Klein’s Cultural Strategy Stack

Media Diet: Docs, Books, Podcasts, Newsletters +

4 min readFeb 5, 2021

Everyone needs “input” to better understand the world. You can’t create an insightful or successful “output” (strategy, campaign, art), without an input to react to. These are my inputs. I recommend these inputs, however not all of them may be for you. That’s okay. I spend a lot of time searching for provocative and stimulating content… and I want to share it with you. Enjoy.

* = Required IMO

Documentaries —

*Everything is a Remix & Part 2: The past, present and future of media
*Feels Good Man: Pepe the Frog and the power of memes
*Trump, QAnon and The Return of Magic: An explanation of 2018+
Jawline: Exploring the desire and path to becoming an influencer
The Deep Web: Digital crimes, drugs, and the Silk Road
Hail Satan: The intersection of religion and activism
Woodstock ’99: Snapshot of the late-90s zeitgeist
Quilt Fever: The Academy Awards of quilting
The Work: A peak inside intensive group therapy for convicts
The Most Unknown: How much do we really know?
Human Nature: CRISPR and our future

Books —

*CULT-URE: The dynamics of thought, media and culture
*This is Marketing: The only marketing book you need
*Team Human: Why being human is our greatest strength
Everybody Lies: What search data reveals
The Extreme Self: How we’ve been morphing into something else
Videocracy: Theorizing YouTube and virality
What Money Can’t Buy: The ethics of markets
Dataclysm: What our online lives tell us about our offline selves
Contagion: Why things catch on
Present Shock: When everything happens now
Alchemy: Why ideas that don’t make sense, make sense
The Art of Noticing: How to pay attention

Twitter —

My Following: Selected publication sources and figures

History —

CNN The 00's
CNN The 90's
CNN The 80's
CNN The 70's

Podcasts —

Team Human: How to program society to better serve humans
Making Sense: Philosophy, ethics, culture, current events
Digital Void: Digital culture, media, memes and tech
Joe Rogan Experience: Controversial takes to challenge your thinking

Newsletters —

[SIC] Weekly: The week’s links covering all things culture (Link curation)
Web Curios: Covering the overlooked parts of the internet (Link curation)
After School: Daily email about youth culture
Cultural Patterns: Analyzing brands, culture, and strategy
Seth’s Blog: Though-provoking daily emails from Seth Godin
Garbage Day: Investigating the fringes of the web
In Bed With Social: Social media + culture + consumer
WSJ CMO Today: Daily news for media and marketing professionals
The Download from MIT: Daily tech and futurology news
STRAT_SCRAPS: Bootlegged ideas for Strategists
Trends.co: Signals, stories and pieces for entrepreneurs
On My Radar: Digital trends across social media

TV —

60 Minutes: Investigative reports, interviews, and profiles
CBS Sunday Morning: Stories on the arts, history, sci and Americana

YouTube—

PBS Idea Channel: PBS show examining pop culture, tech and art (Inactive)
Now You See It: Media analyses searching for meaning in unexpected places
Nerd Writer: Video essays covering media and pop culture
Every Frame a Painting: Video essays about the film form
Cult Popture: Video essays about understanding pop culture
Thomas Flight: Revealing the artistry behind the things we watch
Kirby Ferguson: Analyzing the deeper social meanings across culture
Middle 8: Video essays about the behind within artists and songs
Wisecrack: Cultural phenomenon meets philosophy and ethics
Internet Historian: “Professor of Internet Happenings”
F*ckonomics: Learning about business from porn
VICE: Reporting topics you wouldn’t otherwise know about
Motherboard by VICE: Exploring the future

Subreddits —

r/OutOfTheLoop: Keep up to date with what’s going
r/ExplainLikeImFive: Friendly explanations
r/TodayILearned: Learn something new
r/DataIsBeautiful: Visualizations that effectively convey information
r/InternetIsBeautiful: Awesome websites and webtools
r/Futurology: A space devoted to future studies