2025 FORECAST pt.2
holistic hedonism, the poop economy, purity spirals, and the future of socializing.
*here’s part 1: culture, media, fashion & work*
a note on formatting: under each category, you’ll find the top 3 trends. in the bonus round section, you’ll find the odds and ends that didn’t make it. let’s dive in.
I. FOOD
1. food as the next frontier of luxury
food has become an emblem of understated luxury—an intersection of art, media, and culture.
predictions:
any luxury brand worth its salt won’t host an event without hiring a gohar1 or a salud salud2 to integrate a food dimension.
more pop-up dining experiences in increasingly rogue settings. return of dinner and a show. narrative-driven dining (ex. LEGO dinner3). the portlandia skit about knowing the name of your chicken, but for real.
craft fermentation (pickles, yogurt, miso, kimchi, etc) goes highbrow.
2. the poop economy
this is the dark horse no one is talking about. if i’m being honest, i thought this was just a weird thing my family talked about, but then i got outside confirmation:
what explains the rise of the slavic doll diet?
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fermentation fever?
the fiber boom?
all roads lead to the poop economy.
predictions:
high-end gut reset retreats.
continued boom in gut health products: fermented foods, probiotics, and fiber-laced products (similar to the wave of protein-packed snacks we’re seeing).
poop discourse becomes less taboo.
3. bluebottle steak
just as the coffee industry evolved from folgers to bluebottle, we’ll see the same happen with meat—you’ll know the name of the cow, what it ate, and how often it was massaged, etc. (h/t
)predictions:
talking about your sourcing pedigree goes from weird flex to flex.
batch numbers + QR codes allowing you to trace your food’s supply chain.
whole foods’ reputation will continue to tank until it’s considered just another kroger.
bougie butchers & $60/lb steaks.
II. TRAVEL
in 2025, travelers are seeking transformation.
1. rise of the misogi
with traditional rites of passage all but gone, folks are coming up with their own. endurance events like marathons, hyrox, and 29029 everesting are surging in popularity—they promise transformation, a sense of accomplishment, plus a medal to flaunt.
enter the misogi, an annual challenge popularized by jesse itzler. here are the rules:
1. you should have a 50/50 chance of success.
2. it should scare you a bit.
3. you’re doing it for you, not anyone else.
the question is why do any of this? because we’re facing a crisis of meaning.
prediction: the rise of challenger vacations — organized for you, includes hotel and itinerary, you just show up and compete.
2. the sabbatical boom
professors have had it right all along — we work best when it’s seasonal. sprint, rest, sprint. AI efficiency improvements will make this possible.
predictions:
the rise of transformation retreats — though they might not explicitly make the claim, the promise will be implicit: come and you’ll experience a transformation of some form (creative, spiritual, or physical).
annual sabbaticals become the next wave of startup perks.
3. the fixer
we’re sick of finding ourselves at the same handful of wine bars as everyone else from east LA, east london, and east williamsburg.
we want the inside track. the friend in-town experience.
as AI displaces email jobs, more folks will move into hospitality. one of the areas we’ll see the most growth: the fixer. if you’ve never hired a fixer, it’s like hiring a friend in a new city. i did it in india after getting scammed and it saved my trip, and maybe much more.
predictions:
airbnb expands their experiences offering to include a more bespoke option or an uber for fixers enters the market.
travelers ditch hotels and airbnb in favor of subletting a real apartment (see: listings project, myplace, kiki) while the ultra-wealthy opt for services like paris’ highstay.
III. HEALTH
1. the purity spiral
sure, maybe you’ve seen the headlines about microplastics being found in everyone’s balls4 (even your dog’s), but humans are dumb and require repeat exposure for an idea to set in. 2025 is the year we really start freaking out about what we’ve been putting on and in our bodies.
predictions:
an alo yoga-type phenomenon, but this one will exclusively use natural fibers.
UPFs (ultra-processed foods) seen as the new tobacco... bc they are: after the gov moved to regulated tobacco companies in the 1960s, they diversified—buying up food companies and running the same addictive playbook, but on children’s cereal.5
2. the future of socializing…
“..is being healthy together” — nachson mimran, co-founder of alpina gstaad
situated somewhere between a chapel and the pub lies the sauna.
there are plenty of other ways to be “healthy together”, but few have the same history and rituals of the sauna. plus, it’s the perfect no-phone zone—one of the few times in my day that i am not strapped to a device (see part 1: offline chic).
predictions:
sauna clubs and social hours seen as a real alternative to going out.
examples: sauna culture in east london & othership social hours.
also, you’ll be hearing the word aufguss a lot more.
proliferation of community saunas in backyards & repurposed spaces, akin to the DIY punk movement.
3. holistic hedonism
we’re burnt out on wellness. the pendulum is swinging back: cigs, stims, & butter.
those who aren’t quite ready to rip darts again will take a more holistic approach to wellness: less bryan johnson, more ayuverdia — the practices actually work and cost next to nothing.
IV. TECH
1. year of the robot
it’s about to get weird. you can buy one of these robots (below) for $3k. $16k gets you a full-on humanoid.
but the real shift will be agentic AI. right now, chatGPT only talks, whereas AI agents act—like a GPS giving you a route vs. a self-driving car taking you there. an army of digital employees are coming and you’ll either be their boss or their competition.
prediction: we won’t see mass lay-offs (hopefully), but we will see a lot of hiring freezes as execs push employees to find new ways to leverage AI before adding to headcount.
2. your digital psychic
right now we think of AI in the chat interface sense. that’ll change in 2025. more voice, but more importantly, it’ll start to pre-empt our desires — a bit like how the tiktok algo knows what you want before you do.
predictions:
curated feeds and personal podcasts tailored to your learning goals and interests. eleven labs and perplexity are already doing this.
echo chamber upgrade: we split even further into micro-bubbles of tailor-made content. shared cultural reference points diminish, making broad social cohesion a challenge.
the unassisted: those who resist AI assistance to preserve human spontaneity and prevent their faculties from atrophying (already happening to me with writing).
3. voice as interface
J.A.R.V.I.S6 but real life.
the last major interface paradigm shift was the release of the iphone in 2007. before the iphone, smartphones existed, but it convinced billions that the touch screen was a viable interface. next interface is voice. (h/t
)
predictions:
openAI releases hardware. likely voice first.
amazon’s massive investment and infamous losses in the echo ecosystem will prove shrewd.
either you’re pretty into this, or you’re on a hate read rampage. either way, might you consider sharing this w/ a pal who’d enjoy it? or maybe a fellow hater reader. your call.
V. CREATIVE
1. the imperfect life
in 2025 we’re hungry for honest representations (& proof of humanity). see part 1: endearingly unhinged.
more apartamento, less arch digest.
closely related: lo def. it just feels more real.
more unexpected crops, motion blur, grain — even more film and camcorders.
example: any fcukers music video
2. read or rot
we’re brainrotted out. enough 15 second tiktoks. give me something i can sink my teeth into. we’re even willing to go so far as read again (part 1: the substack surge).
prediction: longform yt creators will be an early hire at savvy companies.
3. 80s aesthetic
if you visit r/80sdesign and sort posts by: top posts, all time — you’ll see the top 7 were posted within the last 6 months (the subreddit started 10 years ago).
+ BONUS ROUND +
I. TRAVEL:
a. debauchery at sea:
long derided as a snooz, cruises are about to have a moment. i recently heard a story about a “gay cruise” and boy did it sound debaucherous.
prediction: niche cruises around specific interests. think: bryan johnson cruise — no alcohol, no late nights—just relentless self-optimization at sea.
II. FOOD
a. reservation culture out:
walk-ins are in.
or just make your own damn food (arguably the higher-status move in 2025).
b. single-serving indulgences:
tiny martinis, mini cinnabons, etc.
prediction: the ninja creami will explode in popularity as word gets out that you can body an entire pint of ice cream with it for only 150 kcals (and 30g protein).
c. the sandwich renaissance:
to be fair, when have sandwiches ever not been in? that said, with the rise of populism & nostalgia we’ll be reaching for the sammie in 2025.
reach prediction: two trends converge (sandwiches & eastern european food7), leading to the long overdue hard-launch of the open-faced sandwich in the US market. iykyk.
III. HEALTH
a. friendship as a service:
both paying for friends8 and services like
’s matchmaking experiments. just got my matches:
b. of boys and men:
discourse around men’s struggles loses its conservative connotation and is addressed as an issue.
signal: of boys and men listed on obama’s summer reading list.
c. cool sex > hot sex:
this one was thanks to our (female) anonymous tipster. more than just a great name, the philosophy9 makes sense and surprisingly is backed up by pornhub’s trend report: searches for “mindful sex” up 72%10.
d. IFS:
internal family systems—don’t worry, has nothing to do with families—will be the next topic du jour in pop psychology.
IV. TECH
a. VCs & tech bros do the impossible:
..become even more insufferable. emboldened by trump win and AI wave (though we may see many a tech bro get simultaneously humbled by AI as that job market gets squeezed).
b. BTC:
hits $250k as US adds it to the treasury within the next few years — (h/t
).V. CREATIVE
a. attitudinal energy:
no more of this “we’re for everyone” speak. we’re looking for brands with a strong point of view—one that speaks to our individuality, making us feel seen and empowered.
closing thoughts
this was all very fun, but if you’re trying to predict the future, you’re far better off identifying what won’t change, rather than what will.
famously, this was the approach bezos took with amazon. rather than predict the changing appetite of consumers, he inverted it — asking, “what won’t change?”
will customers ever want slower shipping?
worse customer service?
less selection?
the answer was no across the board. so all he had to do was deliver on those promises.
but that’s kinda boring.
-t
wanna borrow my brain for a project?
i got introduced to the misogi concept by jesse itzler. now i have a big ass calendar right my bed and the sudden urge to run a full-marathon
fire