Cheddar has been covering the biggest news of the week with some of the biggest names in the biz. In case you missed it, we've pulled together some of the highlights that will keep you informed as we get ready for the week ahead.
Learning on Assemble
Actor and activist Jesse Williams is looking to provide Black, Indigenous, and People of Color of all ages with educational opportunities and career guidance through Assemble. The learning platform, which was founded by Young Money's Cortez Bryant, CEO Cortney Woodruff, and Williams, launched last month and features a number of courses spanning various industries that are taught by BIPOC industry experts. Do you want to know the ins and outs of the radio industry? Personalities like the Breakfast Club's Angela Yee have you covered. Or maybe you want to learn more about the arts from famed figures like actor/dancer/choreographer Debbie Allen? Williams told Cheddar the ultimate goal of Assemble is to provide expert information to individuals that might otherwise not have had access. "At Assemble, we believe who you learn from matters, and that's because there's a lot of nuance. It's not just bootstrapping," he said. "There are little aggressions and obstacles that you might have, and we think that your instructor should be able to relate to your experiences [and] teach to them in a practical, realistic manner for the realities of the world."
Tackling Black Men's Mental Health on Screen
The Game is back like it never left after being rebooted for a brand new season on Paramount+. This season is slightly different than fans of the CW or BET versions might remember, especially when it comes to addressing Black men's mental health. Actor and director Hosea Chanchez, who plays star quarterback Malik Wright, said that when real-life dialogue is taking place around important topics people care about, naturally those stories will be told on camera. "I believe that these conversations on-screen, as long as we're depicting what's happening in the real world on our series, and we're doing it as accurately as humanly possible in the mix of telling some jokes here and there, I believe that it will continue to raise the questions that are happening in our society, that these athletes are on the precipice of and on the forefront for us as a society," he told Cheddar.
Same 'Ol Meta
It seems the consensus following Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri's hearing in front of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee was more of nothing from the social giant Meta. Mosseri was summoned to Capitol Hill to answer questions about the platform's safety practices in regards to protecting the mental health of its young users, particularly adolescent girls. Instagram faced major public backlash this year after plans for a kids' version of the app were made public. Despite an outcry from the public and lawmakers, Mosseri evaded questions about taking the idea for a kids-focused app off the table and said he is satisfied with the efforts his platform has made to protect teens. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) told Cheddar that Instagram is well aware that the app is a driver behind many mental health issues teens are facing. "What we know is that, from parents and teachers and pediatricians, we are hearing about the adverse mental health effects, the adverse impact on children," she said.
Four-Day Work Week? Sign Us Up
The idea of a four-day workweek has been floated by workers for years, but progressives in Congress are working to make all of our dreams come true. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif. 41st District) introduced the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act. The bill would not necessarily mean the end of the typical five-day workweek in the U.S. but notes that employers would have to begin paying overtime after 32 hours of work. The most recent attempt at changing the landscape of the American labor force comes after the four-day workweek was successfully piloted in Iceland. Workers there who received the same pay they would have for a 40-hour workweek reportedly maintained or increased their productivity and felt less stressed and burned out. "We're looking at an extremely competitive market for employers, so keeping a motivated workforce, keeping a happy workforce with better working conditions, is definitely an attraction point," Takano told Cheddar.
Michael Cohen Spills
Well, if you thought you heard the last from former President Donald Trump's lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, think again. Cohen is on a press run following his release from prison last month, and according to him, while a chapter in his Trump saga has ended, the story is far from finished. Over the course of his three-year stint in the prison system, part of which was spent in home confinement, he detailed his time working with Trump and described crimes he said he witnessed the former commander-in-chief commit. Cohen will convert the original manuscript to his book Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump into an NFT along with his prison badge. "There's so many, still, Americans out there, these Trump supporters, these individuals that are stuck like I was once was in the cult of Donald J. Trump that will actually fight you if you state that Donald is not the president of the United States right now," Cohen told Cheddar. (7:28)
