- In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady tackles the Paramount-Skydance merger–and how it marks a new age in the politics of pop culture.
- The big story: Zelenskyy travels to DC.
- The markets: Mixed sentiment as investors wait for a deal.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. My first job in the U.S. included covering Martha Stewart and World Wrestling Entertainment during the dot-com boom. Stewart was a multimedia influencer and doyenne of domesticity; Vince and Linda McMahon had transformed wrestling from a traveling circus of showmen and athletes into a superstar-studded global entertainment phenomenon. Today’s “trad wife” phenomenon or “manosphere” populated by the likes of Joe Rogan are not without precedent. Pop culture always reflects and responds to trends in the political sphere, and vice versa.
