Latest / Rittener Reflections / 4: Delightful Distraction
Transcript
- (upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to episode number four of "Ritner Reflections." I want to thank all of those individuals who provided positive feedback over the last two weeks on the last episode where Karen Murphy and I held a rich conversation on trade compliance. Today is the three month mark from when I left Intel. The time has really flown and I am as busy as ever. I can read for pleasure, stay current on world events based on my own interests instead of filtering everything through the Chief Trade Officer role I had at Intel. I have attended various conferences and small group gatherings and participated in several trade related discussions. I have spent quality time with my family and have met with colleagues for coffee, lunch, or drinks. There was so much more I could list, but all of it has been enjoyable and surprisingly busier than I anticipated. Since recording the last episode on February 4th, I attended a workshop on US-China tech competition and collaboration hosted by the Asia Society. Followed the next day by a lunch discussion with the Tech Council of the Asia Society of Northern California. This inaugural brainstorming session paves the way for future discussions on emerging technologies and how to better understand and manage the speed at which these technologies are advancing. This week, I attended a small group discussion hosted by Ambassador Frank Levin with Alex Capri, author of Techno Nationalism. This is the book I spoke about in episode number two. I then spent a bit of time the following day with Alex and with the executive director, Margaret Connelly and her staff at the Asia Society of Northern California to explore opportunities to leverage the content from Alex's book for future programming. I attended the Women in International Trade annual Lunar New Year event hosted by Intel. Along with reuniting with old friends and enjoying great food, we heard speakers from Baker McKenzie. They discussed the state of US-China relations, looking at it from China's side as well as from the US side. Speaking of reconnecting, I had the joy of attending a pop-luck lunch with several ex-colleges from the original tax and trade group at Intel. It was good to hear how everyone is comfortably enjoying the retired life. And in the middle of all this excitement, I took a quick trip to New Orleans with my son to attend the 59th Super Bowl. And I will have more to say on this a bit later. This past week, I also finally finished reviewing and rewriting my resume. And I will now start seeking employment where I can lead, advise, or assist organizations in managing the increasingly complex world of international trade. I noticed that there are many positions being advertised and hopefully I'll be able to find one that best fits me. In the interim, I have established an LLC to consult. The name of my firm is Ritner Trade Services, RTS. I am in the final stages of setting up the operational model, but I am ready to provide consultation, advice, and other services through this company. And finally, I am really enjoying producing this podcast. I have so many ideas to make it useful, interesting, and hopefully inspiring. I would welcome any input on how I can do better and what would be of interest to listeners. So thank you very much. Amid all my busyness, I am quite aware of the rapidly changing, frustrating, and ongoing around-the-clock news cycle, primarily driven by President Trump and his relentless efforts to redo America as we know it and as he would like it. This includes daily and sometimes hourly updates on trade-related matters from tariffs to country-specific policies and programs. I am confident that, like me, you are feeling exhausted, confused, and maybe even overwhelmed. The issues are so important. However, that none of us really can afford to look away in case we miss something significant. These past 30 days have been all-consuming and have left us drained. I hope that you will agree with me that we need to find ways to take a mini break and focus our attention on something more enjoyable and more relaxing. As such, I will use this episode to take a break from the news and all the talk on trade and tariffs and talk about something different. I am going to talk about sports. Now, sports helped me divert my attention for a while and bring me a sense of normalcy and pleasure. I plan to share with you my Super Bowl experience, but first, let me describe some major sporting events happening over this week and next that can divert your attention into something more positive. These events are often available on social media afterward. So first, as a runner, I was amazed and so excited to see world records fall this week. Grant Fisher, who is a 27-year-old American who won bronze medals in both the 5,000-meter and the 10,000-meter at last year's Paris Olympics, broke the 3,000-meter indoor world record at the Milrose Games in New York City. He did this fending off the Olympic 1,500-meter champion, Cole Hawker, in a thrilling sprint to the finish in record time of seven minutes and 22 seconds. He set a new 5,000-meter world indoor record. He clocked this one at 12 minutes and 44 seconds, and this was at the Boston University David Henry Valentine Invitational. And in doing this, he smashed the previous 20-year-old mark of 1249 that was set in 2004 by Ethiopia's Kinesia Bekele. Now, in addition, Jacob Ingritson, an Olympic medalist and world champion, broke another world record last week at the World Indoor Tour in Leeuven, France. Less than a week after, Yared Nuguz set the indoor mile record of 346. Ingritson broke the America's mark running 345. Nuguz's record only stood for just five days. To put this in some perspective, I'm a runner. I run the track. I run to stay in shape. But it takes me twice as long to run a mile. These guys are fast. For those of you who are interested in turning your attention to something positive and exciting, I would encourage you to tune in to the USATF Indoor Track and Field Championships on February 22nd and 23rd. They will be held in Staten Island, New York, and I will be watching. Now, if you prefer even more speed, then today they are racing automobiles at the Daytona 500. Now, this is the iconic 500-mile NASCAR Cup Series season opener that's held annually at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Daytona is a significant car race in the NASCAR series and it's opened the season every year since 1982. It's an amazing event for those of you who are racing afeccionados. Now, however, if racing cars 500 miles does not get you excited, then there is the sport of tossing a ball through a small hoop. Now, this weekend, the National Basketball Association, NBA is known, is holding its 2025 All-Star Weekend with San Francisco and the Golden State Warriors hosting this three-day event. The NBA has completely revamped the format of the All-Star game. Prior basketball stars drafted three teams of eight All-Star players each this year, and then the teams will play a mini single-elimination tournament tonight, and this should be quite entertaining. Now, if you're more in the mood for winter sports, the National Hockey League, known as NHL, is replacing its normal All-Star game with a four-nations face-off. The USA, Canada, Sweden, and Finland are bringing 23 players from the NHL to a week-long competition starting in Montreal and ending in Boston. The four-nations face-off is an international best-on-best ice hockey tournament featuring four countries competing against one another. Each team consists of 23 players from the NHL representing their home countries, and it marks the first time since the best players from the NHL have gone head-to-head in international action since 2016 World Cup of Hockey. I happened to catch a little bit of the US-Canada match last night, and just to tell you how competitive and intense it was, in the first 10 seconds there were three fights that broke out, and ultimately the US won three to one. Now, if hockey is not fast enough for you, then there is skiing downhill as fast as you can. Now, taking place almost exactly a year prior to the Winter Olympics in Milan, Cortina, the Alpine Ski Championships are being hosted in the Austrian Alps from February 4th to 16th, with more than 600 skiers from 70 countries competing in this 48th edition of the championships. There are 11 medal events for traditional events of Super G, downhill, giant slalom, and slalom for both women and men, a team parallel race, and new team combined events for women and men. The perfect event for you to embrace winter and dream about next year's Winter Olympics. Okay, now let us move on to my favorite sport, which is American football. At least 127 million people know that the biggest and most viewed sports event took place in the Superdome in New Orleans last Sunday. That is because this is the number of viewers, according to the Nielsen figures, making it the most viewed Super Bowl and US telecast of all time. Although the actual game was over by halftime, the extravaganza had all the typical moments needed to capture your attention. For example, Trump made history as the first president to ever attend a Super Bowl. Taylor Swift and dozens of other celebrities made big screen appearances. Around 80 Super Bowl ads aired, each one costing $8 million for 30 seconds. And then Kendrick Lamar's halftime performance made headlines and featured a surprise cameo by tennis superstar Serena Williams. In fact, his performance drew an average of 133.5 million viewers across television and digital platforms, setting a record for the most watched Super Bowl halftime performance in history. For me, this is the fourth Super Bowl I have attended in person. Given that my preferred team was eliminated from the playoffs months ago and could no longer lose, I found this experience more enjoyable than prior ones. I also enjoyed it immensely because I was able to attend with my son for the very first time. Now, looking back, my dad took me, when I was in grade school, to my first Super Bowl. It was Super Bowl seven, and it was played at the Los Angeles Coliseum. And we bought them minutes before the game started. It was a historically significant game as the Miami Dolphins defeated the then Washington Redskins to become the one and only team to ever finish the season, including the Super Bowl, undefeated. My favorite memory was going down onto the field after the game, and yes, in those days, you could go on the field without being arrested. And a well-known photo shows the coach being carried off the field on the player's shoulders. I recall standing remarkably close to that iconic visual. I then attended my second Super Bowl, number 15, at the Super Dome in New Orleans, where the then Oakland Raiders beat the Philadelphia Eagles. I bought tickets through a lottery for season ticket holders. And my favorite memory of this Super Bowl was the journey. As college students, my friend and I decided to do something crazy and drive to New Orleans from San Jose, California, and back in a 1970s mini Honda Civic. We started driving after the class on Thursday afternoon. We arrived in New Orleans on Saturday afternoon, watched the game on Sunday, started the return drive on Monday afternoon, and we're back in time for Thursday morning class. Now, last year, I attended my third Super Bowl, number 58 in Las Vegas, where my beloved 49ers played the Kansas City Chiefs. Although I cherished seeing my favorite team play in a Super Bowl, I was heartbroken when they lost in overtime on the very last play of the game. It is difficult to describe the collective feeling when something like that happens. In order to give you a picture, let me describe our exit from the stadium. So the last play in overtime, Kansas City scores, they win, the Kansas City fans are going crazy, and all of the San Francisco fans are standing, mouth opened, in shock. I stood there for maybe 10 minutes. I got a text from my buddy who was on the other side of the stadium and he said, "Hey, we're leaving. Let's go meet down at the entrance." So I went down slowly, I met them. And to leave the stadium in Las Vegas, you have to cross the freeway on a bridge to the Mandalay Bay Hotel. And there were thousands of 49er fans walking silent across that bridge. There were no Kansas City fans because they were all back in the stadium watching their team receive the trophy. It was one of the most eerie moments in sports that I've ever experienced that silent walk, almost like a death march. Well, since I was expecting my team to return to the Super Bowl this year, I went ahead and purchased tickets to attend the Super Bowl that was just held in New Orleans, number 59. Well, during the season, I guess from the moment we lost that Super Bowl in Vegas, until now, nothing went right for the 49ers. We did not even make the playoffs. Although the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles were two of the least likely teams I would want to watch play in a Super Bowl, I decided to go and make it a memorable father-son trip. So in typical Rittner fashion, we took the red eye out of San Francisco on Saturday night. We arrived mid-morning in New Orleans, and we had a great time walking around the French quarters. We enjoyed beignets from the Café du Mont. We attended the pregame party with plenty of local Southern food, like shrimp and grits, jambalaya, cornbread, and of course, pralines. We entered the stadium early to catch the pregame activities. We enjoyed the electric atmosphere and excitement as Philadelphia swiftly defeated Kansas City. After every score, the Eagles fans sang their favorite Fly Eagles Fly song, ending with a resounding chant of E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles. We enjoyed the halftime extravaganza, and we left the stadium to celebrate down on Bourbon Street. We then proceeded to the airport, caught a 2 a.m. flight, and arrived back home in San Francisco at 7 a.m. on Monday morning. It was an incredibly wonderful time with my son. After suffering a heartbreaking loss last year, and now seeing a Super Bowl team demolished by halftime, I have been pondering this question. As a fan, is it more difficult to get beaten so bad that you know by halftime you lost? Or is it worse to be competitive the whole game and then lose the championship on the last play in overtime? I would really love to hear from some of you with your answer to that question. Well, the Super Bowl will take place locally next year at Levi Stadium here in Santa Clara. And I hope to attend and to witness the San Francisco 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals for the third time. To conclude my reflections this time, I would like to just say I hope that you can find ways to break away from the relentless barrage of news. If sport is not your thing, I encourage you to find your unique way to disengage for a bit and find something to do that brings you solace, peace, and joy. For my next episode, I will venture back into the world of cross-border trade and we will talk about everyone's favorite topic, tariffs. Until then, look away for a minute or two. Take care, everyone. We'll talk to you soon. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)