Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

This week Alex was back with Grace and our new producer Theresa Loconsolo to kick off the week. This Monday morning we recorded right before Garry Tan announced that he was heading back to Y Combinator as its President. Dang.

But we still had a good sheaf of things to talk about!

• Stocks are not having a good day around the world, after having a pretty tough last Friday. It's hardly bullish for the IPO market.
• Things weren't much better in crypto-land, where bitcoin and ether are off from their week-ago prices, and NFT volumes remain muted.
• And speaking of quiet, startup news -- Y Combinator apart! -- was modest over the weekend. It appears that the August slowdown is both real, and here. Frankly startups could use a shot in the arm to get venture back closer to 2021's level of insanity. Can the Instacart IPO that we expect be the needed catalyst?
• Another potential catalyst of Good Vibes that we are tracking is whether, and when Tether's audit finally does happen.
• Also in the news: Honda is going to spend big to build batteries in the United States; Indian mobile connectivity is set to improve in the next year; and Meta and Indian conglomerate Reliance are teaming up for ecommerce.

Equity is back Wednesday Thursday for a live show! Chat soon!

Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.