I got overwhelmed thinking about what I wanted to write today. It’s mid-July & it seems everyone is hot and bothered about something. I figured I’d rapid fire topics that have been swirling around my mind this week yet I didn’t feel motivated to bring up in group chats.
Hot Girls Have Stomach Issues
I will never forget hitting twenty-six and suddenly everyone was complaining about their stomachs. Intensely validating for me, the Queasiest Queen Since Forever. And it just keeps intensifying. I predict that Gut and Digestive Health is the next booming area of consumer wellness. Its proximity to mental health makes it particularly ripe for profit. We’ve already seen heightened interest across TikTok for homegrown remedies and more restaurants accommodating sensitivities and allergies. I suspect businesses will look at diverse solutions (not quick-fixes) to heal our troubled tummies, much like BelliWelli or Poppi or Culture Pop or Olipop1 adding pro- or prebiotics to food and beverage. Cycling through a low FODMAP diet every few months is the only thing I’ve found to help with my digestion. I’m loyal to Fody products—I drizzle their garlic-infused olive oil over everything— and I’ve seen more and more FODMAP-compliant sauces pop up, like Rao’s Sensitive Marinara or Prego Sensitive Recipe. I’m looking forward to seeing the nascent sensitive stomach category grow beyond snacks, sodas, and supplements. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Diet Coke-gate is just the beginning of more publicized longevity studies that warn against the dangers in processed food and food supply chains.
Striiiiike
With a looming SAG-AFTRA strike and film studios’ intention to “bleed out” the WGA (??? does anyone have a conscience any more, asking seriously), I’ve been thinking a lot about the abundance of labor strikes in creative industries this year. In fact, striking across industries is the highest it’s been in decades, up 50% from last year. I was muchisimo invested in the HarperCollins strike last winter and I stand in solidarity with anyone who chooses to bravely and collectively demand more of their companies. Mostly it bums me out to witness this deepening erosion between business and creative. It’s why I wanted to go to business school, to bridge this gap. I’m thinking it boils down to a fundamental misunderstanding of the creative process, back to the dreaded societal worship of productivity, and I just don’t know how we fix that without Mom-Swapping all of these executives and their employees.2
Nobody Wants to Date Anymore. Get Your F*cking Ass Up and Date!
Just kidding. I already have anecdotal third party evidence that app dating is bruuuuutal these days. Bigger Better Offer-style thinking isn’t new, but it’s crushing when applied to actual people. This tweet & its replies sparked loads of thoughts.
The deck is stacked against young professionals in so many ways (they’re transient, they’re prioritizing careers, they’re using their precious free social time to reconnect with friends post-pandemic) and first date fatigue is real. Already I’m seeing piqued interest in professional matchmakers. Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking and Jewish Matchmaking have decreased a lot of the stigma. Friends and family members have told me they’d like to outsource their love lives to experienced, emotionally intelligent, and algo-free experts. I always joke that I'd like to create an open spreadsheet and start pairing up vetted friends and acquaintances.
Also worth mentioning (because I found it highly amusing): long term couples were catching some strays in the discourse. Not that I think couples don’t face their own challenges, but it was gratifying to see some playful backlash against individuals who just get lucky in love. Being the sole decision maker in a household is stressful.
Tastes Continue to Flatten
Shortly after I published my newsletter about the market-reflected gaze and flattening of tastes this week, I read “Dream of Antonoffication” by Mitch Therieauin in The Drift. All I can say is, damn, I would have liked to reference a number of his incredible and biting criticisms. Multiple music-as-furniture comparisons! The producer as a marketplace mouthpiece in zeitgeistless times! A sample:
[The DIY minimalist song] is a born-digital object optimized for frictionless circulation — the ability to function as audio furniture for viral videos, fit in on a variety of algorithmically curated playlists, play unobtrusively in what passes for public space in contemporary American life, generating revenue along the way…. In the age of streaming, music is not so much commodified as commoditized: in the eyes of the consumer, it appears less as a field of choices distinguished by genre or artist and more as a generic, undifferentiated mass of interchangeable products.
Since this article had me highlighting passages left and right, I fear my time spent meditating on our flattening tastes is faaaaarrr from over.
OOMF-a Loompas
New Wonka trailer dropped this week. It looks surprisingly wholesome?? I expected darker, I guess. I didn’t know the Paddington visionary Paul King was directing so that’s on me, a Paddington Devotee. Anyway, the trailer did nothing to cure me of my Oompa Loompa Ick. Something about that orange skin & green hair is…..unsettling to my psyche. Better luck next time, Hugh.
That’s it for now! Byeee!
So many i’s in the digestive space I never noticed lol
I know Undercover Boss is the more obvious reference, but I think Mom-Swap Rules would bring about more significant organizational change. Also I think it’s important that creatives get some insight into the toils their bosses face! Not all champagne problems, I suspect