THAT BUSINESS OF MEANING Podcast

Arielle Jackson is the Marketing Expert in Residence at First Round Capital, where she advises early-stage startups on brand and positioning. She previously led product marketing at Google, launched hardware at Square, and headed marketing and communications at Cover, a mobile startup acquired by Twitter. I start all these conversations with the same question, which I borrowed from a friend of min...

George Nguyen is the founder of Untapped , a youth culture research and brand consultancy in Brooklyn. Through participatory research he has helped companies like McDonald’s, Nike, Jordan Brand, Gatorade, and HBO uncover insights from Gen Z consumers. Early in his career he held senior strategy roles at R/GA, Translation, and Saatchi & Saatchi. So I start all my conversations with the same questio...

Joe Burns is a Strategy Lead at Quality Meats Creative in Brooklyn, New York. Previously, he was Head of Strategy at BBH USA and Head of Communications Strategy at Mother. I start all my conversations with the same question, which I borrowed from this friend of mine. She helps people tell their story. And I haven't really found a better question for sort of starting a conversation out of nowhere....

Martin Karaffa is a brand strategist based in Munich. He works with The Culture Factor Group since 2018. Before that, he was a Global Planning Director at BBDO and JWT where he worked on Mercedes-Benz, Unilever, and BMW. Martin helps big companies understand how cultural differences affect their brands around the world. He also worked as an Intercultural Communications Training Consultant for the...

Peter Trachtenberg is an author of memoirs, essays, and literary nonfiction who lives across the river in Catskill. He has taught writing at Bennington and Pitt, and has a newsletter: Not Dark Yet . His books include 7 Tattoos , The Book of Calamities , Another Insane Devotion , and The Twilight of Bohemia: Westbeth and the Last Artists in New York . I start all these conversations with the same q...

Michelle Mattar is the founder of brand building firm Practice . Prior to founding Practice, she served as Creative Director at Ritual, and worked as a Designer at Red Antler. Her work has been featured in Fast Company's Innovation by Design awards and Monotype's Type Trends. So I start all these conversations with the same question, which is a question I borrowed from a friend of mine. She helps...

Chris Lindland is a creative founder and entrepreneur. He built Betabrand , a crowdsourced fashion company that grew to $300M , launching products like Dress Pant Yoga Pants . Now, he leads OWOW.ai , an AI-driven entertainment platform. An Adweek Top 100 Creative , he focuses on technology, storytelling, and social engagement to drive business success​. So, I start all of these conversations the s...

Dr. Niobe Way is a Professor of Developmental Psychology at NYU, the founder of the Project for the Advancement of Our Common Humanity , co-founder of agapi.teens, and the principal investigator on the Listening with Curiosity Project . She is a leading researcher on adolescent development, with a particular focus on boys' social and emotional lives. Her groundbreaking books include " Deep Secrets...

Russell Davies is a writer and strategist. He's worked on communications and digital strategies for organizations like Honda, Nike, Microsoft, Apple, the Government Digital Service and the Co-op. He's currently Marketing and Product Director for The Modern House . He is the author of Everything I Know About Life I Learned From Powerpoint , DO Interestingness , among others. All right, Russell, tha...

Carina Bhavnani is a brand strategist and marketing leader, currently Director of Brand & Marketing at Sonder Inc. She previously held roles at Uber, TripActions, and Exposure Therapy. With expertise in brand, strategy, and operations, she holds a finance and accounting degree from Western University. So I start all my conversations with the same question, which I borrow steal stole from a friend...

Jesse Caesar is a qualitative market research expert and brand strategist in Brooklyn. He previously worked at Open Mind Strategy, Firefly Millward Brown, and boutique branding agencies. With a psychology and anthropology background from UC Berkeley, his approach emphasizes storytelling, empathy, and creativity to uncover consumer motivations. I first discovered Jesse through this great article, “...

Sam McNerney is a survey designer and researcher in Brooklyn. We met ages ago because, to me, he was an odd quant guy with a qualitative soul. (And, it turns out, he’d written some articles I’d referred to over and over about embodied cognition.) He’s designed surveys for Fortune 500 companies like Walmart, P&G, and Citibank, conducted over 400 studies with 100k+ respondents, published in Scientif...

Angie Meltsner is a mixed methods researcher and founder of Tomato Baby , where she helps brands decode shifting cultural narratives and consumer behaviors. She has held roles at Blink UX, DraftKings, The Wall Street Journal, Digitas, and Comscore, blending qualitative and quantitative methods to uncover strategic insights. I feel like I’ve been doing this long enough that people might anticipate...

Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm is Professor of Religion and Chair of Science & Technology Studies at Williams College, and the author of “ Metamodernism: The Future of Theory .” This is the first time I’ve done a second interview - and it is because I want desperately to understand what he means when he say Metamodern. This is the second of two interviews. The first is “ Myth & Metamodernism ” All r...

Zach Lamb is a Principal Brand Strategist at Concept Bureau, with previous roles at Martin Williams, and Colle McVoy. He holds an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Chicago and B.A. degrees in Economics and Anthropology from St. Cloud State University. He lives in Minneapolis, and is wintering in Florida. So I start all these conversations with the same question, which I borrowed from a frie...

Jean-Louis Rawlence is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Concept Bureau , a brand strategy agency, and co-founder of Exposure Therapy , a community platform for strategists. He also co-hosts Hopepunk - the podcast about informed optimism. I met Jean-Louis many years ago, and we have stayed in touch over the years. I have enjoyed being a part of the growing community he and Jasmine have...

Eliot Aronow is a former GQ columnist, fashion editor, and music industry innovator, he is the world’s first Spiritual Creative Director™ and founder of minor genius , blending creative vision, spiritual leadership, and business strategy. Thank you so much for accepting my invitation. Happy to be here. So I start all of my conversations with the same question, which is a question I borrow from a f...

Beth Bentley is a brand strategist with 20 years' experience advising major brands. She founded Tomorrowism consultancy after serving as Chief Strategy Officer at Portas, SVP Strategy at VICE Media's VIRTUE, and Executive Head of Strategy at Wieden + Kennedy, where she led work for Nike and Honda. Her Substack Pattern Recognition is amazing. So I have a question. I start all of my conversations wi...

Alkisit Stolp is the cofounder & Chief Brand Officer of twentyrising in Berlin. Previously she held senior roles at Wunderman Thompson, Media. Monks, and VML. We first connected when they just opened their doors, through this newsletter, so I was excited catch up. Nice. So I start all these conversations the same way with this question that I borrowed from a friend of mine. She's a neighbor. She h...

Reid Litman is a consultant, writer, & researcher and Global Consulting Director at Ogilvy in New York City. He has led transformative projects for global brands like Google, Nike, and Coca-Cola. So, you might know this, I'm not sure, but I always start every conversation with the same question, which is a question I borrowed from a friend of mine. She helps people tell their stories and I borrow...

Philip Lindsay is the Democracy Innovations Program Manager at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College . At the Hannah Arendt Center, Lindsay leads the Democracy Innovation Hub, where he conducts workshops for public servants and educators. He has been involved in initiatives like citizens’ assemblies , which aim to foster collaborative democracy by involving everyday...

Michael Erard is a linguist and author based in the Netherlands. His book “ Bye Bye I Love You: The Story of Our First and Last Words ” is out now. He served as writer-in-residence at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and worked as a metaphor designer at the FrameWorks Institute. His books " Babel No More " and " Um... " explore language learning and verbal mistakes. So I have a quest...

Jay Hasbrouck is a senior staff researcher on the ads team at Google, previously holding Pathfinder roles at both Google and Meta. He's the author of " Ethnographic Thinking: From Method to Mindset .” He specializes in applying ethnographic methods to drive innovation and strategic direction for companies, non-profits, and government agencies. His work bridges academic anthropology with practical...

In my town of Hudson, I have been advocating for new forms of civic engagement for a while. It’s a long story, but the short version is this : our small city struggles to do what it needs to do, and the spaces we have for having conversations about what to do next weren’t built for the social media age. It was clear to me, early, that we would need new spaces custom built and strong enough to hold...

Maggie Garner is the co-founder of Waterson Garner . She started her career at P&G in what she called the golden years where the consumer was boss, and qualitative was well-resourced. I met her through the Exposure Therapy community, where she shared her approach to radical listening. Yeah, so I start all my conversations with the same question, which I borrowed from this friend of mine. She teach...