Posted inEditor's Pick

Wings, Sweat, and Tears

While it’s not the first in-depth story about the capsaicin-fueled mayhem of YouTube talk show Hot Ones (see: this 2019 Verge story), Jaya Saxena’s piece goes beyond profile to something more like exegesis. We know that Scoville units introduce a candid new wrinkle to the tired celebrity interview; now, the question becomes what to do […]

Posted inEditor's Pick

Meet the Lobbyist Next Door

What do a Real Housewife, an Olympic athlete, and a doula have in common? They’re all being paid by an ad-tech startup as influencers — peddling not products but ideologies: Like baseball, selling influence is a pastime that rarely gets reinvented. There are only so many ways to get a person to do the thing […]

Posted inNewsletter

It’s So Sublime, and Our Top 5

“​​When I listened, I didn’t know if it was something I entered, or something that entered me. If it was within me or if it was me. Do you remember being 16 and loving a song? Of course you do. It felt like that. It felt like everything.” This week, we’re featuring “On (the) Sublime,” […]

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