The Gray Area with Sean Illing takes a philosophy-minded look at culture, technology, politics, and the world of ideas. Each week, we invite a guest to explore a question or topic that matters. From the the state of democracy, to the struggle with depression and anxiety, to the nature of identity in the digital age, each episode looks for nuance and honesty in the most important conversations of our time. New episodes drop every Monday.
https://www.vox.com/vox-conversations-podcast
The death of cool
Vox culture contributor Anne Helen Petersen talks with writer Safy-Hallan Farah about the concept of 'cool.' They discuss different generations' approaches to determining what's cool, how the concept of 'cool' gets tangled up with class, capital, and consumption, and the ineffable process of cultivating taste in a digital world, where nothing's obscure and everything's available.
Host: Anne Helen Petersen (@annehelen), culture contributor, Vox
Guest: Safy-Hallan Farah (@SafyHallanFarah), writer and artist
References:
- “The great American cool” by Safy-Hallan Farah (Vox; July 14)
- Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste by Pierre Bourdieu (tr. Richard Nice. Harvard; 1987)
- Let’s Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste by Carl Wilson (Bloomsbury; 2014)
- “What Gen Z’ers Really Think of Millennials” by Diyora Shadijanova (VICE; June 18, 2020)
- @on_a_downward_spiral (Instagram)
- The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett (Princeton; 2018)
- "Xanga, we hardly knew ye: Ode to the angstiest social network ever" by Kate Knibbs (Digital Trends; June 4, 2013)
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This episode was made by:
- Producer: Erikk Geannikis
- Editor: Amy Drozdowska
- VP, Vox Audio: Liz Kelly Nelson
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