Scott Bradlee and Kyla Scanlon: Nostalgia and Nuance (Just Press Record LIVE! at Epsilon Connect)

BE MORE MID. No, seriously. Or at least come listen to this discussion of why the nuance and nostalgia around mid-ness might just save the world. Scott Bradlee is kind of a professional nostalgia pusher.  Postmodern Jukebox has been flipping songs into older styles and genres for multi-generational audiences for over 10 years now. Their tagline is “Todays Hits Yesterday.” It works, in that the band can can sell out rooms all over the world, and - with a cool 6.25 million YouTube followers - they’re well represented in rooms they’re not even physically in too. I’ve always wanted to ask him why he thinks it works as well as it does. It can’t just be Nickelback sounding better as a Motown act. Or can it?  Then there’s Kyla Scanlon. In her new book (reviewed here!) she’s taking her concept of “the uncertainty cake” and applying it across economic history.  A quick synopsis of the uncertainty cake idea: If Reality and Expectations are the outer layers of the cake, then the middle connective filling can be described as Theory, which covers as much as it can, but is boringly unpoetic until you add the secret ingredient to every great recipe, love VIBES. As an educator and commentator, on not just the economy, but markets and culture at the largest scales, Kyla Scanlon is kind of a professional nuance pusher. Where else but Just Press Record are you going to get professional nostalgia pushing Scott Bradlee and professional nuance pushing Kyla Scanlon on stage, in conversation, comparing and contrasting the details of each other’s work? We talked about: How nostalgia works in cycles Reboot culture vs. remix culture What happens when the past becomes more unpredictable than the future How to look back without being “period-correct” (and why that fresh insight can work) The role community plays in experiencing art (and everything, really) Why it’s so hard, and so so so important to BE MORE MID Why compressing time and giving access to damn near everything ever is a form of risk mitigation that might not be helping humanity these days And so much more. I mean, Chumbawamba even gets a shoutout in here. You couldn’t possibly imagine a more diverse 40-minute conference talk than this. Maybe you missed it at Epsilon Connect, but Cultish Creative on YouTube is here for you now. Be sure to like, subscribe, follow, share, and all the social media things, but more than anything, please (watch and) LISTEN. These ideas are profound. Scott and Kyla are so articulate, and they’re such deep thinkers, spending this time with them - it brought me so much joy. I’m so excited to share it with you here and now: But wait, there’s more! Well, more thank you’s. Extra special thanks to Ben Hunt, Rusty Guinn, Harper, Alex, Rafa, and everybody else who put Epsilon Connect 2024 together. You all, with FABLE (The Foundation for Applied Bio Linguistic Exploration) and Vanderbilt too, created the space for conversations like this to happen in public. Incredible. Extra extra special shoutouts to Steve Ujfalussy at Pinnacle Creative Productions and Jack Forehand for their production wizardry too! Can’t wait to share some more of the footage you helped capture and curate.