#709 | Indexing Culture, Tasting Design & Meme Manifestos 👀

We’re keeping things moving this month, with a focus on sport, beauty, AI and wellbeing — all of which you might have spotted in our Weekly Supplements —as well as our usual tasty selection of signals and obsessions running alongside.

Enjoy x

SIGNALS

• Summer is here and so this Soul Sugar Joint playlist 🌞
• We’re loving Library Stack and it’s mission to replicate traditional library methods for collecting, indexing, preserving, and sharing digital content.
• Modern politics and the liar’s dividend.
• Open Foresight Hub is everything a futurehead needs - a library of reports, evolving futures summaries, and a comprehensive foresight encyclopaedia. You’re welcome.
• Can you taste design?
• Katharina Korbjuhn of Paradigm Trilogy on cultural critique fatigue and the power of personal narratives via a 25 minute unpausable short film. You can read our exploration of it here.
• Sharing this in case you missed it 🤯
• We’re all for #IRL Revolution, a parent-led movement to give teenagers a real-life alternative to their screens.
• How MSCHF turns irreverent ideas into real businesses.
• Aimé Leon Dore fuses streetwear, sustainability and inclusivity with classic golf gear.
• Have marathons became the new fashion weeks?
• As explored by Patter, running hubs are becoming vibrant neighbourhood spaces, building community and transforming the urban running culture.
• Is everything now merch?
• Are we entering the post-post-truth era?
• This months reading recommendation is poet Hussain Manawer’s new book I Wanted to Quit Too.
• AI and the importance of cultural curators.
• SkinDeep by Studio.Halia explores how our digital and physical identities merge
• Dirt asks how much would you sell out for?
• The MemeManifesto is everything you expect it to be and a whole lot more.
• Laura Feinstein highlights the innovations that are shaping the future of beauty, from AI-enhanced make-up to robot-powered nail art.
• Dougald Hind on doing the internet right.
• Pioneer Works on the hidden consequences of America's reliance on Adderall, revealing how its widespread use is altering our culture and health.
• Highsnobiety's Overshare series on how social media is both a help and a hinderance to your mental health.
• Is 2:42 the perfect length for a song? (From 2008, but still relevant 😉)
• Jessica Lucas investigates the increasing trend of teenagers using AI chatbots as friends and therapists, and the implications for their social development and mental health.
• Finally, our Weekly Supplement explores how running has evolved from a solitary sport into a dynamic cultural force, influencing how we interact with our surroundings, and with each other.

OBSESSIONS

We asked some of the Protein Agency team what they can’t stop thinking about:

• Our Project Manager, Phoebe, is passionate about closing the gender gap and empowering women to improve their financial wellbeing through Your Juno and Female Invest, reconnecting with her Irish roots via Seanchoiche, and vibing to Baby Rose's soulful EP, 'Slow Burn'.
• Our Creative Strategist Saoirse is obsessed with Charli XCX's chronically online music video for her single, '360', Trinity College Cambridge's actions to divest from all arms companies and how AI-generated music is influencing the Drake x Kendrick Lamar beef.
• Our Head of Creative Eric is deep into the hard-hitting political discussions on Tim Miller's ‘The Bulwark’ Podcast, the thought-provoking analyses by F.D Signifier on YouTube, and the hauntingly expansive sounds of Mach-Hommy’s album '#RICHAXXHAITIAN'.

If you’d like to be featured here, we’d love to hear from you …