The New Mainstream Podcast

Why more experience doesn't always mean more skills, and how artificial intelligence can help us challenge hiring biases. What happens when the candidate who demonstrates the strongest skills doesn't get the job? In a new episode of The New Mainstream Podcast , ThinkNow Co-Founder Mario Carrasco speaks with Trent Cotton, Head of Talent Insights and Analyst Relations at iCIMS , about how da...

Being data-driven doesn't mean being bias-free. In a recent episode of The New Mainstream Podcast, ThinkNow Co-Founder and host Mario Carrasco spoke with Tim Turner, Director of Insights and Analytics at Thresholds, about a growing concern in the age of artificial intelligence: AIsystems may be reproducing the same historical inequalities embedded in the data used to train them. When Data Refl...

Ann Poulose of Epsilon explores cultural complexity, media fragmentation, artificial intelligence, and the human connections reshaping marketing. In a new episode of The New Mainstream Podcast , Mario Carrasco, Co-Founder of ThinkNow , sits down with Ann Poulose, Director of Growth Operations and Multicultural Media at Epsilon , to discuss the evolution of multiculturalmarketing and what brands ne...

In a recent conversation on The New Mainstream Podcast , ThinkNow Co-Founder Mario Carrasco sat down with Matt Lawler, VP of Data & Insights, Global Partnerships at AEG , to talk about fandom, live entertainment, data and the changing ways brands understand audiences. One idea stood out: Knowing someone’s demographic profile doesn’t necessarily tell you what will move them. A demographic label...

The United States spent $5.3 trillion on healthcare in 2024 , approximately $15,474 per person . Healthcare spending represented nearly 18% of the entire U.S. economy . With a figure of this magnitude, one question is hard to ignore: what are we getting in return? This was one of the central questions in the conversation between Mario Carrasco and Aaron Fields, MHA, ACC, on The New Mainstream Podc...

This is part of what Alejandra Soto, Director of Latino Communications at Planned Parenthood , shared with Mario Carrasco in the latest episode of The New Mainstream Podcast : understanding Latino audiences requires much morethan speaking their language. “Latino consumers” may seem like a clearly defined audience. In reality, it includes people with very different identities, experiences, generati...

AI and Why Human Curiosity Still Wins Artificial intelligence is transforming the market research industry at an unprecedented pace. From survey analysis to synthetic data and predictive modeling, AI is making research faster, more scalable, and increasingly accessible. If AI can analyze data, what becomes the role of the researcher? In the latest episode of The New Mainstream Podcast , Mario Carr...

In an increasingly polarized environment, brands are facing growing pressure to define what they stand for culturally and how they position themselves on social, political, and environmental issues. At the same time, consumer behavior has changed significantly, along with expectations toward the brands people support. This was the central topic of a recent episode of The New Mainstream Podcast, ho...

In the latest episode of The New Mainstream, Mario Xavier Carrasco sits down with Ingrid Otero, President and CEO of Casanova McCann, to discuss how multicultural marketing is evolving and what is shaping brand decision making today. The conversation offers a grounded perspective on the forces influencing the industry. A landscape shaped by strategic adjustments In recent months, several brands ha...

As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, the conversation is shifting from what AI can generate to what it can do. In the latest episode of The New Mainstream Podcast, Michael Nevski joins Mario Xavier Carrasco to explore the next phase of AI: agentic systems and their implications for consumer behavior, payments, and trust. Michael Nevski, Director of Global Insights at Visa, brings a uniq...

In the latest episode of The New Mainstream podcast, we sit down with Patrick Rose, leader of Black Star and cultural marketing at For Soccer , to examine a critical shift in American soccer culture: the rise of Black fandom, thestructural barriers that have limited participation, and the pathways that could redefine the sport’s growth trajectory. This conversation is not just about sports. It is...

The reflections in this article are drawn from the latest episode of The New Mainstream podcast, featuring Michelle O’Grady, Founder and CEO of Team Friday. In the conversation, we explored what the Super Bowl halftime show revealed about culture, risk, and the widening gap between where audiences are and where many brands still feel comfortable operating. Super Bowl LX was not just a sporting mom...

In the latest episode of the ThinkNow podcast, we sat down with Jim Blair, the Assistant Dean Chair of the Faculty and Associate Professor of Marketing at Eastern Kentucky University, to unpack one of the most talked‑about (and often misunderstood) topics in marketing and leadership today: personal branding. In a world where everyone has a platform, Jim challenges the idea that personal branding i...

For years, multicultural marketing was treated as an add on. Something layered onto a broader strategy. But in a country where diversity is now the engine of growth, that approach is no longer enough. In this episode of The New Mainstream Podcast, Mario Carrasco speaks with Arnetta Whiteside, SVP, Multicultural Consulting, Publicis Media at Publicis Groupe, about how brands must rethink culture, r...

In this episode of the podcast, Mario Carrasco sits down with Carlos Guerrero Anderson, a strategic insights leader whose career spans entrepreneurship, healthcare market research, and now patient advocacy within a nonprofit organization. Carlos’s story is a clear example of how insights expertise can move beyond business outcomes and become a force for meaningful social impact. From Latin America...

As brands navigate a fast-changing consumer landscape, one truth has become impossible to ignore: Gen Z is rewriting every rule of multicultural marketing. For years, language served as the primary indicator of culture, especially in Hispanic marketing, but new data from Culture Decoded, a study by ThinkNow and LatiNation, shows that thoseassumptions no longer hold. Spanish as identity marker is d...

Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. It starts with people who build intentional systems to understand human behavior. Data and technology may power today’s marketplace,but empathy is the true differentiator that sets brands apart. Knowing what consumers buy and why, how they use it, what challenges they face, and what makes their experience better lays the foundation for strong product develop...

Foresight is more than predicting what’s next. It’s identifying early signals and linking them to the human behaviors driving change. By studying how people adapt, create, andrespond to their environments, organizations can design strategies and solutions that fulfill future needs while staying grounded in reality. This approach relies on both traditional and unconventional methods, such as interv...

Walk through any major city in the U.S. and you’ll see it. Consumer demographics are shifting. From local shops to national brands, multicultural communities are driving commerce and key economic trends. Yet, while consumers are evolving, many marketing strategies are not. Too often, multicultural audiences remain an afterthought rather than the center of business growth. Brands that succeed in mu...

Storytelling has long been recognized as a powerful way to bridge differences and build empathy across communities. To advance health equity, stories that transform complex medical terms and statistics into human experiences can break down barriers and even save lives. When people hear from survivors or caregivers who share their culture, language, or background, it fosters trust, a crucial stepin...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping society, but with its transformative power comes pressing ethical, cultural, and social questions. The conversation around AI often centers on new capabilities, but equally important are the implications for equity, transparency, and human values. A key concern is the concentration of AI development in a handful of industries, particularly technolo...

Money habits aren’t formed in a vacuum. They’re shaped by the crises we live through, the culture we’re raised in, and the tools we trust to manage our future. Today’s financial landscape is being redefined by generational shifts, cultural influences, and emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence, each impacting how people save, spend, and invest. Gen Z is proving to be more disciplined...

Veterans are undoubtedly our nation’s heroes. They bring with them a set of skills honed through years of service, skills that, if clearly communicated, can achieve the same success in business that they achieved on missions. The key to transferring these skills to civilian roles is breakingdown what was done in a military context into terms that show hiring managers how those capabilities can dri...

As the workforce becomes increasingly diverse—not just in terms of race and ethnicity, but also in education, language, and lived experiences—brands must rethink how they communicate internally. It's not enough to craft a compellingmessage if it isn’t understood, or worse, if no one cares. For communication to be effective, it must be accessible, relevant, and actionable. Employees need to clearly...

People make assumptions. While that may seem like a common character flaw, it can have serious implications on brand perception. When marketers rely on outdated stereotypes and beliefs about the American public, they are ignoring the complex reality in which consumers live. Today’s consumer is far more nuanced than the binary labels imposed upon them, e.g., Democrat vs. Republican. Clinging to bin...