I can only imagine you share my disgust and horror at what’s going on in Ukraine. It’s heart breaking. This week on Fresh Dialogues, we get an intimate look at the war, from a Ukrainian in Silicon Valley who has team members on the front lines. Highlights of our interview were picked up by the BBC World Service. I asked Sergey Lubarsky what’s likely to happen in the next few days and week. He explained why he expects an apocalyptic escalation of violence in Ukraine and how that could be averted.
“The world has never been that close to a nuclear holocaust. Never. You have a deranged person with a nuclear strike capabilities who has nothing to lose. He has zero regard for human life….Putin is irrational. He cannot back off, has no exit strategy. He’s not going to be killed by his cabinet members.” Sergey Lubarsky, tech entrepreneur.
[Photo credit: Nicole, a half Russian, half Ukrainian girl attending an anti-war protest by Kaylee C Greenlee Beal, San Antonio Express News]
This week, I reached out to Lubarsky who was born in the Eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, close to the border with Russia. Today, Lubarsky is a Silicon Valley based tech entrepreneur with a team of 15 in Ukraine. He shared:
powerful stories from colleagues on the front lines of the Ukrainian resistance.
why President Zelensky is “the George Washington of Ukraine.”
the worst case scenario he expects, and how it might be prevented.
BBC Host, Fergus Nicoll, invited me on Wednesday to share highlights of my interview on the BBC World Service program, Business Matters. We also discussed, with Peter Ryan of ABC in Australia, the propaganda war in Russia and Ukraine; the role of cryptocurrency; and how President Zelensky and his cabinet are expertly leveraging social media to rally support from tech companies and the Western world to meet their urgent needs. I also added my perspective on Donald Trump’s latest speech, when he calls the U.S a “stupid country” and praises Putin’s “smarts”. Given what’s happening today in Ukraine, in my view, it should make his Republicans supporters examine their consciences.
This week’s Fresh Dialogues podcast includes highlights of the BBC program and some powerful extracts from my interview with Sergey Lubarsky. Here is a transcript of some of our conversation (edited for length and clarity):
Sergey Lubarsky: I’ve never had Ukrainian by passport. I left (31 years ago) holding a Soviet passport. Until the first invasion in 2014, I would never consider myself Ukrainian because it was a moot point, I’m bilingual.
Alison van Diggelen: How do you feel about that now?
Sergey Lubarsky: I’m proud to be Ukrainian. I’m so proud of my people. A week ago if you asked me, I’d have said there’s corruption there… (Today) I’m speechless, they deserve so much credit.
Sergey has a team of 15 in Ukraine. He says some are on the front lines, some are hiding in subways or basements and some have fled the country.
Alison van Diggelen: Are you concerned that they’re in danger?
Sergey Lubarsky: Several of them joined the national territory defense. It’s basically the national guard.
Alison van Diggelen: Are they sharing details?
Sergey Lubarsky: One of my developers said: This is open safari. We’re burning their tanks, the Russians are fleeing their tanks, the locals are killing them by the bunch, their dogs are eating their flesh and we’re burying them.
They can only use the roads because it’s springtime, they can’t move their weapon systems through open fields. It’s guerrilla warfare. If you take down the first two tanks, the whole convoy is stalled. There’s nowhere to go. They can’t do a U-turn and go back.
Lubarsky points to the Orange revolution and the Budapest Treaty in which the U.K. and the U.S. committed in 1994 to protect the territorial integrity of Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons. He feels that the West has not lived up to its side of the bargain.
Alison van Diggelen: What more should be done by Facebook? Sergey Lubarsky: Zuckerberg had no problem to block accounts from people who didn’t agree with him politically. Zuckerberg should suspend accounts of people who support this war. It’s informational warfare. There’s a reason why Putin took half of the TV broadcasting station in Kiev. Information is important to morale. Zuckerberg should turn on his censorship machine and start censoring people who actively support Putin, or there will be more corpses. The people will not know the truth.
Alison van Diggelen: What would you say to Putin, if you had the chance?
Sergey Lubarsky: If you have a madman running in your street, killing your neighbors, do you have a desire to talk to him? He’s a a deranged dude…a madman with nuclear capabilities on the loose.
Alison van Diggelen: What about President Zelensky, he’s a global hero?
“All of a sudden, Zelensky is a Ukrainian George Washington, the father of the Ukrainian nation. What we’re witnessing right now is the birth of a nation. He has a bullseye on his back, not metaphorically: there are several special forces groups deployed to kill him and his cabinet. President Biden calls him to offer him a ride (flee the country) and Zelensky broadcasts his whereabouts in Kiev. That’s what keeps them going. Without his courage, the resistance would probably have collapsed three days ago.” Sergey Lubarsky
Sergey Lubarsky: Nobody can work. Every friend of mine from Russia calls me and apologizes. (They say) we can’t believe it’s happening….We have a huge support from them.
Alison van Diggelen: Are they in tears? Sergey Lubarsky: Oh yes. A have a best friend, a Muscovite. He knows me well and says: are you still talking to me? Every person of Russian descent, we’re all ex-Soviet Union. For me: Am I Russian, Ukrainian, am I a Jew? Who cares? It makes no difference. People call and say: I’m in tears with you. A friend asks me where can I donate the money?
Alison van Diggelen: What is the best case scenario for a resolution? Sergey Lubarsky: I see a nuclear strike at Ukraine. Putin is an international pariah, he has no exit strategy. He’s destroyed the Russian economy, the Russian people suffer. A friend of mine is medical doctor and professor in Russia. He can’t send money to support his children studying in Europe because of the SWIFT system sanctions. Russia is in the economic stone age and Putin can’t go back and say: on second thought, that was a bad idea, let’s move the troops back. I don’t see a best case scenario.
Sergey Lubarsky: What would you say to President Biden?
Sergey Lubarsky: Biden is doing everything right, one step too late….The West is not working proactively. The West needs to declare Putin a war criminal today. It would stop the generals of his army. They will know “I was just following the commands” is not a line anymore. They will be hanged. The West needs to declare that any Russian soldier, officer will be implicated if they use weapons of mass destruction and be prosecuted personally. That will deter them, they have families. Biden needs to do it today before it’s too late. When the (nuclear) bomb goes off in Kharkiv it’ll be too late.
The only way to assure nothing happens is to declare Putin a war criminal today, it will send a chilling message to his entourage that they will be hanged, as the Germans were hanged after Nuremberg. That might deter him.
Lubarsky is collecting money for the Ukrainian resistance. You can support him and contribute here.
Have you ever considered the benefits of fasting, but feared the challenges? Here in Silicon Valley, Sumaya Kazi is the poster child for intermittent fasting, a new trend in weight control that’s popular among the tech set. Intermittent fasting involves abstaining from food anywhere from sixteen hours to several days – with “normal” eating resumed in between. Enthusiasts say the health benefits extend far beyond weight loss. The BBC’s Health Check team sent Alison van Diggelen to explore the evidence.
“The effects were almost immediate for me: the weight started melting off really early on… I lost about 50 lbs over the first 7 1/2 months.” Sumaya Kazi
Here’s a transcript of my report (edited for length and clarity):
Alison van Diggelen: When 36-year old Sumaya Kazi launched her tech startup in 2010, the long hours, constant traveling and too much eating-out made her pack on the pounds. At over 200 lbs (90 kg), she tried to lose weight by exercising compulsively, trying weightloss groups, and doing weekly meal planning.
Sumaya Kazi: None of them stuck with me or showed me enough progress to stick with it. None of them felt like a lifestyle. When I found IF, it absolutely did for me.
Alison van Diggelen: For Kazi, fasting offered quick results:
Sumaya Kazi: The effects were almost immediate for me: the weight started melting off really early on, to my surprise, because I wasn’t working out at the time. I lost about 50 lbs over the first 7 1/2 months.
Alison van Diggelen: It was a BBC television documentary about fasting that convinced her to give it a try. Research from Johns Hopkins University in animals and humans suggested that fasting could enhance brain function and might evenhelp protect against cancer, strokes and degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Fasting advocates claim it can reduce weight, improve blood sugar,can “re-set” the metabolism, boosts the immunesystem andcan even slow down aging. So what was Kazi’s personal experience?
Sumaya Kazi: I no longer had issues with high blood pressure. I was pre-diabetic early on and no longer have those issues. I no longer have issues of sleep apnea. Also I have more energy, I’m more productive, I feel more focused, I feel food tastes better.
Alison van Diggelen: So what does it involve? Kazi points out that the most popular form of intermittent fasting – or IF – is called “16-8.” That’s 16 hours of fasting followed by 8 hours of eating. Simply cutting out breakfast and eating an early dinner can accomplish that.
But Kazi prefers “alternate day” fasting. For her, Monday, Wednesday and Friday are fast days. The other days she calls “feast days.” This being Silicon Valley, she frames it in binary terms:
Sumaya Kazi:It’s almost like an on-off switch: I know when I should be eating, I know when I should be feasting. It keeps it simple for me. IF isn’t a magic pill. It works when you put it to work. It’s not a diet, it’s not about WHAT you eat, it’s about WHEN you eat. …
Alison van Diggelen: But how does it compare to other weight loss regimens? And are its claims backed up by research?
A professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago recently completed a fasting study with 28 obese patients and found that – like traditional diets – the 16-8 fast could offer an effective method for losing weight – but cautioned that longer-term, large-scale controlled trials are needed.
Santa Clara University Prof Heidi Lidtke, Nutritionist explains fasting for the BBC. Photo by Alison van Diggelen, Fresh Dialogues
I went to a coffee shop in a local bookstore to chat with a nutrition expert, Professor Heidi Lidtke.
Alison van Diggelen: Heidi and I assess the vast array of diet books on the bookstore walls. It’s quite overwhelming.
Heidi Lidtke: What I tell my students is: we should eat real food, mostly plants, not too much and we should enjoy what we eat.
Heidi is an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley.
Heidi Lidtke: The most exciting research has been done in yeast and it shows that cancer in yeast can be totally stopped…the yeast cells are healthy and the cancer cells die after chemo and fasting. But it’s yeast and humans are NOT yeast. I don’t know how we can translate single cell organisms (yeast) to multi cell organisms – humans.
Alison van Diggelen:So it would be a stretch to say IF can cure cancer?
Heidi Lidtke:There are a lot of studies in rats and mice…It has cured and totally reversed diabetes in rats, not humans…But it’s not totally transferable, right?
Alison van Diggelen: What about studies on humans and diabetes?
Heidi Lidtke: There have been some studies on some of precursors, sugar levels and insulin levels – those can go down in the first couple of months of IF. But all human studies have been small – 35 people….it’s hard to say 35 Turkish people are the same as 35 Americans… It’s hard to extrapolate from the research.
Alison van Diggelen:What would be required to convince scientists, to show this causal connection?
Heidi Lidtke: There would need to be multiple studies in multiple population groups…We’re in the process of doing that, but it takes time.
Alison van Diggelen: But Lidtke remains skeptical, especially about the cancer claimswhich could influence people when they’re feeling vulnerable.
Heidi Lidtke: My initial reaction? Interesting…I have concerns for some people at risk…people are forgoing scientifically validated treatment…that people are going to fast instead of getting chemo…I have concerns.
Alison van Diggelen: Lidtke also points out that fasting is not for everyone – and could be dangerous for those with eating disorders (like anorexia or bulimia). And she recommends discussing it witha doctor before trying it.
Heidi Lidtke: For someone who’s got disordered eating it just feeds into that and gives them a framework.
Alison van Diggelen: So how does IF compare to other diets?
Heidi Lidtke: The research on IF is really slim and then research comparisons are even slimmer. It’s hard to do comparisons. The diet that works is the one you stick to. If you’re able to stick and keep the weight off, then that’s the one that works.
Alison van Diggelen: Lidtke emphasizes that there’s no diet that works for everyone and scientific research is limited, but she does single out the “DASH” diet which has been studied by the National Institutes of Health and is recommended by the US Dept of Agriculture in its nutrition guidelines. It’s rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy foods; and limited in sweetened foods and drinks, red meat, and fatsand has been proven to reduce blood pressure and hypertension, even without weight loss.
So, after hearing all the caveats, foranyone still keen to try fasting, Sumaya Kazi has three top tips….
Sumaya Kazi:
Look at IF as an experiment – It’s really better to approach it as something that you’re trying on for size…Feel free to experiment with the different schedules.
Give it some time. The first couple of days, you’ll likely be hangry, mad about starting. It’s about getting into the habit. Give it a fighting chance, push through and understand why you’re feeling what you’re feeling. After 2 weeks it’s going to start feeling like something you can actually do.
Sparkling water will be your best friend…carbonated water can help you feel full on fast days.
Alison van Diggelen: A small study in the US recently showed that fasting caused some people to experience lower blood pressure and improvements in processing sugar. But downsides like headaches, drowsiness and increased thirst were also reported. The bottom line is this: Despite Sumaya Kazi’s impressive transformation, to say that intermittent fasting is an enduring answer for everyone’s weight loss and general health: larger, longer-term studies are needed.
This week’s report addresses gun violence in the United States. Many of us have been inspired by the fearless survivors of the Florida High School shooting on Valentine’s Day. Powerful speeches by teenagers, Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg have changed the conversation and I applaud them and the March For Our Lives Movement for their bravery and tenacity in their mission to reduce gun violence through sensible gun policies.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in DC, and hundreds of cities in the United States and around the world. Here are voices from the March for Our Lives in San Jose, California and a clip from my BBC report which aired on Business Matters on March 27th.
I’m here because I don’t want to be afraid to go to school. I don’t want to say ‘I love you’ to my mom, ‘I hope I see you after school.’ Ashley Wilson, 15-year-old high school student who took part in the March for Our Lives in Silicon Valley, California on March 24, 2018. (photographed above by Shannon McElyea)
Listen to the Fresh Dialogues podcast on iTunes or below:
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Here are some highlights from the podcast
First, I spoke with MacKenzie Mossing a 24 year-old resident of Silicon Valley, California.
Mackenzie Mossing: I’m here because I think our system is really broken when kids have to fear going to school, when I have to fear going to music concerts, when you can buy an AR 15 before you can buy a beer.
Alison van Diggelen: Do you have a message for the NRA Leadership?
Mackenzie Mossing: Why is your right to own a gun bigger than my right to live?
Alison van Diggelen: Do you have a message for Emma Gonzalez?
Mackenzie Mossing: You are a true inspiration. Keep doing what you’re doing. We need more people like you to invoke change in the world.
Ashley Wilson: Enough is enough. School shootings should not happen…I’d like to see much less school shootings, shootings in general….(and) gun control.
Alison van Diggelen: What role do you feel businesses should play in this? Companies likeDelta Airlines and several banks have stopped their incentives for NRA members. Do you agree with that and what more can companies do?
Ashley Wilson: I completely agree with that and I think more companies should join in.
Alison van Diggelen: Do you have a message for teens in Florida who’re taking to the streets in DC today?
Ashley Wilson: Know that the rest of the nation is with you, the rest of the world…We stand with you.
Alison van Diggelen: I asked 18 year-old Jacob Seichrist, a graduate of Branham High School in San Jose, and marketing manager, Chris Mossing, about the role of businesses in changing gun control policies.
Jacob Seichrist: I’m hoping these movements are getting out there to parts of America that are on the fence. They can see how important this is…we’ve had so many shootings already this year, it’s crazy to me.
Jacob Seichrist: I think that that’s important. These brands and companies are making their statements, picking the side they want to support. Sometimes that’s going to be the way to convince people who’re on that fence…when they see that the companies that they use are on that side. It’s not just some vocal minority, it’s really real and a powerful thing. When companies do it, for some people, it’ll be a trigger of: “Wow, this is a real thing, this is something important…maybe it’s something I should look into…”
If I were a CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of a large brand, I’d be paying a lot of attention to what’s happening today in the streets of the United States. Millennials are looking for brands to be on the right side of social issues, whether it’s clean food, environmental policies or in this case: gun control.Chris Mossing, Silicon Valley marketing manager
My live report on the BBC World Service was cut due to breaking world news, but in the last five minutes of the program, I highlighted the March For Our Lives and what it could mean for businesses and brands.
I hope you enjoy this week’s podcast. Please share your comments here or on Facebook and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes.
Find out more:
What do Amal Clooney and Rick Steves have to say about gun violence in the United States?
Our delivery date was scheduled two weeks ago, then cancelled abruptly without explanation. This week, delivery was again scheduled but we still held our breath…
On arrival at the new Tesla Delivery Center in Fremont, California this morning, the staff were all smiles. Savannah, the friendly barista was waiting to make us a complementary cappuccino or even a “Ludicrous Latte.” That’s 4 shots of espresso.
We didn’t need it!
We waited for over 20 minutes and received regular updates from Sean, our friendly Tesla guide (a former Verizon salesman) and Joe (a former barman). We wondered: is the car really here? What are they doing back there? There were no Model 3s in sight. Not even one to spare for the showroom floor.
There were about a half dozen others waiting, the majority for Model S delivery. One couple told us it’s the first non-Mercedes they’ve bought in over a dozen years.
Here’s the moment of truth. For my techie husband, it was the best Christmas present he could imagine. I was prepared to be underwhelmed but was genuinely impressed by the quality of this car. I was expecting a cheaper, tinny version of the Tesla Model S, but this car shows some real innovative flare (from its sleek lines, to the elegant door handles to the newly designed heating/cooling system and the new charging plug and cable). The new dash interface is intuitive and sleek.
Tesla Model 3 Naming
Below: I wonder how Tesla knows its customers preferences?
It’s show time
The question is: how long before Frank lets me get behind the wheel?
In San Francisco, the tech community continues to face an angry backlash for pushing out locals, artists and the elderly. Meanwhile, 50 miles south, Google has announced plans to partner with the City of San Jose to build a tech village dubbed “The Grand Central Station of the West.” Experts see this South Bay development as a way for Google to “do it right” and build an inclusive development around a transport hub with lots of public open space and affordable housing.
Why are some people calling it a new template for the tech campus? Alison van Diggelen reports on a tale of tech in two cities for the BBC World Service…
Photo caption: Google plans to rethink office space in Silicon Valley and use large translucent canopies to blur the distinction between buildings and nature. Source: Google (Charleston Rendering)
[Atmos: Train, bus atmos at Diridon station, in downtown San Jose]
Glen Abbott: If the same tech gentrification happens in Santa Clara, which it is…’cos Google just bought up what’s available in Santa Clara, it just sends the housing prices up… people can’t afford to live here..
San Jose resident (retired union organizer): I am in support of anything that will bring jobs with dignity and a living wage … and we don’t just import a bunch of high dollar, high tech electronic gurus into our area…
Alison van Diggelen: These are just two of San Jose’s residents who have concerns at the proposed development benefiting rich techies, to the detriment of the wider community. One lives in a trailer park, one has been homeless.
This summer, Google announced a plan to create a massive campus for up to 20,000 employees in San Jose’s city center, the South Bay city that calls itself “The capitalof Silicon Valley.” Google’s vice president of real estate outlined the company’s vision for the Diridon Station development at a council meeting…
Mark Golan: South Bay has been Google’s home for over 20 years now. We have thousands of Googlers who’re residents of San Jose. Google shares the City’s vision for the development of the Diridon area. …we are excited about the possibility of bringing a state of the art office, housing, retail, amenities, civic plazas, parks, and open spaces to the downtown San Jose area, all connected via an incredible mass transit system and integrated with the surrounding community.
Photo: Visualization of HSR San Jose by California High Speed Rail Authority (image is preliminary and subject to change)
Kim Walesh: Google will be the first major tech company to consciously decide to grow near transit. It’s an opportunity to get it right…a counterpoint to traditional Silicon Valley campus development – a human scale, urban place….we’re not even calling it a campus. That can connote inward looking like Facebook or Apple.
This is a totally different concept it says: Let’s put our innovation employees right in the heart of downtown in an open campus environment with well designed parks and plazas for all sorts of people to enjoy and interact. That’s where innovation comes from…
Bob Staedler of Silicon Valley Synergy is an expert in tech developments and a frequent advisor to the City Council. He describes this Grand Central Station vision…
Staedler: You’re going to have a multi-modal transport hub that could be 150 feet up in the air, having four separate modes of transportation from bus to high speed rail, to light rail to Uber drop-off to traditional cars, and a campus integrated in there…
technology integrated into it like you’ve never seen before: you walk in and you see where exactly is the train on a map; and you see with technology where you go with light up boards, similar to what you see in Singapore and Tokyo….a 21st century transit station …
Staedler: Apple has created the spaceship as they call it, it’s really more of a fortress monument, a monument to Steve Jobs. What we’re looking at with Google is creating an urban fabric with employees and the population and the transit station all integrated into one.
San Jose’s Mayor, Sam Liccardo insists this proposed Google campus is critical to the future of Silicon Valley and the city…
Mayor Sam Liccardo: Silicon Valley has developed on the suburban model a lot of tilt up, one and two story tech campuses surrounded by a sea of parking – there are inherent challenges in the sustainability of that model. We’re running out of land and God’s not building any more. We have horrible congestion on freeways and it’s not an affordable place to live.
We need to develop differently – we’re trying to retrofit a city built for automobile into a city built for people. We need to attract Silicon Valley’s talented, creative people…if we cannot attract the 20-30 year olds to live here, they will be somewhere else…We’ve got a vision for the Grand Central Station of the West… We’ve seen what they’re doing in London…it doesn’t hurt that they have a few bucks.
Alison van Diggelen: Sowhat have they learned from San Francisco’s tech experience?
Sam Liccardo: We’ve seen how intense the tech backlash has been in San Francisco. We’ve got a strong focus on building affordable housing… address concerns about displacement, pressure on the cost of living.
Liccardopoints out that this development may be long in coming…a decade even…
Sam Liccardo: This is not going to happen tomorrow: We’re not going to have 20,000 Googlers descending from parachutes…
