Unseen Unknown

33: Body Project

The body is no longer something we simply inhabit. It is becoming something we can read, model, optimize, and increasingly rewrite. Behind the public story of AI, a less

32: Create A Space That Changes People

Most branded spaces are designed to be seen. Meaningful spaces are designed to change how people behave. A special space begins with a threshold, something that separate

31: Rethink Your Personal Brand

Personal branding has an ick factor. It can feel like vanity, performance, or selling off a private part of yourself. But that discomfort often comes from misunderstandin

30: How To Be Professionally Curious

Staying professionally curious sounds simple, but it is one of the hardest disciplines of strategy. It is not about reading more, saving more, scrolling more, or buildin

29: Pruned Futures

Some of our most prominent expectations of the future just died. In this episode, we explore what replaces them. We start with achievement. For decades, culture has been

28: Two Kinds of People

The middle is disappearing. What's left looks like two kinds of people. One group is going all in - AI maximalism, founder mode, the sense that the window is closing and

27: Trust in a Time of Monsters

Trust has always been the invisible architecture beneath brands, institutions, and markets. But today, that architecture is shifting. For the past decade, we’ve moved th

26: How Consumers “Know” Things In Today’s World

From the way we create our identities and manage our health, to the way we employ therapy-speak at work and vote in elections, it’s apparent that people are increasingly

25: Bizarre, Strange and Highly Relatable

In this house episode, we speak with Concept Bureau strategist Rebecca Johnson about the concept of "weirdness" and brands.  All humans are weird, and brands that are wi

24: How to Unlock Your Strategic Mind

What does it mean to be good at thinking? Or more importantly, thinking strategically? Most people answer this question by saying that in order to be good at thinking, y

23: Pain, Sacrifice, and Our New Status Symbols

Brands get lucky once, maybe twice every generation, when the rules of status change and social equity is suddenly up for grabs. Our Concept Bureau Senior Strategist Zach

22: Strong Ties vs. Weak Ties in the Next Era of Brand Innovation

What happens when the world suddenly reconfigures itself around a very different kind of relationship? The last 20 years of social innovation has leaned into weak ties: d

21: The Secret Language of Cult Brands

Cults make effective brands, and today, they’re all around us. We engage with them on some level every day, and cult experiences have come to define so much of who we are

20: Ownership Anxiety, Brand Storytelling, and the Human Condition

Have you ever stopped to think about what ownership means to us as a culture? Many of us see it as an artifact of the legal system or something that’s decided in courts.

19: Systems In Flux: Birth of the New Spiritual Consumer

For the fourth and final episode in our series on Systems In Flux, we’re talking about seemingly new emerging forms of spirituality, and how new spiritual brands are posi

18: Systems In Flux: A Unified Theory of Culture, Branding, and Human Behavior

Every single culture and subculture - from states and governments to user segments and brand tribes - falls along the tight-loose continuum. A culture’s tightness or loos

17: Systems In Flux: Class, Taste and the Modern Aspiration Economy

For the second episode in our series on Systems In Flux, we’re talking about systems of class and taste. In the past 10 years, new brands have emerged, specifically in lu

16: Systems In Flux: The Hidden Divergent Forces Shaping The Next Generation of Brands, Consumers, and Capitalism

Whether it’s brand, behavior, or culture, the more you dig into the systems that affect our lives the closer you’ll come to a conversation about capitalism.  In this hou

15: The Profound Human Connection of Micro-Communities, Participatory Economies and Good Old Customer Service

From the gig economy to the passion economy, changing consumer values are inspiring new brands and business models for creators.  Today we’re seeing the emergence of yet

14: The Radical History of Self-Care & the New World of Wellness Branding

Self-care and wellness are everywhere around us. From cereal boxes to the makeup counter to furniture rental, CBD sticks, mobile apps and coffee - a new mindset about how