What’s more contemporary than the pursuit of happiness? The restless task of creating it, sustaining it, sharing it. It’s a game not so far from that of the creative class, with its inevitable demand for the next turn, the next gesture, the next affirmation of relevance. Designers, editors, critics, even self-anointed new media mavens know it all too well. Exploring larger cultural truths in their microcosmic forms is a habit we’ve happily returned to this season, and one we look forward to sharing across the months ahead.

Because happiness, like relevance, is never fixed. It slips just out of reach the moment it seems secured, requiring constant reexamination and reinvention. The same holds true for the people and industries we cover: what feels urgent today risks redundancy tomorrow. That cycle of fulfillment, exhaustion, and reinvention, is the rhythm of both creativity and life. And in that rhythm lies the story of what it means to be contemporary now.

New episodes begin Monday, October 6th.

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