Side Projects

Over the past few years, we’ve been seeing a new genre of creators gain prominence. Maybe you've heard them referred to as “knowledge influencers,” “brandsplainers,” or the “alternatively influential.” Their credibility comes less from sales-savvy or attention hacking as it does from a depth of knowledge and expertise across a range of niches—from advertising to AGI. On this episode, Trey and Eli are talking with Jenny Rothenberg, the co-founder of Smooth Media, a creator rep agency/B2B conduit helping to expand the audiences and commercial viability of this growing crop of creators. We discuss how Smooth is building a new version of industry trade publications, why there’s so much demand for trend/brand creative breakdowns, and CatGPT’s equity deal.

Clara, Trey, and Eli discuss everything becoming TV, New York morphing into one big content backdrop, navigating Washington Square Park like it’s ABC’s Wipeout, and whether or not there are too many branded social series. Plus, Aliens, DraftKings VIP list, and Unzipped.

This week on the pod, Clara, Trey, and Eli discuss the Grey Lady’s campaign celebrating 175 years of print advertising, and the quote “advertising reflects the moments that shape our world,” really means in its current context. Plus, Bumble cribbing (to put it lightly) friend of the show Amy Rose Spiegel’s “Most Eligible New Yorkers” piece, and an exploration of novelty popcorn buckets.

Georgia Jaffe is the founder of Indie Hourzz: an online music, media, and culture platform which hosts intimate live sessions, concerts, and more. We spoke with her about hosting shows in her college apartment, cold-calling the Coca-Cola hotline, whether there are still regional differences in music scenes, and how to build an audience that trusts your point of view.

When you think about space exploration today, it’s easy to scoff at the profligate spending of billionaires drunk on ambition, the vanity trips laced with an impressive lack of self-awareness (best characterized by Gayle King’s “have you been?”), or even Space Force uniforms “inspired by the discipline of the Starship Trooper uniform.” But there are actually good, insightful, and even artful things happening. One of them is the launch of SPACE JUNK, a new print publication “examining the intersection of the culture of space travel and humanity’s relationship with the cosmos.” We spoke with Jack Mills about why space is both a “red herring” and an “excuse to think about the future and ways that we might rebuild,” an impending NASA partnership butt-dialling astronauts, and how he got Bottega Veneta to foot some of the bill.

It’s been a while since we’ve had the full gang together, and there’s much to discuss. Trey gives the run down on Corgi Cafe—and makes the case for Capitol One Café. Clara rants about how “special drink” culture has gone too far. Eli closes us out on a positive and optimistic high: Flock Cameras.

Recently, there’s been a lot of anxiety around the health of subcultures: “Subcultures aren’t dead, they’re just not where you’re looking,” “Teen Subcultures Are Fading. Pity the Poor Kids,” “Alt Erasure: Has TikTok Killed Alternative Subcultures?.” Brands like to think of themselves as conduits to subcultures, or, if you’ve spent time in the hefty, vertigo-inducing haze of a brand strategy deck, what we now call “niche communities.” But in practice—thanks to the need for immediately legible ROI—they tend to strip mine and erode what actually helps interesting ideas and people flourish. So what role if any do brands have to play in helping to build and cultivate subcultures?We spoke with Elliot Aronow, the founder of Minor Genius, about living in an “aggressively legible world,” why he thinks Ralph Lauren is the greatest marketer of all time, a “hot MILF” theory of brand strategy, and why brands should start thinking of themselves as cultural patrons.

The creator economy has officially won, and periodic waves of influencer backlash have become a perennial feature of online discourse. Some recent examples include the “no influencers sign” in Nantucket, whether “hating influencers has become a socially acceptable way to hate women,” and talk of an influencer recession as the landscape becomes more crowded and competitive. To parse legit grievances from convenient moral cover for envy, we turned to the writer and strategist Ochuko who you might know from her newsletter “as seen on.” We discuss why waiting for the end of influencers is like waiting for the end of the Kardashians, where we’re at in the five stages of acceptance, capitalism, honor, meritocracy, and scrounging for scraps on TikTok Shop. 

Is it a fun new beverage? Fast food innovation? Celebrity wedding? A disdain for data centers? An underdog sports story? We’re living through a moment of seemingly calcified cynicism and alienation, but there are palpable signs that people are looking to involve themselves in something bigger than themselves that’s positive. As America celebrates its Semiquincentennial, we wanted to get a gut check (and an optimistic take) from someone who has a few ideas on positive connectivity and finding common purpose. Our guest this week is Scott Reich, author of One Day in September and The Power of Citizenship: JFK 60 Years Later. We talk about his push for mandatory civil service, why we need more local heroes, getting off the phone, tiny Cheez-It bags, and why you should visit a presidential library.