The Monoculture is dead. Now what?
If you still plan like the monoculture exists, you’re planning for a world that’s gone. CES dispatch with Evan Shapiro and Alan Wolk.
Picture this. Evan Shapiro is at CES. I’m in Amsterdam making a snowman (because my flight got canceled). Enters our dear friend and industry legend: Alan Wolk, here to talk about what he calls the media dark’s ages.
This episode of The Media Odyssey Podcast is a pressure test for the story we all tell ourselves at the start of the year: that the industry is messy but basically coherent. Alan’s take is harsher and annoyingly logical. The monoculture is gone, the bubbles are real, the gatekeepers are out and “a single source of truth” is now a nostalgic concept.
Here’s what you’ll hear:
Why Alan calls this moment “the dark ages of media,” and why he still insists “there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Why discovery is not just broken, it is structurally incompatible with walled gardens and dopamine-optimized feeds.
Why sports still functions as the last monoculture, for now, and why even that may splinter over time.
Why AI might become “the way the printing press did,” not by making more content, but by rebuilding shared reality.
One quote that stuck with me: “Realise that this is the world that we’re in and we’re gonna be in this world for a while”. And if you want the practical gut punch, it comes near the end, when Evan asks the career question that too many people will face again in 2026.
If your job touches distribution, ads, content or product, this one is not optional listening but hey that’s just me.
Full episode available here: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE.
A massive thank you to Fabric Media & OpenAP for making this live episode possible.
That’s it for today but before you go:
❓Survey time
As we start year 2 of the pod, we’d love to hear from you! What topics do you want more of? Less of? What’s working? What’s missing? This is your chance to tell us directly.
To fill out the survey, head over here.
