About
About The Pattern
Before it's obvious. Five culture stories, under five minutes, five days a week. For innovators shaping brand, marketing and strategy. Curated by Mike Litman.
242 episodes
5 signals
5 minutes
5 stars on Spotify
Each weekday morning The Pattern reads the day's culture, fashion, design and business coverage and publishes a short brief: five stories (one lead and four signals), each with why it matters, the thread that connects them, and one thing to watch next. You can read it here or listen to it as a podcast episode. Until September 2026 it also ran at weekends, so the archive has some Saturday and Sunday episodes.
Anatomy of an edition
- Pliant now lets AI agents such as ChatGPT make business payments.
- vaultroom makes a clothing collection with Trial and Error.
- The Hirshhorn reopens its sculpture garden after a four-year renovation.
- Lapalma adds nine new shades that work across its whole furniture range.
- The lead
The strongest story of the day, with context on why it matters.
- Four signals
Four more stories, each linked to the article it came from.
- The thread
What the stories are saying together.
- One to watch
Where today's thread could go next, and who to keep an eye on.
How it's made
- Sources
A curated list of publications across fashion, design, technology, brands, music, art, food and lifestyle. Mike chose them.
- Scoring
CultureTerminal scores each article for cultural relevance.
- Claude writes
The top-scoring articles go to Claude, Anthropic's AI model, which writes the brief.
- Mike's rules
Claude writes to a set of editorial rules that Mike sets.
- The voice
The audio edition is read in Mike's own cloned voice. Every episode. Five days a week.
Researched by AI, curated by Mike Litman. Every signal links to its source article, so you can check the reporting behind it. The AI adds the "so what"; it does not invent stories or sources.
Every episode also makes one prediction with a deadline. We keep score in public, wrong calls included: see the track record.
The mark
The dots are the noise. The line is the pattern. The orange dot is the one to watch.
Our sources
- Hypebeast
- Vogue
- Dezeen
- TechCrunch
- Surface Magazine
- Techmeme
- The Verge
- South China Morning Post
- Glossy
- Famous Campaigns
- ArchDaily
- Wallpaper
- Variety
- Retail Gazette
The most-cited sources in the last 60 editions, most cited first. We list them by name only; none of them endorses The Pattern.
Lately on The Pattern
Who it's for
Innovators shaping brand, marketing and strategy: people who are expected to have a view on culture before the meeting, not after it. Each edition is built to be read on the way in and quoted in the room.
Why it exists
Most culture coverage tells you what already happened. The Pattern looks for the stories that point somewhere, connects them, and says what to watch next.
It is free because early signal usually costs a fortune, and the innovators shaping brand, marketing and strategy need it most.
Who makes this
The Pattern is a Cultural Capital Labs project, built by Mike Litman. The product, from data pipeline to design to audio, is built and run by one person.
Podcast downloads are counted anonymously by OP3, which uses no cookies and keeps only scrambled IP addresses.
Press and enquiries: hello@mikelitman.me
Tomorrow, by breakfast
Know what's moving in culture before the brief lands. Under five minutes every weekday for innovators shaping brand, marketing and strategy. Follow in your podcast app, or get it by email. Free.
Know someone who'd like it? Send them thepattern.media/listen