Scalable

Monoculture isn’t dead. Neither is Hollywood. This week, Kaya and Jasmine explain why shared cultural moments like Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding or the Knicks winning the NBA championship are more important than ever—and why we might not be as different as we like to think.They also debunk some of the big headlines around the success of Backrooms and Obsession as the summer’s best box office since the pandemic comes to an end. Hint: No, creators aren’t saving Hollywood. These YouTuber-led movies were both horror films—and there were plenty of hit movies this summer that weren’t made by creators.Finally, Kaya and Jasmine share their conversation from the Cannes Film Festival about the convergence of the movie industry and the creator economy. They discuss why the future of the film industry may be less about Hollywood versus creators and more about a deeper collaboration between the two.

Back-to-school season has become a summer-long social media spectacle and brands are racing to keep up. This week on Scalable, Jasmine and Kaya unpack the rise of RushTok, $10,000 dorm makeovers and the creator content reshaping how families shop for back-to-school supplies during a time when many households are struggling financially. Plus, they debate how much TikTok could lose from a nationwide school cell phone ban.They also dive into why more big brands like Starbucks and Gap are now paying their staff to post TikToks and Instagram reels on the job, after once firing employees for creating content about their work. Lastly, Kaya and Jasmine give their take on what recent affiliate marketing scandals could mean for the creator commerce boom.

More than 60% of full-time creators in the US now have some kind of exit plan, and increasingly creators take on investment to expand their businesses, which helps set them up for an exit.Jasmine Enberg and Kaya Yurieff sit down with Stephanie Patrick, co-founder and former owner of Theorist Media, which runs popular YouTube channels like Game Theory and Food Theory to talk about how she and her husband and co-founder Matthew Patrick, a.k.a. MatPat sold their company to LunarX back in 2022. They were among the first creators to sell their company and helped develop a roadmap for creators looking to retire or exit their businesses. Stephanie Patrick discusses how she knew it was time to step away and how they structured their deal with LunarX. She also reflects on how, back in 2019, few people understood why she was talking about exits – and now that she’s on the other side of one, shares her advice for creators looking to grow.

Will YouTube ever start funding creator content again? And is the YouTube-Peacock deal actually a response to Netflix going after YouTubers?Kaya Yurieff and Jasmine Enberg discuss the latest in the YouTube-Netflix rivalry, including why Netflix’s latest deals with creators like Mythical and Nick DiGiovanni aren’t exclusive. They also unpack why the Olympics might be the real reason behind YouTube’s subscription deal with Peacock and what’s behind some creators’ decision to launch FAST channels as their content moves into living rooms.Later in the episode, they’re joined by Kim Larson, global head of creators at YouTube, and Kayla Nicole, a sports creator and journalist with 1 million Instagram followers. In a live interview filmed at Cannes Lions, they discuss everything from YouTube’s exclusive shows with creators to what it actually takes to make it as a creator today. Kayla’s advice: Don’t do it.

The youngest millennials are turning 30 this year.Kaya Yurieff and Jasmine Enberg break down the real differences (and surprising similarities) between millennial and Gen Z women across three big areas: What is their relationship to the creator economy? How are they consuming media? And what influences their purchase decisions?Hint: While Gen Z may be nostalgic for millennial relics like digital cameras and capri pants, they have rejected the girl boss, which was a defining characteristic of young female culture in the 2010s.Later in the show, they sit down with Maggie Milnamow, the new Chief Commercial Officer at Betches, a quintessential millennial brand that now also caters to Gen Z women. As the media company celebrates its 15th birthday, Milnamow shares how Betches now reaches 1 in 2 young women online, why revenue is up 70% year-over-year and what the next phase of growth looks like. 

The Atlantic is one of the bright spots in legacy media. Founded in 1857, the magazine has gone from losing money to turning a profit in recent years, while expanding its newsroom and even adding back print editions. Kaya Yurieff sits down with The Atlantic's CEO Nick Thompson for a wide ranging conversation about declining trust in media, AI’s actual impact on publishers and how the creator economy is reshaping journalism. Thompson, previously editor-in-chief of Wired, has become something of a creator himself. He's built a following of more than 1.6 million on LinkedIn, posting near-daily videos filmed in a single take. He discusses how The Atlantic keeps its writers from going independent, its early licensing deal with OpenAI and whether AI chatbots owe publishers a cut of revenue. Thompson also discusses how President Trump and Elon Musk are "actively trying to destroy" the media industry, why The Atlantic is investing in print and live events and whether social media as we know it survives an internet full of AI-generated content.

Spain may have won the 2026 World Cup, but plenty of athletes, brands and fans also emerged as winners on social media. The most boring part? Content from creators who actually attended matches. Kaya Yurieff and Jasmine Enberg break down the best (and worst) moments on social media from Erling Haaland’s meteoric rise to the TSA's cheeky Ranch dressing advisory and the Norwegian Air and British Airways bet to swap logos. Plus, they discuss why FIFA’s restrictive and fragmented approach to creator access may have held content back, and what the results could mean for creator strategies at sports leagues and teams moving forward.Later in the show, they’re joined by F1 journalist Toni Cowan-Brown, who discusses the creator economy’s impact on the sport—and why Netflix's “Drive to Survive” doesn’t deserve all the credit for putting Formula 1 on the map for Americans. 

Are we at peak newsletter? Newsletters have quietly become one of the most reliable businesses in the creator economy, with top writers earning millions of dollars from their work. Meanwhile, platforms like Substack, Beehiiv, Kit and Patreon are battling to win over creators, athletes and celebrities like Charli xcx and Tom Brady who have their own newsletters now.Kaya Yurieff and Jasmine Enberg break down why newsletters are booming, whether the market has become too saturated, how creators are actually making money and why today's biggest newsletters are evolving beyond just email.Later in the show, they’re joined by Beehiiv CEO and co-founder Tyler Denk to discuss the state of the industry, where there’s still white space for newsletters and where things go next.