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. IG: @sideprojects__YouTube: @SideProjectsPodcastSubstack: https://sideprojectsco.substack.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Phyllis Kao is a senior auctioneer at Sotheby’s. You might’ve recently seen clips of her taking bids for a 67-million-year-old T-Rex named Gus, which sold for a whopping $50.1 million to an unnamed buyer. Being an auctioneer (auctioneering is not a verb) has always sat at the intersection of performance and expertise. And in the attention economy, Kao has displayed a knack for both in a way that’s helped the 18th century institution navigate the modern media ecosystem while also attracting a younger audience of bidders. We talk with Phyllis about how auctions have evolved with the rise of social media, her thoughts on celeb-backed auction houses like Pharrell’s JOOPITER, why there’s such high demand for brand archives in the age of AI, the lost art of expertise, and more. IG: @sideprojects__YouTube: @SideProjectsPodcastSubstack: https://sideprojectsco.substack.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brands have rightly diagnosed a desire for connection and romance, hosting “mixers,” posting personals, and even producing dating shows on social. But what role should they really be playing as matchmakers? We wanted to hear from someone with a real pulse on the dating scene and hit up Amy Rose Spiegel, a senior editor at The Cut and author of the publication's Personals newsletter to come on the pod. We talk about why she doesn’t buy into the stereotype that Gen Z aren’t having sex, dating narrative bias in media, why you should never use AI for dating, how romantasy has shifted the way some people are dating, and if people are tired of brands mediating their love life. IG: @sideprojects__YouTube: @SideProjectsPodcastSubstack: https://sideprojectsco.substack.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eli and Clara discuss the highs and lows of the World Cup, with an eye toward how brands leveraged big-name talent like Madonna, Messi, the Muppets, and David “the Coca-Cola of humans” Beckham. Plus: our thoughts on the FIFA Peace Prize, Hidden Valley Ranch, Erling Haaland’s vlog, and (unexpectedly) Kamala Harris. IG: @sideprojects__YouTube: @SideProjectsPodcastSubstack: https://sideprojectsco.substack.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Clara and Trey sat down with Jalil Johnson—fashion professional, writer, and creator of popular Substack ‘Consider Yourself Cultured’—to talk about the changing role of fashion in culture and the current obsession with taste. They discuss how social media incentivizes reference curation over developing a point of view, “buying the look” instead of learning the ropes, Covid-era style experimentation, the pleasures of delayed gratification via made-to-order clothing, and heat wave styling inspiration. IG: @sideprojects__YouTube: @SideProjectsPodcastSubstack: https://sideprojectsco.substack.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hypnotist and hypnosis instructor Désirée Eckert joins Eli and Clara to talk about the trance states we enter every day (scrolling on our phones for one) and why building our awareness of trance is a useful tool for seeing both how our attention is extracted and how we can reclaim it.We discuss the infinite scroll, quitting cigarettes, prescription drug commercials, The Twilight Zone, hate-reading IG comments, the Folgers jingle, and more examples of how hypnotic inductions and trance states appear in advertising and on our screens. IG: @sideprojects__YouTube: @SideProjectsPodcastSubstack: https://sideprojectsco.substack.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket stretch their tentacles across culture, their advertising has become ubiquitous. Ahead of the World Cup, Kalshi has inked partnerships with a slew of high-profile athletes and football personalities, like José Mourinho and Lionel Messi. Polymarket, for its part, was a marquee sponsor for the UFC 250 fight at the White House earlier this month. They’re also currently under investigation for deceptive marketing practices (something for another podcast). But more recently, a new Polymarket spot, directed by Gabriel Moses featuring Rick Rubin, Future, and Peso Pluma, has caught people’s attention. In this episode, we break down the spot, discussing the deliberate dissonance between the ad and the product, tastewashing, if these people are too hot to be gambling, why tech seems to be the only place where brand marketing is alive, and more. IG: @sideprojects__YouTube: @SideProjectsPodcastSubstack: https://sideprojectsco.substack.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For our second special edition pod, we spoke with Mark Stenberg, Senior Media Reporter at AdWeek, to compare notes on what people are talking about this year: AI FOBO, the proliferation of creators, and the increasingly blurry purpose of the festival itself. We get into why Cannes may be less about new ideas than consensus building, why public panels feel more PR-approved than ever, and data dissonance in the basement of the Palais.  IG: @sideprojects__YouTube: @SideProjectsPodcastSubstack: https://sideprojectsco.substack.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the first of two special edition podcasts this week, recorded on the ground at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity ™️. Today, we’re joined by breakfast aficionado and friend of the show, Ben Dietz. Ben is ½ of the Hip Replacement podcast alongside our friend Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick. Ben is a longtime Cannes attendee, so we pick his brain about how the festival has evolved for better (and worse) over the past decade, why the work matters less and less, Toucan Sam snorting a line of stars, a theory of brands as mammals, the queen of Cannes Sara Fischer, the Pope, Cannes vs. Cannes, and more. IG: @sideprojects__YouTube: @SideProjectsPodcastSubstack: https://sideprojectsco.substack.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An enduring theme of the Knicks’ historic finals run has been squabbling over who and what constitutes “a real fan,” exacerbated by astronomical ticket prices, the intrusion of Kalshi, and the Side Talkification of New York. But what, exactly, is the role of gatekeeping when you want these moments of mass enthusiasm? On the pod this week, we talk about New York after the Knicks’ win, why the gatekeeping discourse is almost as annoying as the kind of “GRWM to watch the Knicks at the White Horse Tavern”-type content, and avoiding a Jesse Plemmons in Civil War-style fandom litmus test.IG: @sideprojects__YouTube: @SideProjectsPodcastSubstack: https://sideprojectsco.substack.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.