Thinking Is Cool

There’s a wildly popular, deeply powerful institution in the United States that breeds racism, classism, and elitism among young people and desperately needs to be dismantled. Want to guess what it is?

If you guessed it had to do with Natty Light, potential cult behavior, and 19-year-olds on power trips...you guessed right.

Today, I’m exploring the impacts and implications of Greek life in the United States, both the good and the bad. You might be able to guess what conclusion I come to about Greek life based on that first sentence, but what should we build in its place? How can we give young people room to socialize and gain leadership experience without...ya know...people dying?

We’re about to find out.

We have some astonishingly good partners this season: Learn more about our presenting sponsor, Fundrise, here. And learn more about Pluto here.

Modern love is messy, complicated, heart-wrenching, beautiful, and above all else? Online.

Today on Thinking Is Cool (which happens to be the Season 2 premiere just sayin’), we’re exploring the ways our modern interpretations of meeting people might force us to hold a mirror up to all of our relationships—with each other, and more importantly, with technology.

Why do dating apps have such a stigma? Why do we think they suck so much? Why are our expectations so flawed? And what can we do differently?

Join in, listen, get introspective, and have some fun. Because thinking is cool and so are you.

Who you'll hear from this episode:

• Lindsey Metselaar, host of the podcast We Met at Acme
• Josh Kaplan, co-founder of Thinking Is Cool and reluctant Hinge user
• Michael Fundora, close friend and honest confidant
• Coleman Baker, boyfriend

We have some astonishingly good partners this season: Learn more about our presenting sponsor, Fundrise, here. And learn more about Massican here.

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Thinking Is Cool is back.

This show is all about making your next conversation better than your last, and this season there’s no shortage of thought-provoking topics for discourse on tap: dating apps, homelessness, Greek life, living forever, and so many more.

If Season 1 of this show was about finding my footing, Season 2 of this show is about hitting my stride. You might agree with me. You might disagree with me. You might feel impassioned to change something. But no matter what, I’m making a promise now: bangers only. So hit that subscribe button, send Thinking Is Cool to a friend, and get ready to get thoughtful.

Nothing is off limits. Everything is on the table. Take it anywhere. And remember...thinking is cool and so are you.

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Porn is back.

Season 1 of Thinking Is Cool was all about considering generation-defining issues, big topics, and sources for thoughtful conversation. My first episode of this show was about making a better porn industry—but it was also about pleasure, social norms, getting comfortable being uncomfortable, and engineering ethical industries. 

Those are all ideas that we can’t cover completely in one 38 minute podcast episode. So today, we’re kicking off a new project from Thinking Is Cool called Continuing the Conversation. The point is to get people to continue talking about big topics...they’re not a flash in the pan, and this will show why that is.

Continuing the Conversation starts with Caroline Spiegel, the CEO of the audio erotica company Quinn. We’re talking about how the porn industry changes for the better and the ways consumers (read: all of us) can expedite that evolution.

Here are some of the questions Caroline and I answer:

• What are traditional porn’s biggest shortcomings?
• How has the internet changed the way we get off?
• Why can’t we assign value to the concept of pleasure—plain and simple?
• Where do we most observe the impacts (positive and negative) of the sex positivity and sexual wellness movements in the world of porn?
• How do you know when something is porn?
• What are the realities of creating a truly good porn product—the Netflix of porn, if you will?

And those are just the big ones—we’re also comparing porn to fast food, considering why some people watch porn for the plot, listing the random things people do that are inexplicably hot, and more.

Listen now...but maybe make sure you’ve listened to Thinking Is Cool’s porn episode first. Do that here.

Even if you only use it as a means of remembering high school acquaintances' birthdays, Facebook changed your life and the world around you. That’s just a fact. 

This company—one that has in so many ways revolutionized technology and media and brought the world closer together—has also eroded democracy, engendered a dangerous new world of social mores, and not cared much for any of the negative externalities associated with becoming the fastest company ever to reach a $1 trillion valuation.

Today, we examine how Facebook, the king of the tech monopoly castle, has changed the world...both for better and for worse.

A note from our sponsor HMBradley: Deposit accounts are provided by Hatch Bank, Member FDIC. Go to www.hmbradley.com/apys to see current rates and the full Savings Tiers terms and conditions. The HMBradley Credit Card is subject to credit approval. The HMBradley Credit Card is issued by Hatch Bank under a license from Mastercard. Go to www.hmbradley.com/credit-card-terms to learn more about the Cash Back Rewards Program. This is a paid endorsement.

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The Great Reopening, the Roaring 20s, the Summer of Love. It’s here. We’re learning to cope with a new reality in the post-Covid era. But...how exactly are we supposed to do that?

This week on Thinking Is Cool, we’re figuring it out together.

It’s not easy to bounce back from a worldwide pandemic that claimed some 600,000 lives in the United States alone. It’s not simple to reintegrate into society after spending the better part of the last year distanced, both socially and mentally.

But also…

It’s incredibly gratifying to find yourself finally bellied up to the bar in a crowded hotspot after months of wishing for that sweet, sweet moment when you order a vodka soda with lime—hell, make it a double. It’s emotional, almost, to see hordes of people young and old filling the streets after months of that desolate reality we all endured when the bulk of traffic on 5th Avenue was Doordash drivers.

We’ve all lived through an unparalleled experience, and now we’re all working through the excitement of coming back, the application of shifted perspectives, the anxiety of typical socialization.

And we need to talk about it. So that’s what we’re doing this week on Thinking Is Cool—considering the ways this last year has changed people, places, and priorities, plus the ways those three interact. Let’s get personal.

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A note from our sponsor, HMBradley: Deposit accounts are provided by Hatch Bank, Member FDIC. Go to www.hmbradley.com/apys to see current rates and the full Savings Tiers terms and conditions and www.hmbradley.com/tier-boost-terms to learn more about the HMBradley Deposit Account Savings Tier Boost Promotion. The HMBradley Credit Card is subject to credit approval. The HMBradley Credit Card is issued by Hatch Bank under a license from Mastercard. Go to www.hmbradley.com/credit-card-terms to learn more about the Cash Back Rewards Program. This is a paid endorsement.

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There are 2,755 billionaires in the world, which means 0.00000035% of us have three commas in our net worth. Despite that, those with the power to accumulate wealth are often those with the power, period.

Because of that, we need to hold the ultra wealthy accountable. How did they build their wealth? How have they held onto their wealth, often for generations? What responsibilities do they bear given their place in societal and economic structures?

They’re questions worth answering, so today we’ll attempt to do just that. I’ll tell you how to become a billionaire—and by the end of the episode, you’ll have the answer to a much bigger question: Should billionaires exist?

Listen to find out.

Sign up for Teddy's newsletter that explores the land of the modern billionaire here.

A note from HMBradley: Deposit accounts are provided by Hatch Bank, Member FDIC. Go to www.hmbradley.com/apys to see current rates and the full Savings Tiers terms and conditions and www.hmbradley.com/tier-boost-terms to learn more about the HMBradley Deposit Account Savings Tier Boost Promotion. The HMBradley Credit Card is subject to credit approval. The HMBradley Credit Card is issued by Hatch Bank under a license from Mastercard. Go to www.hmbradley.com/credit-card-terms to learn more about the Cash Back Rewards Program. This is a paid endorsement.

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All it takes is a positive attitude and a little elbow grease, right? Well, that...plus an enormous rethinking of the ways we incentivize political action and voting in the world’s most storied democracy. Nothing we can’t handle in a podcast episode.

This week on Thinking Is Cool, I’m exploring the future of political parties as we work to evolve past where we are today—at a point of extreme and even dangerous fracturing along party lines. Because this—hyperpartisanship and the gridlock and vitriol it breeds—is a problem that urgently needs solving, and talking about it is how we start.

This episode is about recognizing the horrors of our shared reality, but also finding the ways to move forward toward something better. It’s about the means by which we’ve become so shockingly extreme in our political views on both sides of the aisle...but also what we might be able to pull off to again find commonality in legislating.

It’s about building something better. Learning from mistakes. Disagreeing politely. And above all else, thinking a little harder. 

Listen and let me know what you think. I can’t wait to hear it.

A note from our sponsor, HMBradley: Deposit accounts are provided by Hatch Bank, Member FDIC. Interest rates are variable and may change after account opening. The minimum opening deposit required to open an HMBradley Deposit Account is $100. Go to www.hmbradley.com/apys to see current rates and the full Savings Tiers terms and conditions and www.hmbradley.com/tier-boost-terms to learn more about the HMBradley Deposit Account Savings Tier Boost Promotion. The HMBradley Credit Card is subject to credit approval. The HMBradley Credit Card is issued by Hatch Bank under a license from Mastercard. Go to www.hmbradley.com/credit-card-terms to learn more about the Cash Back Rewards Program. This is a paid endorsement.

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Today on Thinking Is Cool, we’re together taking on the sisyphean task of finding out. Here’s a spoiler: The answer is a big fat maybe. 

Because like all good things in life, the answer is simple—it depends. Cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and decentralization have the potential to be a lot of things: the future of global currency systems, the future of the internet, the future of wealth building, and more.

But it’ll take more than just adding laser eyes to your Twitter profile picture to bring those possibilities into the realm of reality. This week on Thinking Is Cool, we’re exploring what else we need to grasp to keep hold of the freer, fairer, and better future crypto has promised us.

Here’s who you’ll hear from. And sidenote—I love this episode’s guests. They’re the kind of people you get off the phone with and think, “yeah...I could definitely get a beer with that person.”

• Joe Wiesenthal, the co-host of the Odd Lots podcast and “What'd You Miss?” on Bloomberg TV.
• Aubrey Strobel, head of communications for the bitcoin rewards app Lolli.

Hit play, sit back, take a deep breath, and join me as I dig myself out of an internet rabbit hole to discover what the future of crypto, bitcoin, and the blockchain really are.

A note from our exclusive sponsor HMBradley: Deposit accounts are provided by Hatch Bank, Member FDIC. Interest rates are variable and may change after account opening. The minimum opening deposit required to open an HMBradley Deposit Account is $100. Go to www.hmbradley.com/apys to see current rates and the full Savings Tiers terms and conditions. This is a paid endorsement.

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These days, which have been more populated with critiques of late-stage capitalism than most, the girlboss is facing a reckoning for one major reason: Instead of reinventing a system that put her down, she learned to play by the rules of her oppressors.

What does that mean for the future of our social and economic frameworks? This week on Thinking Is Cool, we’re going to find out.

What you can expect from this episode of Thinking Is Cool:

• An exploration of the archetypical girlboss character and how she ascended to such power
• Context and insight from women who’ve certainly avoided the trappings of girlbossery at a masterful level
• Some digs at men I’ve worked with before (yolo)
• The inspiration (I think! And hope!) to reconsider the ways we tend to put each other in boxes, regardless of gender identity

We’ve got some really great insight in this episode thanks to two women who are all boss, no girlboss. Here are the guests in this episode:

• Molly Maloney is a Senior Associate at PwC consulting on tech and program management. She’s incredibly bright and motivated, and I’m glad we’re now friends.
• Carolyn Childers is the cofounder and CEO of Chief, a private network designed specifically for women leaders. Despite what you might think of private networks, Carolyn and her business are worth keeping an eye on. I loved speaking with and learning from her.

Season 1 of Thinking Is Cool is brought to you by HMBradley, our exclusive launch sponsor. Deposit accounts are provided by Hatch Bank, Member FDIC. Credit cards are issued by Hatch Bank under a license with MasterCard. This is a paid endorsement.

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