A sprawling oral history of Gold’s Gym recounts bodybuilding’s transformation from a small, niche scene to a mainstream cultural phenomenon (thanks, in no small part, to one entrepreneurial Austrian immigrant).
benhuberman
Posted inEditor's Pick
Searching for Souvenirs at Dollywood
On the mysterious, quasi-aspirational allure of Dolly Parton-themed tchotchkes.
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Few Words about Fake Breasts
Nell Boeschenstein, writing almost seven years after her prophylactic mastectomy, examines how breasts — whether real or fake, attached to or removed from their original owner — carry an overabundance of personal and cultural meaning.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Fighting the Vanilla Thieves of Madagascar
Demand for vanilla from Madagascar has skyrocketed in recent years, but the process of exporting the spice to markets around the world is fraught with risk, unpredictability, and — increasingly — violence.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Where Even Walmart Won’t Go: How Dollar General Took Over Rural America
In small towns across Kansas, residents and community leaders grapple with the increasingly ubiquitous presence of America’s fastest-growing retailer.
Posted inBusiness & Tech, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quotes
Long Live the Oddly Charming Poetry of the Mail-Order Catalog
Hammacher Schlemmer, which publishes America’s longest-running catalog, still takes its product descriptions seriously.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The World’s Most Peculiar Company
How does Hammacher Schlemmer, which publishes the longest-running mail-order catalog in American history, survive in the age of Amazon?
Posted inArts & Culture, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quotes
Queer Eye Is an Upbeat Documentary of a Failing Social Order
How a hard-not-to-love show glosses over the powers that produced its makeover subjects.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Queer Art of Failing Better
Laurie Penny on Queer Eye: “It’s not about queerness at all. It’s actually about the disaster of heterosexuality—and what, if anything, can be salvaged from its ruins.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How Donald Trump’s War on Immigrants Is Playing Out in His Hometown
A massive, polyphonic account of the plight of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers in New York City, where ICE’s increased presence has sent entire communities reeling.