Good morning. Calling all LA creators: This Friday morning, we’re hosting a Coffee with Creators at The Lighthouse in Venice.

Arrive early for the inside scoop on Hannah and Syd’s unhinged coffee orders.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Today’s lineup:

Mark Rober wants to equip every science classroom with creator-led tools—and have fun doing it. That’s why he just launched Class CrunchLabs, a free STEM curriculum designed for 3rd–8th grade teachers. He launched the first three pilot courses last week as part of a $60 million program, funded by both CrunchLabs and anonymous investors.

The hypothesis: If anyone can get kids to care about learning, it’s a creator.

“If you think about the amount of revenue that gets funneled off of CrunchLabs into this nonprofit, no corporation would make that decision,” CrunchLabs head of media Luke Hale told us. “But it's not a corporation, it's Mark Rober's business. [...] I think it's a luxury of what the business model is.” 

Breaking down that business model: 

“The biggest issue in science education is the motivation gap,” Rober told Colin and Samir. “You can have the best curriculum in the world, but if the students don't care, it doesn't matter.”

The next phase: Rober takes inspiration from other education creators like Bill Nye (who got Hannah through her science classes) and Crash Course (which saved Syd in AP World History). Although Class CrunchLabs currently offers three pilot classes covering topics like magnetics and gravity, Rober’s goal is to provide full curricula over the next four years—a resource that will remain free forever. 

Want to hear the rest of Rober’s conversation with Colin and Samir? Stay tuned for the full episode, dropping soon on YouTube and Spotify.

Creators want to get their scripted projects made. For years, that meant pitching studios like Lionsgate, Netflix, or A24. But now, that’s changing. Brands are becoming financial backers for creative pursuits—and Adobe's approach offers a blueprint for how it works.

The tech platform recently launched The Marketers, a YouTube workplace comedy starring Hasan Minhaj and Patty Guggenheim (with a cameo from our own Colin and Samir). The show features Acrobat's AI tools.

We spoke with Adobe Global Social Lead Jared Carneson about why the brand is getting into scripted content →

"The episodic format lets us build a full narrative arc where Acrobat lives inside the story,” Carneson told us. Rather than making content that interrupts narrative, the brand is looking to fund narrative content—and earns its presence within it.

What it means for creators: Brands like Adobe are no longer just sponsors looking for logo placement. They're looking for recurring characters, storylines, and formats built to scale into franchises. Carneson says shows that get greenlit must be 1) platform native 2) genuine creative concepts and 3) repeatable formats.

But there's a catch. Carneson is explicit that the bar for product integration is high: "If you have to pause the story to explain a feature, you've lost," he said. 

Big picture: Brands like Adobe backing short-form aren’t buying reach, they’re buying credibility—which means creators who want in must demonstrate authentic fluency with the product instead of just a large audience. 

This is part of our series featuring short-form shows from creators and brands to understand their businesses, challenges, and biggest opportunities. Read our earlier coverage on Milky Tran, Infinite Elliott, and NY Nico.

Finally, an answer to the perpetual question of “where are the bottomless breadsticks?” Earlier this month, two freelance creative directors—Jason Goldberg and Steve Nasopoulos—went viral for making a physical compass that points to the Times Square Olive Garden.

The details behind the bit: Goldberg and Nasopoulos spent two years making the compass with a freelance engineer. A week after they started posting about it on social, Olive Garden’s marketing team reached out…the same day the chain’s legal team sent a cease and desist.

"The posts that we get the most feedback on are the ones where we're telling a story," Goldberg told us. Behind-the-scenes content has outperformed the product reveal itself.

Big picture: Memes—like Anthpo's Kid with Crocs or software engineer Ben Walker's salt fork—can move products, and Goldberg and Nasopoulos have over 3K pre-orders to prove it.