“The most important room in America might not have four walls... it might not even be a room.” For decades, we relied on third places (those in-between spaces like coffee shops, libraries, diners, and bookstores) to casually connect, decompress, and belong. But somewhere

Somehow, Battlefront II returned... and with it, a massive cultural moment worth paying attention to. In May 2025, Star Wars Battlefront II—an 8-year-old game with no new updates—surged back into the spotlight. Nearly 8,000 concurrent players. Top 25 on Xbox. Full lobbies. Zero

As Gen Z navigates a turbulent economic landscape, brands face new challenges in understanding and engaging with this generation. McKinsey's latest insights reveal that young consumers are embracing escapist aesthetics and chaotic spending as coping mechanisms amidst economic

AI is Redefining the Future of Work As AI continues to evolve, it’s reshaping the job market in profound ways. From AI-driven automation of entry-level roles to the rise of new positions in AI management and data science, the workforce is undergoing a radical transformation.

🎶 The Cultural Remix We’re Living In 🎶 In the past week, we’ve said goodbye to two giants: Brian Wilson and Sly Stone. Their impact on music can’t be overstated. But as I reflect (both as a music lover and as someone who studies culture for a living), their passing is a lens

🚨 Most brands are flying blind. Not metaphorically. Literally. They’re making million-dollar bets without seeing where culture is headed. Tracking clicks instead of context. Reading last quarter’s reports while tomorrow’s consumers are already two trends ahead. If you’re

CPG folks, let’s talk about the real cost of not knowing. You ever walk down the aisle and see a product so out-of-touch it feels like it time-traveled from 2013? That’s not just a creative misfire. That’s a multi-million-dollar mistake in motion. 25% of new SKUs fail in year

Culture isn’t a vibe. It’s a strategy. And most brands are still treating it like background noise. 👉Culture-first brands grow revenue 10.2% faster than the rest. 👉Cultural fluency drives 46% higher purchase intent. 👉Most innovation fails not from bad ideas—but from

Food prices are up. SNAP is down. Consumers are squeezed. If you lead insights in food, beverage, QSR, or CPG, the “Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t just a policy headline. It’s a cultural inflection point. Behind the tax cuts and budget shifts is a deeper story: How Americans eat is

What if beauty culture isn’t just evolving, it’s whispering, and only the culturally tuned-in can hear it? We just dropped the latest from our Culture Pulse, and here’s the TL;DR: ✔ Clean Girl isn’t a fleeting aesthetic. It’s a wellness-coded rebellion against

Your emulsifiers just became a brand risk. Gut health culture has moved from fringe to front page. And it's taking your thickeners and stabilizers with it. Policymakers are tightening FDA rules. Consumers are calling out xanthan, guar, and carrageenan on TikTok. And the GRAS

Migraine care is having its magnesium moment, and millennials are rewriting the playbook. Gone are the “pop a pill when it hurts” days. Today’s sufferers are stacking magnesium, B-2, and whole-body rituals… and they are doing it long before your ad campaign ever runs. In my

Nutrition-Per-Dollar is the new KPI of everyday life. Shoppers are quoting cost-per-protein like traders quote crude oil futures. Dinner has become an asset class. Here are the hot signals cooking right now: 1️⃣ Protein math rules the aisle. “$1 = 20 g” calculators are showing

We’re swimming in dashboards, predictive models, and GPT-generated everything. Yet most insight stacks still miss the subtle hum of real-world conversations—the chatter that turns “just another ingredient” into a boycott or a billion-dollar opportunity. I unpack this in my

Hot take: your brand doesn’t need more trends. It needs a pipeline. I wrote a new article: “Stop Chasing Every Meme: Build a Pipeline from Fast to Slow Culture.” It’s a practical system for CPG, retail, and QSR teams who want less whiplash and more repeatable wins. Here’s the

Masculinity is having a cultural identity crisis. Not in the “buy a sports car and grow a goatee” way but in a deeper, more complicated way that’s reshaping everything from politics to parenting to product choices. At Nichefire, we call this shift Masculinity in the Middle.

What has the world come to? "Skibidi" is now a word in the dictionary. And I wrote a history lesson around the word for you all. Yes, Cambridge Dictionary just added skibidi alongside words like “mouse jiggler” and “forever chemical.” What started as a Russian rave track,