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Homeschoolers Are Bitcoiners Who Don’t Know It Yet

A parent who homeschooled his four children for two decades reflects on the parallels between Bitcoin and sovereign education.

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11 months ago

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A parent who homeschooled his four children for two decades reflects on the parallels between Bitcoin and sovereign education.

This is an opinion editorial by Scott Lindberg, a parent who homeschooled four children over 20 years with his wife, and cofounder of Free Market Kids, a company that teaches Bitcoin concepts through tabletop games.

My wife, Tali, and I recently presented educational information about Bitcoin to homeschoolers for three days at a homeschooling convention in St. Louis, Missouri. We hosted an exhibition booth and led a workshop session and the event didn’t go exactly as expected.

The Context For Self-Custody Of Education

Bitcoin has clarified misconceptions in energy, economics, diet and countless other fields, but education is another obvious area in need of an overhaul of truth. At least, this is obvious in hindsight, once you have embraced Bitcoin.

Tali and I have always been fired up about taking self custody of education, but we didn’t describe it this way when we started. We have four grown children who we homeschooled for 20 years. When we started, it was just “schooling.” But thanks to going down the Bitcoin rabbit hole, we now have a more precise framework to explain “self custody of education” and its significance.

The ways that Bitcoiners and homeschoolers think are incredibly similar for reasons I’ll explain here. I am more bullish on this community than ever, but we have work to do. Just as the bitcoin mining and energy sectors are merging, so too will Bitcoiners and homeschoolers eventually merge.

All images in this article provided by the author

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Think how it feels to share good things with close friends. Can you recall finding a thoughtful, personal gift and feeling giddy with excitement as you presented the wrapped present to its recipient? How excited were you about sharing something wonderful with another person and watching their eyes light up when they “got it”? Leading someone to the Bitcoin rabbit hole is like this.

This is the level of excitement that Tali and I felt before the convention. Homeschoolers are our people. In our hearts, we know how aligned they are with Bitcoin. Here are 10 reasons why our passion and excitement were so high:

One: Homeschoolers And Bitcoiners Prefer Decentralization

Many Bitcoiners are surely familiar with “The Creature From Jekyll Island” and the continual expansion of the power of central planners. The cancer of fiat does not discriminate. Both homeschoolers and Bitcoiners understand the burden of increasingly-centralized agencies, woke policies and socialist philosophies. Government and central-planning bureaucracies have entangled themselves deeper and deeper into education.

The U.S Department of Education (DOE) was created in 1979 and has an annual budget of $68 billion (this excludes state and local education budgets). Where does the money go? As the insane budget grows, the beneficiaries are not students or even teachers. Increased spending goes to bureaucratic administrators. In Bitcoin speak, it goes to rent seekers. From 2000 to 2019, the increase in the number of students was 7.6%, the increase in the number of teachers was 8.7% and the increase in district administrators was a stunning 87.6%.

Once you control the purse strings, you control policy. Dare go against the approved narrative from central-planning-know-it-alls and your school or college risks losing federal, state and local funding. Individuals within institutions risk losing their jobs (and power) if they fight to protect against environmental, racial, sexual or political agendas in curricula.

As the top-down statists feed the bureaucracy machine, the trend is for more families to pursue exiting the traditional educational system. Draconian COVID-19 policies showed many what was possible in the way of resources too, driving the percentage of school-aged children being homeschooled to over 11%.

Homeschooling is decentralized education. There are co-operatives which are like nodes, running their own education programs, support organizations and a growing number of resources. But at the core of homeschooling is the home. The family unit is as fully decentralized as you can get for education.

Two: Homeschoolers And Bitcoiners Embrace The Principle Of Self Custody

It’s hard to conceive, but our society once was on a gold standard. Sound money is not a new concept from a long-term historical perspective. It’s just new to us. Bitcoiners have embraced sound money and the need to protect it. If everyone followed the advice of “not your keys, not your coins,” then criminals like Sam Bankman-Fried couldn’t hurt them.

Homeschoolers have trust issues with education, just as Bitcoiners have trust issues with money. Homeschooling is not a new concept, historically speaking. It’s new to us. Here are some influential leaders who were homeschooled: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Douglas MacArthur, Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis and so many more.

We protect ourselves from the risk by controlling our own keys. Whether these are the keys to your bitcoin or the keys to your kids’ education, self custody is a core principle to embrace.

Three: Homeschoolers And Bitcoiners Understand Proof Of Work

Time is the only thing in the universe more valuable than bitcoin. Therefore, there’s an opportunity cost to investing one’s time to stay home and teach. One could instead get a job and let someone else deal with textbooks, grading tests, etc. It goes deeper, though. It’s not just time. Homeschooling is tough, 24/7 work. It has emotional volatility. There are days when the stress makes you question what you’re doing.

The tradeoff decision is not unlike bootstrapping a Bitcoin startup. To steal a phrase from Christian Keroles and Matt Odell, there is a sat opportunity cost when investing in a Bitcoin company. The alternative is to HODL. The expected return on the investment must be greater than other options like stacking sats.

Homeschoolers are simply making the decision that making their kids’ education a rock-solid foundation for a happier, more successful future is the best return on their time. They are making the decision to persevere through an emotional rollercoaster of a journey. This incredible investment of their time, energy and love is their proof of work.

Four: Homeschoolers And Bitcoiners Fight FUD

The most common FUD about homeschooling is socialization. When Tali first suggested staying home with our firstborn, I questioned whether doing so would negatively impact her socialization experiences. My concern was unfounded. The reality is that homeschooled kids are like all other kids. They play sports; participate in theater, robotics and other activities; have social dances; etc. As our kids grew through their teenage years, I started to question if they were too social.

Additionally, my observations are that homeschooled kids excel at thinking for themselves. They grasp concepts like “don’t trust, verify.” Contrast this with compliance, the backbone of State-driven education institutions.

The reason is that homeschooled kids are getting lessons 24/7. Something as small as the chore of taking out the garbage is an opportunity to discuss personal responsibility, integrity, trust and other non-academic subjects. Show me the proof of work of where and how such topics are discussed outside of the home.

Five: Homeschoolers And Bitcoiners Gravitate To Libertarian Ideas

It’s a first principles idea that parents are first and foremost responsible for teaching their children. Marxists, socialists and communists, on the other hand, repel this basic concept. They want the State to decide what’s acceptable, the “teachers” to indoctrinate and the kids to comply.

“Who ‘owns’ the child, then? The choice is between the parents, who have taken the trouble to have and raise the child — and who, in almost cases, will give their lives to support the child for as long as it takes and longer — or the educational bureaucracy, which is more likely than a parent to look upon the child as an asset in a social-engineering project to rearrange government and society.” 

–Larry Arnn, President of Hillsdale College

Homeschoolers, like Bitcoiners, realize that our freedoms are under attack. Homeschoolers risk becoming a target of the State because of their beliefs, so it is logical for them to align with a political philosophy that upholds liberty. It makes sense to align with those who value individual political freedoms. The thought of the State deciding what and how children should be taught — at the exclusion of the parents — is as appalling to homeschoolers as a central bank digital currency (CDBC) is to Bitcoiners.

Six: Homeschoolers And Bitcoiners Value Personal Responsibility

Homeschoolers take action. They invest time in researching options, curricula and activities that will most benefit their children. They read books. They listen to podcasts. And they are even willing to pay to attend a homeschooling convention, in addition to the travel and lodging expenses to get to it. They do not expect handouts. They are not asking for big government solutions. They do not trust that bureaucrats will avoid fiat temptations, e.g., promoting curricula based on political agendas.

Sound familiar? Taking action is a ubiquitous Bitcoiner trait. Bitcoiners research their options, read books, listen to podcasts and even pay to attend conferences. They do not wait for handouts, nor expect big government help, nor trust bureaucrats to avoid fiat temptations, e.g., endless printing and money debasement.

Seven: Homeschoolers And Bitcoiners Believe In Hope And Freedom

This concept is not as obvious as the others, but you can find it hidden behind feelings of frustration (and perhaps some heated yelling) about current events, broken systems and the state of our high-time preference world. I’m talking about optimism.

If one did not believe in a better future, it would be pointless to invest and sacrifice to pursue homeschooling. Yet, homeschooling parents go to extraordinary lengths. Tali and I made the conscious decision to live on one income, even if it meant a smaller house and missing fancy vacations. We are not atypical. Homeschooling is a calling worthy of sacrificing short-term desires for long-term benefits. (More on low time preference shortly.)

Bitcoin is hope. Michael Saylor’s use of www.hope.com is brilliant. If it wasn’t for Bitcoin, our national debt spiral would depress me to the point of giving up. If it wasn’t for Bitcoin, the statists’ push to replicate China’s CDBC would make me believe George Orwell’s “1984” future was inevitable. If you didn’t have hope in Bitcoin’s future, you wouldn’t have decided to read this article.

Eight: Homeschoolers And Bitcoiners Push Education

Education at a homeschooling convention really doesn’t need clarification. I haven’t met a Bitcoiner yet who doesn’t believe Bitcoin education is key. Nevertheless, I’m going to share a couple of examples.

For homeschooling, we may have been the only exhibitor at the convention focused on sound money literacy, but we found another focused on teaching liberty and freedom. If you have small children, or are looking for gifts for small children, check out the books by the Tuttle twins.

For Bitcoin, the example to call out is Mi Primer Bitcoin. This group recently translated its program from Spanish to English. This is an absolutely wonderful teaching resource and it’s free.

Nine: Homeschoolers And Bitcoiners Are Entering The Then-They-Fight-You Stage

President Biden’s administration is no friend of Bitcoin, nor are other government agencies or the Federal Reserve. While I believe in the “then-we-win” stage, it doesn’t mean the current “then-they-fight-you” stage won’t be painful. They are attacking. Here’s an excerpt from Custodia Bank’s website that makes my blood boil:

“Historic bank runs in the last two weeks underscore the dire need for fully solvent banks that are equipped to serve fast-changing industries in an era of rapidly improving technology. That is the exact model proposed by Custodia Bank — to hold $1.08 in cash to back every dollar deposited by customers. Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve took its eye off the ball and allowed bank-run risks to build at traditional banks – while simultaneously engaging in a crackdown against the digital asset industry at large and Custodia Bank in particular.”

This example reminds us of what Satoshi Nakamoto put on the genesis block. Bailing out failed institutions creates moral hazard. This creates bigger problems later, which creates an incentive for even greater bailouts and greater moral hazard. Not approving Custodia Bank, with healthy risk policies, is purely an attack on those who do not comply with the central planning gods.

Now for an education example. I picked this one not because it focuses on homeschooling, but because it shows how far those in control will go to protect their power.

In 2021, the Loudoun county school district in Virginia covered up the rape of a female student by a skirt-wearing male student. It was not the assailant’s first assault. He was allowed to be in the girl’s bathroom because the school was following woke liberal policies.

While this is horrendous, it actually gets worse. Here’s where the “then they attack you” hits education and not just homeschoolers. This is an attack on education and an attack on parents. The father of the rape victim was essentially labeled a terrorist because he spoke out at a school board meeting. The father was arrested. The school administrators who pushed critical race theory and other radical policies, who covered up assaults, were able to silence a father exercising his right to speak, a father whose daughter suffered unnecessarily because of a political agenda.

10: Homeschoolers And Bitcoiners Have Low Time Preferences

Deciding to homeschool is a long-term undertaking. It is filled with uncertainty and emotional volatility. I wish there was an equivalent of the “stay humble, stack sats” meme for homeschooling... For the moment, I’m going with “take action, self-custody education.”

Game Day: Observations And Lessons Learned

According to veteran homeschooling conventioneers, our neighbors in the exhibition hall, the St. Louis event was bigger and more energetic than in prior years. Yet, Tali and I were surprised by some of the less-than-enthusiastic reactions of attendees to Bitcoin.

For all of the reasons I covered above, we expected mostly open discussions with those curious about adding sound money to their curriculum. We did have some interactions like this, which were uplifting. But many attendees avoided eye contact altogether, as if Tali and I were aliens.

Here are our top three lessons learned and what we’re changing because of them:

First Lesson Learned: Homeschoolers Confuse ‘Sound Money’ With Dave Ramsey Personal Finance

Most of the 5,000 people who attended the convention didn’t have a sound money framework. This led to curious and sometimes even scoffing looks at our booth, the sole exhibitor with educational Bitcoin games and books.

Using sound money to lead homeschoolers to Bitcoin is less effective than being direct.

We are changing our presentation for an April homeschooling convention to be more direct. Bitcoin is a revolutionary technology. Bitcoin is hope for us and future generations. It is critical to teach our kids about it. If you don’t want to use our educational resources, that’s fine, but just start educating yourself and your kids ASAP.

Second Lesson Learned: Develop More Breakout Workshops To Address Different Audiences

I presented an overview of Bitcoin using our game, HODL UP, in a workshop session. Through play, you learn Bitcoin mechanics and terminology. I limited the discussion examples to three things: mining, the 21 million bitcoin cap and wallets.

It’s difficult to reach a split audience. Even simplifying and connecting the gameplay concepts to real Bitcoin was too much for half the audience. It needs to be even simpler. The other half was curious about investment advice.

Tali and I are increasing the number of workshop sessions from one to four at the April homeschooling convention. We are creating customized content to address different audience interests and knowledge.

Third Lesson Learned: Moms Are (A Lot) More Likely To Say Their Spouse Is The ‘Money Person’

There was a distinct trend based on gender. We had many discussions with homeschooling moms who said their spouses were the one who understood finances or who took an interest in Bitcoin. We had zero homeschooling dads say the same.

We need to understand what is driving this. We do not fully know. It’s not something limited to homeschoolers either. Why is it that Bitcoin meetups typically seem to be comprised of 80% men? Bitcoin is good for everyone, so why don’t we see more women in the space? What can we do to reach them?

We will gather additional data as we travel and meet more people face to face.

Next Steps: A Positive Mental Attitude And Another Convention

Tali and I know homeschoolers are ready for Bitcoin, they just don’t know it yet. We’re on a mission to guide them on the journey to figure it out. It may take years but that’s okay. This is a low-time preference endeavor. It’s better to let others decide for themselves, e.g., by asking questions rather than forcing them to experience a catastrophic failure of our money system.

As of this writing, our next homeschooling conference is only weeks away. Based on the experience from the March event, we’re modifying our approach. We look forward to sharing lessons learned with fellow Bitcoiners.

Tali and I would like to express our gratitude to “Thank God For Bitcoin” and SHAmory, both of whom helped with our March event. We also want to express gratitude to the St. Charles Bitcoin Meetup. It held a special Bitcoin game event the day after the convention and we spent five amazing hours connecting with humble and awesome people! We hope to make this an annual event!

Lastly, we want to express our gratitude to current and future homeschoolers: Thank you. If you’re interested in homeschooling, don’t trust us. Verify for yourself.

This is a guest post by Scott Lindberg. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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Women’s basketball is gaining ground, but is March Madness ready to rival the men’s game?

The hype around Caitlin Clark, NCAA Women’s Basketball is unprecedented — but can its March Madness finally rival the Men’s?

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10 hours ago

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March 16, 2024

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In March 2021, the world was struggling to find its legs amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Sports leagues were trying their best to keep going.

It started with the NBA creating a bubble in Orlando in late 2020, playing a full postseason in the confines of Disney World in arenas that were converted into gyms devoid of fans. Other leagues eventually allowed for limited capacity seating in stadiums, including the NCAA for its Men’s and Women’s Basketball tournaments.

The two tournaments were confined to two cities that year — instead of games normally played in different regions around the country: Indianapolis for the men and San Antonio for the women.

But a glaring difference between the men’s and women’s facilities was exposed by Oregon’s Sedona Prince on social media. The workout and practice area for the men was significantly larger than the women, whose weight room was just a single stack of dumbbells.

The video drew significant attention to the equity gaps between the Men’s and Women’s divisions, leading to a 114-page report by a civil rights law firm that detailed the inequities between the two and suggested ways to improve the NCAA’s efforts for the Women’s side. One of these suggestions was simply to give the Women’s Tournament the same March Madness moniker as the men, which it finally got in 2022.

But underneath the surface of these institutional changes, women’s basketball’s single-biggest success driver was already emerging out of the shadows.

During the same COVID-marred season, a rookie from Iowa led the league in scoring with 26.6 points per game.

Her name: Caitlin Clark.

Caitlin Clark has scored the most points and made the most threes in college basketball.

Matthew Holst/Getty Images

As it stands today, Clark is the leading scorer in the history of college basketball — Men’s or Women’s. Her jaw-dropping shooting ability has fueled record viewership and ticket sales for Women’s collegiate games, carrying momentum to the March Madness tournament that has NBA legends like Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce more excited for the Women’s March Madness than the Men’s this year.

Related: Ticket prices for Caitlin Clark's final college home game are insanely high

But as the NCAA tries to bridge the opportunities given to the two sides, can the hype around Clark be enough for the Women’s March Madness to bring in the same fandom as the Men for the 2024 tournaments?

TheStreet spoke with Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, who has been following sports viewership trends for the last two decades; Melissa Isaacson, a veteran sports journalist and longtime advocate of women’s basketball; and Pete Giorgio, Deloitte’s leader for Global and US Sports to dissect the rise Caitlin Clark and women’s collegiate hoops ahead of March Madness.

“Nobody is moving the needle like Caitlin Clark,” Lewis told TheStreet. “Nobody else in sports, period, right now, is fueling record numbers on all these different networks, driving viewership beyond what the norm has been for 20 years."

The Caitlin Clark Effect is real — but there are other reasons for the success of women's basketball

The game in which Clark broke the all-time college scoring record against Ohio State on Sunday, Mar. 3 was seen by an average of 3.4 million viewers on Fox, marking the first time a women’s game broke the two million viewership barrier since 2010. Viewership for that game came in just behind the men’s game between Michigan State vs Arizona game on Thanksgiving, which Lewis said was driven by NFL viewership on the same day.

A week later, Iowa’s Big Ten Championship win over Nebraska breached the three million viewers mark as well, and the team has also seen viewership numbers crack over 1.5 million viewers multiple times throughout the regular season.

The success on television has also translated to higher ticket prices, as tickets to watch Clark at home and on the road have breached hundreds of dollars and drawn long lines outside stadiums. Isaacson, who is a professor at Northwestern, said she went to the game between the Hawkeyes and Northwestern Wildcats — which was the first sellout in school history for the team — and witnessed the effect of Clark in person.

“Standing in line interviewing people at the Northwestern game, seeing men who've never been to a women's game with their little girls watching and so excited, and seeing Caitlin and her engaging with little girls, it’s just been really fun,” Isaacson said.

But while Clark is certainly the biggest success driver, her game isn’t the only thing pulling up the women’s side. The three-point revolution, which started in the NBA with the introduction of deeper analytics as well as the rise of stars like Steph Curry, has been a positive for the Women’s game.

“They backed up to the three-point line and it’s opening up the game,” Isaacson said.

One of the major criticisms from a lot of women’s hoops detractors has been how the game does not compare in terms of quality to the men. However, shooting has become a great equalizer, displayed recently during the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend last month when the WNBA’s Sabrina Ionescu nearly defeated Curry — who is widely considered the greatest shooter ever — in a three-point contest.

Clark has become the embodiment of the three-point revolution for the women. Her shooting displays have demanded the respect of anyone who has doubted women’s basketball in the past because being a man simply doesn’t grant someone the ability to shoot long-distance bombs the way she can.

Basketball pundit Bill Simmons admitted on a Feb. 28 episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast” that he used to not want to watch women’s basketball because he didn’t enjoy watching the product, but finds himself following the women’s game this year more than the men’s side in large part due to Clark.

“I think she has the chance to be the most fun basketball player, male or female, when she gets to the pros,” Simmons said. “If she’s going to make the same 30-footers, routinely. It’s basically all the same Curry stuff just with a female … I would like watching her play in any format.”

But while Clark is driving up the numbers at the top, she’s not the only one carrying the greatness of the product. Lewis, Isaacson, Giorgio — and even Simmons, on his podcast — agreed that there are several other names and collegiate programs pulling in fans.

“It’s not just Iowa, it’s not just Caitlin Clark, it’s all of these teams,” Giorgio said. “Part of it is Angel Reese … coaches like Dawn Staley in South Carolina … You’ve got great stories left and right.”

LSU's Angel Reese (right) and her head coach Kim Mulkey are two of the biggest names in Women's college hoops. 

Eakin Howard/Getty Images

The viewership showed that as well because the SEC Championship game between the LSU Tigers and University of South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday, Mar. 10 averaged two million viewers.

Bridging the gap between the Men’s and Women’s March Madness viewership

The first reason women are catching up to the men is really star power. While the Women’s division has names like Clark and Reese, there just aren’t any names on the Men’s side this year that carry the same weight.

Garnett said on his show that he can’t name any men’s college basketball players, while on the women’s side, he could easily throw out the likes of Clark, Reese, UConn’s Paige Bueckers, and USC’s JuJu Watkins. Lewis felt the same.

“The stars in the men's game, with one and done, I genuinely couldn't give you a single name of a single men’s player,” Lewis said.

A major reason for this is that the Women’s side has the continuity that the Men’s side does not. The rules of the NBA allow for players to play just one year in college — or even play a year professionally elsewhere — before entering the draft, while the WNBA requires players to be 22-years-old during the year of the draft to be eligible.

“You know the stars in the women's game because they stay longer,” Lewis said. “[In the men’s game], the programs are the stars … In the women's game, it's a lot more like the NBA where the players are the stars.”

Parity is also a massive factor on both sides. The women’s game used to be dominated by a few schools like UConn and Notre Dame. Nowadays, between LSU, Iowa, University of South Carolina, Stanford, and UConn, there are a handful of schools that have a shot to win the entire tournament. While this is more exciting for fans, the talent in the women's game isn’t deep enough, so too many upsets are unlikely. Many of the biggest draws are still expected to make deep runs.

But on the men’s side, there is a bigger shot that the smaller programs make it to the end — which is what was seen last year. UConn eventually won the whole thing, but schools without as big of a national fanbase in San Diego State, Florida Atlantic University, and the University Miami rounded out the Final Four.

“People want to see one Cinderella,” Lewis said. “They don't want to see two and three, they want one team that isn't supposed to be there.”

Is Women's March Madness ready to overtake the Men?

Social media might feel like it’s giving more traction to the Women’s game, but experts don’t necessarily expect that to show up in the viewership numbers just yet.

“There’s certainly a lot more buzz than there used to be,” Giorgio said. “It’s been growing every year for not just the past few years but for 10 years, but it’s hard to compare it versus Men’s.”

But the gap continues to get smaller and smaller between the two sides, and this year's tournament could bridge that gap even further.

One indicator is ticket prices. For the NCAA Tournament Final Four in April, “get-in” ticket prices are currently more expensive for the Women’s game than the Men’s game, according to TickPick. The ticketing site also projects that the Women’s Final Four and Championship game ticket prices will smash any previous records for the Women’s side should Clark and the Hawkeyes make a run to the end.

NCAA "get-in" price comparison.

Getty Images/TheStreet

The caveat is that the Women’s Final Four is played in a stadium that has less than a third of the seating capacity of the Men’s Final Four. That’s why the average ticket prices are still more expensive for the men, although the gap is a lot smaller this year than in previous years.

The gap between the average ticket prices of the Final Four tournaments is getting smaller.

But that caveat pretty much sums up where the women’s game currently stands versus the men’s: There is still a significant gap between the distribution and availability of the former.

While Iowa’s regular season games have garnered millions of viewers, the majority of the most-viewed games are still Men’s contests.

To illustrate the gap between the men’s and women’s game — last year’s Women’s Championship game that saw the LSU Tigers defeat the Hawkeyes was a record-breaking one for the women, drawing an average of 9.9 million viewers, more than double the viewership from the previous year.

One of the main reasons for that increase, as Lewis pointed out, is that last year’s Championship game was on ABC, which was the first time since 1995 that the Women’s Championship game was on broadcast television. The 1995 contest between UConn and Tennessee drew 7.4 million viewers.

The Men’s Championship actually had a record low in viewership last year garnering only 14.7 million viewers, driven in-part due to a lack of hype surrounding the schools that made it to the Final Four and Championship game. Viewership for the Men’s title game has been trending down in recent years — partly due to the effect the pandemic had on collective sports viewership — but the Men’s side had been easily breaching 20 million viewers for the game as recently as 2017.

The 2023 Women's National Championship was the most-viewed game ever, while the Men's Championship was the division's least watched. 

Iowa's Big Ten Championship win on Sunday actually only averaged 6,000 fewer viewers than the iconic rivalry game between Duke and University of North Carolina Men’s Basketball the day prior. However, there is also the case that the Iowa game was played on broadcast TV (CBS) versus the Duke-UNC game airing on cable channel (ESPN).

So historical precedence makes it unlikely that we’ll see the women’s game match the men’s in terms of viewership as early as this year barring another massive viewership jump for the women and a lack of recovery for the Men’s side.

But ultimately, this shouldn’t be looked at as a down point for Women’s Basketball, according to Lewis. The Men’s side has built its viewership base for years, and the Women’s side is still growing. Even keeping pace with the Men’s viewership is already a great sign.

“The fact that these games have Caitlin Clark are even in the conversation with men's games, in terms of viewership is a huge deal,” Lewis said.

Related: Angel Reese makes bold statement for avoiding late game scuffle in championship game

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One city held a mass passport-getting event

A New Orleans congressman organized a way for people to apply for their passports en masse.

Published

1 day ago

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March 15, 2024

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While the number of Americans who do not have a passport has dropped steadily from more than 80% in 1990 to just over 50% now, a lack of knowledge around passport requirements still keeps a significant portion of the population away from international travel.

Over the four years that passed since the start of covid-19, passport offices have also been dealing with significant backlog due to the high numbers of people who were looking to get a passport post-pandemic. 

Related: Here is why it is (still) taking forever to get a passport

To deal with these concurrent issues, the U.S. State Department recently held a mass passport-getting event in the city of New Orleans. Called the "Passport Acceptance Event," the gathering was held at a local auditorium and invited residents of Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District to complete a passport application on-site with the help of staff and government workers.

A passport case shows the seal featured on American passports.

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'Come apply for your passport, no appointment is required'

"Hey #LA02," Rep. Troy A. Carter Sr. (D-LA), whose office co-hosted the event alongside the city of New Orleans, wrote to his followers on Instagram  (META) . "My office is providing passport services at our #PassportAcceptance event. Come apply for your passport, no appointment is required."

More Travel:

The event was held on March 14 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. While it was designed for those who are already eligible for U.S. citizenship rather than as a way to help non-citizens with immigration questions, it helped those completing the application for the first time fill out forms and make sure they have the photographs and identity documents they need. The passport offices in New Orleans where one would normally have to bring already-completed forms have also been dealing with lines and would require one to book spots weeks in advance.

These are the countries with the highest-ranking passports in 2024

According to Carter Sr.'s communications team, those who submitted their passport application at the event also received expedited processing of two to three weeks (according to the State Department's website, times for regular processing are currently six to eight weeks).

While Carter Sr.'s office has not released the numbers of people who applied for a passport on March 14, photos from the event show that many took advantage of the opportunity to apply for a passport in a group setting and get expedited processing.

Every couple of months, a new ranking agency puts together a list of the most and least powerful passports in the world based on factors such as visa-free travel and opportunities for cross-border business.

In January, global citizenship and financial advisory firm Arton Capital identified United Arab Emirates as having the most powerful passport in 2024. While the United States topped the list of one such ranking in 2014, worsening relations with a number of countries as well as stricter immigration rules even as other countries have taken strides to create opportunities for investors and digital nomads caused the American passport to slip in recent years.

A UAE passport grants holders visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 180 of the world’s 198 countries (this calculation includes disputed territories such as Kosovo and Western Sahara) while Americans currently have the same access to 151 countries.

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Fast-food chain closes restaurants after Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Several major fast-food chains recently have struggled to keep restaurants open.

Published

1 day ago

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March 15, 2024

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Competition in the fast-food space has been brutal as operators deal with inflation, consumers who are worried about the economy and their jobs and, in recent months, the falling cost of eating at home. 

Add in that many fast-food chains took on more debt during the covid pandemic and that labor costs are rising, and you have a perfect storm of problems. 

It's a situation where Restaurant Brands International (QSR) has suffered as much as any company.  

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Three major Burger King franchise operators filed for bankruptcy in 2023, and the chain saw hundreds of stores close. It also saw multiple Popeyes franchisees move into bankruptcy, with dozens of locations closing.

RBI also stepped in and purchased one of its key franchisees.

"Carrols is the largest Burger King franchisee in the United States today, operating 1,022 Burger King restaurants in 23 states that generated approximately $1.8 billion of system sales during the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2023," RBI said in a news release. Carrols also owns and operates 60 Popeyes restaurants in six states." 

The multichain company made the move after two of its large franchisees, Premier Kings and Meridian, saw multiple locations not purchased when they reached auction after Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings. In that case, RBI bought select locations but allowed others to close.

Burger King lost hundreds of restaurants in 2023.

Image source: Chen Jianli/Xinhua via Getty

Another fast-food chain faces bankruptcy problems

Bojangles may not be as big a name as Burger King or Popeye's, but it's a popular chain with more than 800 restaurants in eight states.

"Bojangles is a Carolina-born restaurant chain specializing in craveable Southern chicken, biscuits and tea made fresh daily from real recipes, and with a friendly smile," the chain says on its website. "Founded in 1977 as a single location in Charlotte, our beloved brand continues to grow nationwide."

Like RBI, Bojangles uses a franchise model, which makes it dependent on the financial health of its operators. The company ultimately saw all its Maryland locations close due to the financial situation of one of its franchisees.

Unlike. RBI, Bojangles is not public — it was taken private by Durational Capital Management LP and Jordan Co. in 2018 — which means the company does not disclose its financial information to the public. 

That makes it hard to know whether overall softness for the brand contributed to the chain seeing its five Maryland locations after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Bojangles has a messy bankruptcy situation

Even though the locations still appear on the Bojangles website, they have been shuttered since late 2023. The locations were operated by Salim Kakakhail and Yavir Akbar Durranni. The partners operated under a variety of LLCs, including ABS Network, according to local news channel WUSA9. 

The station reported that the owners face a state investigation over complaints of wage theft and fraudulent W2s. In November Durranni and ABS Network filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey, WUSA9 reported.

"Not only do former employees say these men owe them money, WUSA9 learned the former owners owe the state, too, and have over $69,000 in back property taxes."

Former employees also say that the restaurant would regularly purchase fried chicken from Popeyes and Safeway when it ran out in their stores, the station reported. 

Bojangles sent the station a comment on the situation.

"The franchisee is no longer in the Bojangles system," the company said. "However, it is important to note in your coverage that franchisees are independent business owners who are licensed to operate a brand but have autonomy over many aspects of their business, including hiring employees and payroll responsibilities."

Kakakhail and Durranni did not respond to multiple requests for comment from WUSA9.

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