Episodes
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This is such a delight of an episode! Weâve been wanting to do a big cookbook conversation since the start of the podcast, and when Americaâs Test Kitchen emailed to see if weâd be interested in talking to Sarah Ahn about Ummaâ the cookbook she put together with her mom (!!!) documenting the Korean recipes that have defined her past and present lifeâ we were thrilled. We just wanted one more layer: what if we had a cookbook editor as well? Enter: Adam Kowit, editoral director of all books at Americaâs Test Kitchen. Youâre going to learn so much about the making of this cookbook (which, as youâll see in the episode, I cannot shut up about) but also how cookbooks just generally go from a handful of recipes to an actual text. Again: what a delight, and I canât wait for your thoughts.
Thanks to the sponsors of todayâs episode!
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It feels weird to call yourself a âNone,â but according to demographers, thatâs what I am: one of millions of Americans who understand themselves as âreligiously unaffiliated.â That means atheists, agnostics, and people who answer ânothing in particularâ when asked if they practice a religion. Today, Nones make up 28% of the U.S. population â up from 16% in 2007. But just because youâre religiously unaffiliated doesnât mean you donât want some of the things that often come with religion: ritual, community, ethics, care. So what does that look like? How do we find it while also avoiding culty wellness s**t?
Fellow None (and atheist Jew) Vanessa Zoltan, whoâs currently teaching a class at Harvard on spiritual care for the non-religious, is here to help answer all your questions.
(Also note: this oneâs for Nones and Non-Nones, people with a lot of religious experience and people with very little, people repelled by religion and people hungry for it. It might not seem like something in your wheelhouse, but if youâre interested, broadly, in ideas about friends, community, how to have serious conversations, and why people get really really into Crossfit, youâre going to love it)
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Why does every person who runs marathon want to convince you that you too could run one? What makes running clubs so intimidating? When people get into running, why canât they shut the hell up about it? Iâve asked avowed non-marathoner Raziq Rauf, author of the newsletter Running Sucks, to help address all of your running culture related questions. Yes, weâre both runners; but weâre also both runners who are very willing to admit that running does often suck â and also willing to interrogate the cultures (of performance, of optimization) that percolate around it. (Plus: why academics get so into running, how people use Strava as a social/dating app, and how to find people who run your pace!) Raz might have even convinced me to try a running club. Maybe. Okay probably not.
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When With Love, Meghan â the Netflix lifestyle show starring Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex â first came out, I knew the only way I wanted to even touch that discourse was by talking about the show, as a show. How does it conform to or reject our understanding of what a lifestyle program should look it? Whatâs Meghanâs twist? And whatâs going on with the (predictably) weird way I knew people would respond to it?
Luckily, Lilah Raptopolous â cohost of one of our most popular episodes ever, on figuring out what to make in the world of infinite recipes â wanted to talk about all the same stuff. Namely: is this an aspirational show? A relatable one? Does it have to be one or other other? Why did Netflix make such weird editing choices? How do we balance a protective impulse of Meghan, given all the very real sh*t sheâs endured, with an understanding that some of the decisions on this show are just odd?
Lilah, Melody, and I tried to be really thoughtful in the way that we approached this discussion â and I think youâll hear that in episode. (In many ways, a podcast is the perfect place to have this sort of complicated, dynamic discussion). With that said: if youâre not in the mood to hear analysis of some of the showâs shortcomings, this might not be the episode for you. But if you want to sort through your own feelings (or just want to hear us sort ours!), I think this episodeâs pretty great â in large part because your questions were so layered and good.
Todayâs episode is sponsored by Ollie. Dogs deserve the best, and that means fresh, healthy food. Head to Ollie.com/CULTURE, tell them all about your dog, and use code CULTURE to get 60% off your Welcome Kit when you subscribe today! Plus, they offer a Clean Bowl Guarantee on the first box, so if youâre not completely satisfied, youâll get your money back.
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This all started with my desire to do a Paul Mescal episode. A listener suggested we ask Caroline OâDonoghue â author of The Rachel Incident, host of Sentimental Garbage, noted Irish person â to be co-host. We reached out, and (gasp!) she responded that she didnât actually know that much about Paul⊠but would be more than happy to do an episode about the âIrishification of pop culture.â Since my interest in Irish men (and movies, books, music, television, poetry) by no means starts with Paul Mescal, I was thrilled.
And let me tell you: this episode is fascinating. Hilarious, expansive, weird â and I promise you it will make you see Irish Pop Culturification in a different way (and perhaps appreciate Paul Mescal even more). It will certainly make you appreciate Caroline OâDonoghue, who made me laugh on mic more than any previous co-host. Sheâs brilliant, and this episode is so weird and good (one of those ones where we finished recording and Melody and I immediately texted each other: AMAZING). As always, I canât wait for your thoughts â come join the conversation in the comments!
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If youâre a historical romance person, all I need to say is: Sarah MacLean is here, and she is answering all the questions. If youâre not a historical romance person, Iâll spell it out a little more: Sarah MacLean is one of the most popular writers of historical romance today â and sheâs also the cohost of the incredibly popular podcast Fated Mates. Sheâs a very good pod conversationalist, which is one of many reasons we wanted to have her on the show (that and I knew it would make Melody faint if she said yes). We talk about how the conventions and constrictions of the historical genre allow for feminist play and provocation, how historicals handle virginity, why authorâs first books are so often the most compelling, and so, SO much more. If youâre a longtime fan (of the genre, of Sarah), youâre going to absolutely love this; if not, weâve got so many recommendations for starting points. I hope you enjoy this one as much as we enjoyed recording it!
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Last month, I published an interview in the newsletter with Dana Miranda about âbudget cultureâ â and it became one of the most popular (and discussed) interviews Iâve done since I first launched the newsletter. At the time, I asked for questions for Dana about specific myths of budget culture for us to unpack. We got dozens of those â plus a bunch of compelling follow-up questions, like âwhatâs the difference between knowing how much money goes in and out of your account and âbudget cultureââ and âis YNAB budget culture?â
We tackle all of that and much, much more, with a bonus prolonged guest appearance from Melody about her experience with Dave Ramsey (which included cutting up her credit card in front of her class and sparked the worst fight of her marriage). I loved this conversation and have been thinking about it for weeks; I think you will too.
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I love old movies â but I didnât always! In fact, I needed many years of directed classwork to fall in love with them. But if youâre not in the mood to pause your life and take on significant graduate debt, THERE ARE STILL OPTIONS, and Margaret H. Willison and I are here to offer them. In this episode, we offer specific suggestions to listeners based on short lists of their (recent) film favs, talk about âaesthetic frictionâ and how to overcome it, strongly invite you to put your phone in the other room, and travel all over film history in a very earnest attempt to help you find your own entry point into the expansive mansion that is âold movies,â broadly defined.
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What makes something ~Dad~? Is it pleated Dockers? A worn baseball cap? Asking (again) if youâve checked your oil? Incompetency in the domestic sphere paired with competency outside of it? Iâve long loved thinking through both the serious and the ridiculous of Dad Culture, and for todayâs episode, we have an actual scholar of it (Phil Maciak, currently hard at work on a Dad Culture book) to unpack the history and theory of Dadness, including: do you have to be a dad to be part of Dad Culture (no) is Dad Culture just white middle-class boomer dads (also no) and is Bandit from Bluey too good of a Dad (maybe). Listen on, and letâs Dad It Up.
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I know a lot about historic Hollywood feuds. I could do an entire episode just on the magazine covers featuring Elizabeth Taylor, Eddie Fisher, and Debbie Reynolds circa 1959. But to do any episode on Celebrity Feuds right â particularly one that airs just days before Kendrick Lamar performs at the Super Bowl â I knew I needed a different sort of celebrity feud expert. When Joel Anderson, host of three blockbuster seasons of Slow Burn (including a canonical one on Biggie + Tupac), agreed to come on the show, I legitimately let out a little scream of delight. He has so much knowledge, context, and perspective; this episode is a dream come true.
***Note: This episode was recorded before the Grammys, and we didnât correctly predict Beyonceâs AOTY win nor Kendrick Lamarâs FIVE awards for âNot Like Us.â***
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Weâre at the point where we know a b******t attempt to commodify our burnout when we see it. No oneâs buying the self-care spiel the bath bomb companies are selling us. But the rhetoric of self-care has crept into the workplace, family dynamics, and TikTok therapy speak, usually divorced from any critique of the systems that make self-care feel necessary in the first place. Pooja Lakshmin MD, author of Real Self-Care, joins the pod to answer your very smart questions about contemporary self-care in workplace trainings, in conversations encouraging everyone to GET A HOBBY!, and in advice to perfectionist women to âlower the bar.â Pooja is so clear-eyed and compassionate â and I think this episode will make you feel seen and challenged.
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I grew up skiing at a mid-size mountain in the middle of Idaho. I wasnât ever an athletic kid, but skiing â it made me feel fast and really good at something. I loved it: the routine, the long slog to the mountain, the Cup of Soup for lunch, the crappy hotels, the freedom. But the ski culture that I grew up with is largely gone, at least in the U.S. â and Iâve spent the last few years coming to terms with how industrial shifts, climate change, conglomeration, the explosion of the unregulated short-term rental market have changed not only who can learn to ski, but who can keep doing it.
Heather Hansman, author of Powder Days, is the perfect co-host to grapple with your questions about the future of skiing, ski towns, and ski culture, including all the business nitty-gritty (and a frank discussion of what can make ski people so annoying). This is a ski conversation, but itâs also a conversation about housing, and class, and city planning â and the commodification of hobbies. I canât wait to hear your thoughts.
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Let me start with this: this is a dream interview. If, like me, you spent a lot of time in the 2000s and 2010s reading about celebrity online, Go Fug Yourself was an essential part of your online diet. Heather and Jessica were simply unrivaled when it came to celebrity fashion in general and red carpet fashion in particular. I idolized them the same way I idolized Lainey Gossip â both of whom I read alongside all of my graduate texts in star studies. The problem with those star studies is that they were always rooted in the past. But The Fug Girls and Lainey, they were doing the analysis now, on celebs who were desperately (and often unsuccessfully) attempting to navigate the new, digital gossip landscape â and thatâs how they became part of my dissertation, on the history of celebrity gossip, themselves.
Thatâs why itâs such an absolute f-ing treat to talk to Heather and Jessica about the present and future of celebrity gossip: they have the context. They know the history. We talk about Deuxmoi, sourcing, blinds, accounting for past shittiness, so much. Melody had to jump in like 17 times to make us explain various peak 2000s gossip terms here, so if you were part of that universe (HELLO, TOOTHY TILE) you will love this episode â but if you werenât, and you just appreciate an introspective look at how celebrity discourse works, youâll love this, too (in part because Melody made us explain stuff, sheâs the best).
Note: This episode was recorded just before the Blake Lively/New York Times bombshell so donât get mad that we donât mention it!!
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Thrifting has a smell, but it also has a feel. For me, the feel is of thick, almost indestructible rayon weaves; of dense, mothbally wool; of slick, ancient crinoline; of stiff and generously cut denim. It was the feel of handstitching on a dress made from a pattern, or a cracked logo on a company picnic shirt from 1975. It was not the feel of shopping at Forever 21, even though the prices were approximately the same. Like so many of you, at various points in my life Iâve relied on thrift stores for resilient everyday clothes and delightful dress-up/costume accoutrements.
But thrifting has changed dramatically over the last fifteen years â and itâs never been more popular. In this episode, Kelsey Vlamis and I break down all the reasons for its its transformation, from the rise of fast fashion to influencers making haul videos. Plus: thereâs a thrifting mystery weâd love to solve; listen and see if you can help us!
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No matter where you spend your time, online or off, youâve encountered some form of therapy speak. Maybe it comes from a friend who loves processing their therapy with others; maybe it suffuses your TikTok FYP; maybe your friends or family members have been using it to try and describe how theyâre trying to foster and maintain healthy relationships; or maybe youâve just been keeping up on the latest celebrity gossip. Itâs everywhere â and as youâll find in this episode, tracing its proliferation will lead you in so many fascinating (and complex!) directions. Iâll be real: I knew this episode would be interesting; I didnât know it would be this interesting.
As soon as I heard about the new podcast Bad Therapist â cohosted by psychotherapist Ash Compton and New Yorker journalist Rachel Monroe â I knew theyâd be the perfect people to help answer all of your questions about therapy speak. This is complicated s**t! Weâre talking about language that is often super useful to people⊠but can also be weaponized (GAH, THERAPY SPEAK) to inoculate those using it from critique. Weirdly, I feel like itâs the perfect New Yearâs Day episode? I canât wait to hear your thoughts about all of it.
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As an Registered Auntie, I get to watch kidsâ toy trends from the backseat. Iâve bought annoying things (sorry, parent friends) and learned how to play new things (Beyblades, I rule) and passed down precious things (all of my My Little Ponies from the â80s). We could talk forever about the merits of various toys, past and present, but your listener questions this week underline that thereâs also a tremendous amount of anxiety and class signaling absorbed by kidsâ toys.
So this episode, featuring toy expert Youngna Park, has it all: light nostalgia, unpacking the obsession with wooden toys, getting to the heart of why grandparents give âjunkyâ gifts, and, of course, talking about what kids actually like when it comes to toys. If you didnât have Big Toy Feelings before, you will after this one.
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Sometimes we do episodes where I know a fair amount about the subject and end up on a three minute digression about picture palaces. And sometimes Iâve only started to learn about a topic â or read within a genre â and am absolutely thrilled to spend an hour listening to someone elseâs expertise. Thatâs what weâre doing today with queer romance writer Adib Khorram: tackling your questions on everything from how to feel about queer romance written by straight people, why so many romance plots are M/M, where to find great trans romance, and so much more. And as with every episode in our romance series: you do not have to be an avid romance reader to find all of this interesting. (Although this episode might get you interested in becoming an avid romance reader!)
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What is Quince and why is it everywhere? Who is running Albion Fit? Who buys clothes at Altarâd State? Why is Madewell so sad? This is an explainer episode, but itâs also a brands-feelings processing episode, because any time millennials try and talk about how J.Crew or Madewell has changed, theyâre also talking about how their own feelings about fashion have changed. And no one understands the rhythms of brands quite like Caroline Moss, the host and curator of the Gee Thanks Just Bought It extended universe. Listen as we attempt to answer all of your WTF-is-going-on-with-this-brand questions and hold space, as it were, for all of you big brand feelings⊠and tell us what brand still mystifies you!
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Sometimes I forget just how many classes I took on the history of cinema â or that I used to teach a class on it! â but then I have a conversation like the one youâre about to listen to and remember: oh right, I am a huge film history dork. This episode, featuring the brilliant Hannah McGregor, travels all over the past, present, and future of the blockbuster, from the theory of the âwhammy,â to Hannahâs book on Jurassic Park, from Barbie to Twisters, from why we started going to the movies to why weâve (largely) stopped. Itâs a ROMP and incredibly listenable â perfect for wherever youâre driving or to have on in the background while you chop one million brussels sprouts.
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I could talk about Nicole Kidman for hours. Very few Hollywood actors have had careers this varied, this delightful, this weird â oh, and sheâs also been married to Tom Cruise. She manages to be both chronically underestimated and overrated, and sheâs recently found herself in a slew of roles where she embodies a slew of different rich white ladies, each miserable in their own specific ways. For this episode, Iâm joined by the great Sam Sanders to talk about our own Kidman Syllabi and answer your questions about her most recent roles, (not) aging onscreen, and what makes her such an effective miserable rich person.
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