Like my jewelry in this video? It's sweat-proof, which is exactly what I need now that my career is pretty much just dunking on the rich and powerful. It's from OXB—feast your eyes on their incredible, show stopping, never been done before selection here: https://bit.ly/3PkZIkd ---- Meet Steph Mui, the founder and CEO of PIN, a startup innovating the venture capital model through community funds. Where Andreessen Horowitz zigs, Steph and PIN zag. Because the incentive model for venture is clearl...
Aug 26, 2022•25 min
Like my jewelry? It's sweat-proof, which is exactly what I need as a profoundly sweaty betch. It's from OXB—feast your eyes on their gorge selection here: https://bit.ly/3PkZIkd Today, you'll hear from Sami Sage, cofounder and chief creative officer of Betches, the digital media brand behind some of your favorite podcasts (like U Up? and The Betchelor and many many more), newsletters, meme pages, and now canned cocktails. We talk about weathering the many storms of digital media this last decade...
Aug 12, 2022•18 min
Presenting: Naomi Shah. Naomi is the CEO and founder of Meet Cute, the storytelling incubator breathing new life into rom-coms. We talk about her founder journey, her ambition to out-Disney Disney, and the challenges and advantages of operating in "modern" media. HEY: Like my jewelry? It's sweat-proof, which is exactly what I need to watch that bathroom scene in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It's from OXB—feast your eyes on their spectacular selection here: https://bit.ly/3PkZIkd 1:01 meet (cute...
Aug 05, 2022•31 min
BUT FIRST: Like my jewelry? It's sweat-proof, which is exactly what I need given the feathers this might ruffle in my hometown. It's from OXB—feast your eyes on their spectacular selection here: https://bit.ly/3PkZIkd You posted the infographic. You made the donation. But now what? What are we to do to fight for a better future in a dystopian present after the overturn of Roe vs. Wade? Rachel Cantor and Ben Allan-Rahill have an idea or two. Welcome to postroe. 00:56 meet the guests 03:11 what is...
Jul 29, 2022•21 min
Last week, I outed myself as a web3 doubter. This week, I'm pushing myself to consider whether I might be...wrong. But first: If you check this video on YouTube you'll see that I'm wearing some very gorgeous dainty gold jewelry. It's sweat-proof, which is exactly what I need when I'm talking about cr*pto. It's from OXB—feast your eyes on their beautiful selection here: https://bit.ly/3PkZIkd Now to the episode: I'm hanging out with Kirby Porter, the founder of New Game Labs and W3 Sports and a f...
Jul 22, 2022•26 min
It's just like my grandpa used to tell me: "If the Twitter bros can't shut up about how much money they're making within the blurry paradigm of a so-called technological revolution, there's probably not much going on there." Today, let's consider the possible reality that web3, the so-called technological revolution du jour, isn't what its evangelists say it is. What if web3 is just a masterclass in over-promise, under-deliver hype tactics? We consider the answer with Ryan Broderick, writer of t...
Jul 15, 2022•37 min
Turns out the pro-immigration and anti-immigration people *do* have one thing in common: neither group has fully considered the biggest element of coming to America—cost. On average, it costs as much as $11,000 to gain full citizenship to the U.S., including green card, application for citizenship, legal fees and payments for processors. So what's to be done? Enter: One Percent for America, a community of lenders, borrowers, and supporters helping to defray the costs of citizenship slowly but su...
Jul 08, 2022•24 min
Maybe...maybe not... (it's maybe not) Today I speak with Em Herrera of Night Ventures (that MrBeast fund) to learn more about: 1. How venture capital survives a recession 2. How creators should cosplay as founders 3. How to spend $20 million Em's a certified superstar genius and we had a blast recording this one. Venture is weird but it doesn't have to be!! Hope you enjoy :) Follow Em here: https://twitter.com/emilyhxrrera And while you're at it... SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER: https://kinsey.beeh...
Jul 01, 2022•28 min
How do you build an erotica company when the odds are systematically stacked against you? You get creative. That was the ethos for Caroline Spiegel, founder and CEO of the audio erotica app Quinn, when she started the company three years back. (Real ones remember Caroline from her appearances on the show way back when—I can't get enough what can I say.) Today, Caroline shares her story, lessons, challenges, and predictions for the future of...ahem...entertainment. 00:45 meet Caroline & Quinn...
Jun 24, 2022•26 min
Reminder as always that this aired first on YouTube! Watch the original video here: https://youtu.be/5Pkb3CtFucM -- Step 1: Recognize that we should have seen this coming. Step 2: Disrupt the monopolistic formula industry. Step 3: Give parents more options. At least according to Laura Katz, food scientist and founder and CEO of Helaina, the company using fermentation to create human milk proteins designed to provide the same health properties of breast milk. Laura's work has, as you might expect...
Jun 02, 2022•26 min
REMINDER: This episode is intended to be consumed in audio-visual format and was originally aired on my YouTube channel. If you'd like to see it as God intended (with funny edits & captions), please watch it here: https://youtu.be/NKX30Br9ZuI ----- What do your most recent ex and the current stock market conditions have in common? They both suck now, but eventually you'll get over it. That's the sitch, according to Kelsey Willock—cofounder and CEO of Aura, a mindful money management platform...
May 27, 2022•25 min
How, exactly, is a social media platform designed to only be used twice per day planning to scale? With the backing of an army of ferocious Gen Z users, it seems. This is BeReal. And it might just be the future of the social web. 00:00 get ready for a killer interview with Casey Lewis of After School 01:07 meet Casey 03:03 what is BeReal and why do the youths love it? 05:47 Gen Z's relationship with social media 10:03 how will BeReal avoid becoming the next HQ Trivia? 17:21 the great copycats of...
May 18, 2022•29 min
REMINDER: THIS EPISODE IS THE AUDIO VERSION OF A YOUTUBE VIDEO—TO SEE THE VISUAL ELEMENTS, SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqkJwR_JacmcQJUrtqv8apQ ----- I won’t sugarcoat it—if you’re an investor of any kind, it’s been a tough month. Things aren’t great. Red as far as the eye can see. Pandemic superstars imploding in historic fashion. Inflation at generational highs. The Fed doing…Fed things. That’s reality, and it’s a stark difference from the way things u...
May 13, 2022•10 min
We are what we post, right? If so...what does it mean to be a feminist in the digital age—when Twitter is the town square and your Instagram feed is your personal credo? I interviewed Kate Lindsay, the writer and reporter behind the internet culture newsletter Embedded, to find out. 4:32 what is online feminism? 9:33 digital coalition building in the future 12:24 inserting nuance into the conversation 16:50 smaller digital villages and the alternative to mass-anything 25:59 Kate's recs While you...
May 12, 2022•29 min
Everyone has a take on the potential overturn of Roe vs. Wade, as they should. Legal action this monumental deserves to be talked about & thought about, publicly and often. But you know who else feels notably missing from the conversation? The corporations that are so eagerly hiring people to be “a part of the family.” To quote my favorite poet, “I’ve never heard silence quite this loud.” So where are the capitalists now that the stakes are higher than ever? Let's think about it. From the la...
May 06, 2022•8 min
Elon Musk is (still) (most likely) buying Twitter, and along with a change in leadership, many are anticipating changes to the platform that was once home to some of the best moments in pop culture history ("Delete your account," anything Nicki Minaj has ever posted, etc.). If some media prognosticators are to be believed, those revolutionary cultural moments are going to be replaced with more vitriol should Twitter take the shape of its new leader, a self-described "free speech absolutist." For...
May 04, 2022•21 min•Season 3Ep. 15
Can Elon Musk make the internet fun again? We might be about to find out…if this doesn’t all go to hell. Elon Musk is buying Twitter, and whether you agree or disagree with his tactics (I won’t make you guess—I disagree), he’s swooping in at a time when Twitter *needs* to change. The platform just isn’t what it used to be. Changes need to happen. But when they do, you can bet your bottom dollar they won’t just affect Twitter and its employees. They’ll affect the entire social web, the infrastruc...
Apr 29, 2022•15 min•Season 3Ep. 14
It’s been two months since Russia invaded Ukraine and the world collectively said ”what the f*ck?” In those two months, we’ve posted countless Instagram infographics, tried to explain to our parents that rising gas prices actually weren’t President Biden’s fault, and attempted to grapple with a real live land war happening in the year of our lord 2022…which also coincidentally happens to be a year during which our attention spans are at an all-time low. So how do we stop the news cycle fatigue a...
Apr 28, 2022•44 min•Season 3Ep. 13
REMINDER: This episode/interview first aired on my YouTube channel. Subscribe to see my stuff first: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqkJwR_JacmcQJUrtqv8apQ ----- Here's just like 53 minutes of billionaire Mark Cuban hyping you up on the universal possibility of achieving greatness. Kidding, but only kind of. It's really an interview with Mark during which we explore what the American dream means in a modern context today—what his version of the dream looks like, how he failed to achieve the dr...
Apr 22, 2022•53 min•Season 3Ep. 12
But not for long. The American dream is a vaunted concept that's guided U.S. and human history for centuries now. But it's outdated. It's out of touch. It's lacking any semblance of modern sensibility. And that, my friends, presents us with an opportunity. It's time to deconstruct—and reconstruct—the American dream. For a more modern world. For a more perfect future. Let's do this. Next up: my full episode with Mark Cuban. It's a goodie. Smash that MF subscribe button. You know you want to. And ...
Apr 22, 2022•19 min•Season 3Ep. 11
REMINDER: This episode aired on my YouTube first. Subscribe to my channel to see my content in all its glory: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqkJwR_JacmcQJUrtqv8apQ ----- The word "spectacle" can take on plenty of meanings both good and bad, but when it comes to Coachella? No dictionary entry fits better. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a spectacle in every sense of the word—from the $8 million artist payouts to Revolve Festival, the annual desert gathering has morphed into a b...
Apr 22, 2022•25 min•Season 3Ep. 10
THIS IS THE AUDIO VERSION OF A VIDEO THAT AIRED ON MY YOUTUBE :) If you want to see the full audiovisual version, subscribe to my channel here and watch the video here . You've seen Logan Paul vs. Floyd Mayweather. You've seen Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier. But now, the greatest spectacle of all: Kinsey Grant vs. Josh Kaplan. Two friends, two intellectuals, two dissenting voices in modern capitalism...only one can walk away victorious. Welcome to the 10-Minute Debate. Today, I (Kinsey Grant, note...
Apr 06, 2022•17 min•Season 3Ep. 9
THIS IS THE AUDIO VERSION OF A VIDEO THAT AIRED ON MY YOUTUBE :) If you want to see the full audiovisual version, subscribe to my channel here and watch the video here . Can the ultra-wealthy fight for a wealth tax in earnest? Is it possible to believe in universal pre-k and still send your kids to the best private schools? Or is it all just political fence-sitting? Let's think about it—the idea of "champagne socialism," or the specific brand of progressive politics popular among the very rich a...
Apr 01, 2022•23 min•Season 3Ep. 8
REMINDER: This is the audio version of an episode that aired on my YouTube channel last week. To see the episode in its 3D glory, subscribe to my channel right here . When was the last time you opened your computer and navigated to, say, the home page of the New York Times? When was the last time you read a piece from CNN and thought to yourself, "fantastic—what fair and objective reporting that was!" It's time to face the music: Mainstream media—the vaunted publications of lore like the Times, ...
Mar 29, 2022•26 min•Season 3Ep. 7
*This is the audio version of a YouTube video essay released here * If anyone with a phone and a WiFi connection can become a journalist these days...what does that mean for the future of journalism? Consider this: Alex Cooper, Joe Rogan, any garden variety Instagram influencer—they all have platforms, and many of them are using their platforms to participate in and influence the news cycle. But what does that enormous shift mean for the future of media, journalism, information...and even truth ...
Mar 18, 2022•20 min•Season 3Ep. 6
L is for the way you listen to me O is for the only pod you need V is very, very honest commentary E is even more episodes that’ll never bore I’m aware that was mad cheesy, but I started and I couldn’t stop until it was finished. For better or more likely for worse. But what can I say? L-o-v-e is in the air. This week on Thinking Is Cool, thanks to everyone’s favorite Hallmark holiday, is a week to think about love in all of its richness and its many forms. But because I can’t help myself…we’re ...
Feb 15, 2022•39 min•Season 3Ep. 5
In media as in life, sex sells…but why? And how? And should it? This week on Thinking Is Cool, let’s take a traipse through critically acclaimed movies and television with a very important question in mind: How much sex is too much? In the age of this HBO-ification of all the media considered “good,” we have to wonder whether graphic onscreen sex is ever a truly indispensable mechanism for moving plot forward. I can (and in this episode will) argue both yes and no—but at the crux of this convers...
Feb 09, 2022•24 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Champagne socialism. The slightly more radicalized cousin of liberal elitism, champagne socialism is increasingly becoming the default position for very wealthy people who also want to be (or be perceived as) good progressives. It’s leftism for people who have personal drivers. It’s political fence-sitting, and it’s so incredibly interesting. Can we believe in a wealth tax and still want to become wealthy ourselves? Can we espouse the importance of universal pre-k and still send our children to ...
Jan 31, 2022•27 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Have you checked in on the FBI agent in your phone lately? Winter can be tough, you know. They could probably use a muffin basket or something. I’m only kind of kidding because there isn’t actually an FBI agent in your phone, but there might as well be given the incredible amount of data that you offer up every time you paw through Instagram to find your high school nemesis or type in “perciatelli vs bucatini” on Google. This week on Thinking Is Cool, I explore the depths of surveillance capital...
Jan 24, 2022•30 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Bitcoin down? Might want to call your grandma. And your uncle. And your 7th grade math teacher. At some point over the last couple of years, crypto has evolved from a conversation exclusive to the internet’s deepest depths into a conversation exclusive to nowhere and no one. Today, the mainstreamification of crypto is real. But this isn’t your dad’s index fund we’re talking about. Crypto, for all its rather sudden mass appeal, remains an unregulated and vividly volatile prospect. So it’s time to...
Jan 18, 2022•29 min•Season 3Ep. 1
