Tasteland
Creative takes on media, marketing and technology from Daisy Alioto and Francis Zierer. Daisy is the CEO of Dirt Media, a next-generation entertainment brand using emerging technology to tell the coolest stories about culture and collecting. Francis is the editor of Creator Spotlight, a weekly newsletter about creators across the world of newsletters.New episodes every Wednesday.
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Ep. 66: War of the worlds ft. Nick Susi
<p>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.</p><p>__</p><p>Nick Susi</p>WebsiteSubstackLinkedInInstagramTwitter/X<p>__</p><p>Timestamps</p><p>00:00 Creators are consumers of the self</p><p>07:51 Posts are the cheetle of your identity</p><p>15:19 Presence in marketing</p><p>17:11 Start a war, create a monoculture</p><p>29:16 Building trust vs capturing attention</p><p>36:59 How myths shape modern media and technology</p><p>45:25 Separating the technology for the myth<...
Ep. 65: Run club ft. Cole Townsend
<p>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.</p><p>__</p><p>Cole</p>WebsiteSole RetrieverLinkedInX/Twitter<p>__</p><p>Timestamps</p><p>00:00 Jury duty</p><p>06:54 Post Tokyo crash</p><p>17:20 Every app is a marketplace or dating app</p><p>24:49 Running is becoming lifestyle</p><p>29:53 Crewing an ultramarathon</p><p>34:12 Performance culture</p><p>37:17 Founding Sole Retriever</p><p>43:36 Never had a New Balance</p><p>50:20 Moth tech<...
Ep. 64: Radical legibility ft. Claire Landsbaum
<p>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.</p><p>__</p><p>Claire</p>WebsiteHighSnobietyLinkedInInstagramX/Twitter<p>__</p><p>Timestamps</p><p>00:00 Show and tell</p><p>09:02 The bowling alley is the new afterparty</p><p>11:27 Writing for magazines</p><p>15:06 Finding journalistic honesty</p><p>19:03 Fake adult in Berlin</p><p>26:53 Are Veronika and Kyle for real?</p><p>32:40 I saw this tweet</p><p>37:08 Can The Daily Beast be saved?<...
Ep. 63: Load-bearing leisure ft. Jose Mejia
<p>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.</p><p>__</p><p>Jose Mejia</p>SICX/TwitterLinkedIn<p>__</p><p>Timestamps</p><p>00:00 Intro</p><p>01:42 Stress-induced tramp stamp</p><p>04:07 Zero-slop pop-up gets pwned</p><p>10:44 Daisy bullies Chat-GPT, again</p><p>13:16 Addison Rae Iconic Magazine scene report</p><p>15:10 Wild soda flavor combos</p><p>17:45 Shopify for the experience economy</p><p>21:31 World Cup 2026 ticket prices</p><p>26:17 The endgame of the attention economy</p><p>33:38 The decline of...
Ep. 62: Soy, sourdough, subscriptions
<p>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.</p><p>__</p><p>Timestamps</p><p>00:00 Sourdough fatherhood</p><p>01:43 Venture agriculturalism</p><p>05:34 Soybean political own goal</p><p>10:06 All media is marketing</p><p>15:40 Not all media is marketing</p><p>22:37 Retiring the op-ed</p><p>27:46 The future of micropayments and paywalls</p><p>35:27 Distasteland</p><p>38:11 Nostalgic scent of manure</p><p>39:33 AGI is coming, go to party school</p><p>42:04...
Ep. 61: First day of school ft. Casey Lewis
<p>This week Daisy and Francis are joined by Casey Lewis, founder of the After School newsletter and Gen Z consumer trends expert. Casey has been an editor at Teen Vogue, MTV, and New York Magazine, and in 2016, she started a media company for Gen Z, which was acquired by another media company for Gen Z.</p><p>__</p><p>Casey</p>After School NewsletterInstagramLinkedInTikTok<p>__</p><p>Links & References</p>A Taste of Thomas Bernhard<p>__</p><p>Timestamps</p><p>00:00 Thomas Bernhard renaissance</p><p>05:25 Double dogs and doubled subs</p><p>08:00 Gen alpha are the marketing generation<...
Ep. 60: Class and collection ft. Dani Loftus
<p>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.</p><p>__</p><p>Dani</p>SubstackInstagramLinkedInX/Twitter<p>__</p><p>Timestamps</p><p>00:00 Introducing Dani</p><p>01:00 Gimmicky martini epidemic</p><p>05:10 The return the hipsterdom</p><p>17:27 Happy victims</p><p>20:28 Fashion is fine...
Ep. 59: The business of books ft. Andy Hunter of Bookshop.org
<p>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.</p><p>__</p><p>Bookshop</p>WebsiteInstagramBlueskyAndy's LinkedIn<p>__</p><p>Timestamps</p><p>00:00 Introducing Andy and Bookshop</p><p>02:08 Press Publish NYC</p><p>06:26 Introducing e-books on Bookshop</p><p>08:00 Aligning against big tech</p><p>11:36 Best performing genres on Bookshop</p><p>14:12 The catalyst for Bookshop's impressive growth</p><p>15:52 Rejecting investment to maintain the company's mission</p><p>19:51 Support bookstores, not billionaires</p><p>28:03 Innovating the e-reader<...
Ep. 58: Generational luxury ft. Ben Dietz
<p>This week Daisy and Francis are joined by Ben Dietz, a long-time media/entertainment business guy.</p><p>__</p><p>Ben</p>SubstackLinkedIn[SIC] Talks Podcast<p>__</p><p>Timstamps</p><p>00:00 Do not disturb</p><p>05:12 No new luxury brands</p><p>11:11 Cybertruck: a future classic</p><p>16:20 Can software be luxury?</p><p>23:23 AI email summaries, with emotion</p><p>30:34 Brand safety is dead</p><p>34:56 Podcasting for the generations</p><p>38:31 Job tenure trends</p><p>47:39 Well-mannered, socialized and curious</p><p>51:13 Psychological foot binding</p><p>54:00 A month of sobriety</p><p>__</p><p>Our...
Ep. 57: Fad World ft. W. David Marx
<p>This week on Tasteland we're joined by W. David Marx, an American fashion and culture writer who works and lives in Tokyo, Japan. He is the author of Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style and Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change.</p><p></p><p>Preorder Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century</p><p>__</p><p>W. David Marx</p>NewsletterTwitter/XInstagram<p>__</p><p>Timestamps</p><p>00:00:00 Subway tastes</p><p>00:02:26 There's no song of the summer</p><p>00:09:05 Skinny pants are never coming...
