Shows / FUNK !T | Mindful Media & Communication
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & Communication
Join Sascha H. Funk, the current head of media studies at Thammasat University, as he explores the impact of media on our lives. Dive into thought-provoking discussions on mindful media consumption, digital trends, and effective communication strategies. Discover how to navigate the digital landscape with intention, cultivate a healthy relationship with media, and stay ahead in the ever-changing media landscape. Tune in for insights, strategies, and real-world examples on Mindful Media and…
Episodes
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationAlert, Not Alarmed: Seventeen Countries, One Map, No Soup
Over the weekend Ocado ran out of about forty varieties of tinned soup. Iceland reported tinned goods up forty percent. Maplin said torch sales nearly…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationWho Actually Gets to Decide What's True? Four Declarations in Two Weeks
On 27 September, MTV invented an award that had never existed and gave it to Taylor Swift. Two days later the President of the United States signed an…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationTwo Thirds of the Attention: How Saxony-Anhalt Happened
Between the first of June and the end of August, political accounts in Saxony-Anhalt collected around 43.4 million views on TikTok. Sixty-four and a half…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationZuckerberg Says the Future Is for Everyone. I Have Five Questions and He Fails All of Them.
Five questions that will ruin every app you love, and a sixth one that matters more than all of them. I teach a platform teardown framework to my Digital…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationOpenAI Can't Make Money, X Won't Die, and Google Search Got Worse On Purpose
I started teaching a new semester this week. Digital Strategy, week one, the same three theories I open with every year. Ten minutes in I realised I wasn't…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationFIFA Caved to a Phone Call. Taylor Swift's Wedding Went Full AI. Great Week for Media Theory.
Two stories this week that look completely unrelated. A presidential phone call to a football governing body. A celebrity wedding at Madison Square Garden with…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe World Cup 2026: The Good, The Bad & The Deeply Uncomfortable Truth
The World Cup is back. 48 teams, three host countries, billions of eyeballs, and — somehow — Saudi Aramco as an official sponsor. Sure. This week we go good…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationNever Gonna Give You Up Pt. 2 — re:publica Debrief: Hope, Haters & the Coalition Problem
I'm back from Berlin. Three days at re:publica — Europe's biggest digital culture conference — and I have thoughts. The good news: the room was packed. People…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationNever Gonna Give You Up
This past week three things happened. The Devil Wears Prada 2 opened globally to $234M — a film about an industry that sacrifices craft for speed, made by…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationHow Censorship Works in 2026 (It Looks Like Accounting)
We're heading into the final weeks of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert - CBS' number one show for nine straight seasons. The official reason: "purely a…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Therapy Aesthetic: Decoding Bieber's 2026 Coachella Set
Justin Bieber’s 2026 Coachella headline set wasn't just a concert; it was a real-time renegotiation of the performer-audience contract. This week on FUNK !T…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationIs Political Communication Dead? Inside the New Era of State Normalization
In this episode of the FUNK !T podcast, we are tackling the profound shift in political communication defining 2026. Forget traditional propaganda designed to…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Pentagon Learned from TikTok
The US military released footage of the Iran strikes this week. It was edited. It had music. It cut like an action trailer. 40 million impressions in 24 hours…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationWhy We Can't Legislate the Algorithm (A Media Theory Analysis)
You cannot build a 19th-century border wall around a 21st-century cloud. Body:This week, the German government (CDU) pushed a motion to strictly ban social…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Bangkok Simulation: Why Global Cities Are Becoming "Non-Places"
Recording from the streets of Bangkok, Sascha Funk analyzes the city not as a tourist destination, but as a living motherboard. Using the framework of…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Gamification of Reality: Betting on the Apocalypse
Prediction markets like Polymarket have turned the news cycle into a casino. But this isn't just about gambling; it's about the Gamification of Reality. We…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationSurveillance Sport: The Death of the "Human" Element
In the final week of Milano Cortina, we are witnessing the collision of "Sport" and "Surveillance Capitalism." When a curling match is decided by a capacitive…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationSpectacle Season: Super Bowl, Olympics & AI Watching Itself
Every February, the world pretends it’s watching sports. But what we’re really watching is spectacle. From Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, to the Winter…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Epstein Files and the Art of Distraction
This weekend, the U.S. Department of Justice released millions of pages of Epstein-related documents under a legal transparency mandate. No leak. No…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationDavos 2026: Where Power Talks and Nothing Decides
Every January, global power gathers in a Swiss village to talk about fixing the world. Panels, speeches, statements. And yet, the crises remain. In this…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationPsychopolitics & the Art of the Feint
This week feels overwhelming on purpose. Venezuela. Iran. Greenland. ICE. Everything at once, no time to think. That’s not chaos. That’s a media feint. In this…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Death of Reality - How the US Weaponized "Cringe" and what that tells us about political communication
It is January 6, 2026. Three days ago, the US captured a head of state. This should be the most serious news story of the decade. But if you look at your…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & Communication2026: The Year We Stopped Trusting the Glitch
If you use AI to write an email, and I use AI to summarize it... did communication actually happen? Or did two piles of code just perform a handshake while we…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Blockade: Why Venezuela is a Crime Scene
While the internet was busy arguing about domestic politics, the US Navy just went back to the 17th Century. On December 16, 2025, the White House designated…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationPanem is Here: Inside Trump’s "Hunger Games" (Freedom 250)
The internet laughed when Donald Trump announced the "Patriot Games" for the Freedom 250 Semiquincentennial. "It's the Hunger Games!" everyone tweeted. They…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationMourning as Content: The Semiotics of Slay
Did she say "Grift" or "Grit"?In this episode, we break down the viral moment that has the entire Right Wing internet spiraling. But we aren't just looking at…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Santa Simulation: Why The Holidays Feel Fake.
Does Christmas feel less like a holiday and more like a deadline? In this holiday anti-special, we peel back the wrapping paper on the "most wonderful time of…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationWhy You’re Hate-Watching Jake Paul (The Psychology)
Boxing used to be about the fight. Now, it’s about the feed. In this video, we break down the Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua narrative not as a sporting event…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationDirector's Cut: How 50 Cent Monetized Diddy’s Downfall
"He asked to take me shopping. I thought that was the weirdest sh*t in the world." — 50 Cent For 20 years, it was hip-hop’s biggest "open secret." It played…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationYour Time Is Up: John Cena and the End of the Eternal Hero
John Cena’s retirement isn’t just the end of a wrestling career — it’s the collapse of a myth built on permanence. In a culture addicted to reboots and eternal…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe FIFA Peace Prize Fiasco
FIFA has made headlines again, and not for football. I dive into the controversial decision to award Donald Trump a Peace Prize. Is this just politics, or is…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationSpotify Wrapped: Why You Are the Product (feat. Taylor Swift & Foucault)
I'm in the top 0.05% of Taylor Swift listeners."Congratulations. You are part of the Monoculture. Spotify Wrapped is not a celebration of your unique taste. It…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationSemester Review: The Classroom as a Mirror (What Worked vs. What Broke)
The university classroom is a microcosm of society. If you want to know where the culture is going, look at the students. Another semester is in the books. I…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationLiverpool FC in Crisis: When the Myth of Anfield Collapses
This Means More." It’s a brilliant marketing slogan—until you start losing. Then, it becomes a curse. Liverpool FC aren't just suffering a dip in form; they…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationFM26 is Broken. So is the System
Two years of hype. One unplayable menu. Football Manager 26 is finally here, and it’s a disaster. I’m skipping the tactical analysis to give you the media…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationAccess as Obedience: When Journalism Turns Into Reality TV
Reuters, BBC, and Fox News walked out. Vloggers walked in. The Pentagon’s new media rules turned the pressroom into a stage — bright lights, perfect angles…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationSongs for Algorithms, Not Ears
Why does every track in 2025 sound like background noise? Because music isn’t written for humans anymore — it’s engineered for skips, clips, and playlists. In…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationTaylor Swift and the Art of the Strategic Flop
Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl broke every streaming record and still got called a flop. Critics say she’s out of ideas; fans say the lyrics sound like…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationWhen Gen Z Takes To The Streets
From Nepal banning TikTok to Morocco’s “hospitals, not stadiums” protests, Gen Z is turning bans and failures into meme-powered revolts. This episode dives…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Saudi Sell-Outs: Sportswashing and Cultural Laundering
From WWE and UFC mega-events to comedy festivals and Formula 1, Saudi Arabia is buying global attention to rebrand repression as spectacle. This episode…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationNetanyahu’s Media War: The Feed as Battlefield
Benjamin Netanyahu calls social media a weapon — and Israel is treating your feed like frontline terrain. From bot networks to state-aligned talk shows…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationDiella the AI Minister: Can You Automate Corruption?
Albania just appointed the world’s first AI minister — a digital avatar named Diella, tasked with making government tenders “100% corruption free.” Sounds…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Age of Partial Presence
Multitasking isn’t a flex — it’s cognitive debt. In this episode, I unpack how we’ve normalized being half-present everywhere: in meetings, in feeds, even in…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationKimmel, Censorship, and the New Public Sphere
Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show just got suspended after a monologue lit the wrong political fuse. ABC caved under pressure from affiliates, advertisers, and…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationWrestlepalooza, ESPN, and the Billion-Dollar Suplex
John Cena’s back, Wrestlepalooza is revived after 25 years, and ESPN is suddenly selling wrestling as if it’s the Super Bowl. Oh, and WrestleMania 43 is headed…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationTaylor & Kelce: Love as Media Event
Forget royal weddings — the Swift-Kelce saga proves romance now comes with broadcast rights. From stadium PDA to John Oliver cracks about a “royal-killer…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationSeptember Lock-In: Wellness or Burnout Theater?
It looks like self-care, but feels like finals week. TikTok’s “September Lock-In” trend has Gen Z turning routines into performance art — planners, matcha, and…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationTrolls in Power, Memes in Charge
Forget speeches and policies — in 2025, it’s all about the clapback. Politicians dunk on rivals, corporations roast their own customers, and trolling has…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Fall of Streaming Platforms
Streaming was supposed to kill cable. Instead, we’ve reinvented it — with more logins, higher prices, and ads on everything. Netflix, Disney+, Max, Prime: all…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationLabubu & the Brain Rot Economy
Meet Labubu — the gremlin plush that proves memes don’t just rot your brain online, they move into your bedroom. This episode unpacks how absurd internet…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationGrunge, But Make It Trendy
Remember when grunge meant thrift-store chaos and a middle finger to fashion? Now it’s a TikTok eyeliner tutorial with affiliate links. In this episode, I rant…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationEmotional DRM
Emotional DRM - you're not just a fan, you're a captive audience. Don't believe me? Let me explain. #communication #media
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Death of the Replay
VAR, Social Media, hardcore Fandoms - they all have something in common, killing live events.
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe John Cena Heel Turn That Wasn’t (And Then Was, And Then Wasn’t Again)
You can't see heel and face turns like this too often - so let's talk about what that means for fans and try to look at it through a media & communications…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationSynergize This: The Empty Language of Innovation.
I survived a major tech conference so you don't have to. In this episode, I'm not reviewing the gadgets; I'm putting the entire culture under the microscope…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationDecoding Bangkok: A Media Archaeology
So you think you know Bangkok? In this episode, I'm your tour guide through the city's raging split personality. I'll show you how to decode its three…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Day the Internet Died - AI killed the www star
Remember the old internet? The weird, wonderful, chaotic library of blogs, forums, and independent websites you could get lost in for hours? Well, it's been…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationThe Medium is the Menace - How AI scams change communication
The Nigerian prince is dead. Long live the AI that sounds exactly like your mom crying on the phone asking for money. In this episode, I dive headfirst into…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationConflict is Content: Deconstructing the Narrative War
When a conflict breaks out, two wars begin: one on the ground, and one for your attention. In this special episode, I'm not covering the geopolitics of the…
FUNK !T | Mindful Media & CommunicationWhatcha Gonna Do? A Media Autopsy of Hulk Hogan
This week, the wrestling ring lost its biggest icon. Hulk Hogan has passed away, but the media-created superhero he embodied will live forever—and it's time to…