WIRTW #790: the 'protest' edition

Rock 'n' roll has a long history of protest music.

From Woody Guthrie's Tear the Fascists Down to Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name, musicians have been poking power in the eye for decades. It's loud. It's uncomfortable. That's the point.

Right now, the amps are pointed squarely at ICE.

Springsteen has drawn headlines. U2 just added its voice. When global superstars wade into immigration enforcement, reaction is guaranteed.

But if you want to understand the emotional core of this moment, don't start with the arena tours.

Start with Billy Bragg's City of Heroes.

This isn't subtle. It's not abstract.

It's a song about complicity.

Bragg opens with the ghost of Martin Niemöller—the pastor whose post-WWII confession about silence in the face of Nazi persecution still echoes.

"When they came for the communists..."
"When they came for the Democrats..."
"When they came for Jews..."

The point is familiar: silence feels safe—until it isn't.

Bragg brings that warning into the present tense, asking: What excuses would you tell yourself if this ever happened to you?

That's not policy debate. That's conscience.

Then it turns personal.

The refrain isn't passive. It's not "I posted." It's not "I tweeted."

It's: "I got in their face."

When they came for immigrants…
For refugees…
For five-year-olds…
To my neighborhood…
When they dragged people from their cars…
Took families from their homes…
Murdered our sister…
Murdered our brother…

…I got in their face.

Bragg ends with a vow: to bear witness to terror, to tyranny, to murder, to fascism.

This isn't about policy. It's about refusing to look away.

I created a playlist of protest songs. Some were written in the shadow of fascism in Europe. Some were born in the civil rights era. Some were recorded in the last news cycle.

Different decades. Different villains. Same instinct.

When artists believe government has crossed a line, they write. They record. They dare you to listen. And to do something.

You don't have to agree with every lyric. You don't have to like the politics. You may think some of it is overwrought.

That's fine.

But protest music tells you something about the cultural moment—what people fear, what they value, what they think is at stake.

What’s missing from my protest pantheon? Drop me an email and tell me what else belongs on the playlist.

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Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.

If you’re going to buy the hype, at least read the fine print

For years, BrewDog invited fans to become "Equity Punks." Not just customers. Owners. Across seven crowdfunding rounds, roughly 220,000 investors poured in about £75 million (that's more than $100 million).

Now, as BrewDog explores a sale or break-up, many Punks may be staring at a zero return, and they are not happy about it.

"Well at least I got £2.34 off an order once. Not a bad return for £500," wrote one online. Another told the BBC, "I invested £12,000 in BrewDog - I think I've lost it all."

Not because the rules changed. But because the rules were always there.

Your ChatGPT history as a hiring test? That's a hard no.

"Take out your phone and open your ChatGPT app. Type this prompt: 'Based on my past conversations, analyze my behavioral tendencies.'"

In a Reddit post that has gone viral, that's what someone claims just happened to them during a job interview.

If that interview scenario is real, the issues aren't just ethical. They're also potentially legal.

The 2nd nominee for The Worst Employer of 2026 is … The (Not) Joking CEO

At a company keynote in Las Vegas, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff invited the international employees to stand. He then joked that ICE agents were in the back of the room, ready to deport them. He doubled down with more immigration-enforcement punchlines. The crowd responded with faint boos. Slack lit up with employees calling the comments "deeply horrifying" and "not funny." 

Here's the part that makes this more than just a bad attempt at humor: this comes on the heels of multiple fatal shootings involving federal immigration agents, increased enforcement that ignores people's civil rights, and other acts of violence. People are dead. Families are grieving. And a billionaire CEO thought it was a good idea to riff on deportation for laughs.

Read the room.

Pro tip from pop culture: Don't fire your employees while they are in the ER

"If you fire her, she will sue you and I will testify."

That's not a plaintiff's lawyer talking. That's Dr. Robby, the chief of emergency medicine on The Pitt, grabbing a patient's phone and putting her boss on notice while she's being treated for what looks like SIRS—a systemic inflammatory response that's threatening her leg and possibly her life.

Debbie Cohen is in the ER. Her rash is spreading. Three senior physicians are at her bedside. And her biggest fear is missing work.

Her boss keeps calling, accusing her of exaggerating, dangling termination if she doesn't show up. At one point she pleads, "Please! Please don't fire me!"

WIRTW #789: the 'while my guitar gently weeps' edition

Fifty-three today.

That's either mid-50s or early-50s depending on how generous you're feeling. I'm choosing the latter.

Staying young has less to do with age and more to do with intention. You don't stumble into it. You choose it. It's a mindset, not a calendar.

For me, that means leaning hard into the stuff that makes life feel big.

Family first. Always. My family and I are soon heading to London soon to tour universities with my son as he chases a future studying sports and football management. My wife and I keep stacking travel plans instead of excuses. There is never not a good reason to travel, and this happens to be a really good one.

It also means restarting the daily exercise habit. Again. Because nothing says "53" like making noises when you stand up. Movement is the antidote. So I'm trying to move more every day.

And concerts. Loud ones.

Next up: a Valentine’s Day date with my daughter. Descendents and Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls at the House of Blues. We'll be in the pit. Look for us if you're there, too. As a concession to my age—and my hearing—I invested in a good set of ear plugs for the first time. Growth comes in many forms.

Staying young is saying yes to the pit. Ask me Sunday if it was a wise choice. I’m hoping for sore legs, ringing ears (muted responsibly), and zero regrets.

On this week's episode of the Norah and Dad Show, we talk through our expectations for this show, as well as the importance of wearing sensible shoes to a rock show. We also mourn the untimely passing of Norah's beloved Martin acoustic guitar, Eleanor. Listen to this week's episode of The Norah and Dad Show, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Overcast, Amazon Music, in your browser, and everywhere else you get your podcasts.

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Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.

Beware the legal risks of AI meeting agents

AI meeting agents are everywhere. They join Zoom calls, transcribe conversations, summarize action items, and promise to save employees hours of note-taking. From a business perspective, the upside is obvious: better documentation, fewer "I don't remember saying that" disputes, and cleaner follow-up.

But like most shiny tech, AI meeting agents come with real employment law and litigation risk—especially if you don't think through how (and when) you use them.