Because who doesn’t want an employee that never causes drama in the Teams chat, never needs a lunch break, never asks for a pay rise, and can churn out soul-less slop 24/7? (hope you can tell this is satire, but also, it’s pretty close to a LinkedIn post I saw today). If you’re a creative, I’m guessing you’re probably a hair’s width away from giving up, running away from civilisation, and letting the bots just do their thing. But (and it’s a big but), what if we aren’t actually doomed after all?

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

(btw - If you’re already using Claude Code or Cowork daily, scroll on by bc this isn’t for you)

But if you’ve just dabbled in using AI, maybe you’re using ChatGPT to help you look up recipes, write basic emails, or attempt to diagnose that insect bite you just got, stay with me for a sec.

When it comes to AI, there’s a lot of “bro you’re so behind” messaging out there. When, in reality, within just a couple hours, you can learn how to use AI better than 95% of people you know. And this why we put together the Beginner’s Guide to Claude AI course.

It’s a 4-week cohort where you learn how to go from using AI as a glorified Google to getting it to actually help you with the sh*tty admin (life or work) you hate doing every day.

We kick off our second cohort on 22 June, so if you want to go from feeling behind to using AI to make your life better, this is for you 👇

Especially since it’s been doing so for over 136 years. We should all really take notes tbh. According to The Verge, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie just crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office.

One. Billion. Dollars. Bruh.

The fictional Italian plumber flying through space is now saving movie theatres, too?? Which tbf, have been a bit of a damsel in distress since 2020. It’s the first film of 2026 to pull more than a billion dollars, and on a budget of just $110 million. But with two Marvel movies and Toy Story 5 on the horizon, I doubt it will be the last film to cross the threshold.

I feel like this means we are likely destined to get Mario spin-offs until the sun explodes. Get ready for the gritty cinematic universe of Toad, or some sh*t like that. It’s proof the nostalgia bait continues to work despite all of us claiming it’s a one-trick pony.

Another facet of media caught in this trap? Electronic music.

And because of this, the fracturing of the industry, and the sheer quantity of music coming out, the 2020’s has a major lack of a defining sound. Everything that hits the mainstream is just a faster, recycled version of a rave track your parents danced to. It turns out that creating a totally new musical era is hard when everyone just wants to escape reality by pretending it’s 1997 again.

And finally, speaking of identity crises, the outdoor fashion world is currently locked in the most chaotic legal battle of the year, and probably even, its whole existence. Vanity Fair broke down the absolute mess that is the Patagonia v. Pattie Gonia trademark debacle. Yes, you read that right. The multi-billion-dollar outdoor clothing brand (named after an actual geographical place, mind you) is officially fighting the iconic, environmentalist drag queen over her name. It’s an absolute PR disaster where nobody wins.

On one hand, you have a brand built on eco-activism. And on the other, a queer activist literally fighting for the planet in six-inch heels. Corporate lawyers vs. drag queens in the year 2026. Truly, what a time to be alive.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

No matter how many times I stand on my digital soapbox and preach about why human voices cannot be replaced, there are honestly days when the noise gets too fkn loud.

There are days when I look at the breakneck speed of Large Language Models or read another LinkedIn post celebrating how a marketing department "scaled content by 500% with zero headcount," and I feel a cold spike of panic in my chest.

If you make your living by pulling thoughts out of your head and turning them into words on a page, you are currently living through a grinding psychological war.

You are being asked by clients if your hard-won prose was generated by a machine. You are defending your own right to exist to people who view language as nothing more than inventory.

I see you. I hear you. I am right there in the trenches with you.

And today, I want to look the monster directly in the eye. Let’s look at the terrifying facts, look at where the puck is actually heading, and talk about why the future doesn’t belong to the machines—it belongs to the writers who refuse to be smoothed out. Together x

We cannot fix a problem if we pretend it isn't happening. The market shift is structural and systemic.

If your job description was simply "putting words on a page," the market is leaving you behind. The machine can do that in four seconds for fractions of a penny.

But the plot twist that the tech evangelists are completely missing (and one I’ve spoken about many a time) when everything becomes frictionless, friction becomes the luxury asset.

AI is a statistical mirror. It looks at everything we have ever written, calculates the average response, and spits it back out. It is designed to be smooth, predictable, and entirely devoid of risk.

The result is that the internet is currently suffering from acute semantic fkn bleaching.

Every corporate announcement sounds identical. Every ebrand manifesto reads like it was written by the same mildly enthusiastic committee. The feed has become a gray, seamless soup of "in today's fast-paced digital landscape."

The human brain is an anomaly detector. We look at things that are jagged, not smooth. The sentence that takes a weird left turn. The deeply specific, slightly embarrassing personal anecdote. The raw, unfiltered opinion that might actually get someone fired (oh hey, it’s me).

AI cannot create originality because originality requires the risk of being wrong. It requires a body, a childhood, a heartbreak, a weird interaction at a coffee shop this morning, and the specific, unrepeatable neuroses that make you you.

The machine can mimic the structure of a love letter, but it can never emanate the heat of the human hand that wrote it.

If we want to survive, we have to stop trying to compete with the machine on its terms. You cannot write faster than Claude, and you cannot write cheaper than ChatGPT.

So, stop trying.

Instead, you need to elevate your craft to the parts of the spectrum the code cannot reach:

In 2026, your value is no longer your output speed; it is your curation and taste. Anyone can generate 10,000 words on a topic. But the person who has the taste to say: "These 9,900 words are garbage, but these 100 words have a soul.” That’s the writer who survives the Apocalypse.

AI can never write from first-person authority. It has never built a business, it has never sat in a pitch meeting, and it has never felt the dread of a tanking conversion rate. Double down on lived experience. Write pieces that start with: "I spent three weeks looking at this data, and here is the human mess I found."

Stop trying to write perfectly. The machine is perfect. Write with rhythm. Write with weird fragments and short sentences that hit like a slap to the face. Break grammatical rules intentionally to create an emotional cadence that a predictive text algorithm would never choose.

The world doesn't need more text. We are drowning in text.

What the world needs is truth. It needs perspective. It needs the electrical current that passes between two human minds when one person says something so startlingly honest that the other person feels less alone. It needs PASSION. And mess. And heat.

The machine can give them the data. But only you can give them the blood, the sweat, and the magic.

Keep writing. The feed is dark, but your voice is the light.

Stay safe, my soldiers x

-Sophie Randell, Writer

The original video is of a girl singing in public who then gets interrupted by a dude with a high pitched voice. And the sound can be suitable in any situation where you're being interrupted by someone else jumping in. Some of my favourite examples of this trend:

Record yourself or you with a partner, with them singing then you jumping in to interrupt (or vice versa). It’s real simple trend to get onto.

A few ideas to get you started:

-DJ Taivairanga, Intern

😂Yap’s funniest home videos - Can't fit the shoe? Gotta move like Michael
❤How wholesome - "I'd risk it all for you"
😊Soooo satisfying - Bowling duo
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight - One pot Chicken vege Orzo

Hey Rhea!

It's great that you're getting some good interaction with your content. But for the algorithm to push it to more people, you need to get your viewers to not just interact with the video, but watch to the end. The best way to do this is to use the storytelling structure we always talk about: setup, conflict, and resolution.

If you're telling a good story, viewers will get hooked and want to watch the whole thing. So focus on crafting a compelling narrative that makes viewers think, "I've got to see how this ends!" That's how you'll boost those view numbers and create more meaningful engagement.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.