Richard Merrick

Over the past few weeks, I've been exploring what it means to work differently when the structures that once defined us are showing their age. I've written about lunatics and precursors, about cracks appearing in old certainties, about the scarcest luxury being attention itself. I'

A precursor sits in the quiet before the event; a signal, not yet a story. It carries the essence of what’s to come but hasn’t yet unfolded. In nature, precursors are the faint ripples before a storm, the trace minerals before crystal formation, the tension before release. We

We are approaching the end of October, and the intention is to get The Athanor lit and working as a small group in November. This post is an indication of what's on my mind as to how this will work and what is expected of those of us

Who is The Athanor for? It seems so unfair when we have to let go of something we have worked really hard for. Sometimes, it's a decision we make for ourselves. Sometimes, it's a decision made for us. I've experienced both several times. There&

At the recent FT Future of Retail 2025 summit, one question dominated the corridors: is conversation becoming the new shopfront?   The idea marks a turning point in how we discover and buy, moving from shops to search bars and websites to dialogue with AI assistants and chat platforms.  Retailers like

On the train back from London on Tuesday, I read an article in the Economist that got me thinking about what The Athanor might offer. It reported something I hadn't expected: the ultra-rich are giving up on luxury goods. The price of fine Bordeaux wines has fallen. Rolexes