How Americans have glorified the incredibly unhealthy “sad desk lunch”.

Work-life has affected our concept of lunch and productivity, and Anne Helen Petersen argues that we must protect ourselves against what these redefined concepts represent. In this instalment of Culture Study, she examines the consequences to our health that come from ignoring our breaks.

Anne Helen Petersen is a journalist and author of four books, including the forthcoming "Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working From Home."

Anne Helen Petersen

The case for lunch

How financial 'experts' have ruined our relationship with money.

In this edition of Culture Study, a personal finance writer Dana Miranda focuses on the toxicity of budget culture. Particularly on the toxic ideology of money: where it comes from, how we internalize it, and how it haunts us for the rest of our adult lives.

Budget culture and the Dave Ramseyfication of money

Why powering on when we're sick is bad for everyone.

People are damaging others' rights to time off by working when sick. But how do we stop this from happening? In this instalment of Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen reflects on this troubling phenomenon that has become prevalent in the pandemic era.

The normalization of "working through COVID"

Why doesn't Peloton talk about weight? 

In this instalment of Culture Study, Wendy Robinson takes over. She reflects on her experiences using Peleton as a fat person and why she believes that most attitudes in workout culture mean that she does not feel welcome as it is derived from aesthetic rather than fitness terms.

“I’ve grown tired of never hearing anything that acknowledges that bodies like mine (tall, strong, & a size 22) are just as important to the Peloton community as bodies that look more like the bodies of my favourite instructors."”

On loving a company that doesn't know how to love me back

Some problems even a spare pair of hands cannot fix.

Massive budget cuts and the idea that new technologies can wholly eliminate labour have changed how we distribute work. Anne Helen Petersen writes about ‘the expanding job’ phenomenon where it is the norm for one person to be doing work once performed by two or three other people.

The expanding job

Warning: once you start, you may be unable to stop.

For those of you who remember the late 60s and 70s, you'll probably recall a houseplant paradise. Even New York Magazine featured stunning plant-focussed issues with glorious photographs and tips for the indoor garden devotees. It might be due to spending more time inside because of the pandemic, but as Anne Helen Petersen writes this instalment of Culture Study, we're in the midst of the biggest houseplant boom since their 70s glory days. Here, she breaks down the rise of indoor plant cultivation and why the life cycle of a house plant doesn't necessarily have to mean that it recedes into the background, dusty and neglected, like so many of our barely remembered dreams.

The secrets of the plant people

Why the caregiving system is broken.

Caregiving is often expected to fall upon family members' money and willingness, not just for kids but for vulnerable adults too. However, this poses a problematic paradigm: what happens if someone doesn't have those?

In this instalment of Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen the many vagaries of familial care and why the time has come for American society to embrace newer perspectives on the ever-complex subject of care.

Forced to care

When public goods turn private, markets that are ripe for inequality are born.

Summer is around the corner, which is a time of stress for the world’s parents are they clamber to plan for the care of their children. In this instalment of Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen interviews the sociologist Jessica Calarco who specialises Ian the intersection of care, work, parenting, and privilege. They discuss the context behind the scramble for childcare in the summer.

‘Ultimately, we don’t have a better summer system because the people with the power to build one have little incentive to do so — and may have an even bigger incentive to keep the status quo in place.’ 

The past and potential future of the summer care scramble

How do we keep on top of this feeling?

The world is more unstable than ever, and that will not change any time soon. In this instalment of Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen reflects on the exhausting cycles of vigilance, the feeling that this is how things are now, and what to do about the fact that it's almost certainly only going to worsen.

"Put differently: white people who have faced little adversity in their lives are beginning to grapple with what it means to suffer without cause, for reasons utterly outside of your control, in a way that feels abjectly unfair, with little or no recourse. All of this reminds me of the chorus of this is not who we are that rang out following the January 6th attack on the Capitol — and the equally strong chorus that responded this is exactly who 'we' are — you just haven't previously been made to pay attention."

What if this is just the way things are now

No one is supposed to look at their face all day.

The pandemic driven increase in time spent on video, either for work or the rest of life, has changed how many people think about their faces. In this instalment of Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen explores the Zoom Face phenomenon and what happens when the weight of "professionalism" falls squarely on the face.

A case of zoom dysmorphia

They’re a current staple of decor in modern living, but it wasn’t always this way.

Inspired by rewatching The Age of Innocence and noticing the incredible amount of houseplants it features, Anne Helen Petersen hit the history books. In this instalment of Culture Study, she explores how the humble houseplant plant started as a display of colonial control before turning into horticultural hysteria in the 19th century. The 20th century saw the madness calm, so what triggered the extreme plant revival of recent years? Here, she reveals all.

The Age of Houseplants

Screening saves lives.

The irrational taboos related to specific organs and the materials that come out of them also often mean there are limited reuses available that make you feel better about conditions affecting them. In this instalment of Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen goes into detail about her recent colonoscopy in hopes that it helps others with their own concerns surrounding what seems like a mortifying procedure.

Welcome to Colonoscopy Land

The company believed its own hype but is far from done.       

This week's headlines discussing Peloton suggest that the company is on the brink of folding, when a quick look at its membership growth and customer churn rate suggests something entirely different. In this instalment of Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen uses the discourse surrounding Peloton’s ‘failings’ to reflect how society has built irrational growth expectations for most businesses.

The horror, the horror of the Peloton not-even-plateau

What keeps people on Facebook?

A decade ago, Anne Helen Petersen started a Facebook page for her WordPress blog. It eventually grew to 44,000 members. Surprisingly, It never turned toxic, but upon reflection of the wider online community’s toxicity, it was time to leave. 

In this instalment of Culture Study, she analyses why millions of users are tethered to a space that many of them despise.

This party sucks, why haven't we left? 

Why sex positivity and growing up is not a sin.

According to some Christian cultures, pre-marital sex should be considered vile, profane and disrespectful (among many other negative adjectives). However, it's an entirely different story after marriage, resulting in a rollercoaster of emotion for thousands of people.

In this edition of Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen uses the much-anticipated YouTube video detailing how one of the Baylor twins lost their virginity, to explain the importance of sex positivity and ending the cycle of shame.

The Baylor influencer twin sex-positive glow-up

Why do they make it so hard for us to do what we actually want to?

Simple online games are considered to be a way for adults to "swipe the stress away". But, ever since Anne Helen Petersen downloaded Candy Crush in a haze of physical and mental exhaustion, she has played it (and hated it) every night. 

In this instalment of Culture Study, Anne reflects on the addictive games that exploit our burnout, and reveals what makes Wordle unique enough to buck that trend.

The rot of Candy Crush and the rest of Wordle

It's not a sign of weakness or failure to ask for help.

At this point in the pandemic, everyone is tired, and every corner of the internet is filled with people screaming for help. It is safe to say that after two years of struggle, many of us are the least thoughtful versions of ourselves, with little room to make space for the experiences of anyone outside our inner circle.

In this instalment of Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen reflects on what it means to empathise with others, exploring how to develop compassion for people we cannot relate to.

Why no one can hear parents screaming

The world needs to toughen up as it becomes increasingly unstable.

The most contentious issues of the past year have indicated huge problems with all types of global infrastructure. We're past the point of pre-pandemic snapback, so what can we do to reach a more fruitful 'new normal' for everyone? 

In this instalment of Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen explains that a 'ruggedization' of almost every aspect of society is key to a better future.

How to build a rugged, resilient society

It's time to shift society's collective view of body image.

Since birth, many of us have been programmed to want to be thin, using dieting and exercising to hit unrealistic health and body goals. However, Ragen Chastain, the author of the "Weight and Healthcare" newsletter, is trying to illuminate what weight neutral healthcare could look like in practice.

In this instalment of Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen interviews the writer and motivational speaker. They discuss why weight loss fails the vast majority of the time, her journey in unlearning fatphobia and how to fight back at internet trolls.

An interview with Ragen Chastain

A counterhistory of feminism.

This instalment of Culture Study is an interview with Kyla Schuller, a professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and author of the recently released book, “The Trouble with White Women”. 

They discuss the framework of her book, the differences between writing for a popular audience and an academic one, how she planned to provide different audiences with different tools and which modern works inspire her line of thought.

“My goal is less to judge than to organize: to bring new audiences to the anti-racist, anti-capitalist feminism that’s been sidelined, yet thriving on the margins, for nearly 200 years.”