--- title: Five Best Ideas of the Day: April 7 description: Giving up on the anchorman, building a better crowdfunding tool, Billie Holiday's 100th, Putin's fragile clique and more. canonical: https://time.com/3773616/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-april-7/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-07T16:01:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:04:40.656Z article:section: Ideas og:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas og:description: Giving up on the anchorman, Putin's fragile clique and more og:url: https://time.com/3773616/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-april-7/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas twitter:description: Giving up on the anchorman, Putin's fragile clique and more twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Five Best Ideas of the Day: April 7 by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 7, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 7, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**It’s time to give up the uniquely American institution of the network anchorman.**](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/04/anchors-network-news.html) By Frank Rich in New York magazine **2\.** [**On Billie Holiday’s 100th birthday, her “spiritual endowment” endures.**](http://time.com/3769232/wynton-marsalis-billie-holiday/) By Wynton Marsalis in Time **3\.** [**How to save crowdfunding from scammers and flakes.**](http://www.wired.com/2015/04/one-companys-quest-save-crowdfunding-scammers-flakes/) By Klint Finley in Wired **4\.** [**Here’s how Putin could lose power.**](http://www.vox.com/2015/1/5/7482441/how-putin-lose-power) By Amanda Taub in Vox **5\.** [**What if the secret to racial harmony is more uplifting internet videos?**](http://news.psu.edu/story/350301/2015/03/27/research/penn-state-researchers-find-inspirational-online-videos-could) By Katie Jacobs at Penn State News  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3773616/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-april-7/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3773616/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-april-7/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: April 7","datePublished":"2015-04-07T16:01:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:40.656Z","description":"Giving up on the anchorman, building a better crowdfunding tool, Billie Holiday's 100th, Putin's fragile clique and more.","url":"https://time.com/3773616/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-april-7/","keywords":["Innovation","putin","Ukraine","russia","Internet","Happiness","Videos","News","Crowdfunding","Kickstarter","Journalism","Jazz"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3773616/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-april-7/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: April 7"}}]}] ```