Recent measurements of certain B meson decays show intriguing tensions with predictions of the standard model of particle physics.  I review the status of the data and some new physics interpretations. Much of the talk then focuses on the theory and data related to semileptonic B decays, which hint at an enhanced rate to tau leptons compared to expectations.  This has revitalized studying these decays using heavy quark effective theory, and motivated new developments relevant for the measurements of CKM elements as well.  For baryon decays, comparing theory with data and lattice QCD results allows learning about heavy quark symmetry at higher orders than before. Refining these predictions is important, since the experimental precision will improve nearly an order of magnitude in the next decade.