We’re keeping things moving this month, with a focus on sport, beauty, AI and wellbeing — all of which you might have spotted in our Weekly Supplements —as well as our usual tasty selection of signals and obsessions running alongside.
Enjoy x
SIGNALS
Summer is here and so this Soul Sugar Joint playlist 🌞
We’re loving Library Stack and it’s mission to replicate traditional library methods for collecting, indexing, preserving, and sharing digital content.
Modern politics and the liar’s dividend.
Open Foresight Hub is everything a futurehead needs - a library of reports, evolving futures summaries, and a comprehensive foresight encyclopaedia. You’re welcome.
Can you taste design?
Katharina Korbjuhn of Paradigm Trilogy on cultural critique fatigue and the power of personal narratives via a 25 minute unpausable short film. You can read our exploration of it here.
Sharing this in case you missed it 🤯
We’re all for #IRL Revolution, a parent-led movement to give teenagers a real-life alternative to their screens.
How MSCHF turns irreverent ideas into real businesses.
Aimé Leon Dore fuses streetwear, sustainability and inclusivity with classic golf gear.
Have marathons became the new fashion weeks?
As explored by Patter, running hubs are becoming vibrant neighbourhood spaces, building community and transforming the urban running culture.
Is everything now merch?
Are we entering the post-post-truth era?
This months reading recommendation is poet Hussain Manawer’s new book I Wanted to Quit Too.
AI and the importance of cultural curators.
SkinDeep by Studio.Halia explores how our digital and physical identities merge
Dirt asks how much would you sell out for?
The MemeManifesto is everything you expect it to be and a whole lot more.
Laura Feinstein highlights the innovations that are shaping the future of beauty, from AI-enhanced make-up to robot-powered nail art.
Dougald Hind on doing the internet right.
Pioneer Works on the hidden consequences of America's reliance on Adderall, revealing how its widespread use is altering our culture and health.
Highsnobiety's Overshare series on how social media is both a help and a hinderance to your mental health.
Is 2:42 the perfect length for a song? (From 2008, but still relevant 😉)
Jessica Lucas investigates the increasing trend of teenagers using AI chatbots as friends and therapists, and the implications for their social development and mental health.
Finally, our Weekly Supplement explores how running has evolved from a solitary sport into a dynamic cultural force, influencing how we interact with our surroundings, and with each other.
OBESSIONS
We asked some of the Protein Agency team what they can’t stop thinking about:
If you’d like to be featured here, we’d love to hear from you …
SMALL PRINT
Protein is a place where people and ideas grow. We do this through our studios, agency, and global community. We believe we’ve all got a responsibility to think and act bigger than ourselves and that good growth can only be achieved by balancing purpose, profit, and progress.
Protein Supplement has been helping to make sense of the world around us since 1997 by bringing you the signals (people and ideas) that create change. They could be controversial, hopeful, beautiful, or just plain ridiculous, but they all feed our collective intelligence in the hope of building a better future.
These insights are also the fuel we use to help brands make more impactful decisions, as well as craft cultural research and community-first activations. So, if you’re interested in knowing more about Protein Agency, you can request our creds deck here.
Yes, we really have published 700+ issues 👀 of this newsletter. The first Protein Supplement was sent on 17th September 1997 to 14 people and (other than a few breaks over the years) has always tried to understand what’s really happening in the world. If you’re interested in digging into the (incomplete) archive, you can here.
You can also find us on Insta and Twitter. We always like to hear how we can improve what we do, so please get in touch here, and if you’re creative, curious and want to help build a better future, you can apply to join Protein here.
