Culture Study Podcast

When Convenience Actually Kinda Sucks

Over the last six years, our conversations on Culture Study have often circled back to a handful of recurring themes: contemporary work culture, burnout, optimization cul

Fighting is an Art. Here's How To Get Better At It.

IF YOU NEED HELP ADDING YOUR SUBSCRIBER-ONLY FEED TO YOUR PODCAST PLAYER, JUST CLICK HERE!   Conflict happens — and navigating that conflict is essential to a healthy c

Trying to Have Kids Amidst a Polycrisis

I love kids. In a different timeline, I'd almost certainly have them. But when I was in my 30s, I looked around — and looked at my own bank account, and the realities of

Why Are So Many Men Unraveling?

A man with a fairytale castle in upstate New York who keeps trying to make a self-produced reality show about "princesses" happen — and become a modern-day Hugh Hefner. A

BONUS EPISODE: Let's Talk About Friend Breakups [preview]

In June, I sent out a Friday Thread prompt that readers had been asking for, in one shape or another, for years: How do we talk about non-romantic breakups? Why do they s

The Politics of White Women's Hair

Let's do some HAIR STUDIES! How does blondeness recruit and convey power? When is curly hair a signifier of unruliness — and when does it say Cool Girl? Will we ever be f

All Your Questions About Personal Style, Answered

Welcome to the first of our three-part series on BACK TO SCHOOL FASHION, which is really just an excuse for us to talk about style and clothes. Today, the incredible Soph

How Does AI Mess With Our Creativity?

More than a year ago, Melody put a placeholder in our shared podcast planning document: SOMETHING SMART ABOUT AI. We were sick, bored, or frustrated with the way so many

The Women's Fitness Industrial Complex

Why is Planned Parenthood telling you that you should lift heavy during your menstrual cycle? Why will no one shut up about protein? How many different ways can a company

BONUS EPISODE: The Hair (and Women) of The Odyssey [preview]

Two bonus episodes in two weeks, what is even happening! Well, The Odyssey happened — and after reading and writing about Matt Damon for this week's newsletter, I knew I

The Case For Quitting

I have aspired to be like Lindsay Crouse — professionally and personally — since the first time I figured out who she was. Killing it as an editor and writer at the New Y

BONUS EPISODE: The 'Woke' Little House on the Prairie... Kinda Works??? [preview]

Bonus eps are when we go deep on a cultural phenomenon, text, or celebrity that's overwhelming our feeds, charming our pants off, sparking general bewilderment, or, in th

How to Fall in Love with a City

IF YOU NEED HELP ADDING YOUR SUBSCRIBER-ONLY FEED TO YOUR PODCAST PLAYER, JUST CLICK HERE! Are you struggling to figure out the joys of your new home? Do you keep compar

Who Are The Heartthrobs of 2026???

There are few things I like to do more than argue about the fine gradations of Who Is A Star Today And Why. I love the categorization element (what's the difference betwe

You Asked for a Parental Death Prep Episode. We Got the Perfect Guest.

Whatever your relationship is with your parents — incredibly close, estranged, somewhere in-between — there's just so much to handle when one of them dies. It doesn't mat

What Made Our Boomer Moms... Like This?

We love our boomer moms. And our boomer moms are complicated. When Tracy Clark-Flory first told me about her memoir — in which she discovers the half-sister her mother ha

RF Kuang Answers Your Questions About Dark Academia

FIRST THINGS FIRST: IF YOU NEED HELP ADDING YOUR SUBSCRIBER-ONLY FEED TO YOUR PODCAST PLAYER, JUST CLICK HERE! Dark Academia is a literary genre. Dark Academia is an aes

Intergenerational Friendships Rule

FIRST THINGS FIRST: IF YOU NEED HELP ADDING YOUR SUBSCRIBER-ONLY FEED TO YOUR PODCAST PLAYER, JUST CLICK HERE! When people around my age tell me that no one else their a

BONUS EPISODE: Is Off Campus the Corniest New Show on Television... or The Hottest? [preview]

Bonus eps are when we go deep on a cultural phenomenon, text, or celebrity that's overwhelming our feeds, charming our pants off, or sparking general bewilderment. Off Ca

Dozens of Irish Books for Your Summer Reading (with Maggie O’Farrell)!

I LOVE IRISH LITERATURE. And like so many of you, I love the work of Maggie O'Farrell – so when I heard her new book was very Irish (set in the aftermath of The Great Hun