🟣 TREND RADAR #13 :: HUMAN DRIVERS

Cassette Cafes & Spiritual Raves

Feb 10, 2026

Hi all, a few quick notes before diving into the first Trend Radar report of 2026 (!)

I have a lot of ideas for this newsletter, and I’d love your feedback to guide what I prioritize. Are you interested in category-specific trend reporting, or perhaps some ‘office hours’-style sessions? Would you be willing to take a super quick survey (4-6 multiple-choice questions) to let me know? I’d really appreciate it!
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On that note, I’m going to test out ‘office hours’ this week. On Thursday Feb 12, from 12-1pm ET, I’ll open up a chat on the Substack app for anyone who would like to discuss the themes from this post, or any other trend-related topics.
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At the end of January, annual paid subscribers received the final version of the 2026 Macrotrend Report, which unlocks 13 Macrotrend Summaries, and 6 Category Snapshots that cover industries from food & beverage to fashion & design. It’s a reference resource for the entire year: a starting point to stimulate creative ideation, and a framework to stress-test strategic decision-making.
If you’re interested in accessing, just upgrade your subscription. (And expense it! Here’s a template)1 Also, a reminder that you can contact me if you’re interested in organizing a presentation of the report for your team.

This Trend Radar will recap some of the relevant signals tracked in the database over the past ~6 weeks. We’ll begin with the Human drivers space of the framework, which includes three macrotrends: Analog Soul, Spiritual Healing, and Hyper Pleasure.

Analog Soul

39 signals added to the database since 1/1/2026 are tagged for ‘Analog Soul’

It feels obligatory to mention the obvious here: an explosion of “analog” and “offline” content on Tiktok (ironic!), along with The Cut’s viral “frictionmaxxing” article. Early subscribers already know that I’ve been tracking Analog Soul for several years, highlighted Offline Escape in January 2025, and flagged fetishizing friction last summer. The 2026 Macrotrend Report explains how this macrotrend will continue to evolve moving forward, giving rise to the key themes of Aspirational Humanity and Sensorial Potency.
A newer aspect of the “offline” trend is how it intersects with Aspirational Humanity. In parallel to the emerging hierarchy of humanness, we see a hierarchy of offline-ness: it’s desirable to be offline, but most people don’t have the privilege to unplug. For SSENSE, kate lindsay covered “How Brick Became a Status Symbol for the Aspirationally Offline.” I think it’s interesting to consider how unplugging has become an indulgence. That’s sort of how it felt when I Bricked my phone for two weeks last October. Like, I might treat myself to a massage, or a weekend without social apps.
Recent editorials by Szilveszter Makó — of Rama Duwanji and Elle Fanning — embody the Analog Soul ethos. The hand-crafted artistic quality is reminiscent of what Mandy Lee @oldloserinbrooklyn dubs the “hipness purgatory” aesthetic of the late 2000s.
It’s notable that Makó’s work conveys craft; it’s not just a “raw aesthetic” that includes “imperfection.” Rachel Karten has explained why chasing superficial authenticity in imagemaking is a misguided strategy when AI can imitate these qualities with increasing effectiveness (aka humanwashing). And Elizabeth Goodspeed further explored the design-related implications of tihs tension in an article for It’s Nice That:
When analogue collapses into surface style, it stops applying pressure to how work is made and valued. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
A Vogue article explored “Needlepoint’s Modern-Day Renaissance,” with the hobby’s popularity driven by Tiktok.
Dior released their new book cover totes, and Cultured reported that out-of-print books are “the hottest new thing in lit.” The romanticization of intellectualism continues, with Tiktok’s “disgustingly educated” trend, the boom in bookstreaming, and “literary it girls.” LSN Global published an trend piece on this topic, concluding:
The next phase of the trend will be defined by brands that can move audiences from displaying intelligence to sustaining it. This will create conditions where people are not just seen to be thinking, but are actually thinking deeply and collectively.
Dazed covered the rising interest in letter-writing and ‘junk-journaling,’ and a local news piece from Chicago documented the ‘explosive growth’ seen by the city’s stationary shops. In Buenos Aires, a cafe called Posdata incorporates a working post office, encouraging patrons to write and send letters and postcards.
CASSE is a cafe in Tokyo that offers portable cassette players at each seat and a library of tapes to choose from, while a new DIY project coverts Spotify streams into cassette tapes.
Volkswagen announced that they’re bringing physical buttons back to the dashboard, joining other makers like Hyundai, Porsche, and Mercedez-Benz in a wider move away from touchscreens in cars.

Hyper Pleasure

25 signals added to the database since 1/1/2026 are tagged for ‘Hyper Pleasure’

An Ark is a new mixed-reality theater experience that “bridges physical presence with digital augmentation.”
Sexual wellness brand Maude unveiled a Wuthering Heights collaboration. Inspired by the film, the “come undone kit” is a “limited-edition intimacy ritual” that “brings together scent, touch, and storytelling.”
Joe & the Juice partnered with Alice mushrooms to create an “intimacy-enhancing smoothie”
Sleep or Die positions sleep as pleasure by borrowing semiotic codes from hedonistic party culture — the recently launched “sleep strips” look like tabs of LSD and are packaged in a cigarette box.
Aesop launched a bathhouse concept with Montreal’s Recess Thermal Station.
Snif launched their “Secret Menu” scent collection at Ulta, with “weird” experimental offerings inspired by food and drink like pizza and cola. Arabelle Sicardi examined the popularity and evolution of gourmand fragrances for Harper’s Bazaar. She links this trend to the rise of GLP-1 use and explains:
Foodified fragrance thrives in moments of instability. As economic, political, and ecological anxieties intensify, scent becomes a low-risk indulgence—pleasure without consequence, consumption without calories.

Spiritual Healing

13 signals added to the database since 1/1/2026 are tagged for ‘Spiritual Healing’

Maybe you noticed that Muihood, a brand rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, was highlighted as a key signal in the Beauty & Wellness category snapshot of the 2026 Macrotrend Report. Recently, Emily Sundberg wrote about the “sudden wave of cultural interest in TCM” and noted its rise as a pushback against over-optimization, which aligns with the Key Theme: Sensorial Potency. While the current virality is partially fueled by Tiktok , Sundberg’s interviews with practitioners and shop owners proves that people are actively engaging with TCM modalities beyond just posting about it.2
Relatedly, an article by Amy Francombe for Vogue Business more broadly explored the surging interest in traditional healing systems and rhythmic health, while Dazed covered the mainstreaming of “regulating your nervous system.”
Eha is a new wellness destination set to open this year in Estonia. Structured around seasonality, the concept uses “the island’s natural rhythms as a framework for emotional and physical recalibration,” drawing on local healing traditions “from birch sauna ceremonies and peat body wraps sourced from local wetlands to wild herb foraging and dawn mist walks.”
In Taiwan, spiritual temple raves “are envisioned more as an offering to the folkloric spirits these shrines celebrate than an opportunity ‘get fucked up’”
Netflix launched a tarot-themed campaign, including both experiential and digital activations to promote its upcoming its upcoming slate of releases for 2026.
That Netflix campaign is cute and kitschy, but the popularity of tarot, astrology, Etsy witches, etc., while niche, remains a real business opportunity space. Esther MK argues that, because this market is primarily dominated by women, interesting concepts are chronically “underfunded, under-legitimised, and written off as unserious.” I love her proposal for a magic marketplace:
Imagine a trusted marketplace somewhere between Deliveroo and Doctolib: vetted practitioners, transparent pricing, ratings, and availability. Not stripping the magic, just professionalising access. Less crystal ball, more infrastructure.
If you’ve ever tried to find and book an astrologer, this makes complete sense.

Access previous trend radar reports, organized by drivers space, at the links below:

If you are a student, unemployed, or freelance worker, you can always reach out to me directly for sliding scale pricing.

Also important to note there’s been criticism of how these ancient practices are being superficially commodified by white wellness creators, including a thoughtful essay by Coveteur EIC Faith Xue.

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