Future Commerce

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We're covering the first 100 Days of the New Commerce Department: what trade and tariff policies are up Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's sleeve? PLUS: We dig into TikTok's dizzying fake-out, Doji's mystifying deepfake try-on tech, and the long-awaited launch of the 2025 Future Commerce Annual Journal, LORE. 

• Preorder LORE
• Explore Doji: Doji App
• Watch the Head and Shoulders video from Veritasium we geeked out about

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In this landmark discussion from NRF 2025, we lay out our theory of commerce's next evolutionary leap: the necessary fusion of human and artificial intelligence in digital spaces. As today's retailers hastily construct separate domains for silicon and carbon-based shoppers, we explore why this well-intentioned bifurcation may be precisely the wrong approach. From Salesforce's stumbling first steps with Agent Force to NVIDIA's more integrated vision, we examine how commerce might pioneer a symbiotic digital future. PLUS: Our 2025 journal, LORE, makes its debut!

• The Evolution of Digital Agency: Tracing the path from simple chatbots to truly agentic AI, and why the distinction matters.
• Biological Precedent as Digital Prophecy: How the coexistence of early human species might inform our approach to human-AI integration.
• The Attention Arbitrage: Why AI agents represent not just tools, but extensions of human cognitive capacity.
• Beyond the ‘Agentic Ghetto’: The case for unified digital architectures that serve both silicon and carbon-based users.
• The Memory Migration: How technology has already transformed human cognition, from oral histories to cloud storage.

• {00:23:00} "When we've talked about agents and bots and how you're gonna have your own assistance, we're talking about consumers... [The industry is] thinking about it from a very different angle than the people that are trying to sell the software right now." - Brian
• {00:25:31} "This is kind of like homo sapien and Neanderthal having to coexist... one advanced form and one less advanced form actually having functional tools and functional societies and functional coexistence together." - Phillip
• {00:28:55} "Written language allowed us to move from having to memorize things and be able to recall them from ourselves to having them available to quote. We actually exported our brains into books." - Brian
• {00:31:44} "The last thing we want on planet earth is to create a non-visual [space] in the ether for it to go purchase that isn't a thing that a human could actually go... The functional web needs to stay functional for humans and for bots to coexist in." - Phillip

This episode challenges conventional wisdom about AI integration, suggesting that our current trajectory toward segregated experiences misses a crucial evolutionary opportunity. Through the lens of NRF 2025's innovations and stumbles, we explore how commerce might pioneer a more symbiotic digital future—one where the distinction between human and artificial intelligence becomes not a wall, but a bridge.

• Order LORE on Metalabel
• The Attention Economy (August 2, 2019)
• Your Body Is A Dataland (August 1, 2017)
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ 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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This week, we’re unpacking Adobe’s holiday shopping report, the AI bot takeover, and the dead internet theory. As 2025 kicks off with powerful demand for both in-person experiences and AI-driven, frictionless online shopping, we’re peering into the future of the tension. PLUS: Phillip the Time Capsule Guy takes us back in time, and 5,000 years into the future.

• [00:14:30] “Black Friday shopping is one of the most isolating things you can do now. It used to be a team sport, something you'd all go out and do…you get up early, you get the coffee and the hot chocolate in your warm coats, and you go out and you have a good time together amid consumerism madness.” – Brian
• [00:20:24] “I think the return to physical connection and this loneliness epidemic is driving people back to real-life connection.” – Phillip
• [00:46:55] “We are going to be building from this point forward websites or ecommerce experiences, channels, APIs. Anything that we build in ecommerce from henceforth will be done thoughtfully to assist both humans and agents to be able to seamlessly purchase from a brand.” – Phillip
• [00:58:04] "Time capsules by Westinghouse and Panasonic might be humanity’s greatest contributions to cultural preservation." – Phillip 
• [01:01:20] “This is part of Mythopoeia. This is how you build a myth that extends into the future. You do stuff like this that's an extension of the story. And Westinghouse may be revived 5000 years in the future because of these time capsules.” – Brian

• Future Commerce Upcoming Events
• The Future Now: January 28th, 2025. Immerse yourself in a collaborative and visionary roundtable experience with retail executives. Register here
• Your Body is a Dataland: Insiders #66
• Adobe Holiday Shopping Report
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ 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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In our biggest episode of the year, we explore seismic shifts coming in 2025: from the return of Gen X leadership to a new wave of American counterculture. We revisit our eerily accurate 2024 predictions while laying out bold forecasts for retail consolidation, AI evolution, and the changing media landscape. Plus, we dive deep into why Google might be poised for a massive comeback and how Walmart is transforming into a media empire.

• On Taste & Truth (13:12) - "I believe that taste is the unique ability to recognize objective truth in situations where subjectivity reigns supreme." - Brian
• The Future of Retail (34:50) - "In the retail sector, we will see larger holdcos start to downsize by breaking off individual pieces into smaller entities so they can reorganize and pass regulatory muster when selling divisions later." - Phillip
• Hardware Renaissance (54:41) - "The excitement around content actually represents a deeper desire within people for well-designed, bespoke hardware technology." - Brian
• Urban Transport Evolution (1:39:14) - "eVTOL will be a huge tech winner in 2025, creating a paradigm shift in urban transport - starting as the luxury option Uber envisioned in 2017." - Phillip
• Political Realignment (1:59:00) - "There's something latent here around realignment in how people think about the political spectrum post-second Trump presidency. Many political orphans, both right and left, don't know where they fit." - Brian
• The Innovation Paradox (2:18:43) - "When solving problems, we inevitably miss the new problems our solutions will create. It's easy to walk into dystopia thinking you're walking into utopia." - Brian

• Heading to NRF? Come celebrate the launch of our 2025 print journal, LORE with us on Tuesday, January 14! Register here.
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ 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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This year was a great one for the Future Commerce podcast. We vision-casted with fellow futurists at exclusive events across the nation, launched podcast specials like Spooky Commerce and FC Radio Theater, and were joined on the podcast by many of our industry muses, including Kickstarter’s Yancey Strickler and Walmart’s Justin Breton. 

We’ve rounded up our 2024 highlight reel in one year-end finale episode. All featured episodes linked below.

• When Technology Changes, Context Changes (February 6, 2024)
• You Can Buy Haunted Dolls on eBay (October 11)
• After Dark: Luddite Luxury, Acorn-Based Economies, Starbucks Star Days as Economic Indicator (February 21, 2024)
• The Tyranny of Visibility (February 13, 2024)
• DECODED: Polymaths and Philosophers (May 13, 2024)
• Building Culturally Intelligent Brands (May 17)
• What is Futureproof for Gen Alpha? (June 7, 2024)
• Don’t Say Metaverse (August 23)
• How Liquid Death is Murdering Marketing (July 7)
• The Dark Forest of Creative Capital (December 6)

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ 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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Introducing a Future Commerce Radio Theater production: A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa, an original story by Erin DaCruz. Performed for radio by Joseph Discher and Leonor Woodworth. Voice production by Whole Story Studio.

A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa can be found in the Muses journal, available for purchase at shop.futurecommerce.com. 

• [00:02:28] Time of day – 5:45
• [00:04:01] Time of day – 6:22
• [00:05:20] Time of day – 8:17
• [00:07:02] Time of day – 10:00
• [00:07:46] Time of day – 10:36
• [00:09:05} Time of day – 12:02
• [00:09:21] Time of day – 12:10
• [00:10:38] Time of day – 16:28
• [00:11:56] Time of day – 17:37
• [00:12:25] Time of day – 19:30
• [00:13:07] Time of day – 20:19
• [00:13:46] Time of day – 22:12
• [00:16:15] Time of day – 5:45

• Enjoy A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa in print: Order the Muses journal
• Get your copy of the Archetypes journal
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ 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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Introducing a Future Commerce Radio Theater production: The Wrong Part, an original story by Brian Lange. Performed for radio by Joseph Discher. Voice production by Whole Story Studio.

The Wrong Part can be found in the Muses journal, available for purchase at shop.futurecommerce.com. 

Stay tuned for our upcoming radio theater readings: A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa by Erin DaCruz.

• [00:00:19] Act 1
• [00:11:35] Act 2

• Enjoy The Wrong Part in print: Order the Muses journal
• Get your copy of the Archetypes journal
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ 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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Introducing a Future Commerce Radio Theater production: Dissociating at Costco, an original story by Brian Lange. Performed for radio by Joseph Discher. Voice production by Whole Story Studio.

Dissociating at Costco can be found in the Archetypes journal, available for purchase at shop.futurecommerce.com. 

Stay tuned for our upcoming radio theater readings: A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa by Erin DaCruz, and The Hardest Part by Brian Lange.

• [00:00:20] Chapter 1
• [00:08:19] Chapter 2
• [00:17:45] Chapter 3
• [00:26:43] Epilogue

• Enjoy Dissociating at Costco in print: Order the Archetypes journal
• Get your copy of the Muses journal
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ 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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Yancey Strickler on Metalabel, Digital Scarcity, and the Coming Creative Revolution

Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler unveils his vision of a radical economic future where artists become society's power brokers. Through Metalabel, he's building the infrastructure for collective commerce and creative ownership that could transform how we value and exchange culture.

• {00:13:10} - “The concept of art and creativity that we think of today that we take as givens that we're like, “Oh my God, I have to promote my drop again today,” are incredibly modern inventions.” - Yancey
• {00:24;51] - “I believe {this project} will produce a world where 50 or 60 years from now, artists and creative people are the most powerful members of society. They will have the greatest influence. They will have the greatest access to wealth. They will be the most powerful people in society, and this is a structure by which that will occur. And that's a project we'll announce next year.” - Yancey
• {00:26:20} - “We all want to be able to homestead and have our own spaces that are ours, but we also want to be part of spaces where we can be discovered. And so how can our catalogs exist in a world like that? Artists right now are excluded from capitalism. Let's change that.” - Yancey
• {00:28:53} - “People are still just looking in the dead channel, the dying channels…where we've been trained to look for what is new and what matters. And the answer is that that's not where those things are happening now.” - Yancey
• {00:38:09} - “Anyone who's 20 years old today, born and raised on the Internet, there's just like a mentality, a metamodern, just flat openness, super well-curated sort of vibe that I just think lends itself quite well to operating very specific, but I think very successful, small to medium-sized creative businesses.” - Yancey

• Pre-order the LORE Journal by Future Commerce on Metalabel
• Connect with Yancey Strickler and learn more about Metalabel
• The Dark Forest Collective
• Kirby Ferguson’s New York Times piece, Is Creativity Dead?
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ 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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Join us at the final events of the year! All of our events can be found at futurecommerce.com/events

December 9: Future Commerce LIVE at The Moore
RSVP: Apply to attend here

December 11: Commerce Conversations At Sea 2.0
RSVP: Apply to attend here

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