Crack It In An Hour

Most of us know we should drink more water… and yet here we are. On this episode, Simon brings a deceptively simple problem to the table: why don’t people drink enough water? With nearly half of Americans falling short and around 30% walking around dehydrated, the gang (Biz, Jesse, Romain, and Simon) dig into why awareness hasn’t translated into action. From the rise of Stanley cups to the limits...

Landlines are dead…but what would it take to bring them back? In this episode, Biz joins Jesse, Simon, and Romain as they discuss how we could bring one of the more recent forgotten pieces of technology back into our lives. What starts as a conversation about reducing screen time quickly turns into a bigger debate about purpose, nostalgia, and whether has just moved past communal technology. Could...

Every January, we promise ourselves change. Eat better. Move more. Finally become the person we swore we’d be last year. And then… most resolutions quietly die by February. In this episode, Simon brings a question he’s been circling with Romain and Jesse: how do we actually help people stick to their New Year’s resolutions? The group digs into the role resolutions are supposed to play, why they so...

“Value” has always been one of QSR’s biggest weapons. Cheap, fast, dependable. But what happens when rising food costs start chipping away at the very thing that made QSR… well, QSR? In this episode, Jesse, Romain, and Simon dig into the future of quick service restaurants and ask a deceptively simple question: are value customers actually your most valuable customers anymore? From redefining what...

It’s the Holiday Special, which means normal rules do not apply. In this episode Jesse, Simon, and Romain crack open five past topics — Aging, Sleep, Dating, Tennis, and College — to see what they got right, what they got wrong, and what new takes have emerged after letting these ideas sit for a while. Some opinions have evolved, some have hardened, and a few get completely re-litigated. It’s refl...

The American mall didn’t die overnight—it slowly lost its reason to exist. In this episode, Jesse, Simon, and Romain unpack how overbuilding, e-commerce, cultural shifts, and the loss of hangout spaces like record stores hollowed malls out. Then they flip the question forward: what should a mall be in a world where online shopping is permanent? From experiential brands to fandom-driven spaces and...

Why do some people leap while others freeze? In this episode, Romain, Jesse and Simon team up with French entrepreneur Alix Petit , founder of Heimstone, Creative Director of The Refreshment Club and the mind behind the Substack WHAT COMES AFTER . Together they unpack the psychology of making big choices, what failure really means, how physical well-being fuels mental courage, and the reasons peop...

Drinking isn’t down because indulgence is down — it’s down because the entire culture around it is cracking. In this episode, Jesse, Simon and Romain tackle the decline of drinking as a social experience and ask what it would take to revive it. Are bars worse now? Is the rise of remote work, wellness trends, and “protecting your peace” killing the collective joy of being a little buzzed together?...

Social used to be… social. Remember that? Before everything became an ad, a performance, or a perfectly-filtered version of life? In this episode, Biz sits down with Jesse, Romain and Simon to figure out what it would actually take to make social media feel personal again. From whether Instagram introduced “the aesthetic era,” to the rise of finstas and close friends, the gang digs into how we wen...

The written word is pretty powerful. Some people may complain about the time it takes or the process of, but maybe that's entirely the point. In this episode the gang discusses the idea of writing letters and the secret power of them, trying to figure out how we get people to see the value and participate in writing more of them. Did we crack it? Check it out.

Driving used to be a right of passage, a symbolic moment of attaining a new level of freedom on your journey towards adulthood. But things are changing, fewer young people are getting their licenses and fewer people are driving in general. With the rise of rideshare and other services it's never been easier to get by without having to drive, so how do you sell people on the idea of driving when fr...

Travel used to be about discovery, or relaxation or adventure. But lately the process of travel has started to feel like a hassle that gets in the way of the enjoyment of the process. We've been given more freedom to go more places and stay in anything from hotels to homes which is great... but forces us to be alot more active in the decision making of it all. Throw in social media, and other mode...

Candy corn. The words alone typically spark a big reaction either positive or negative, but the story goes deeper than that. While the candy industry is flourishing, candy corn is lagging. So what would it take to help candy corn make a comeback? In this one the gang goes deep on candy corn and the candy industry as a whole. It's a subject near and dear to a whole bunch of us. Check it out!

Tupperware. Some people remember it as THE reusable storage brand...others simply know it as a name for reusable storage but didn't know it was an actual company. But recently, the company has been given new life with outside investment. In this episode, Romain, Biz, and Simon dig into how they could make Tupperware bigger than ever again. It's a fun one where our ages really kinda sorta show.

Everyone says dating has never been easier...apps, algorithms, endless choice. But if that’s true, why does it feel so hard, so awkward, so… miserable? In this episode, Jesse and Romain dig into the modern dating paradox with guest Sarah Jenkins, Head of Creative Brand Initiatives at Grindr. From swipe fatigue to the illusion of abundance, to what love even means when everything is optimized, we a...

I scream, you scream we all scream for ice cream...well we used to scream a lot more. It turns out ice cream has actually been on the decline for a while, peaking in the 2000s before beginning its steady drop for the last two decades. How can that be? Is it societal? Is it competition from other sweet treats? Changing tastes? In this episode the gang gets into how to start the great ice cream resu...

Small talk might seem like, well, a small thing but did you know that small talk has been proven to boost mood, make people more receptive to outside opinions and change people's perception of the world? It's all true! So what if small talk was actually the tiny, little secret to helping us get back to a more cohesive, happy society? In this episode the crew breaks down how to bring small talk bac...

Humans are a paradox. A collection of wants and needs that run directly into each other and make no sense. In this episode we dive directly into one of those paradoxes. While most of us want for nice things, we also often want to be seen as unpretentious and unbothered. Why is that? is it because we're worried as being a person who likes nice things and what it says about us? Is it something deepe...

Tennis is in an interesting situation. For all intents and purposes the sport itself is doing well. People continue to play it and engage with its biggest tournaments. But when you look a level deeper there's the whiff of an existential threat thanks to the growth velocity of pickleball. While tennis is growing, pickleball is exploding. Now tennis players are seeing their courts get swallowed up a...

The Algorithmic Aesthetic. It's a thing that has gone beyond your social feed to inform just about everything. The long and short of it is that in a world where content is optimized for an algorithm, eventually everything starts to look like what would work best for the algorithm. It sounds like science fiction but we're in the middle of living it. In this episode Simon and Jesse are joined by Chr...

Only 30% of families eat dinner together, 46% of all U.S. meals are eaten alone. Besides just being a little sad, there are bigger reasons why this is a problem. Communal eating has massive positive effects from dietary to emotional. In fact it is just as predictive of life satisfaction as things like job status or income. So what's stopping us from breaking bread together and how do we fix it? Gi...

When you think of Miami do you think of South Beach, cruises and cocaine or do you think about a growing and dynamic business capital with an enticing lifestyle for just about anyone and any interest? Well if you thought more of the former you're not alone. In this episode Romain pounds the table for one of his favorite American cities and helping to reflect the truth of the city and fight back th...

Most people don't see the doctor enough. Both when they DEFINITELY SHOULD and when they have their scheduled annual check ups and such. Sooooo why is that? Is it fear of bad news? Is it the experience itself? Is it how much of a chore it has become? Those are all fair reasons. In this episode Romain, Jesse and Simon get into trying to make the act of going to see the doctor more enticing. Did they...

Once upon a time, phone calls were spontaneous, joyful, and the heartbeat of our social lives. Now? They’re either scheduled like a dentist appointment or dodged entirely. In this episode, Jesse, Romain, and special guest Dany Lennon dig into the disappearance of meaningful, impromptu conversations. From the slow death of the dinner table chat to why “Can I call you?” has become a mandatory pre-ca...

Only 1 in 10 adults eat the amount of veggies they're supposed to. And over the last decade vegetable consumption keeps dropping. So what's the deal? In this episode the group comes together to try and get the world to start eating more vegetables. It's a good one filled with rational arguments as well as irrational ones to convince people to start eating more veggies. Check it out!