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Best/Worst of Times

February 20, 2026 · 1 h 5 min

Show notes

They unpack the "orality thesis" and what the shift from written to spoken culture means for how we think, communicate, and vote. On the media side, they map out what's actually working right now: audience-first elite brands, B2B trojan horses like Hearst, expert creator newsletters, and the relentless pull of performance marketing, and AI-generated monkey content on YouTube. Plus: a report from the Swiss Alps.

* Watch us on YouTube

* Troy Young’s People vs Algorithms newsletter

* Brian Morrissey’s The Rebooting newsletter

* Alex Schleifer’s Human Computer

* Follow Alex, Brian and Troy on Twitter

Chapters:

* 00:39 Welcome

* 05:13 Orality Thesis

* 08:42 Writing vs Talking

* 12:07 Doom-Maxing

* 22:58 Leadership Crisis

* 33:16 The Best and Worst of Media

* 52:06 Synthetic YouTube Content

* 56:36 Good Product

* 01:03:41 Outro



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.peoplevsalgorithms.com

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