Disposable vapes have taken over. In just two short years, Elf Bar, Lost Mary and their various competitors have become a ubiquitous part of modern life.

The popularity of these devices among children and young people has led many governments to ban (or consider banning) them. But, I want to look beyond the minutiae of vaping legislation and instead ask what it is about our society that has led these devices to prosper.

This video is the first in a three-part mini-series I’m working on which uses the rise of disposable vapes as a jumping-off point to explore various trends and tensions within contemporary capitalism.

In this first episode: we’re looking at addiction, and how companies across our economy have begun to borrow tricks from the vaping industry to design consumer choice out of the system.