I struggle to function when I stay out late, disrupting my sleep schedule.
I believe more entertainment and social events should happen earlier in the day.
Sleep has become more valuable to me than nightlife as I’ve gotten older.
The last time I left my house for a nighttime event that had me awake past midnight was Elton John’s concert in Detroit during his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour. By the time my spouse and I were seated at 8 p.m., during the opening bars of “Bennie and the Jets,” I was already wondering how I was going to survive not just the night but the next two days as well.
Before this concert, the last time I was sentient past midnight was during my engagement in Rome — I learned the hard way that Romans eat late dinners and stay up even later.
The author and her husband went to see Elton John.
Courtesy of the author
Am I being hyperbolic? Sure. I clearly survived the experience. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t kicking and screaming the entire time.
I wake up early
I routinely wake up around 5:30 a.m. (without an alarm), and I am rarely outside my home beyond 8 o’clock at night, let alone partying in a distant city.
I don’t even eat after 6 p.m., unless something actually prevents me from stuffing my face, like an appointment I can’t reschedule or a family gathering that involves a late dinner. I am typically in bed with a cat or two, a night mask plastered to my forehead, a bite splint firmly affixed to my lower jaw, and a book in hand by 7:30 p.m. With summer around the corner, the sun stays up later than I do.
The author wakes up early without an alarm clock.
Courtesy of the author
Sometimes, if I’m feeling spicy, I text my friends with young kids to “brag” about my recumbent position (while they’re wrangling bathtime, teeth-brushing, and bedtime resistance). Thankfully, they are all still friends with me.
I can barely function if I’m not in bed early
When I was growing up, my parents used to say, “Nothing good happens after midnight.” I’ll do one better: Nothing good happens after 8 p.m.
I am 46 years old and absolutely done pretending that nightlife is desirable. If I don’t abide by my early schedule, I can barely function the next day. And this doesn’t mean a little bit of brain fog that can be knocked out with a morning cup of coffee.
I’m talking, the sort of knock-down, drag-out sleep-deprived incoherence that has me wondering whether I remembered to put on pants, a question that doesn’t occur to me until I’m shopping for produce at the grocery store. And all because I deviated from my rigid sleep/wake schedule.
The truth is, there are very few scenarios, events, and people for whom I will stay awake past 9 or 10 o’clock at night. I believe I’d only need one hand to count the invitations that would seduce me into that choice. My husband accepts this about me, and while he can do what he wants, he mostly follows suit.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my family, friends, and a plethora of musicians and comedians. I grew up wanting to be a professional singer. I am now an author for children, and — perhaps ironically — many of them are young enough to have curfews that prevent them from staying up past a certain time to read. That delights me. Children need their sleep. We all need our sleep.
But unless you’re Elton John or Afroman — yes, I have tickets to the rapper’s Freedom Of Speech tour this summer — I’m sorry, do I look like a bat or a tree frog to you? I’m afraid we’ll have to meet during the day.
In 2022, the founder of software company Domo stepped down as CEO after he was accused of sexually assaulting an employee on a work trip, an allegation he denied. A year later, he came back to lead the company.
Since then, the troubles of the once-hot startup have worsened, rocked by executive departures, new competition from AI agents, and the drunken-driving arrest of its founder and CEO, Josh James.
James was arrested last year on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol after crashing his BMW into a mailbox, according to bodycam footage and a police report reviewed by Business Insider. He pleaded not guilty and has an upcoming hearing scheduled for July. The incident hasn’t previously been reported.
In December, James said on an earnings call that he had checked himself into a residential substance abuse treatment center and was reducing his duties to “focus on recovery.” Then in January, the company said its chief operating officer, Mark Maughan, had resigned with a multimillion-dollar separation agreement to settle allegations of physical contact. The company didn’t provide any further details on the incident.
The company’s share price has fallen about 80% over the past year, knocked in part by a downturn in software stocks driven by advances in artificial intelligence.
Domo said in Junethat its annualized recurring revenue no longer met the minimum required for its loan covenants and that it didn’t have enough cash on hand to repay its outstanding balance of $137 million in principal and related fees. Domo entered into a forbearance agreement giving the company until July 31 to enter into an agreement to sell the company. Domo, which formally began exploring strategic alternatives in February, said in June that it was in advanced talks on a potential transaction.
Domo was once valued at $2.8 billion. Its market capitalization on Friday stood at $133 million.
Analysts say the leadership changes, along with threats to the business posed by artificial intelligence, have contributed to Domo’s share price decline.
James controlled 76% of the voting power at Domo as of April 30, thanks to supervoting Class A shares that give him 40 votes per share, compared to one vote per Class B share sold to the public, according to a company filing.
This story about James’ second go-round at helming the company he founded, and the decline of one of the most influential software companies in Utah’s fast-growing tech hub, is based on interviews with more than a dozen former employees, as well as internal documents, company filings, and police records.
Josh James founded Domo, a data-analytics company, in 2010.
Business Wire/AP
Through the company, James declined an interview. Domo didn’t comment on the arrest, Maughan’s departure, or the company’s decline in revenue. Domo’s board members didn’t respond to requests for an interview. Maughan, through his lawyer, declined to comment.
Early Domo investor John Richards, managing partner at Startup Ignition, said James and his founding team in the early days were “excellent entrepreneurs in terms of looking out for their investor interests.” Richards, who has since sold all his shares, noted that other companies have improved their fortunes by bringing back a founder into the CEO role, as Apple did with Steve Jobs.
“Companies have to move faster,” Richards said. “They need kind of a benevolent dictator. Is Josh the right one? I don’t know… If his personal issues prevent him from being that Steve Jobs-like character, they should see if they can find another strong leader.”
A car crash
Shortly after 4 a.m. one morning last August, Sandy City police arrived at a quiet residential neighborhood south of Salt Lake City where a gray BMW iX had crashed into a mailbox, scattering mail and stone debris. The driver — a man with disheveled hair, wearing an olive green polo shirt and cargo shorts — was James.
He stumbled as he walked around, arms crossed, and spoke with the police, the video shows. Red and blue emergency-vehicle lights flashed over the scene. James told the police that he had been drinking alcohol, the police report says.
Later, during his blood test at the police station, James told officers he had sponsored police softball teams.
“I clearly fucked up, or I wouldn’t be here,” he added.
James was arrested on a DUI charge after crashing his BMW into a mailbox.
Business Insider
James was a prominent entrepreneur in Utah’s Silicon Slopes tech hub. He made his name by founding the software firm Omniture and selling it to Adobe. James founded Domo, a data-analytics company, in 2010. Its aim was to deliver live business data to customers through dashboards and apps.
The company was backed by VCs like Benchmark, BlackRock, GGV Capital, and Glynn Capital. It went public in 2018, and by 2021, its valuation had reached $2.8 billion.
Many analysts expected Domo to be the next big cloud acquisition after Salesforce bought Tableau, a major rival to Domo, and Google snatched up the similar Looker. James held onto his company.
A former employee accused James of sexually assaulting her during a business trip in November 2021. James was never charged with a crime related to the allegations, and investigating officers concluded that there was insufficient evidence.
James stepped down as CEO in March 2022. An interim CEO, John Mellor, took over.
A year later, James was back at the helm. Around the time of his return, a slew of company leaders left, including Mellor; the chief operating officer, Catherine Wong; the chief legal officer; the chief financial officer; and three board members.
James had a single-minded focus on sales. In a booklet distributed to employees upon his return in 2023, titled “Josh James Startup Rules,” the founder told staffers: “I only care about sales. Don’t talk to me about marketing, booth, HR, comp, legal, etc. Can be fixed later with $$$$$$$.”
In a 2024 memo to staff, James said he had returned to the CEO role because Domo was facing challenging business headwinds, “and as the person who is most intimately familiar with the company’s operations, the Board and I felt I was best equipped to help us overcome them,” according to a copy of the memo reviewed by Business Insider.
In the same memo, which James sent to staff after Business Insider reported on the 2021 sexual assault allegations, James denied the allegations, saying there were no interactions between him and the woman involved “that could even be mistaken as inappropriate contact or non-consensual contact.”
James’s return to the helm didn’t bring the stock turnaround that investors had hoped for. Domo’s revenue growth was slowing. And things were about to get worse.
In December, James spoke to analysts on a conference call about the company’s quarterly earnings results. The company’s bottom line wasn’t the only topic on the call.
“Over the past several months, I’ve taken a hard and honest look at my relationship with alcohol,” James said on the December earnings call. “I periodically used it as a crutch during moments of stress. And once I started drinking, I sometimes struggled to know when to stop.”
Referring to his Mormon faith, he said: “This pattern doesn’t align with the person I want to be for myself, for my family, my faith, or the people I lead.”
Domo appointed Chief Technology Officer Daren Thayne as interim principal executive officer, following James’s reduction in duties. Thayne didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In January, the company said it had agreed to part ways with its COO, Maughan. The separation agreement included a cash payment of $1.5 million, accelerated vesting of Maughan’s restricted stock units, and another $1.9 million in stock over the next three years, according to a company filing.
The payout was “made in part to settle accusations of physical sickness arising from alleged physical contact” to Maughan’s person, the company said. Domo and Maughan’s attorney declined to provide additional details on the incident that precipitated the settlement.
It started when Anthropic introduced a new plugin for its Claude Cowork AI agent that could perform clerical tasks such as tracking compliance and reviewing legal documents. That sparked a sell-off in software stocks that snowballed into an event that tanked the whole market.
The S&P Software & Services Select Industry Index, from which Domo was recently removed because of the drop in its market cap, declined 10% over the past year. Domo’s stock fell about 80% in the same period.
Patrick Walravens, a Citizens JMP analyst, said fewer customers are renewing their Domo subscriptions, and “there’s almost no growth” in Domo’s business.
Although the company has incorporated AI into its products, Walravens said, it faces competition from larger companies with competing AI solutions, such as Microsoft, Salesforce, and Snowflake.
“The world is moving on from traditional business intelligence,” Walravens said. “It’s still nice to have some dashboards and some graphs, but for so many things, you just want to ask someone. You want to ask your application.”
James returned to his full-time CEO duties in April. In June, Domo reported a 1% decline in quarterly revenue to $79.4 million. The company has reported losses every quarter since it went public in 2018.
James and his wife — whom he met when she was a junior salesperson at Domo — have spent most of their time in Japan in recent months, former employees said. The couple listed their house in Utah for sale in September, according to real estate listings.
“Italian brainrot” character plushes, popularized on short-form video, and now your kids can snuggle them.
RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP via Getty Images
YouTube Shorts is finally adding a 2x playback speed option.
I watch almost everything sped up now — TikToks, Reels, and listen to podcasts and audiobooks sped up.
Are our brains so rotted that we can’t deal with normal speeds? Yes!
I am a screentime maximalist. I make no apologies and feel no guilt about how much time I spend staring at my phone. I’m a grown adult who pays taxes and makes my own choices about how I spend my precious free time on this blue marble. And what I want is to spend as many of those moments as possible consuming short-form vertical video on my phone.
My need to consume more and more inane content reminds me of the famous photo of the Florida Everglades python whose stomach exploded while trying to eat an alligator. I identify with the insatiable snake; the alligator is the endless scroll I can never get enough of, knowing there’s always something more to watch.
My goal is to maximize consumption of video hours, and obviously, I can’t add more hours to the day. I’m already shaving the time I waste on sleeping (boring, overrated) by watching TikToks in bed.
So the problem needs to be solved on the supply side: I need those videos to go faster so I can get more in.
Thankfully, TikTok and Instagram Reels both have buttons that make videos play at 2x speed. There have been some bumps along this road. TikTok added the 2x-speed feature in 2023, but only recently added the crucial feature that lets you “lock” 2x speed without having to hold your finger on the screen (press the screen to start 2x speed, then drag your finger down to lock it). Reels was later to the party, adding the 2x speed in 2025.
Just this week, YouTube Shorts is finally adding a 2x speed feature. Thank god, I say! Honestly, I am not a huge Shorts consumer, but I imagine this is huge news for like, 12-year-olds.
The ability to speed up content has probably become one of the most-used features across the apps I use daily. I speed up podcasts and non-fiction audiobooks to at least 1.25x (lately, I’ve been bumping fiction audiobooks to at least 1.4x). The idea of listening at actual speed is torture to me at this point.
At first, I thought the idea of speeding up a Netflix show was an abomination, but then I realized it’s the only decent way to consume reality shows like “Love Is Blind.” In the last few weeks, I’ve found myself annoyed that I can’t speed through the six (!!!) episodes per week of “Love Island” on the Peacock app (though apparently there are Chrome extensions that let you do so).
Does it say something sort of sad about our society that we need to speed-watch through a 90-second video? Yes, yes it does. I’m not going to deny that. Our attention spans are so decimated, and our brains so rotted, that we can’t listen to someone speaking at normal speed anymore.
And what’s to blame for that? The firehose of content itself, of course. Short-form videos have rotted our brains in such a way that we crave more short-form videos. It’s almost like toxoplasmosis, the disease from handling cat poop that makes rats obsessed with cats.
I’m sure that there’s a way to wean yourself off all this and reset your attention span. Log off, touch grass, dopamine reset, etc… But I have no interest in that. I’ve made my choices, and I’ll be speeding through videos until all the platforms have to add 3x speeds.
Jonathan Stone with his kids, Jameson, 3, and Parker, 6, watching the World Cup.
Courtesy of Jonathan Stone
Jonathan Stone and his kids are die-hard soccer fans and have been glued to the World Cup.
The dad enjoys taking them to family-friendly pubs and bars to watch the games on big screen TVs
He was concerned that other customers might judge him, but found them to be welcoming and warm.
This story is based on an interview with Jonathan Stone, 44, of New Canaan, Connecticut, who works in event marketing. It has been edited for length and clarity.
My kids and I have been looking forward to the 2026 World Cup for months.
Parker, 6, and her 3.5-year-old brother, Jameson, inherited my love of soccer and, like me, are rooting for England this summer.
I’m American, but got hooked on European football at college, where two of my best friends were from the UK.
One supported Newcastle United, and it became my English Premier League side. The kids started wearing the kit as soon as they were born because everyone sent us themed onesies.
The pub was family-friendly
I couldn’t wait to buy them those little England shirts and shorts for this year’s competition.
They proudly wore them for the last two England matches, particularly when I took them to a pub in Norwalk, Connecticut, to cheer the team.
It was a family-friendly place that had World Cup soccer players’ coloring sheets to keep the kids happy if their attention wandered. We also brought some Lego bricks for them to build with.
Stone and his daughter, Parker, cheered on the England national team.
Courtesy of Jonathan Stone
They recognized a lot of the players because I’m always pointing them out. And they joined in some of the chants and songs unique to soccer fans and appropriate for their age.
I was also impressed by how much they know about the rules. Parker has always been keen to learn about things like offside, fouls, tackles, and yellow and red cards.
I knew some people disapprove of taking children to a bar, particularly Americans, because it’s not so much a part of our culture as in the rest of the world.
It was still in the back of my head that someone would judge me and give me a piece of their mind. Not that I cared.
It’s becoming more socially acceptable to bring kids to bars
Kids aren’t harmed by being in a pub environment where alcohol is served. You go to the movie theater these days, and there’s a full bar. It’s not going to corrupt anyone.
Luckily, it’s becoming more socially acceptable in the US to bring kids to pubs, and the attitude is shifting toward a more European one.
The shared experience of watching the World Cup has bonded the kids and me. They get excited when they see me, and other supporters in the bar go crazy about a goal.
We’re really hoping England goes through to the next round so we can repeat the fun.
The House Oversight Committee interviewed Leon Black behind closed doors Friday.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Leon Black while interviewing him about Jeffrey Epstein.
The billionaire paid over $150 million to Epstein for what Black said were financial services.
The committee said it issued subpoenas after Black declined to answer questions about NDAs.
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed billionaire Leon Black in the middle of a closed-door interview on Friday about his interactions with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The committee chairman, Rep. James Comer, said the committee issued two subpoenas after the former Apollo Global Management CEO declined to answer questions about non-disclosure agreements.
One subpoena requires Black to produce copies of any NDAs he has agreed to, said Comer, a Republican. A second subpoena requires Black to appear before the committee again, on July 16, for a deposition, Comer said.
“The NDAs are between him and other women. We want to know, was Jeffrey Epstein involved in the NDAs?” Comer told reporters. “Was he involved in writing? Was he involved in awarding funds to the women in the NDAs? What was the reason for the NDAs? We want to know everything about the NDAs.”‘
Susan Estrich, an attorney for Black, called the subpoenas “a planned political stunt.”
“Mr. Epstein had no involvement with any NDA’s, whether they exist or not,” she said in a statement. “Let me reiterate, the Committee did not ask a single question about the legitimate payments to Epstein for professional services on tax and estate matters.”
Some of Epstein’s accusers have signed pre-litigation settlements with Epstein associates whom the women have also accused of misconduct, according to three people with knowledge of such settlements, including Brad Edwards, an attorney who has represented more than 200 of Epstein’s accusers. These settlements include NDAs that prohibit them from speaking publicly about their experiences, the people said. One person told Business Insider they had knowledge of settlements with four of Epstein’s friends who were accused of sexual misconduct by more than 20 women between them.
A subpoenaed deposition would legally require Black to answer any questions asked of him, even if he has signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Epstein sometimes introduced women to his friends, Justice Department records show.
Neil Rasmus/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
House Members were interviewing Black on Friday as part of the committee’s inquiry into the Justice Department’s handling of its investigations surrounding Epstein, and his relationships with powerful people.
“I completely support Chairman Comer’s decision here” on issuing subpoenas to Black, Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee’s top Democrat, told reporters. “The NDAs are central to us understanding what actually happened.”
Black initially agreed to the interview on a voluntary basis, which permitted him to decline to answer questions. He said in his opening statement, a prepared copy of which his spokesperson shared with Business Insider, that he would not answer questions about personal relationships.
“I am not here to answer questions about my personal life which would be hurtful to my wife, children and family,” he said. “And I will not speak about the personal lives of adult women who have not chosen, and do not deserve, to be connected, by me or anyone else, to Epstein.”
Black paid Epstein more than $150 million for what Black said were estate and tax-planning services. Black told the committee that he cut ties with Epstein after discovering that he had lied about his fees and refused to repay most of a loan.
Black has long said that he wasn’t aware of Epstein’s sexual misconduct. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office and the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York examined sexual misconduct allegations against Black but did not bring criminal charges against him.
Black told the committee he had never abused a woman himself, according to his prepared remarks.
“This was a side of him I didn’t know,” he said. “I knew Jekyll. I didn’t know Hyde.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze will take effect for leases beginning October 1, 2026.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani achieved his promised rent freeze, affecting 1 million rent-stabilized homes.
The rent freeze aims to control costs for NYC renters, starting October 2026, amid rising expenses.
Critics argue the rent freeze may increase landlords’ financial strain and impact property upkeep.
Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze is now official, a big win on a central campaign promise six months into his term as New York City Mayor.
The city’s Rent Guidelines Board approved a citywide rent freeze for one- and two-year leases in about 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, after a 7-to-1 vote Thursday. The vote will prevent price increases on more than 40% of all apartments across the city as of October 1, 2026, and will cover leases that begin on or after that date.
Landing a rent-stabilized apartment can be life-changing in a city where 43% of renter households spend more than 30% of their income on rent, including 25% that spend more than half, according to the 2023 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey (NYCHVS).
Affordable housing was a key part of Mamdani’s campaign for mayor. Along with the rent freeze, he is also advancing the Block by Block Housing Plan, which aims to construct and preserve affordable housing over the next decade.
The policy might help a surprising set of higher-income New Yorkers, as 30% of rent-stabilized apartments are in the hands of households with incomes above $100,000, according to the NYCHVS.
Households earning between $50,000 and $99,999, and less than $25,000 trail close behind, at 27% and 26%, respectively.
Not everyone is celebrating Mamdani’s win. Jake Krimmel, Realtor.com senior economist, commented that while the policy will provide short-term benefits for tenants who are rent-burdened, the freeze will also impact landlords and real estate groups as they struggle to meet rising operating costs.
“Building owners are simultaneously cost-burdened, squeezed by rising insurance premiums, fuel costs, and property taxes that the rent guidelines process doesn’t control,” he wrote. “Frozen revenues against rising costs is a math problem.”
Critics also say the freeze could leave landlords with fewer resources to maintain their buildings and claim the regulation could put more pressure on market rents, resulting in higher costs for other market-priced units.
Arpit Gupta, a public member of the Rent Guidelines Board and an assistant professor of finance at NYU Stern, voted against the freeze and wrote in an article published Friday that longer tenancies and the challenge of finding stabilized units will make it harder to find housing and push many into higher-priced market-rate housing stock.
“The city’s housing market is effectively breathing with only one lung,” he wrote. “That pressure drives up market-rate rents.”
Jumaane D. Williams, the New York City Public Advocate, applauded the board’s decision and argued that while it is true there are rising costs, tenants must not take on that burden.
“Some property owners, particularly of smaller buildings, have legitimate concerns about rising costs — the solution cannot be to demand more money from tenants who simply do not have it,” he wrote. “Instead, government on all levels should work to strengthen programs aimed at maintaining housing quality and providing property owners with support when needed.”
Thursday’s vote also met with some turbulence, as Christina Smyth, a member of the Rent Guidelines Board, resigned the morning before the vote. In a statement, she wrote the board’s decision was “decided last year on the campaign trail.” She questioned the board’s research methodology and stated that since Mamdani appointed six of the nine board members, “everything since then has been theatre.”
In a statement, Mamdani said the board had gone through “thoughtful consideration of the data.” He wrote the board analyzed tenants’ ability to pay, living costs, and building operating costs.
“This is a historic victory for New York City tenants,” he wrote. “I’ll continue working to deliver a more affordable city by building and preserving affordable housing, lowering building operating costs like insurance, and ensuring tenants know their rights.”
