The Robot and the Nun

Two sermons for the future arrived in our feeds this week, and I want to talk about it.

Spanish artist Rosalía released Berghain—a fever dream of a video where Björk appears as a prophetic bird and the line between flesh, ritual, and code dissolves into something—dare I say—divine! Meanwhile, in Silicon Valley, a humanoid robot was unveiled to the world—an alabaster-skinned replica of “help at home,” engineered by men who still haven’t met their own humanity.

Both are acts of creation.
One is ancestral. The other, mechanical.

Rosalía’s world as you enter it feels alive—elastic, surreal, dripping with contradiction. It honors chaos as a sacred teacher. Her vision for the album is messy, mythic, full of moral ambiguity. The robot’s world, by contrast, feels like an episode of Black Mirror: efficient, scrubbed of friction and memory.

In watching it, it gives me hope that the next era of creation doesn’t belong solely to engineers, but also to the mystics—those still willing to touch the unknown with their bare hands.

I think this was just the injection of hope we needed before the close of the year: a reminder, as Silicon Valley’s tech bros try—yet again—to play god, that awe is still ours for the taking.

Conversations From the Pod

This season of “the lab” is off to a wonderful start, and a few episodes in particular seem to have really resonated with you all!

EPISODE 6 → On Job Grief in the Tech Industry

My chat with Visionaries co-founder Geoffrey Colon has been one of the most talked-about episodes this season. We started by unpacking the collective grief in the tech industry, what feels like the end of corporate job safety, and anxiety about roles we worry may never return. But the dialogue quickly turned toward imagination: what if this collapse is actually an opening? Geoff and I go on to explore how the rise of portfolio careers signals the emergence of smaller indie creator systems as the next infrastructure of work and a shift from managing to making.

Listen now:

Spotify / Apple

EPISODE 3 → On Getting Out of Your Head and Starting Something

Somewhere in the process of talking about anthropology and job transitions. Lindsey Lerner and I referenced Justin Welsh’s prediction from a year ago that blue-collar work will make a comeback in a post-AI world. We nodded along like two philosophers, and moved on with the interview. Then—because the universe has a sense of humor—Justin actually listened to the episode and commented about it on social media!

Which means this conversation is has now officially gone meta: two generalists discussing the return of working-class values, in a podcast literally about work, that gets heard by the guy whose tweet inspired the tangent.

It’s giving simulation glitch. It’s giving the field notes became the field….

Listen now:

Spotify / Apple

That’s it for this week. Going back to rewatch that Rosalía video for the 100th time now.

As always, building with you,

Brie