In his recent book, Empire of the Elite author Michael Grynbaum unearthed a a list of 178 artists, quotes and media properties that had been passed around the halls of Conde Nast in the 90s. It was William Norwich and Charles Gandee's list: As two editors of Vogue, they'd prepared it as an "unofficial test" of applicants to the austere magazine's halls of cultural power. Recently, cultural strategist Olivia Wedderburn took a stab at updating the list for 2026 - and in the processran up against some of the shift in taste, trendsetting and power that have manifested in the last 30 years. You can read the piece on her Substack, Sim City.

https://simcity.substack.com/p/the-2026-cultural-literacy-test

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