Good morning, friends.
Boy, what a week! As the news broke that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was out, one detail caught my attention: According to WIRED, Huang had been working with crisis communications firm Heller since at least October 2025, one year before his personal scandal became public. (To be clear, it’s not known whether the firm was initially hired in connection with the affair.)
That brings me to Risa Heller, the woman behind the firm and one of the most influential people you’ve probably never heard of.
Heller is the person powerful people call when their lives are falling apart in public. Her client list has included Anthony Weiner, Mario Batali, Jeffrey Toobin, and Jared Kushner. In other words, when the headlines are bad, Heller is very, very good at making sure they don’t get worse.
I wanted to reshare this fantastic New York Magazine profile of Heller, which offers a glimpse into the business of managing reputations, navigating scandals, and protecting some of the most powerful people in the world.
It’s an especially pertinent read this week.
— Polina
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PS: I published an article about Anthropic seeking a staggering $1.3 trillion valuation in its proposed IPO. And there’s something interesting I found: A single share held collectively by its seven founders will control 50.1% of the shareholder vote, while a separate trust will select most of the board. So yeah. Imagine investing in a $1.3 trillion company only to discover that one share you can’t buy controls 50.1% of the shareholder vote. Here’s who actually calls the shots at Anthropic:
THE PROFILES.
— The cocaine kingpin who ran a youth basketball empire [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The music teacher who woke up a genius
— The best player in women’s soccer
— The world’s most celebrate mathematician
— The king of all-inclusive resorts
THE PEOPLE.
The cocaine kingpin who ran a youth basketball empire (gift link): Curtis Malone was one of the most powerful men in youth basketball, building DC Assault into a national powerhouse that sent players to top colleges and the NBA. He was also secretly running a multimillion-dollar cocaine and heroin operation. For two decades, Malone lived a remarkable double life: mentoring disadvantaged teenagers, sometimes taking them into his own home and paying their families’ bills, while selling drugs in the very communities he claimed to serve. In 2013, it all came crashing down when federal agents arrested him, eventually sending him to prison. Now, at 58, Malone is attempting an unlikely comeback. (The New York Times)
The music teacher who woke up a genius: Edward Freytag was a 66-year-old middle school music teacher in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, when he lost control of his motorcycle on a mountain curve. He fractured 11 bones and badly bruised his brain. Doctors told his wife, Joanna, that he would probably make a full recovery. Then something extraordinary happened. About two weeks later, in the car, a jazz quintet came on the radio and he started calling out complex chords. He had acquired perfect pitch — a talent almost never learned in adulthood, and the first documented case of someone gaining it from a brain injury. A month after the crash, he found a file on his desktop called “Brain Bleed:” more than 50 pages of music he had composed at 2 a.m. and had no memory of writing. (The New York Times Magazine)
The best player in women’s soccer: Trinity Rodman was about to become the highest-paid player in American women’s soccer history. There was just one problem: Her own league wouldn’t let her. After the Washington Spirit offered the 24-year-old Olympic gold medalist a four-year contract worth more than $4 million, the National Women’s Soccer League rejected the deal because of its salary cap rules. What followed was a high-stakes showdown that threatened to send one of America’s biggest soccer stars overseas and ultimately forced the league to rewrite its rulebook.
The world’s most celebrate mathematician: What happens when AI starts solving mathematical problems that have stumped the world’s greatest minds for decades? This feature profiles Terence Tao, one of the world’s most celebrated mathematicians, is increasingly concerned about AI’s rapid breakthroughs. As machines crack century-old problems, mathematicians face an existential question: If AI can produce answers faster than humans can understand them, what happens to the creativity, struggle, and joy of discovery that make mathematics worthwhile? And how will the next generation learn to think if machines do the thinking for them? (The New Yorker)
THE COMPANIES.
The king of all-inclusive resorts (gift link): Who knew unlimited shrimp, margaritas, and fresh pool towels could be such a lucrative business? Hyatt, long the third-largest hotel chain behind Marriott and Hilton, has become the world’s largest operator of luxury all-inclusive resorts, with more than 100 properties across Latin America and the Caribbean. It’s an interesting look at how Hyatt is turning a once-tacky vacation model into a luxury business. (Bloomberg)
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Imagine spending your entire life teaching music, only to discover at 66 that your brain apparently had a whole other musical career in mind. The 50 pages of compositions he doesn’t remember writing are almost more fascinating than the perfect pitch. wow. Makes you wonder how much of our own potential is inaccessible even to us…