Spooky Commerce and Jolene the Doll

The Future Commerce team reflects on their favorite podcast moments from a year of extraordinary conversations. From haunted dolls and architectural rhizomes to debates about capitalism and idealism, these episodes challenged conventional wisdom about how brands influence culture and why efficiency alone won't save us. (Feat. Rory Sutherland, Dami Lee, Andrew McLuhan, Nick Susi, Kunle Campbell, Ana Andjelic.)

Our Year In Cultural Commerce

Key takeaways:

• VISIONS 2025 brought together Dami Lee, Andrew Huang, and more creative pioneers to explore the future of culture through the lens of commerce and its effects on humans
• Spooky Commerce pushed our limits: Jolene the doll elevated spooky season to performance art
• Idealism struggles to scale under capitalism's efficiency demands
• Heritage isn't always precious—sometimes it needs critical interrogation
• Technology transforms humanity whether we contemplate it or not
• Marketing success occurs beyond the attribution window we measure
• Rory Sutherland’s conversation was our most-downloaded episode of 2025, for good reason. 
• "It's really hard to be idealistic in a capitalist society or period." — Brian Lange [00:13:12]
• "We're not measuring other forms of what makes things successful. Are we just letting technologists, efficiency ops and finance run the world? I don't think it leads to the greatest outcome where we're all happiest." — Phillip Jackson on Rory Sutherland's marketing critique [00:36:13]

In-Show Mentions:

• Listen to Dami Lee’s VISIONS presentation on architecture, the structure of our lives, rhizomes, and more.
• Listen to Kunle Campbell’s conversation with Phillip at K:LDN on capitalism vs. idealism and meaning.
• Listen to Ana Andjelic’s episode on the throughline that connects brand culture to operations, merchandise, on-the-ground events, and more.
• Listen to Andrew McLuhan’s 2-hour feature unpacking his grandfather Marshall McLuhan’s predictions and insights on media, technology, and what technological development will do to our future. 
• Listen to Nick Susi’s Halloween special on the true story behind the War of the Worlds mania (and the media war that drove it).
• Listen to Rory Sutherland’s episode on the fat tail of marketing and what cultural shifts marketers of tomorrow should be preparing for.

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

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