We’re diving into the growing sentiment that the use of paid ads are broken are a bad sign with top operators and investors calling out how platforms optimize for spend over outcomes. If you’ve ever felt like your ad dollars disappear overnight, this conversation will hit.

From there, we unpack one of the biggest emerging ideas in content right now: effort is the new signal. In a world flooded with AI-generated everything, the brands and creators winning are the ones proving they actually tried.

We also break down YouTube’s new “Reimagine” tool, what it means for the future of content creation, and whether we’re heading toward infinite creativity… or infinite noise.

On the ad front, we cover:

Why ChatGPT ads are underperforming (for now)

How Google, Meta, and Amazon are consolidating power

Why X is paying advertisers to come back

And the simple reason most brands are losing: confusing ads + broken landing pages

Plus, we get into some of the most interesting brand and product trends right now—from functional CPG like sleep ice cream to the question of whether hot brands can cool off faster than ever.

Featured Interview: Dan Vinson (Founder, Wild Gym)From wildland firefighter to founder, Dan breaks down:

- Why “being comfortable being uncomfortable” is a business advantage

- The philosophy behind training outdoors vs the gym

- How to build a product that stands for something deeper than utility

- And why not all competition is worth worrying about (even if it’s cheaper)

— — —

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