By Allison P. Davis | THE CUT
One morning in June, while I was puffing away on my stationary bike — fine, a Peloton — pretending I had enough time to get my body ready for the “hot vaxx summer” that never really was, my friend Ellen messaged me: “Okay, please let me know if this person is dumb. But this stressed me out this morning.”
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She dropped a link to something titled “Vibe Shift,” an entry from a Substack called 8Ball, which turned out to be the weekly newsletter of a trend-forecasting consultancy founded by Sean Monahan. Previously, Monahan had helped found the now-defunct art collective K-HOLE, known for giving a name to the 2010s phenomenon of normcore and succinctly explaining why all of a sudden everyone was wearing New Balance sneakers and dad jeans. In other words, he’s someone who has made a career of translating cultural trends for a larger audience.
