This week on The Deep Dive: I guess malls aren’t dying anymore, how we went from Hoarders to Tidying Up with Marie Kondo to RestockTok, the confusing ethics of enjoying art that wasn’t meant to be seen, a Team 10 retrospective (it was even worse than you remember), and why we can’t separate Dan Schneider from his shows no matter how much we may want to.

Fifty percent of subscribers to The Deep Dive prefer video essays that are 20-40 minutes long – the Searchable Playlist can help you sort videos by runtime when you need something to watch during your lunch break. Did I mention that it includes every recommendation from The Deep Dive ever?

URBANISM

Why Shopping Malls Refuse to Die by City Beautiful (10:59)

A little birdie may have recently told you that malls are dying – another victim of ruthless millennials and their refusal to spend what little money they have on things their parents believed were essential, like napkins. In this video, City Beautiful shares evidence that malls may not actually be on their way out. In fact, shopping at some malls has returned to pre-pandemic levels and the ones that have seen lower volume are looking for more effective ways to use their massive spaces. So your local mall might be around for longer than you thought, and at least Gen Z won’t lose yet another third place. Although, some members of Gen Alpha might soon be attending school in a building that was once used as a mall.

(On a related note, if you’re like me and want to see a future with better American cities, keep scrolling for details about an event I think you’ll enjoy…)

CULTURE

The Cult of Organisation & The Celebrity Kitchen Complex by Jordan Theresa (35:23)

Sure, American consumerism today is bad, but believe me when I say it used to be worse. I mean, there used to be entire TV shows dedicated to hoarding before The Home Edit and Marie Kondo swooped in and saved our storage closets. We’ve grown so much from the wake-up call that was the homes featured on Hoarders and now, TikTok is filled with organizational and restock videos. In other words, we did it – we tackled consumerism by the horns and in this video, Jordan Theresa explains how. Just kidding! The KonMari method may have taken us a few steps forward when it comes to decluttering, but capitalism sucked us right back in with content that “celebrates American excess as long as it’s organized in clear plastic containers in rainbow order.” That’s a direct quote from this video, excuse me while I glue my brain back together.

This issue of The Deep Dive is sponsored by

Join me at the Strong Towns National Gathering 2024!

If you’ve been here for a while, you know The Deep Dive loves video essays that can help us imagine a future with better, walkable, and more livable cities – like this flurfdesign video about why kids don’t go outside anymore or this Strong Towns video about how we can create better American cities instead of just leaving the country.

I’m so beyond excited to share that I’ll be attending the Strong Towns National Gathering on May 14-15 in Cincinnati – and I’d love to see you there! Register for the event here and use code HAYAK2024 to get 10% off General Admission tickets. Don’t forget to purchase them before April 1 to take advantage of the early bird discount!

See you there! 🚉