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We explore the power of everyday signals—those seemingly mundane moments that reveal deeper trends shaping our future. Through personal observations—from pet-centric commercials to the impact of declining birth rates and the challenges of urban infrastructure—we uncover how these signals reflect broader societal changes. We also discuss the difficult choices communities face in adapting to these shifts. Will people stay or go? Join us as we decode hidden insights in our daily lives and consider what they might mean for our future.
Selected Links:
Boston Consulting Group. “Pet Owners Are Changing. How Will the Industry Respond?” BCG, 4 Mar 2025, https://www.bcg.com/publications/2025/pet-owners-changing-how-industry-respond
“Anti-Aging Pills for Dogs Approved by FDA.” The Washington Post. 26 Feb 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/02/26/antiaging-pill-dogs-fda/
Public Policy Institute of California. “Shifting School Enrollment Trends across California’s Regions.” PPIC Blog Post. 20 Jun 2024, https://www.ppic.org/blog/shifting-school-enrollment-trends-across-californias-regions/
Prewitt, Andi. “Underground Power Lines Work. Why Doesn’t Portland Have Them?” Portland Monthly. 23 Feb 2024, https://www.pdxmonthly.com/news-and-city-life/2024/02/underground-power-lines-portland
Episode Transcript:
Lana: Welcome to Signal Shift, by Horizon Shift Lab. We're your hosts, Lana Price, Raakhee Natha, and Sue Chi. Each episode, we explore the latest signals in technology, culture, and society, uncovering insights that will impact our daily lives in the future. Join us as we shift perspectives, explore possibilities, and delve into real changes in our world. Curious to learn more? Go to horizonshiftlab.com.
[00:36 Everyday Signals: Observing Trends in Daily Life]
Lana: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Signal Shift. I'm Lana and I've got Raakhee and Sue here with me. And today we're doing something a little different. We're exploring a theme that we're calling everyday signals.
So usually we dive into desk research to uncover signals of the future. We sift through articles, research studies, white papers, even attend webinars like we saw last week, basically hunting for signals in our digital world.
But today we're shifting our focus to signals we've noticed in our physical everyday lives. So this is really about tuning our bodies and our minds into a different frequency. So one of observation and curiosity, because when we're out in the world, we can't actively do a Google search, right, to find information. Instead, we're inviting it to come in, chance and serendipity, so to have an unplanned discovery that might lead to new insights.
So, full disclosure, I've been injured and haven’t actually left my house in a few days. So finding a signal in my physical world was a bit of a challenge, but we'll get to that later.
So first off, Raakhee and Sue, what everyday signals did you come across in your world?
[1:59 Pets as Cultural Signals: Advertising and Industry Trends]
Sue: Well, I love the topic that I have right now. Everyday Signals is really fun. And I think you're right, Lana, that it is just attuning your mind, your body, kind of your feelings to what's happening around you. And I think one really great thing to pinpoint is if you experience something and you just say, like, whoa, what was that? That's a moment to pause just to say, what is going on?
And so I had that moment, I guess maybe it was like a week ago or so on a Saturday morning, I wasn't doing much. I had NBC on just regular, you know, sports programming on the weekend, maybe Alpine championships, something.
Anyway, I had that moment because there was a commercial break and all three commercials during that break featured pets, but they weren't like your standard dog food commercials. It was just other types of commercials.
So the first one was prescription pills for dogs. And I don't know the exact pharmaceutical or the pill they were offering, but one example I found was an anti-itch prescription ad that they had where it features a young woman with a white picket fence house. And you only know she has a dog. There's no one else in this commercial. But she gives the dog the pill, and then they're both very happy. They're out there. She's gardening. He's digging up dirt. It's really great. And then there are all the side effect warnings, the announcement, just like you have in a regular pharmaceutical ad. So that was the first one. It's like, that's interesting.
The second one was for Cheerios, where it featured an older couple. But again, it's not immediately clear if they have kids. Are they empty nesters? Are they child-free? You just don't know. Instead, it's a rainy day and there's a dog that's whimpering at them and they're eating Cheerios and they take one look at the dog, they look at each other, they smile, and then they grab their rain jackets, the leash, and they're out hiking in the woods. And the ad campaign is like, good morning, start with Cheerios, right?
And the third is something I saw that went viral on my own social media feed, which is a dog that had its own business class seat on a plane. And it was better behaved than most passengers on the plane.
So yeah, I had to share it with you. And you know, I haven't talked about pets in a while. So this was really fun.
And it was just a confirmation of again how ingrained they are in our culture, really how they're part of our families. And you know a lot of this happened to be with dogs, but it's just pets in general.
And so of course looking it back to some of the desk research. I literally just saw two articles -- one was some pharmaceutical company just got FDA approved for an anti-aging pill for dogs. That was really interesting.
And then a report from the consulting group BCG just came out, I think yesterday, around the pet industry saying that there are all these trends that we've talked about in the human space, but for dogs. Whether it comes to like, Raakhee, your health and wellness apps, there are all these trackers for pets now, there's like luxury spas, just a lot of stuff that was really interesting. Just, you know, confirmed when I saw these commercials.
Lana: Wow, that is incredible. I love it. I love. I think it's really validating for us when things that we've talked about and then we can see, you know, the evidence of kind of that trend continuing to grow. And so those are some really cool ones, Sue. What about you, Raakhee?
[5:42 Community Change: Declining Birth Rates and Shifting Needs]
Raakhee: Yeah, I'll definitely, I'll add to that. I mean, talking about seeing things around our neighborhoods. You know, we've spoken about it before, but in our neighborhood, it's just-- the stores that are lasting, or the ones that are coming, new ones, one, pet cafes and, you know, pet food stores and any anything related to pets. You know, retail is disappearing in other sectors, restaurants are really struggling, but my goodness, pet stores and anything related to pets is burgeoning. So yeah, echoing seeing that in, you know, my own community.
But I think my signal speaks really to, you know, what Sue's talking about as well, and from the other angle.
And the signal that stuck out to me in the last couple of days was that the local hospital in our area is closing their pediatric unit. And for the area that I live in, I mean, this is known to be the place to come and raise your families. It's got the best schools and, you know, it's historically, that's what it's been. But I noticed it with some of the school closures already, you know, like, why are schools closing in this kind of area? And it was really the sort of lower grades, not the high schools. And it's really around under enrollment.
And so the same thing's happening with this hospital is that they need more beds for adult medical care. And they don't get that many kids. And so they do want to serve the kids that are here. But the decline in population and birth rate and the amount of young people we have in babies and kids showing up so clearly right here in our communities with things like this.
And I know that. You know, those who are parents, of course, in the area like, hey, we have to drive really far out now. And so that certainly got me thinking about how this is going to impact so many of the things we spoke about, one being how we form communities, right? As a parent, you still have to be in a neighborhood where a hospital does have a pediatric unit. I think that's important. I would want that, right? Even though it's just, you know, hopefully you never have to ever be there. But those are such important considerations. And schools.
But now those needs are not centered on 60 or 80% of the population. It's a smaller group. So we are going to be the areas that cater to that, right? We do have to. We have these different lifestyles. I think as much as like even I have this utopian vision of all of us living the same way in the same areas, here's this interesting sort of like nuance, right? In critical things that will be important to people in different ways. It really got me thinking about that. The under-enrollment, the decline in public schools, it's, you know, that's very much a reality in California. I'm not sure about other states.
I mean, I had, I have to share this number, but I think it looked like in Greater LA, enrollment was at sort of peak in 2003, and now it's 21% below. It is expected by 2033, which is not that far away. That's gonna be 37%. So you're talking about in 30 years, a 40% decline in school enrollment, right? Those are really big numbers. So again, it's just showing that reality very clearly. And then we of course have the budget cuts that are going with it.
There's a lot that's going to happen, I think, in transforming education and what it looks like.
Going back to the point I was trying to make is that it got me thinking about, you know, historically, we had this thing where kids from other countries would send to Europe or to America to boarding school, right? And I just got wondering. I was like, are American parents going to send their kids to India and China to boarding school for better schools? Because, you know, they'll have the money and the focus because they've got bigger populations to care about those things. I don't know, just, yeah, just something really interesting there in those changes and how we're gonna see that play out.
Lana: I love how provocative that is. Yeah, seems like you're, one of the things that I was picking up from what you were saying is that -- people will move, right? Like they will change their behavior if they have, if the resources they need are not available in their communities. So that's sort of where my mind was going. But then I think I really appreciate how you took the boarding school example, which so many families do around the world, right? And so, you know, would you like not just move your whole family, but maybe move your child to the place where they can get that top notch education? So I think that's really provocative.
[10:24 Power Lines and Urban Design: Rethinking Infrastructure]
So my signal came from a moment when my parents, they were visiting. And so we were standing by the window in my living room and they were looking out and they both pointed out the power lines. So because of our view, the power lines are kind of like right at eye level and they kind of, they crisscross the sky and have like all these utility poles on the sidewalk.
And apparently where my parents live, all their power lines are underground. So they don't see them. So they thought it was, that the overhead lines seemed kind of like old school or like really out of place. And so for me, even though I noticed them, I didn't think that it was weird.
So I got curious about this and did some research. And so around 80% of power lines in the US are overhead, but some communities have really invested in putting all their power lines underground. So for example, Fort Collins, Colorado is like 99% of their distribution system is underground. And that's really like paying off for them. So like a few years ago, they had this bomb cyclone and only one customer lost power. And that was because like a fence blew down and it knocked off the meter. But otherwise, they, in Fort Collins, their customers experience 22 minutes of outages every three years on average.
And so that's, you I think there's a lot about how we saw the connection between power lines and wildfires, right? That's, they make a link to that and they're very vulnerable to climate change. You know, hurricanes, wind storms, all these things can knock down the power and that also, that costs a lot of money.
So here in Portland, we're in transition. Downtown or very like dense urban areas, they've decided to invest in putting the power underground, but it's very, very expensive. It's like $150,000 per mile, at least, to like invest in the capital.
So I think like kind of the bigger picture, you know, if we, I mean, there's a move to do this, like to make this big structural change because it's part of resiliency, right?
And I guess I started thinking about the impact on our urban landscapes and so what this could mean from a design perspective. Because apparently, you know, there's lots of things like because there's a utility pole, for example, bike lanes are very narrow because they can't move it. Trees have to be cut or sometimes they can't be planted because they interfere with the utility pole. So we could have a lot of opportunities for more green space, uninterrupted views, bike lanes.
So I think that's a really interesting and you know, something, you know, something to think about as we think about smart cities or other things, what this transition would look like.
And so that's kind of the signal that I did from inside of my house.
But yeah, and so I'm curious, I guess, as we, you know, is there anything coming up for you about kind of this future where all three of these things are becoming more real, right? I don't know what's coming up for you guys as like a vision of this world.
Raakhee: Yeah, think it speaks to... I mean, there was such a great signal as well, And I love that it's like what you can see just sitting in your house even, right? The signals are there. It just shows it's all there. And I do like that, from a fire perspective, that is clearly the move people are really fighting to make here as well. So it'll be interesting to see that happen.
And then I was kind of thinking about, oh that's awesome. We're going to have more trees, and we're going to bike more. And then I'm like, but we can have all these drones in the sky. It's like we get one thing right, and then there's this other bigger problem on the other end. So that'll be interesting to see play out.
[15:19 Building Future Communities: Stay or Go?]
But yeah, I don't know what's coming up for both of you, but it's just coming back to the heart of how are we going to build communities? Not just cities, and smart cities, and that's really interesting.
How are we going to live within there? Like what does life look like? What is community and how interactive we go and where do we eat together? And I don't know. Yeah, those sorts of questions coming up. What does that look like? What does everyday life look like and sense of community in building this new sort of world?
Sue: Yeah, and I was also thinking there's this choice that you can make, right? That's kind of inherent in some of what we're talking about -- is do you stay or do you go? Do you seek out places where you think your community is, or do you stay and build one?
Like in the instance of, Raakhee, like the families with kids, right? I was thinking, you know, does the traditional nature of schooling, does that have to change so that you can stick with your community, if that's really one of where you want to live because your people are there, can we think about other creative ways to make sure the little ones get the education they need, right? So that's what I was thinking about.
But yeah, you offered such a provocative idea to me in that, you know, as coming from a family of immigrants, like the idea that, you know, they came here so I could get a better education. And now you're saying it's the flip, like people are leaving to the countries, some of the countries we came from, right? I'm like, that is mind blowing. That was not the choice that my family made, right? So that's just really interesting.
So that's why I was thinking like, there is this choice of do you stay or do you go? And what is the request to the community for you to stay? How do you make it work?
Lana: Mm, I really appreciate that. Yeah, that is it's true. It's like, you know, how many generations would it take where we see people making similar decisions, but in a radically different context? So, yeah, I also appreciate that.
Yeah, I think that I wanted to remark on the comment about the drones, because drones can also play a role in managing and monitoring risks to power lines, right? So they can play a role in this transition, like to make sure that we're keeping those things safe as they're exposed to the elements. So it's funny how they can have like these different roles, right? Like they could be a nuisance. Maybe they're spying on us, but also maybe they're like playing a part in helping because we, know, to monitor and manage.
But yeah, so I think I agree. I really like the… the doubling down on community and keeping that value really front and center as we think about how these would impact not just our own lives, but what it means for all of us as a collective. So I really appreciate that.
Thanks so much for for today's episode and Sue, anything you want to say as we close out?
Sue: Yeah, thanks Lana. Just a quick note to our listeners and our viewers that I'm taking a little bit of a personal leave. So I'll be gone for a little bit of time, but I may pop in here and there. But in the meantime, I leave you in the good hands of Raakhee and Lana. Who will take it away for the spring, but I'll see you soon.
Lana: So you'll expect some different programming as we mix it up with two co-hosts, but we'll miss you, Sue, but we're also supporting you along the way. And so we’d also like to announce that we are going live on YouTube.
Raakhee, tell us a little bit about our channel and where folks can find us.
Raakhee: Yeah, thank you. Thanks, Lana. So our channel name is Horizon Shift Lab. We are officially launching, we are officially launching on the 6th of March. So all depends what day you're listening to this episode, okay? But we will be live as of the 6th of March. And it's Horizon Shift Lab.
You'll see there's a podcast tab and there'll be a playlist called Signal Shift and our episodes will be there. And if so far you have just been listening to us and only hearing our voices, you'll finally get to see our faces and laugh along with them, I think occasionally. So, yeah, we're really excited. Please do come and join us. Subscribe and like and let us know what you think.
Lana: Great, thanks so much and thanks everyone for listening and we'll see you again next week.
[20:21]
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