EVP Partnerships @xomad influencer marketing. Professor of marketing + PR @USCAnnenberg. I consume basketball and burritos.
San Francisco, CA
Joined September 2008
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Technology Accelerated The Affordability Problem
Even when it made things cheaper, technology made life more expensive.
rockatalic.substack.com/p/te…
Why yes, I am interested in scrolling Twitter all night and watching all the Knicks angles, thank you very much
Perhaps the most insane collection of humans on one squad
I just went 79-3, think you can go 82-0? 82-0.com/share?id=U1VNDRg0xa… #NBA #82and0
Very interesting episode of Power User @TaylorLorenz
People realizing that tech concentrates wealth, information and power. Democratization/increased access just relocates the wealthy elsewhere. (thesis of my forthcoming book 🤞🏻)
open.spotify.com/episode/3jb…
@TaylorLorenz Btw: it *is* interesting that the broader idea of "internet communities" = common-person coded...yet power does indeed concentrate in private channels
nytimes.com/2026/04/27/us/po…
NYT CEO is right: rebundling what the internet unbundled works, just works for one newspaper. Ben's description ("a fight against entropy") nails the core tension in every institution surviving the internet: you can fight entropy, but only if you're big enough to absorb the cost.
4-9-2026
An Interview with New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien About Betting on Humans With Expertise
stratechery.com/2026/an-inte…
This Super Bowl production so far gets a D-. So many odd choices! Why did the MVPs come out of a small trailer on the sidelines? Why did they randomly wander onto Green Day’s stage? Why were they playing facing the blazing sun?
Why are some coaches and players wearing flannels and t-shirts in their TV packages and others wearing their game gear? Why didn’t they say who Mike McDonald and Mike Vrabel were for casual fans? Why on earth did Bon Jovi introduce the Patriots??
Political campaigns (and most brands, for that matter) still talk about “social media strategy” too tactically. That needs to change if they want to win.
rockatalic.substack.com/p/a-…
3) Improved understanding that trusted messengers/influencers of different sized followings have different use cases
Bonus 4) Longform-to-shortform production engines now becoming a thing (will touch on that in future post)
rockatalic.substack.com/p/a-…
Smart campaigns (not many) understand that the pieces work together for improved reach, faster iteration, and better response to a landscape that moves suddenly and drastically
rockatalic.substack.com/p/a-…
“Households now operate like tiny, under-capitalized businesses juggling volatile inputs. They’re not just paying more; they’re carrying more responsibility, more exposure, and more unpaid overhead.”
On tech, atomization, and affordability:
rockatalic.substack.com/p/te…
“Affordability” = an emotionally thick catch-all. Not just high prices, but more risk, more bills, facing it alone.
Affordability doesn’t just track the price of milk; it tracks the sense that every institution upstream handed you its share of the risk.
This take is not anti-tech. Atomization isn’t inherently good or bad.
But if we want a different affordability future, yelling at prices won’t cut it. We have to reckon with how innovation rearranged risk and responsibility, and what we want to rebundle.
rockatalic.substack.com/p/te…