Culture Study Podcast

For the maiden voyage of the Culture Study podcast, we’re taking a hard look at a problem that plagues us all: terrible clothes. Why are shirts falling apart or pilling after just a few wears? Why does Gucci charge $3200 for a polyester sweater? What happened to ironing and will we ever dry clean en masse again?

• The tweet I describe in the beginning of the podcast:

• Read Amanda Mull’s piece in The Atlantic: “Your Sweaters Are Garbage”

• Read Sarah Zhang’s piece in The Atlantic: “How I Got Bamboo-zled by Baby Clothes”

• Amanda mentioned: Sofi Thanhauser’s Worn: A People’s History of Clothing

• Some other Amanda pieces I love: Millennials Have Lost Their Grip on Fashion, The Free-Returns Party Is Over, How Shoppers Got Tricked By Vegan Leather

• You can see Amanda’s Jeffrey Dahmer glasses in the bio of her Instagram (which is private, so don’t friend request unless you actually know her)

• Paul Mescal’s rat tail situation (perhaps more appropriately called a mullet)

• Resurgent interest in early 2000s music (with Switched on Pop’s Nate Sloan)

• The Mean Girls Trailer

• A deep analysis of Taylor and Travis Kelce discourse

• Kevin Bacon’s Hott Instagram and Gen-X/Elder Millennial Instagram in general

• “Little treat” culture

• You can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here.

• What’s your best made piece of clothing — and what’s the piece of clothing that SHOULD be well made but has evidenced itself to be shit?

• Did you go check the tags of your sweaters after listening WHAT DID THEY SAY???

• How do we think of this general decline in clothing quality as a symptom of deregulation?

• I’d love to hear your thoughts about the decline in ironing and “women’s domestic tasks” in general.

• PLUS ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LOVE TO TALK ABOUT

As is the case in the rest of subscriber-only Culture Study, this is a private space, and our expectation is basically: don’t be butts. In this case, don’t be butts about clothes and other people’s relationship to those clothes, and let’s keep this one of the good places on the internet.

And if you’re looking for the fancy subscriber-only-question-form that allows us to prioritize your questions: it’s here. And thank you so much for subscribing — you allow us to make the show we want (which is also hopefully the show you actually like) free of advertiser imperatives, and that rules.

• Join the ranks of paid subscribers and get bonus content, access to the discussion threads, ad-free episodes, and the knowledge that you're supporting an indie pod trying to make its way in the world.
• Got a question to submit, a prompt for Ask Anne Anything, or an idea for a future episode? Tell us here.
• Catch up on everything else happening in the Culture Study universe here.
• Transcripts will be available here within 24 hours of publishing.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s like the Culture Study newsletter….but more esoteric, more casual, and (most of the time) a lot more funny. The format is pretty simple. We’re going to take the Culture Study ethos of everything is interesting and turn it on various cultural phenomena that beguile and annoy and fascinate and infuriate us.

Like: why are clothes LIKE THIS right now?

Or: what is the deal with F1?

Or even: why is the Paw Patrol theme song that bad?

Every week, a smart and knowledgable co-host will help me answer your questions about these cultural objects, trends, and mysteries.

You can find the Culture Study Podcast wherever you get your podcasts — and you can also listen to it right here on Substack. (Sign up below to get notifications for new episodes, transcripts, and calls for questions for upcoming episodes).

• NO ADS! NO ADS! NO ADS!

• Sprawling weekly discussion threads for each episode (if you already subscribe to the Culture Study Newsletter, you know these are going to be great)

• A priority subscriber-only Google Form for your questions and future episode suggestions

• Access to the bonus “Ask AHP Anything” section at the end of each episode

• If you already subscribe to Culture Study: $3 a month/$30 a year (current subscribers, check your email or the Substack app for “Culture Study Podcast Promo” to get the link; new subscribers will get access to the promo link after they subscribe)

• If you just want to subscribe to the podcast: $5 a month/$50 a year

• Culture Study’s EDITOR, PRODUCER, AND CO-CREATOR Melody Rowell! I wanted to create a profit-sharing scenario where Melody — who is just as instrumental to this show’s success as I am — would also benefit equally from it. We’re sharing all proceeds 50/50 and will continue to do so as the show grows. Melody schedules guests, sifts through questions, helps with audio set-ups, drafts scripts, collects voice memos, makes people feel comfortable and most importantly: edits the show to make it listenable and smart and compelling.

• As soon as the podcast starts making money, we’re going to start paying guests for their time and labor — the goal is $500 an episode. We’ll keep you posted as we get closer to that goal!

• If a podcast seems like it doesn’t take a lot of work, that’s usually because it TAKES A LOT OF WORK. Dozens of people work on a podcast like The Daily. Their salaries are covered by a combination of ads and subscriptions. So we’re going to give that a try, only with the option to totally forgo ads (and get a lot of other good stuff) when you subscribe.

We’d love that. We won’t accept advertising from any shady companies or anything even remotely related to diet-culture or TERF-ism or Trumpism or bigotry broadly defined. But if that’s not you, drop us a line at [email protected].

We do accept advertising for smaller stuff, too: maybe you want to get the word out about your newsletter, podcast, or new book, and think the Culture Study audience would be a good fit. Email us! Let’s figure out a reasonable rate!

Upcoming episodes in need of guiding questions include:

• Infrastructure (why is it the way it is?? why is it so hard to change?)

• Kevin Bacon’s Instagram

• The Mean Girls reboot trailer (and reboots of millennial culture in general)

• WHY IS EARLY 2000S MUSIC SO POPULAR RIGHT NOW

• Cold Plunging

• Conservative Men’s Fashion Trends

• Online Mom Culture (like those groups freaking out about red dye)

• Buy Nothing Groups

• Celebrity’s Weird Philanthropies

• Athleisure

• Organization TikTok

• Veneers

• Online Shopping / Sales / Why Are They The Way They Are

• GENERAL ADVICE QUESTIONS ABOUT ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING (we answer these in the bonus section!)

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe — either right here or in your podcast app. That way you’ll get the first ep as soon as it drops a week from today. Melody and I can’t wait to go on this podcast journey with you — it’s going to lead us so many weird and hilarious places.

• Join the ranks of paid subscribers and get bonus content, access to the discussion threads, ad-free episodes, and the knowledge that you're supporting an indie pod trying to make its way in the world.
• Got a question to submit, a prompt for Ask Anne Anything, or an idea for a future episode? Tell us here.
• Catch up on everything else happening in the Culture Study universe here.
• Transcripts will be available here within 24 hours of publishing.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.