Tasteland

This week on Tasteland we’re joined by novelist Adam Voith. Adam is the editor and publisher of Little Engines magazine. __ Adam Voith Substack Instagram Little Engines __ Timestamps 00:00 Did Zohran win? 03:14 Dirt’s new podcasts 08:01 Relationship between art and commerce 13:29 Submission culture in publishing 20:29 Conservatism in publishing 26:35 Culture reflected in literature 33:32 Monetizing early support in creative industries 43:29 The rise of freelancing and founding 48:00 Writers are small business owners __ Our intro song, Night Life, is written by Nakisso Peralta and performed by Chillers.

This week Daisy and Francis are joined by Nick Susi, a strategy executive and entrepreneurial builder for 13+ years, exploring the technological, societal and psychological forces that shape our identity, perception and culture. __ Nick Susi Website Substack LinkedIn Instagram Twitter/X __ Timestamps 00:00 Creators are consumers of the self 07:51 Posts are the cheetle of your identity 15:19 Presence in marketing 17:11 Start a war, create a monoculture 29:16 Building trust vs capturing attention 36:59 How myths shape modern media and technology 45:25 Separating the technology for the myth 51:45 Ice Cube got it right __ Our intro song, Night Life, is written by Nakisso Peralta and performed by Chillers.

This week Daisy and Francis are joined by startup founder, developer, and runner, Cole Townsend. Cole has been a product designer for over a decade and is the head of tech and co-founder of Sole Retriever. __ Cole Website Sole Retriever LinkedIn X/Twitter __ Timestamps 00:00 Jury duty 06:54 Post Tokyo crash 17:20 Every app is a marketplace or dating app 24:49 Running is becoming lifestyle 29:53 Crewing an ultramarathon 34:12 Performance culture 37:17 Founding Sole Retriever 43:36 Never had a New Balance 50:20 Moth tech __ Our intro song, Night Life, is written by Nakisso Peralta and performed by Chillers.

This week on Tasteland, Daisy and Francis are joined by NYC based journalist, Claire Landsbaum. Claire is the Deputy Editor at HighSnobiety and has formerly held positions at The Cut, Vanity Fair, and Business Insider. __ Claire Website HighSnobiety LinkedIn Instagram X/Twitter __ Timestamps 00:00 Show and tell 09:02 The bowling alley is the new afterparty 11:27 Writing for magazines 15:06 Finding journalistic honesty 19:03 Fake adult in Berlin 26:53 Are Veronika and Kyle for real? 32:40 I saw this tweet 37:08 Can The Daily Beast be saved? 48:35 Revenue and editorial integrity 54:29 Tattoos and steaks 57:53 The dream profile __ Our intro song, Night Life, is written by Nakisso Peralta and performed by Chillers.

This week Daisy and Francis are joined by Jose Mejia, the CEO and Co-Founder at Scene Infrastructure Company, a software company building better instruments for socialization. __ Jose Mejia SIC X/Twitter LinkedIn __ Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:42 Stress-induced tramp stamp 04:07 Zero-slop pop-up gets pwned 10:44 Daisy bullies Chat-GPT, again 13:16 Addison Rae Iconic Magazine scene report 15:10 Wild soda flavor combos 17:45 Shopify for the experience economy 21:31 World Cup 2026 ticket prices 26:17 The endgame of the attention economy 33:38 The decline of consensus reality 41:34 Rebuilding consensus reality 48:38 Matryoshka doll of meaning 51:08 When did everything become so intentional? __ Our intro song, Night Life, is written by Nakisso Peralta and performed by Chillers.

This week on Tasteland, Francis and Daisy go guest-free and dive into everything from small farms and soybeans to the future of media and paywalls. Is media all media marketing now? Life is good. __ Timestamps 00:00 Sourdough fatherhood 01:43 Venture agriculturalism 05:34 Soybean political own goal 10:06 All media is marketing 15:40 Not all media is marketing 22:37 Retiring the op-ed 27:46 The future of micropayments and paywalls 35:27 Distasteland 38:11 Nostalgic scent of manure 39:33 AGI is coming, go to party school 42:04 Life is good; drip __ Our intro song, Night Life, is written by Nakisso Peralta and performed by Chillers.

Casey Lewis, youth consumer trends researcher and After School newsletter founder, breaks down Gen Z and Gen Alpha culture. She talks about back-to-school fashion, the denim comeback, micro-accessories as identity signals, marketing fluency among kids, and ethical questions around child influencers. Short, sharp takes on how trends spread and why kids buy what they buy.

This week on Tasteland we're joined by Dani Loftus. Dani is a founder, writer and investor focused on the digital evolution of culture. After founding content platform This Outfit Does Not Exist in 2021, she became a leading voice in the digital fashion space working with brands like Chanel, Dion Lee, and Google and writing for publications such as HUNGER, DIRT and Jing Daily. __ Dani Substack Instagram LinkedIn X/Twitter __ Timestamps 00:00 Introducing Dani 01:00 Gimmicky martini epidemic 05:10 The return the hipsterdom 17:27 Happy victims 20:28 Fashion is fine art 28:18 Pandemic shopping habits 31:22 The Doji problem 38:58 The commodification of taste in fashion 46:52 Putting a watermark on humanity 51:22 Class structure in the UK vs US __ Our intro song, Night Life, is written by Nakisso Peralta and performed by Chillers.

This week Daisy and Francis are joined by Andy Hunter, the founder and CEO of bookshop.org, an online bookshop with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops. __ Bookshop Website Instagram Bluesky Andy's LinkedIn __ Timestamps 00:00 Introducing Andy and Bookshop 02:08 Press Publish NYC 06:26 Introducing e-books on Bookshop 08:00 Aligning against big tech 11:36 Best performing genres on Bookshop 14:12 The catalyst for Bookshop's impressive growth 15:52 Rejecting investment to maintain the company's mission 19:51 Support bookstores, not billionaires 28:03 Innovating the e-reader 35:00 Bookshop's impact on local book stores 37:25 AI vs human book recommendations 46:42 Taking the Bookshop model beyond books 53:40 The value of physical books 57:40 Current reads __ Our intro song, Night Life, is written by Nakisso Peralta and performed by Chillers.

This week Daisy and Francis are joined by Ben Dietz, a long-time media/entertainment business guy. __ Ben Substack LinkedIn [SIC] Talks Podcast __ Timstamps 00:00 Do not disturb 05:12 No new luxury brands 11:11 Cybertruck: a future classic 16:20 Can software be luxury? 23:23 AI email summaries, with emotion 30:34 Brand safety is dead 34:56 Podcasting for the generations 38:31 Job tenure trends 47:39 Well-mannered, socialized and curious 51:13 Psychological foot binding 54:00 A month of sobriety __ Our intro song, Night Life, is written by Nakisso Peralta and performed by Chillers.