Jens Grede

You'd be surprised how many people say Friends.

They're just clamoring for that less threatening, warm nostalgia that those shows and those experiences

gives you, I really think that it's technological changes and the uncertainty about the future that has driven this pop culture moment.

That's really, if you think about it, has moved more from futurism to nostalgia.

Futurism, we haven't really seen for quite some time.

We're not hopeful about the future quite as much as we used to be.

Right now, I'm obsessed with diners because I'm a disciple of popular culture, so I'm listening to country myself.

I've had Morgan Wallen in the car on my way here.

But I love diners because diners is one of the few things that now they're retro, but they weren't a restaurant concept anymore.

That was born out of nostalgia, like Italian food.

Diners were hyper-modern, modernist structures.

They were all about the future.

It was in an era where cars were inspired by the space race.

They were inspired by rockets.

And it was all about this promise of what tomorrow had for us.

And we were certain that this generation was going to be so much greater off than the generation that had lived through the Second World War.

And I think today, generally, we are fearful of the future rather than optimistic.

I think we should be optimistic about the future.

Winston Churchill, he once said, I'm an optimist because I see little use to being anything else.

I'm definitely an optimist.