Severin Matusek

Joshua Citarella argues that Gen Z and Millennials used irony as a defense mechanism against late capitalism’s perceived betrayals, from a soaring cost of living to the increasingly precarious nature of labor. “Irony as culture became: ‘The band I like will sell out, so I’ll buy-in early.’ Irony as politics became: ‘Movements get corrupted, so I’ll... See more

In 2024, an online experiment with 36 ChatGPT users found that use of AI can expand how many creative ideas an individual user has, but at a group level, “users tended to produce less semantically distinct ideas”. That same year, another study reached similar results; this time it was a group of short-story writers who each managed to independently... See more

If you look at any one Substack newsletter in comparison to its peers, it does appear banal and repetitive. But they are not experienced as a landscape; they are experienced individually. Each one is its own tiny world.

Creator platforms algorithmically incentivize us to create at the pace Wall Street and the market demand. This is why we’re pushed to create more and more. Not because our audiences are asking for it. Not because the world needs more of what we have to say. Because we as artists, the platforms, and their investors desire, to varying degrees,... See more

Meme coins use visual and rhetorical cues like humor, irony, and absurdist lore to position themselves as accessible antidotes to traditional financial systems. They commodify our collective desire for economic empowerment, emotional gratification, and social belonging. It could be said that meme coins aestheticize financialization itself, using... See more

In this podcast Michael Pollan expands on his understanding of "spirituality" as a universal feeling of connectedness.