spain" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View Insider's comprehensive guide to visiting Barcelona.</a>

10 places to go in Barcelona beyond what you'll find in most guide books, according to a local travel writer

Good morning! I hope you all had a nice Mother's Day weekend. Welcome back to <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/10-things-in-politics">10 Things in Politics</a>, your weekday look at the biggest stories in DC and beyond. <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/10-things-in-politics">Sign up here to receive this newsletter</a>.Send tips to <a href="mailto:bgriffiths@insider.com">bgriffiths@insider.com</a> or tweet me at <a href="https://twitter.com/BrentGriffiths">@BrentGriffiths</a>.Here's what we're talking about:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-chris-wray-profile-biden-doj-justice-department-garland-barr-2021-5">FBI Director Chris Wray barely survived the Trump era. Here's what his job is like now.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/april-jobs-report-bidens-stimulus-infrastructure-fight-republicans-trillions-gop-2021-5">April's disappointing jobs report is setting the stage for an infrastructure fight</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-face-masks-seasonal-flu-2021-5">Fauci said it's 'quite possible' that masks become a seasonal item</a></li></ul>One thing to look out for today: President Joe Biden is set to speak about the economy at 1:15 p.m. ET.1. A NEW ERA AT THE FBI: FBI Director Chris Wray barely survived the Trump era. He threatened to quit once, and Attorney General Bill Barr ran interference for him multiple times, including last spring when President Donald Trump had loyalists ready to replace Wray and another top bureau official.Insider spoke with nearly a dozen current and former Department of Justice officials about Wray and what life would be like for him under a very different boss.Here's a peek at what we found:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-barr-threatened-to-quit-trump-attempts-fire-chris-wray-2021-5">Barr threatened to resign when he learned of the plot to oust Wray:</a> Barr walked out of a White House meeting with Bill Evanina, a top counterintelligence official in the administration, who would have been Wray's replacement. The Trump national security official Kash Patel would have been the new FBI deputy director.Attorney General Merrick Garland is very different from Barr: Barr was known as "the Buffalo" for his hard-charging ways. Garland is a soft-spoken former federal judge who, like Wray, was once a line prosecutor.<ul><li>Key quote: "Barr is a force of nature and pure id," a former Justice Department official told Insider. "Garland may be finding himself having a similar experience to Wray's: They're thoughtful, reserved institutionalists who are doing their best to guide institutions they cherish through a highly politically charged time in our nation's history, having to navigate the currents in both directions."</li></ul>While Wray is seen as very different from his more famous predecessors: "He's not an icon like Mueller or Comey," a former top FBI official told Insider, referring to Robert Mueller and Jim Comey. "He's very much a traditional, by-the-book, knows-where-he-fits-into-the-organization kind of FBI director."Officials say Wray and Garland's relationship will be shaped by the DOJ's efforts to address domestic terrorism: "You don't control what comes at you as attorney general, and that relationship has to work really well for the department to be working really well," said Jamie Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-chris-wray-profile-biden-doj-justice-department-garland-barr-2021-5">Read more about what tricky issues former officials say lay ahead for Wray and the White House.</a>2. It's unclear when a major gas pipeline will be fully online, meaning you could pay more at the pump: There's no estimate for when most of the Colonial Pipeline, the largest gasoline conduit to the US East Coast, will restart after a devastating cyberattack on Friday, Politico reports. A prolonged shutdown could wreak havoc on gas prices as financial futures last night jumped to nearly $2.22 a gallon, their highest mark in years. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/09/colonial-pipeline-shutdown-cyberattack-486425">Colonial has confirmed it was the target of a ransomware attack</a>.3. Hundreds of pandemic victims' bodies remain in refrigerated trucks in New York City: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/750-covid-19-victims-still-stored-trucks-new-york-city-2021-5">The bodies of as many as 750 COVID-19 victims are still being stored</a> more than a year after the height of the city's coronavirus outbreak, The City reports. A New York official said most of the remains could end up being buried on Hart Island, where for the past 100 years the city has buried those who lack funds for a private burial. <a href="https://www.thecity.nyc/missing-them/2021/5/6/22423844/new-york-covid-victims-still-in-trucks-on-brooklyn-pier">The City's analysis found one in 10 New Yorkers who died of COVID-19 last year was buried on the island</a>.<div type="image" title="Jim Clyburn" height="3712" width="5568" msid="82519410" hostid="261"></div>4. Key Democrat hints at a deal over police reform: The House majority whip, Jim Clyburn, suggested that he would support new police legislation even if it didn't include an overhaul of qualified immunity, the legal protection for officers that has reportedly been a sticking point in bipartisan negotiations. Clyburn said he didn't "want to see us throw out a good bill because we can't get a perfect bill." <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/09/rep-clyburn-says-qualified-immunity-doesnt-have-be-part-policing-reform-bill/">His comments are a departure from other Democrats who want to see the doctrine changed or eliminated</a>.5. Kevin McCarthy officially backed Liz Cheney's ouster: The top House Republican said he supported Rep. Elise Stefanik replacing Cheney as the No. 3 House Republican, publicly confirming his reported private frustrations with Cheney and paving the way for her ouster. "As conference chair, you have one of the most critical jobs as a messenger going forward," McCarthy said on Fox News. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mccarthy-cheney-trump-stefanik-republican-conference-chair/2021/05/09/f9b9f476-b0ed-11eb-a980-a60af976ed44_story.html">Cheney could be removed from her post as early as this week</a>.6. These are the stocks lawmakers are trading: Rep. Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican who has bemoaned Big Tech, bought up to $50,000 in Amazon stock earlier this month. Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning's husband, Randall Kaplan, made $1 million to $2 million worth of hedge fund investments in early March. Half of the investment was with Melvin Capital LP, the hedge fund involved in the GameStop short squeeze.And Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, took a more novel approach to generate some extra money. She worked a harvest for Three Sticks Winery in California. The senator earned $1,117.40 as an intern.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kyrsten-sinema-coca-cola-boycott-stocks-congress-pete-sessions-2021-5">Read the rest of our exclusive roundup here.</a>7. April's disappointing jobs report is setting the stage for an infrastructure fight: Democrats and Republicans came to opposite conclusions on why the economy added just 266,000 jobs in April, a disappointing figure that was far lower than experts expected. President Joe Biden and Democrats argue that his $4 trillion infrastructure plans are necessary to getting Americans back to work at pre-pandemic levels. The GOP, in contrast, sees more evidence of why any more major spending should be halted. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/april-jobs-report-bidens-stimulus-infrastructure-fight-republicans-trillions-gop-2021-5">More on the fight that will play out over the coming months</a>.8. Six people were killed at a birthday party in Colorado: The police say a man opened fire, killing his ex-girlfriend, five others, and himself in Colorado Springs. Officers say children and adults were enjoying the party at a mobile home when the attacker entered, though no children were harmed. <a href="https://www.insider.com/colorado-birthday-party-mass-shooting-leaves-7-dead-including-suspect-2021-5">This comes nearly seven weeks after 10 people were killed in a shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado</a>.9. Fauci said it's "quite possible" that masks become a seasonal item: Face masks and other efforts helped lead to a "practically a nonexistent flu season," Dr. Anthony Fauci said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Fauci said people might elect to wear masks in the years to come to help reduce the spread of respiratory illnesses like seasonal flu. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-face-masks-seasonal-flu-2021-5">More on his comments here</a>.10. No horsing around. A cloud hangs over the Triple Crown after a positive drug test: The Kentucky Derby champ Medina Spirit failed a postrace drug test, raising questions about its Hall of Fame trainer, Bob Baffert, whom rivals have previously accused of cheating. The horse tested positive for betamethasone, an injectable corticosteroid that is used to reduce pain and swelling in joints. Baffert denied that he or anyone on his team injected the drug. <a href="https://www.insider.com/kentucky-derby-drug-test-medina-spirit-failed-2021-5">Churchill Downs said Medina Spirit would be stripped of the Derby title if a second test confirmed the drug's presence</a>.<ul><li>It's not clear whether Medina Spirit will be able to run in this weekend's Preakness: The Baltimore race is the second leg in the famed Triple Crown. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/05/09/kentucky-derby-winner-medina-spirit-positive-test-bob-baffert/">Pimlico Race Course said it was reviewing the case</a>.</li></ul>Today's trivia question: What did a Western Union telegraph marking the completion of the transcontinental railroad say? Email your guess and a suggested question to me at <a href="mailto:bgriffiths@insider.com">bgriffiths@insider.com</a>.<ul><li>Friday's answer: FDR was the first US president <a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/questions/what-are-some-interesting-facts-about-presidents-first-ladies">whose mother could vote for him</a>.</li></ul>

10 Things in Politics: Inside the Biden-era FBI

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Adrian Granzella LarssenAdrian Granzella Larssen and her husband in Ljubljana, Slovenia.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Adrian Granzella Larssen is the founder of<a href="http://www.sweetspotcontent.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.sweetspotcontent.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568129961903000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGmlrxaZHOTftyengwJCSe_l39qBA"> Sweet Spot Content</a>, which helps inspiring brands, publications, and thought leaders create authentic, engaging content. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Muse, a content-first career destination that reaches more than 75 million people annually.</li><li>In 2017, she took a four-week sabbatical from her role at The Muse. This adventure inspired her to take a whole year off to travel from 2018 to 2019. She and her husband traveled to 30 countries around the world. </li><li>Some of the most common questions she gets asked about her trip include how much it cost, whether she worked, and whether taking time off affected her career.</li><li>She explains that the cost depends on how much you're willing to spend on certain things, and that working while you travel is a lot harder than it looks. She adds that while quitting her full-time job did affect her career to an extent, sometimes it's worth the risk.</li><li>"Conventional wisdom told me I should be leaning in, but leaning out for a year helped me remember who I was, what I was excited about, and how to think in a dramatically different way than I had been over the course of my professional life," she says.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories.</a></li></ul>At the beginning of 2017, I got to take a four-week paid sabbatical as a reward for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/i-was-the-first-employee-of-startup-what-i-learned-2019-7">being employed at my company</a> for five years.Four whole weeks? I was giddy. My husband convinced his employer to give him the time off, too, and we took a trip we'd been talking about for years: traveling around Southeast Asia.It was an amazing experience, but we quickly realized that four weeks wasn't enough time to go everywhere we wanted in the region - not by a long shot. And as we quickly jetted between Taipei, Chiang Mai, and Luang Prabang, we met people who were doing similar trips, but over the course of many months. Or even years! <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Adrian Granzella LarssenAdrian Granzella Larssen and her husband in Mount Bromo, Java, Indonesia.</div></div></div>Some of these people were benefiting from their company or country's paid-time-off policies. (In Australia, for example, some employees receive a sabbatical year after 10 years of service.) But most of them were simply taking time to travel on their own dime. Some of them had taken leaves of absence from their jobs, and some were choosing to work along the way. No one (that we knew of) was a multimillion-dollar trust fund baby or living off the proceeds of a unicorn startup IPO; they were all regular people on regular budgets, just like us. Over those four weeks, we got to thinking: If they could do it, why couldn't we? And we returned back to our apartment in New York with one thing on our minds: doing it all over again.About a year later, we did. From March 2018 to March 2019, we put our belongings in storage, sent our cat to live with my parents (apologies to all involved), and traveled to 30 countries around the world. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Adrian Granzella LarssenAdrian Granzella Larssen at a winery in Wanaka, New Zealand.</div></div></div>We didn't go full-on digital nomad, we didn't live by the principles of "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357">The Four-Hour Work Week</a>," and we didn't attempt to become Instagram influencers - we simply took a year off in a way that worked for us. Some of the most common questions we get after people hear our story include: Was it the best year ever? (Yes.) Were there downsides and tradeoffs? (Of course there were.) Did you get sick of living out of one suitcase? (I truly never want to see the items of clothing I wore last year ever again.) As well as these following big questions about how we thought about finances, our jobs, and our <keyword id="6354910" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="careers">careers</keyword> in general.<h1>How much did it cost?</h1>When I get this question, my answer is often: as much as you want it to. For everyone we met who was YOLO-ing their way around the world, there were countless others who were sticking to a budget of a couple thousand dollars a month (which is entirely doable, especially if you're focusing on cheaper destinations like Southeast Asia or South America and staying in hostels or other shared accommodations). <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Adrian Granzella LarssenAdrian Granzella Larssen outside an airport in the Philippines.</div></div></div>We were somewhere in the middle. After having worked for 15 years, we had saved a decent amount of money, so we weren't on a super-strict budget, but we definitely didn't splurge like we were on vacation. For the most part, we opted for relatively inexpensive destinations like Indonesia, the Philippines, the Balkans, and South America, where decent lodging options could be found for $50 to $60 per night. We also cooked many of our own meals, and we didn't do a lot of pricey "must-do" tourist activities unless they were really important to us. (In New Zealand, for example, we opted out of bungee jumping and glacier hiking in favor of drinking a lot of Pinot Noir.)Depending on where we were, our monthly budget varied, but over the course of the year our total expenses were about 60% of what they were while living in New York. As it turns out, giving up that sky-high Manhattan rent helped us easily afford Airbnbs and travel experiences. And miles and credit card points helped us save quite a bit on flights. We didn't add to our savings accounts that year, but we also didn't dig into them as much as we thought we would need to. It did help that I worked a bit along the way, which brings me to ...<h1>What did you do about work?</h1>A year before we left, I negotiated with my job to go down to a part-time schedule so that I could take on freelance projects on the side. My idea was to build up a roster of regular consulting clients that I could work with no matter where I was in the world as an extra cushion for our finances while we were away as well as to make sure I had a career waiting for me once I came back to the States. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Adrian Granzella LarssenAdrian Granzella Larssen working at an Airbnb in Canggu, Bali.</div></div></div>That was a great idea - in theory. In reality, digital nomad life looks a lot less like typing away on your laptop while lounging on the beach and a lot more like frantically running around town trying to find a SIM card or cursing at the very lovely cafe staff because their WiFi is nowhere near strong enough to handle a video call. At the pace we were moving, working while traveling was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I thought I would work about 20 hours every week, making roughly half of my previous salary, but that ended up being more like a few hours here and there, bringing in between $1,000 and $5,000 per month. And during the last three months of the trip, I ended up scaling back entirely. My husband, a corporate lawyer, had planned to quit his job, but his firm ended up offering him a year-long leave of absence instead. It's not a super-common practice, but in today's job market, some employers will go to great lengths to keep good talent. As he learned, it's worth an ask.<h1>Did it hurt your career?</h1>If you look at things through the lens of traditional climb-the-ladder career rules, yes. If I had wanted a promotion at my company or was aiming for a highly competitive new job, taking a year off certainly wasn't a great strategy. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Adrian Granzella LarssenAdrian Granzella Larssen in Mount Bromo, Java, Indonesia.</div></div></div>But what I wanted more - for myself and for my career - was a break. I had been working at a startup for nearly seven years, and I was burnt out and tired. Before I had decided to travel for a year, I had interviewed for other roles but realized that my heart wasn't in any of them. What my brain needed wasn't a new professional challenge; it was rest. Conventional wisdom told me I should be leaning in, but leaning out for a year helped me remember who I was, what I was excited about, and how to think in a dramatically different way than I had been over the course of my professional life. (Yes, my job had challenges - but I'd never tried to book train tickets in India before.) Financially, too, it wasn't the strongest move I could have made (you'll notice this article isn't titled, "I traveled for a year, made $400,000, and never looked back!") Since I've returned, I've ramped up my consulting business again, but it took a few months to have a full plate of work. Honestly, though? That's OK. While my take-home pay that year wasn't anything to be proud of, the experience as a whole absolutely was.Have more questions? Want to plan your own year off? Join the waiting list for my upcoming digital guide, "<a href="https://www.youryearoff.com/">Your Year Off</a>." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/deepak-chopra-how-to-unleash-your-happiness-creativity-productivity-2019-11">Deepak Chopra explains how to unlock your natural happiness, creativity and productivity</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

I took a year off of work to travel the world. Here are the 3 biggest questions people ask me about how it affected my career and finances.

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>
So maybe you've used Tinder. But have girls ever picked you up in their car and driven you 60km at a time to help you complete a hitchhiking adventure?
In May 2014, I embarked on what turned out to be a 20,000km, 6-month hitchhiking adventure across North America. I started out the old-fashioned way - thumbs up at the side of the road, car after car rejecting me, storm after storm drenching me, can after can of cold beans for dinner.
The novelty quickly wore off.
On one very cold early morning three months and 8,000km into my trip, I was messing around on my phone while waiting for a lift on a quiet country road in western Canada.
I'd installed Tinder a couple of months back but hadn't really used it. After a bit of playing around on the app, I noticed I was getting quite a few matches. As I tucked into my 27th can of warm tuna, my most creative moment of the trip so far hit me:
Why don't I use Tinder to get car rides across America?
And that was the beginning of how I leveraged a dating technology app - along with other online platforms including CouchSurfing and Craigslist - to successfully coordinate around 12,000km of my hitchhiking adventure across North America. 
<h3>My Tinder Profile</h3>
To accomplish this, I had to change my Tinder profile so that people knew that I was an adventurous traveler who was hitchhiking North America.
Here's a breakdown of my profile:
My Bio: Nomadic traveler of 2 years from Britain. Currently hitchhiking 20,000km across North America. Trying to get by through the generosity of wonderful people. Need to reach New York City by early November. Can you help me get there?
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>Pictures: All smiling, portraying fun and adventure.
Distance: 10km.
Age Range: 18-50 (From my experience hitchhiking there isn't a certain demographic that picks up hitchhikers).
Tactics: Swipe right to everyone (Since when did dating get so methodical? Come on, everybody deserves a chance!!).
Opening Line: Sometimes an observation about their profile. Usually something blunt and straight to the point: "Can you drive me 60km south?"
Results
I was astonished by the response I was getting on Tinder. I was matching with a lot of curious American girls who wanted to know more about my travels. They all seemed to dig the British thing, too. Peculiarly, a lot of matches opened up with "OMG do you have an accent?" to which I replied, "Ever heard James Bond speak? I sound like him."
In just 3-months in America, I matched with 3,766 people. I managed to hitchhike around 12,000km to New York City primarily using Tinder, CouchSurfing, <keyword id="6354692" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Travel">travel</keyword> forums and Craigslist.
As a comparison, I covered 8,000km across Canada, hitchhiking from the side of the road 100% of the time. In USA, I covered 12,000km, hitchhiking from the side of the road just 15% of the time.
Amusingly, I also recall a very low point in my adventure when I had to email Tinder Support (screenshot below) because my account crashed and deleted all my matches. Oh my, I can only imagine the look on the woman's face dealing with my request and wondering how desperately deluded my life was.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"></div></div>
Swiping right and playing the law of averages isn't a load of fun. After 20 days, the excruciating pain in my thumb and potential onset of RSI made me question what the hell I was doing. Yes, in hindsight, Tinder, I would've really appreciated a "Like Everybody in America" button installed on my account. Next time, please?
From my Tinder experiment, I observed that since I'd set my profile up to ask for help, swiping right to everyone worked well as a natural filtering system for matching with people who were willing to help. I matched with curious, like-minded, adventurous girls, some of whom had traveled extensively themselves and others who wanted advice on how to start traveling.
An overwhelming number liked the idea of long-term travel but often gave me reasons why they couldn't start a similar journey themselves.
The top five reasons were:
1. I don't have enough money to travel. 2. I need to get a proper a job so I can pay the bills. 3. I have a mortgage and car to pay for first. 4. I have to finish university and pay my debt back first. 5. I'll get murdered.
My longest single Tinder hitchhike was around 500km down the beautiful Route 101 on the West Coast of USA. My most memorable story came when I matched with a girl from Phoenix, Arizona. <div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>It was late at night and I was just about to go to bed when she asked me to go for drinks with her and her mate. It turned out that her friend was a 40-year old guy who was a bit of a wheeler-dealer. He owned marijuana farms, oil companies and property. He was heading in the same direction as me to check out a new marijuana plot.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>After a bit of persuasion and a few JD and Cokes later, he agreed to take me. This hitchhike turned out to be one of my most memorable hitches. He was an extremely interesting character and had many fascinating stories about close encounters with the law - Tony Montana sprung to mind. Beneath all the debatable business endeavors, he was a very kind man with a good heart. We met for drinks a couple of times after the hitch and I'm still in touch with him today.
In addition to hitchhiking, I also used Tinder to arrange a tour around Hollywood in Los Angeles, a trip to the Grand Canyon, a weekend adventure climbing in the Rocky Mountains, and a camping trip on the West Coast of USA.<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>
<h3>Conclusions</h3>
Luckily, the arrangement wasn't just a one-way street. I wasn't always the one being helped. It wasn't like that at all. I would cook for girls, adventure with them, make them laugh, and inspire many to change some part of their life, big or small. One girl I met made the decision to quit her job and embark on a solo-backpacking trip across South America.
Some people ask why I didn't stick to the traditional method of hitchhiking.
Here's my answer: Proactive approach &gt; Reactive approach.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"></div></div>A reactive approach entails waiting for the right situation to arise. A proactive approach entails creating the situation you want to arise.
When hitchhiking, a reactive approach would involve me sitting at the side of the road, aimlessly hoping that the right person would come along, pick me up and take me to my destination. The outcome of this situation is very much out of my control. Proactively exploring other mediums such as Tinder, CouchSurfing and Craigslist increases potential, possibility and the likelihood of finding the right people who were willing to help.
This Tinder experiment taught me a very valuable lesson.
If you never ask the answer will always be NO.
I battled with my ego for a very long time and could never find the courage to go beyond myself and ask others for help. Sometimes you need drop that, erase the fear of being judged, and let yourself become beautifully vulnerable.
Human beings are wired to help each other, and from what I've seen in two and a half years of travel, no matter where you go in the world, regardless of cultural differences, there are ALWAYS tons of amazing souls who are willing to lend a helping hand.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>
 
<h3>More From Podstel:</h3>
<a href="http://www.podstellife.com/self-development/couchsurf-way-across-entire-continent-part-3-5-tips-become-great-couchsurfer/">How To Couchsurf Your Way Across A Continent </a><a href="http://www.podstellife.com/self-development/a-hitchhikers-guide-for-dummies/">5 Tips That Will Make You A Hitchhiking Pro </a><a href="http://www.podstellife.com/self-development/i-heard-it-through-the-grapevine/">Important Life Lessons I Learned Working At A Winery </a>
Follow <a href="http://www.podstellife.com/" target="_blank">Podstellife.com</a> for more articles about traveling in unconventional ways. Also, like Podstel on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/podstel" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and follow our future adventures.

How I Used Tinder to Hitchhike Across America

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Heath Padgett" title_caption="Heath Padgett, 23, will work 50 jobs in 50 states." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54628b846bb3f74f05bc743f-960/heath-padgett-6.jpg"></a>Heath PadgettHeath Padgett, 23, will work 50 jobs in 50 states.</div></div>Hourly workers make up almost three-fourths of the US workforce - yet certain stigmas associated with these workers still exist, and they don't always get the recognition they deserve, says Heath Padgett, a 23-year-old recent college graduate.
To explore the world of hourly work, break those stigmas, and shed light on the importance of these under-appreciated employees, Padgett and his wife, Alyssa, decided to embark on a seven-month, cross-country journey in their RV. On the trip, he's trying out 50 jobs in 50 states for his upcoming documentary, "<a href="http://www.hourlyamerica.com/">Hourly America</a>."
The newlyweds, who are on what's been called an "<a href="https://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/watch/25411418/epic-honeymoon/">epic honeymoon</a>," left their hometown of Austin, Texas, on June 1 - just a week after their wedding. So far, they've visited 38 states.
Padgett and Alyssa, his videographer, have found most of the 38 hourly gigs he's worked through <a href="http://www.snagajob.com/">Snagajob.com</a>, America's largest network for hourly employment.

Padgett, who graduated from Concordia University Texas with a major in business and entrepreneurship in 2013, recently spoke to Business Insider about his favorite moments, his biggest challenges, and the best and worst jobs he's worked throughout his "Hourly America" journey.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. 
Business Insider: Can you tell me what inspired you to embark on this "50 jobs in 50 states" journey? 
Heath Padgett: After college I took a sales job with a software company and quickly realized that I wasn't built for sitting in an office all day. I wanted to do more meaningful, creative work and figure out what kind of work made me happy. I've always had a desire to travel and the idea of pursuing a mission along with traveling intrigued me. I decided to make this more of a quest and work a job in all 50 states so I could learn more about different kinds of work and meet a lot of people along the way.
BI: Can you walk us through how this all works?
HP: On average I work two to three different jobs per week. I show up and work for one day in each different place. I obviously don't become a pro at these jobs - I'm more concerned with getting to know my coworkers, interviewing them about their job and their overall philosophy on work. Why do they do what they do? What do they love most about being a bartender, cook, electrician, etc.?
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Heath Padgett" title_caption="Padgett in front of Bob's Clam Hut in Maine, where he worked as a fish fryer." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/546288ba6bb3f75a78bc743f-960/bobs-2.jpg"></a>Heath PadgettPadgett in front of Bob's Clam Hut in Maine, where he worked as a fish fryer.</div></div>I've worked everything from a martial arts assistant to a pizza delivery guy, and even had short stints on a couple different farms.
A lot of my jobs have been in the service industry, as I'm particularly interested in learning more about how to fill the void between employees and customers. I want to find more ways for customers to acknowledge and recognize service industry workers outside of purely tipping them. 
I've found most of my jobs through Snagajob.com. I reached out to them before my trip begun with a crazy idea of working a different job in every state, and I asked if they would help me find jobs along the way. They've opened the doors to a lot of the bigger companies for me, where as it might have been a lot more difficult for some random guy to come in for the day. 
BI: Where are you now, and and how many jobs have you done so far?
HP: As of today I've worked 38 jobs in 38 states. I'm in Kentucky, and today I worked at a KOA campsite. My wife and I made this trip in our 1994 Coachmen Class C motorhome, and we've attracted a lot of attention from fellow RVers who find these 23-year-old newlyweds pretty fascinating. So today we took their advice and spent a day working at a KOA, cleaning bathrooms and all that good stuff. 
BI: Did you plan ahead of time which jobs you'd have in each state? Or do you figure it out as you go? 
HP: We fly by the seat of our pants. For instance, I called KOA yesterday along with several other companies. I give them my pitch, tell them why I'm doing what I'm doing, and if they understand or believe in my mission then they let me come in and work for the day alongside their employees. 
BI: What's been your favorite job, and why?
HP: One of my favorite jobs was working for the Inland Empire 66ers. They are a minor league baseball team in Los Angeles. I spent all day outside working in the bleachers and cleaning the locker room. I played college baseball at Concordia University Texas, and spending a day outside working on a field was the dream. 
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Heath Padgett" title_caption="Padgett working for the Inland Empire 66ers." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54628998ecad04e016049b4a-960/heath-padgett.jpg"></a>Heath PadgettPadgett working for the Inland Empire 66ers.</div></div></div>
BI: What's been the worst, or hardest job, and why?
HP: Well two days ago I was "fired" from a job. I wasn't really fired, but there was a miscommunication between the manager who I spoke with on the phone and the other manager working the day I came in. Apparently, she had no idea I was going to actually work there and wasn't the kind of person who was flexible to curveballs being thrown at her. 
Two hours into my shift I received a call from the owner saying that she also didn't know I was going to be working there that day. They thought I was going to get in the way, and I honestly don't think they had done any research on our "Hourly America" project, nor did they know our mission.
It was a little bit embarrassing having to leave halfway through a shift. But on the other side of things it was a valuable lesson - a lot of people aren't going to believe in what you're doing, especially when it breaks the norm. Leaving that job and still having a firm faith in this project to make a difference in the world was affirming to say the least because it showed me how strongly I believe in our mission of sharing stories from everyday workers.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Heath Padgett" title_caption="Padgett and his wife/videographer, Alyssa." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/546289f669bedd1c77c57849-960/heath-padgett-1.jpg"></a>Heath PadgettPadgett and his wife/videographer, Alyssa.</div></div></div>BI: What's been the best moment of this experience so far?
HP: There have been a few different moments along our trip where someone I'm working with looks at me and just says, "Thank you." Maybe these are the people who understand that we are here because we want to show the people from the other side of the counter's point of view. It feels really good to know your mission has inspired someone in some way.
BI: What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced?
HP: Traveling the country in a 20-year-old motorhome in the first year of marriage while working a job in every single state is a huge undertaking. We've broken down, had fights when the GPS gets us lost, and experienced so much of the world at a rapid pace. But I would say the biggest challenges are sticking to this project when our RV keeps breaking down.
We don't have a ton of money, and early on, there was no telling if anything positive was going to come from "Hourly America." Would anyone ever care what we are doing? Does this work matter? It was the internal battle, which was the hardest. I've never been a full-time RVer, writer, or filmmaker. All these things are new to me, but going from the unknown to a place of feeling confident in my skills was a huge undertaking.
It helps to realize that most people aren't entirely sure of themselves no matter what it is they are doing, we are all learning. If you meet a person who "has it all together," then they're the smartest person I've ever met or a really good actor. Life is about practice, not perfection. 
<div class="KonaFilter image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Heath Padgett" title_caption="The newlyweds." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/546292486bb3f7a81cdc66e0-960/heath-padgett-7.jpg"></a>Heath PadgettThe newlyweds.</div></div>BI: What has surprised you most?
HP: People's openness. It's been incredibly easy to find businesses that are willing to let me come in for the day. A lot of businesses have said yes before even taking a look at our website or media coverage. Some places think we are just crazy kids who are trying to do something meaningful with their lives, and they would be right. 
However, it just proves there are a lot of people out in the world who will accept you if you're willing to take a few blows in the process. A good friend of mine always says, "Once you open yourself up to the world, the world opens itself up to you." I now know that statement to be very true. 
BI: What's the biggest lesson you've learned??
HP: Being able to effectively communicate a simple idea is a learned and valuable skill set. It's one that I am still working on. 
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Heath Padgett" title_caption="Padgett, right, working in a kitchen." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5462930469bedd3623dc66db-960/heath-padgett-8.jpg"></a>Heath PadgettPadgett, right, working in a kitchen.</div></div></div>
BI: What do you plan to do when this journey concludes?
HP: We will release the film in August 2015, and until then I'm going to be working part time consulting with Jia Jiang, who is an author with an upcoming book launch in April 2015. Jia is a mentor who first gave me the idea to work a different job in every state. He looked me up several months after we talked about it over coffee and realized I had taken his advice and pursued this quest. He then offered me a job because he said that he had received hundreds of inquiries of people asking for guidance, but only a few people had actually taken action from those meetings. I was one of them.
BI: Anything else you want to share about your experience? 
HP: Don't let people tell you there is a set way to go about your career. I've found that the safe and normal way rarely yields the results of stepping outside of the box. I had so many people tell me I was crazy for pursuing this 50-state-50-job quest, however, I've had more opportunities open up because of it then I would have ever had if I'd stayed in my office job back in Texas.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Heath Padgett" title_caption="Padgett and the RV." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54628942eab8ea8d54af342c-960/heath-padget.jpg"></a>Heath PadgettPadgett and the RV.</div></div>
Here are all the jobs Padgett has worked so far: 
Job #1: Project Dojo, Martial Arts Instructor Job #2: Buffalo Wild Wings, Server Job #3: Habitat ReStore, Paint Mixer Job #4: American Red Cross, Lifeguard Job #5: Inland Empire 66ers Baseball Stadium, Cleaning Crew Member Job #6: Domino's Pizza, Delivery guy and Pizza Maker Job #7: Portland Art Museum, Security Guard Job #8: Downtown Missoula Association, City Ambassador Job #9: Mike's Music Shop, Sales Associate Job #10: Persephone Bakery, Bread Baker Job #11: La Vita Bella, Barista Job #12: Oh My Cupcakes! &amp; Shop Dog Boutique, Cupcake Ninja &amp; Cashier Job #13: Würst Bier Hall, Line Cook Job #14: Carlos Creek Winery, Wine Pourer Job #15: Hinchley's Dairy Farm Tours, Dairy Farmer Job #16: Pizza Rustica Chicago, Busboy Job #17: Hog Stop BBQ, Meat Handler Job #18: Lucky Bucket Brewing Company, Vodka Bottler Job #19: Schlegel's Bicycles, Bicycle Mechanic Job #20: Kansas Humane Society, Poop Scooper Job #21: The Fountain on Locust, Waiter<a href="https://www.facebook.com/FountainOnLocust"> </a>Job #22: The Fountain Square Brewing, Keg Filler Job #23: Ann Arbor Tees, T-Shirt Printer Job #24: Society Lounge, Bar Back Job #25: Shelburne Orchards, Apple Picker Job #26: The Juicery, Juice Master Job #27: Bob's Clam Hut, Fish Fryer Job #28: The General Store, Event Staff Job #29: TEN31 Productions, Costumer Job #30: Downtown Yoga Studio, Mat Cleaner Job #31: The Vitamin Shoppe, Health Enthusiast Job #32: White Castle, Grill Master Job #33: Fuel After School, After School Counselor Job #34: Hagley Museum and Library, Electrician Job #35: Six Flags America, Zombie Job #36: Lumber Liquidators, Warehouse Assistant Job #37: Stardust Cafe, Dishwasher Job #38: KOA, Janitor

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