This week’s episode of The Culture Study Podcast is all about HOW ALL OUR CLOTHES BECAME GEAR — a special crossover episode with Articles of Interest’s Avery Trufelman. We talk about outdoor gear, the lack of plus size gear, how everything connects back to the military, zippers, and so much more — it’s a real delight. Listen here!
What’s a Rich Text? Anything you could talk about — and write about — for days. It’s something that might not look like much is going on when viewed from afar, but as you get closer, you realize just how much layered cultural sediment has accumulated around it.
Here at Culture Study, we love a rich text. Ballerina Farm’s FARMER HYDRATE is a rich text. Same with elaborately (parent)-decorated dorm rooms, and Nicole Kidman’s divorce announcement, and Wound Man. (If you had to put a definition next to “Rich Text” in the dictionary, I think Wound Man would be there). I love digging into these texts myself, but I also love interviewing people about the rich texts that have become their obsessions: men’s facial hair in the 19th century, Tate McRae’s new album, the lumberjack, therapy speak, and so many more.
I especially love it when someone convinces me of the richness of a text I would’ve otherwise ignored — which is why I want to hear about all of your rich texts. I’ve done this right around now for the last two years, and as I wrote last year, it’s weirdly cathartic to have the chance to talk at length about something in your world that no one else seems to think there’s something else going on here. I mean, this is the entire thesis of Culture Study: there’s always more to think about when it comes to the cultural objects and phenomena and norms that surround us. (I also think it’s generative to think about what *feels* like a Rich Text right now in concert with our conversation from yesterday, where we reflected on which texts, rich or otherwise, came to define a specific moment for a micro-generation).
Some rich texts I’m currently squinting at:
Backlash towards millennial hobby energy
“Watching” podcasts like late-night shows
Consuming podcasts exclusively via Tiktok/IG clips
The return of soda
Peak “Grazing Table”
The ongoing rise of the complete-package Halloween costume
Rivian-core (as opposed to Tesla-core)
The millennial lol
Luxury Advent Calendars
A post-Kardashian moment? ????
How Peloton is hyper-slow-lay-offing its instructors/influencers
At what age teens are learning to drive (if they’re learning at all)
Dental Insurance gaslighting
Sheetpan dinners as the new casserole
The rise of the take-home loss-leader supermarket roast chicken
The Vertical Siding /Metal Roof Home Aesthetic
Is there a rich text that’s been quietly terrorizing you / filling your thoughts when you’re driving or riding the bus and trying to organize your life and instead thinking about why all these new fancy protein bars are using the fonts and normie dad names of millennial youth (David, truly wtf)? JUST ME?!? Whatever you’ve been wanting to dig into, I can basically guarantee someone else here would like to as well.
So tell us your text — and what, to your mind, makes it rich. Your theories can be barely formed or a dissertation tucked into a few paragraphs. Whatever it is, we’re here to discuss. Remember our general rules: don’t be butts about other people’s rich texts, and let’s keep this one of the good places on the internet.
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