Gen Z is far more complex and resourceful than popular stereotypes suggest — intimate conversations with young people show us how they're navigating an increasingly challenging world. Their attitudes towards work, creativity, and personal fulfillment tell us a lot about how this generation is forging its path.  In this episode of In the Demo, host Adam Pierno speaks with filmmakers Branden Mayer and Max Goldstein about their documentary ‘Wasted’. The film explores the lives of Gen Z...

We've been having a great time for 30+ episodes complaining about bad research, reporting, and punditry (and book-writing) about generational narratives. Who doesn't love-to-hate a good "Millennials killed some industry" story? But there are real stakes here, for how companies hire employees, invest resources, and plan marketing campaigns; for politicians and policy makers about who they want to serve or punish, and how they want to build their coalitions; and for journalists and commentators...

Social media and smartphones are causing an epidemic of mental illness and anxiety among Gen Z, according to some prominent thinkers - but are these sweeping claims backed by evidence? Maybe the answer is: it's complicated, and jumping to simplistic conclusions is at best useless and at worst, dangerous. In this episode, we talk about recent discussions about the work of psychologist Jonathan Haidt (often in collaboration with generational researcher Jean Twenge), who argue tech is wreaking...

Millennials are reframing their generational identity as they enter homeownership and parenthood, but broken systems remain. Nostalgia for a pre-internet era offers an escape, and reflects a yearning for IRL experiences and human connection in an automated and mediated world. Anne Helen Petersen, author and cultural critic, joins host Farrah Bostic to discuss the evolving narratives surrounding millennials and Gen Z. They explore how the optimism of the 90s and early 2000s has given way to...

Preconceived notions and media narratives have warped perceptions of social media and internet culture, shaping misleading stories about generations. A critical look beyond the headlines reveals the complex realities of how people of all ages engage with online platforms in nuanced ways. Farrah Bostic and Adam Pierno welcome Rebecca Jennings, a reporter at Vox covering internet culture, to unpack the flawed assumptions and evolving trends shaping discourse around TikTok, influencers, and...

The nostalgia and ownership that younger generations feel toward the music and culture of the 90s is fascinating. In this episode of In The Demo, Farrah and her guest Rob Harvilla, host of the 60 Songs that Explain the '90s podcast, explore why the decade holds such a powerful allure for those who never experienced it firsthand. They discuss what accounts for this cross-generational appeal, from the mythologizing of the 90s in media to the enduring impact of the era's defining genres and...

Growing impatience with generational stereotyping has sparked a critical reexamination of how we categorize and analyze age cohorts. Despite Generation Alpha still being born, that won't stop consultants and pundits from making sweeping predictions about who they will be and laying out dubious prescriptions for how they should be raised. By scrutinizing the motives behind labeling Generation Alpha, the absurdity of predicting the traits of a generation that hasn't fully arrived becomes...

The demographic cliff - a controversial idea that declining population growth will trigger economic disaster. But is it real or just sensationalized clickbait pushed by those with an agenda? Investment advisor Harry Dent popularized demographic cliff fears in the mid-2000s to sell his financial advice (and a book, of course). From there, it became a favored trope in education, where school administrators - from K-12 to college - worried about not having enough enrolled students. Recently,...

When the Millennials came of age to enter the workforce (which took nearly 15 years) the media was awash in headlines about how to cater to this powerful new generation. Today, the headlines have turned to Gen Z. Farrah and Adam go deeper than the headlines to reveal that the story is still about Millennials. Reminiscent of the treatment of Gen X, Gen Z is constantly compared to their elders, but worse, many writers and researchers are lumping Millennials and Gen Z together.  Mentioned...

In this episode, Farrah and Adam discuss the role and effectiveness of strategy in advertising, including how connected it needs to be to cultural trends, consumer insights, and business realities. And then - they take a deep dive into an article by Richard Huntington in WARC, "The Future of Strategy 2023: Marketing is in desperate need of a reality check" in which he agrees with our premise that generational segments are astrology for marketers - but uses this as a cudgel against all...

The best advertising reveals something you’ve thought for a long time about a product, service or its users (or yourself!) and presents in an unexpected way. Either for a laugh or some emotional response. Today, we’re seeing advertisers take broad stereotypes of generational segmentations and paste them directly into ads. The results are, um, not great.  MENTIONED RESOURCES: 2024 Lamb: The Generation Gap Coinbase: GenerationsJP Morgan Chase: Meet the JennifersTide - quiet timeThe Musings of...

Adam and Farrah commence a new season, and in the spirit of the new year, take a look at recent Millennial headlines and found that... nothing has changed, and nothing ever will. Links: Jodie Foster on Gen ZThe ironic reason Gen Z are ageing faster than millennials — MetroThe Plastic Surgery Trend Gen X, Millennials, & Gen Z All Agree On — The Zoe ReportHow you wear a scarf can reveal if you're Gen Z or Millennial — New York PostGen Z's throwback ‘chunky highlights’ hair trend makes...

A special drop in our feed - the inaugural episode of Farrah's new show Cross Tabs, released on Iowa's GOP Caucus day, January 15, 2024. Host Farrah Bostic (In the Demo Podcast, The Difference Engine) and pal Paul Soldera (Equation Research), set the table for what Cross Tabs is all about: demystifying what polls are and how they work. Mentioned links: Jill Lepore's "Politics and the New Machine" [The New Yorker]Jill Lepore's "The Problems Inherent in Political Polling" [The New Yorker]What...

Our special guest for our final episode of the year is our good friend Faris Yakob. He and his wife Rosie are the force behind the consultancy Genius Steals, a nomadic strategic and creative consultancy. Faris is also the author of a book about how advertising works through the lens of the concept of attention. It's called, Paid Attention which is now in its 2nd edition. He has been at a variety of media and advertising agencies throughout his career, including Naked Communications, McCann...

We are taking this Thursday off for Thanksgiving, sorry to our non-American listeners! We will be back with one more episode in December before pausing to work on Season 2, which is already under way. Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or your podcast app of choice. You can email us with questions or thoughts - adam@inthedemopodcast and farrah@inthedemopodcast. In The Demo, a podcast about how stories of groups are created, subverted and destroyed. On the first season, we pursue the...

Is your generation your identity? What happens when your actual life starts to veer away from the story of your life? In this episode, we take a look at the way some members of the Millennial generation are starting to experience a mid-life identity crisis as they realize that they did in fact become married, home-owning, parenting adults with retirement savings. We examine these "getting older" Millennial narratives and what the data tells us about what's really going on with Millennials...

Adam and Farrah regroup to discuss what they've learned from past episodes featuring Cindy Gallop, Katy Coduto PhD, and Cristen Dalessandro PhD (find them in the feed!!) about Millennial sex, dating, and intimacy. You know, the stuff you have to deal with before you even get to worrying about whether they're getting married on time and having enough kids! Intimacy, relationships, and generational differences. 0:00Gender roles, relationships, and technology. 7:22Dating apps and their impact...

Our third installment in a series of episodes exploring the part in between hookup culture on college campuses, and "failure to launch" narratives about Millennials living at home instead of getting married and starting families: those years when you're an adult, working, and figuring out what you want in a relationship (if you even want one). In previous episodes we looked at the "social sex revolution" championed by Cindy Gallop, the world of online dating apps and sexting with Katy...

We're joined by Taylor Lorenz, author of Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet to talk about how she had a front-row seat to many of the changes in media, memes, and Millennials over the course of her career from tabloid blogger to feature reporter for The Washington Post. We talk about the role of social media, the way incentives for media companies have evolved, how she proved internet culture was a beat, and how memes get amplified into mass...

We started with headlines from the New York Post and other extremely online publications and our research overall has shifted heavily into the journalistic media narrative arc that has been assigned to Millennials; a group we’re not even sure we would say exists. Now we decided we need to read the most visible and influential books over the past 20 years that coincided with shifts in the story. Up first, Kristen Soltis Anderson’s 2015 book The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading...

The story about Millennials and dating is all about apps, sexting and ghosting - the habits of the toxically online. But it’s not all toxic - it can help people discover how to be intimate and confident in their romantic relationships. Still, real concerns about privacy and security abound. We sat down with Katy Coduto, PhD, an assistant professor of media studies at Boston University and author of the forthcoming Technology, Privacy, and Sexting: Mediated Sex. Find out more about Katy here:...

We're starting a mini-series on intimacy. First up, Cindy Gallop is the founder and CEO of Make Love Not Porn. They are pro-sex pro-porn Pro-knowing the difference. It's her personal experience with Millennial lovers that opened her eyes to the challenges they were faced with in relationships. Intimacy has been pushed out of culture, and replaced with a variety of distractions, entertainments and stories. Cindy's direct style makes her a sought after voice in this conversation. As you'll...

Generalizations can be damaging. In this episode, Benish Shah joins us for a conversation about how marketers, in an attempt to simplify the huge Millennial consumer group, over-simplified them en masse. She looks at how power structures are shaped, people on the margins are held there and others are pushed there by the narrative perpetuated to make it easier to sell things. Benish Shah is a marketer, builder and advisor to companies and brands around the world. Learn more here:...

BREAKING (kidding, sort of). In late May, Pew Research announced they would "only do generational analysis when we have historical data that allows us to compare generations at similar stages of life" after a year-long analysis of their own approach to reporting on differences by generations, and the overall landscape of such content and reporting. This announcement supports a lot of what Farrah and Adam have been circling while conducting their research into the Millennial narrative, and...