many seemingly ad hoc constructions in algebra become simpler and much more natural through the lens of bicategories. in this talk i'll describe a series of papers with kate ponto touching on euler characteristics, 2 dimensional field theories, and topological hochschild homology, which never could have been written without thinking bicategorically. particular focus will be put on iterated traces (relating to 2d field theories) and the structure of topological hochschild homology.