Culture Study Podcast

At some point in late April, near the apex of the memes and jokes and ridicule of Katy Perry’s recent “women’s empowerment” trip to space, Melody and I wondered: is it even worth doing a Katy Perry ep...

9 Juli 20251h 6min

Why do men wear shirts under their shirts? Are you forever doomed to wear the same clothes as your 32-year-old self? Why isn’t male fashion more fun? Why are all these moms still buying clothes for th...

25 Juni 202552min

Chances are high that you’ve heard about the way that “private equity” has acquired, hollowed out, and bankrupted some service, product, or company you depend on. For years, I understood the work of p...

18 Juni 20251h 11min

People often ask me why I care so much about parenting when I am not, myself, a parent. This question is always so weird to me — of course I care about parenting norms, because I’m surrounded by paren...

11 Juni 202548min

Is it weird that I really love talking about all the ways the formative culture of my teens screwed me up? Maybe it’s just cathartic — talking with someone else who’s spent time in the postfeminist id...

4 Juni 20251h 8min

For each of these culture-of-place episodes, we look for someone who both adores a place, are very much a product of that place… and are also very much at home talking shit about that place. They see ...

28 Maj 202540min

This isn’t a bleak episode about period pain. Yes, we talk a LOT about death cramps — and all sorts of other symptoms that accompany menstruation. But we also talk a lot about how ridiculous it is tha...

21 Maj 20251h 7min

Tove Danovich is the person to talk to about raising backyard chickens — at least if you want to talk about the culture and discourse swirling around raising backyard chickens. When the current admini...

14 Maj 20251h 1min