One Gwyneth Episode to Rule Them All
There aren’t many contemporary celebrities with images layered enough that I could talk about them all day. But Gwyneth? She’s one of them. She’s it. She’s never pretended to be “just like us,” which ...
3 Sep 20251h 14min
Dozens of New-To-You Books for Your TBR Pile
Over on the newsletter, our book concierge threads — when people ask for specific book recommendations, and readers then offer their suggestions — regularly top 1500 comments. We wanted to bring the s...
27 Aug 20251h 4min
Don't Mess With Texas Culture
Texas Culture is at least a dozen cultures smashed into one enormous state — with a whopping 254 counties, four sprawling metro areas, 1255 miles of border with Mexico, the best breakfast item in the ...
20 Aug 20251h 4min
The Potent Ideological Stew of Evangelical Church Camp
I first read about Cara Meredith’s book on evangelical church camp over at Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s newsletter, and as soon as I saw “cry night” in the subtitle, I knew any conversation with her was gon...
13 Aug 20251h 9min
The Ridiculously Interesting World of American Accents
When your family is from a place with a distinctive, often-mockable accent, and you don’t have that accent but can (and do) readily fall into it as soon as you get around anyone who does their vowels ...
6 Aug 20251h 18min
All the Ways We Surveil Motherhood
When I first heard about Hannah Zeavin’s new book, Mother Media: Hot and Cool Parenting in the Twentieth Century, I knew it Culture Study material. Historicizing the intersection between tech and moth...
30 Juli 20251h 2min
All the Latest Book & Publishing Trends, Explained
This is an audience of people who love books — and people who have thoughts about the culture around books. Book clubs, BookTok, the popularization of book genres, special editions, the way other peop...
23 Juli 202555min
Why is Montana So in Love With Itself?
Montana’s unofficial tagline is “the last best place” — which should tell you something about the way the state thinks about itself. It’s a political frankenstein, incredibly beautiful, increasingly f...
16 Juli 20251h 3min
