Nymphet Alumni

Ep. 180: Alexi’s Year in Japan (Female Lifestyle Report)

Nymphet Alumni — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 15:30:50 GMT

In this special solo video report, Alexi files a year of field notes from her life in Tokyo, skipping the anime and the Google Maps hidden gems to focus on what the average Japanese young woman is actually obsessing over, aspiring to, and arguing about online. She covers lookism discourse (skeletal analysis, surgery clinic–influencer collusion, and the …

Course Materials 075

Nymphet Alumni — Sat, 07 Nov 2026 15:19:21 GMT

Welcome to week seventy-five of Course Materials, our recommendations column where we share the best of our cultural diets for paid subscribers every Friday.

To access the full Course Materials archive, exclusive episodes, and all the glamour of our premium content, you’ll need to add your payment information at this link.

Without further ado, here are our personal picks for the week of November 2nd:

Ep. 179: When There’s a Willa ... w/ Willa Bennett

Nymphet Alumni — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 21:50:40 GMT

In this week’s episode, we’re joined by Willa Bennett: certified media superstar, lifelong magazine obsessive, and current editor-in-chief of both Cosmopolitan and Seventeen. We discuss the delightfully radical legacy of Cosmopolitan, Willa’s heroic full-circle return to Seventeen, how her menswear background shapes her unique point of view, and the tension between editorial authority and audience-led relatability. We also get into her star-studded Blind Date video series, the literary destiny behind her Willa Cather namesake, her advice for aspiring young professionals, and more.

Links:

Willa Bennett on Instagram

Cosmopolitan Winter 2026 cover stories: “Meet The Hunger Games’ New Girls on Fire”

Highsnobiety Winter 2022 cover story: Billie Eilish by Willa Bennett

Cosmopolitan Spring 2025 cover story: Brenda Song and Macaulay Culkin

Nymphet Alumni Ep. 130: Magazine Girl

“Is It Just Us? Or Are the Single Cat Ladies Happier?” by Annabel Iwegbue, photographed by Rona Liana Ahdout in Cosmopolitan

Blind Date | Cosmopolitan on YouTube

Is It Just Us? Or Is Everyone Into PDA Again? by Alexandra Whittaker, photographed by Rona Liana Ahdout in Cosmopolitan

Olivia Rodrigo Makes a Vision Board | Manifesting With | Cosmopolitan on YouTube

The Beauty Closet by Cosmo on Substack

“Introducing Cosmopolitan’s 2026 Z-Stars” in Cosmopolitan

Chase Rutherford and Charles Hsu tour the Cosmo offices on Instagram

Course Materials 074

Sam Cummins — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 18:15:04 GMT

Welcome to week seventy-four of Course Materials, our revamped recommendations column!

From now on, we’ll be sharing the best of our cultural diets for paid subscribers every week.

A little reminder: if you haven’t added your payment info into Substack following our move from Patreon, your comped subscription to our exclusive episodes and newsletters has now expired.

To remain subscribed to exclusive episodes and all the glamour of our premium content, including Course Materials, you’ll need to add your payment information at this link.

Without further ado, here are our personal picks for the week of October 26th:

Ep. 178: Game of Crones | Study Break

Nymphet Alumni — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 15:53:14 GMT

In this edition of Study Break, we discuss the hauntological challenges of the VS Fashion Show, Ryan Murphy’s delectable multiverse of madness in AHS 13, and the Nu-Hipster rooftop flop heard around the world courtesy of Worldpeace DMT and Lex Walton. We also preside over the sunsetting of Zara Larsson’s Midnight Sun era, the imminent Khia Asylum gradua…

Course Materials 073

Nymphet Alumni — Sun, 25 Oct 2026 12:15:39 GMT

Welcome to week seventy-three of Course Materials, our revamped recommendations column!

From now on, we’ll be sharing the best of our cultural diets for paid subscribers every week.

A little reminder: if you haven’t added your payment info into Substack following our move from Patreon, your comped subscription to our exclusive episodes and newsletters has now expired.

To remain subscribed to exclusive episodes and all the glamour of our premium content, including Course Materials, you’ll need to add your payment information at this link.

Without further ado, here are our personal picks for the week of October 19th:

Ep. 177: New Sincerity 2

Nymphet Alumni — Sat, 24 Oct 2026 19:27:29 GMT

This week, we’re picking up the thread of New Sincerity— the cultural disposition that championed earnest emotion over irony and cynicism— and declaring its second wave, signaled by mumblecore documentarians, grassroots anti-algorithm micro-platforms, and transcendent, truth-seeking young rockers. Beginning with Austin’s New Sincerity underground scene in the early 1980s, we move through Daniel Johnston’s McDonald’s tape recordings, David Foster Wallace’s anti-irony manifesto, the tender emo of the early 2000s, and the hyperpop/electroclash interregnum before arriving at the present-day convergence of Geese, Chanel Beads, laptop twee, Perfectly Imperfect, Zohran’s New York, and so on. We also discuss the uncanny historical parallels between Conor Oberst and Cameron Winter, the anti-fashion uniform of dirty jackets and unbrushed hair, and the civic reasons why Ridgewood is possibly the epicenter of this aesthetic climate.

Links:

“John Wilson on Anxiety, Ridgewood, and Rent” in Interview

The History of Concrete viral Letterboxd review discourse

Perfectly Imperfect on Instagram / PI.FYI

silknode on Instagram / silk.cx

friends& on Substack, laptop_twee playlist by friends& on Spotify

errands.show on Instagram

“‘Errands’ Should Be the Most Boring Show on the Internet” by Alex Vadukul in The New York Times

Zohran Mamdani on Errands / Zohran Mamdani on Perfectly Imperfect

“People Are Discovering NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s Rap Past” by Andre Gee in Rolling Stone

15-year-old Zohran Mamdani defending his mother Mira Nair on film message boards

“The Zeitgeist of 1985, Pt. 1” by Michael Corcoran on Substack

“The New Sincerity” by Michael Corcoran in Spin (1986)

“E. Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction” by David Foster Wallace in The Review of Contemporary Fiction

“Mr. Sincerity Tries a New Trick” by Kelefa Sanneh in The New York Times

“Is Cameron Winter Serious?” by Lindsay Zoladz in The New York Times

“Toward a Working Theory of the Nu-Hipster” by Eli Schoop in Constantly Hating on Substack

“How to Live Without Irony” by Christy Wampole in The New York Times

“Sincerity, Not Irony, Is Our Age’s Ethos” by Jonathan D. Fitzgerald in The Atlantic

Milady Rave: New York, June 2023, Remilia x UG scene conspiracy on Reddit

Perfectly Imperfect SXSW Showcase 1.0, Perfectly Imperfect SXSW Showcase 2.0

“The Rise of Laptop Twee” by welcome.jpeg on Substack

“Things Are So Bad, People Are Longing for Cringey Millennial Culture” by Casey Michael Henry in The New York Times

Nymphet Alumni Ep. 22: Mass Bushwick

“Curating Ridgewood” by Max Moorhead in The Brooklyn Rail

“The big rock that helped defined the Ridgewood/Brooklyn border” in QNS

“Burning Bushwick” by Denis Chavez in For The Record (NYC Department of Records and Information Services)

Nymphet Alumni Ep. 96: Continental Luxury

“Geese Never Thought They’d End Up Here” (Cover Story) by Simon Vozick-Levinson in Rolling Stone

“Geese Invite Us To Their Secret Rehearsal Space, Talk New Music, Touring, & More” by Rolling Stone on YouTube

“The Real-Life Wardrobe of Geese’s Max Bassin, Who Only Wears One Brand of Jeans” by Christopher Fenimore in GQ

“I Like That Cameron Winter Dresses Bad” by Sophie Kemp in GQ

Special thanks to Riya Mahesh (Quiet Light), Vivi Hayes, Kat Brouillette (Locket), and Max Ludlow ~

Course Materials 072

Biz Sherbert — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 19:47:33 GMT

Welcome to week seventy-two of Course Materials, our recommendations column where we share the best of our cultural diets for paid subscribers every Friday.

To access the full Course Materials archive, exclusive episodes, and all the glamour of our premium content, you’ll need to add your payment information at this link.

Without further ado, here are our personal picks for the week of October 12th:

Ep. 176: Chrome Hearts Run Free w/ Ezra Marcus

Sam Cummins — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:54:04 GMT

This week, Sam is joined by Ezra Marcus, New York magazine writer and trusted male correspondent from the entrepreneurial underworld, for a discussion about the shadow economy, the crisis of masculinity, and his latest article on the lit world of Chrome Hearts resale. They chat Chrome Hearts millionaires, OnlyFans empires, middle school day traders, Gen Z’s search for moral order, NeeDoh playground economics, the lost spirit of rap music, and more!

Links:

“The Chrome Hearts Hustle” by Ezra Marcus in The Cut

“The Porn Addicts Who Tried to Rescue the Camgirls” by Ezra Marcus in The Cut

“How Everything Became Gambling” by Max Read in The New York Times Magazine

“Andrew Tate’s Empire of Abuse: by Heidi Blake in The New Yorker

Pimp: Story of My Life by Iceberg Slim

764

Yung Lean on Subway Takes

“The New TikTok Aesthetic is ‘Ball Hog’” by Samuel Hine in The Cut

Chrome Hearts Tags by Lil Uzi Vert

Rogue Garms

Kids day trading on the school bus via TikTok

6th graders networking on LinkedIn via TikTok

Course Materials 071

Nymphet Alumni — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 16:55:02 GMT

Welcome to week seventy-one of Course Materials, our revamped recommendations column!

From now on, we’ll be sharing the best of our cultural diets for paid subscribers every week.

A little reminder: if you haven’t added your payment info into Substack following our move from Patreon, your comped subscription to our exclusive episodes and newsletters has now expired.

To remain subscribed to exclusive episodes and all the glamour of our premium content, including Course Materials, you’ll need to add your payment information at this link.

Without further ado, here are our personal picks for the week of October 5th:

Ep. 175: Bomboclaats and Technocrats | Study Break

Nymphet Alumni — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:26:20 GMT

In this edition of Study Break, we discuss the abhorrent kayfabe of Drake’s new “goth GF” courtship, the steamy, naturalistic Ryan McGinley portfolio that kicked off New York’s inaugural men’s style issue, and the incoming wave of dark technocrat dramas— Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, Nathan Fielder’s You Can See Everything— and the risks of filmmakers drawing the map over the territory. We also get into Taylor Swift’s perplexingly jolly ode to getting picked and how the viral Western Mass lesbian bar discourse echoes three centuries of New England Puritan covenant culture.

Links:

20 WOMEN VS DRAKE | 20 V 1

Lin Lamar aka Pinkchyu on Instagram

“Perky Goth” on TVTropes.com

“We Can Tell You Have Low Social Power” by Breanna on Labyrinth of Art via Substack

“Sombr’s ‘Sex’ Belt Was His Idea” by Eileen Cartter in GQ

2hollis - Sex (Music Video)

“Reggie Watts Is a Prominent Ketamine Advocate. Was It His Ex’s ‘Undoing’?” by Cheyenne Roundtree in Rolling Stone

Nymphet Alumni Ep. 86: Deadheads and Dark Hippie-ism

“The Boys in the Baths” by Ryan McGinley for New York’s Men’s Style issue

“The Chrome Hearts Hustle” by Ezra Marcus for The Cut

“The Robert Pattinson and Skyler Gisondo Interview” by Slushy Noobz on YouTube

The Social Reckoning dir. Aaron Sorkin (Trailer)

Artificial dir. Luca Guadanigno (Trailer)

You Can See Everything dir. Nathan Fielder, Lance Oppenheim (Trailer)

Lost Weekend by Phoebe Bridgers

AI-generated steel coil safety song

“I’m a Swiftie and even I think these new songs are terrible” by Poppie Platt in The Telegraph

300SkullsAndCounting & Jenny Sparks - The Ballad of St. Nick’s Park (Music Video)

Chiddy Bang - Opposite Of Adults (Music Video)

“Greenfield lesbian bar Last Ditch faces mask-rule backlash” by Annalisa Quinn in The Boston Globe

Course Materials 070

Nymphet Alumni — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 17:52:00 GMT

Welcome to week seventy of Course Materials, our revamped recommendations column!

From now on, we’ll be sharing the best of our cultural diets for paid subscribers every week.

A little reminder: if you haven’t added your payment info into Substack following our move from Patreon, your comped subscription to our exclusive episodes and newsletters has now expired.

To remain subscribed to exclusive episodes and all the glamour of our premium content, including Course Materials, you’ll need to add your payment information at this link.

Without further ado, here are our personal picks for the week of September 28th:

Ep. 174: The 19th Century w/ Mandylion Press

Biz Sherbert — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:01:21 GMT

This week, Biz is joined by Madeline Porsella and Mabel Capability Taylor of Mandylion Press to get to the bottom of what really happened in the 19th century… From Victorians’ obsession with clothing to why the bohemian weirdo authoresses of the 1800s were actually a bit basic.

Links:

Mandylion Press

Mandylion Press Instagram

1-800-1800 podcast / Mandylion Press Substack

Course Materials 069

Nymphet Alumni — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 12:00:29 GMT

Welcome to week sixty-nine of Course Materials, our revamped recommendations column!

From now on, we’ll be sharing the best of our cultural diets for paid subscribers every week.

A little reminder: if you haven’t added your payment info into Substack following our move from Patreon, your comped subscription to our exclusive episodes and newsletters has now expired.

To remain subscribed to exclusive episodes and all the glamour of our premium content, including Course Materials, you’ll need to add your payment information at this link.

Without further ado, here are our personal picks for the week of September 21st:

Ep. 173: Dictator’s Wife

Nymphet Alumni — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 20:52:08 GMT

In this episode, we examine the aesthetic of the Dictator’s Wife, a 20th century archetype of conspicuous luxury, scary elegance, and icy detachment. We catalog the aesthetic’s signatures, from exotic furs and bulletproof coiffs to monochrome coordination and maximalist millinery. We consider how rigidly controlled femininity functions as armor and propaganda and survey the historical canon: Imelda Marcos’s infamous wardrobe, Elena Ceaușescu’s ugly-chic vanity crashouts, Asma al-Assad’s Vogue-approved Euro minimalism, and more. We also relate these issues to America’s current political climate, including the “edifice complex” ravaging our nation’s capitol, Melania's beleaguered glam squad, and the gilded tyranny of Mar-a-Lago glamour.

Links:

Image board

Cardi B dictator’s wife meme

Cardi B by Szilveszter Makó for Vogue Arabia

Rama Duwaji by Szilveszter Makó for The Cut

“Fashion Twitter is mad Daniel Roseberry Dressed a MAGA heiress.” by Louis Pisano on Substack

Louis Pisano’s “Couture & Corruption” series on TikTok

Lady Macbeth monologue from Act 1, Scene 5 of Macbeth

“Shoes, furs and hypocrisy: Why we love to hate despots' wives” by Rebecca Seales in BBC News

Bond villain nationality masterlist

“Womanliness as a Masquerade” by Joan Riviere

“Women Behind the Throne” by Camille Paglia

MAGA women research by Style Analytics on TikTok

The Kingmaker (2019) dir. Lauren Greenfield

Generation Wealth by Lauren Greenfield

Imelda (2003) dir. Ramona S. Diaz

“5 Shopping Sprees So Wild, They Made History” by Maureen O’Connor in New York

Eva Peron Rainbow Tour of Europe cover story for Time

Santa Evita by Tomás Eloy Martínez

“Behind Mugabe’s fall: Gucci Grace versus the Crocodile” by Norimitsu Onishi in The Sydney Morning Herald

“The Vanity Cult of Elena Ceausescu – Hated Wife of Romania’s Dictator” by Matthew Gaskill in Vintage News

“Ceausescu sale: Everything must go” (auction report) by Kate Connolly in The Guardian

“The Party that Toppled a Dynasty and Changed the Middle East Forever” by Jeff Zhou in Young Diplomats Society

“Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert” by Joan Juliet Buck in Vogue

“Syrian first lady Adma Al-Assad’s outfits” by Aya Lowe in Monocle

“How China Fell in Love with Syria’s First Lady” in Worldcrunch

“Armour of Couture” by Szilveszter Makó in Vogue Hong Kong

Gucci Spring/Summer 2026 “La Famiglia” portrait campaign by Catherine Opie

Melania Trump’s “I Really Don’t Care. Do U?” Zara jacket

Course Materials 068

Nymphet Alumni — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:21:31 GMT

Welcome to week sixty-eight of Course Materials, our revamped recommendations column!

From now on, we’ll be sharing the best of our cultural diets for paid subscribers every week.

A little reminder: if you haven’t added your payment info into Substack following our move from Patreon, your comped subscription to our exclusive episodes and newsletters has now expired.

To remain subscribed to exclusive episodes and all the glamour of our premium content, including Course Materials, you’ll need to add your payment information at this link.

Without further ado, here are our personal picks for the week of September 14th:

Course Materials 067

Biz Sherbert — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 15:53:19 GMT

Welcome to week sixty-seven of Course Materials, our recommendations column where we share the best of our cultural diets for paid subscribers every Friday.

To access the full Course Materials archive, exclusive episodes, and all the glamour of our premium content, you’ll need to add your payment information at this link.

Without further ado, here are our personal picks for the week of September 7th:

Ep. 172: Terry Topics w/ Terrence O’Connor

Nymphet Alumni — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 22:38:29 GMT

This week, we’re joined by Terrence O’Connor, Cultural Digestif and creative mind across all your favorite pop stars. Terry shares his takes on Stella Lefty as a Bostonian himself, stream-of-consciousness as the purest form of posting, the rise of the short-form press tour, the role of the “reference queen” in the creative ecosystem, and much more.

Links:

Course Materials 066

Nymphet Alumni — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 15:03:16 GMT

Welcome to week sixty-six of Course Materials, our revamped recommendations column (arriving a little later than usual this week, for which we apologize!).

From now on, we’ll be sharing the best of our cultural diets with paid subscribers every Friday.

A little reminder: if you haven’t added your payment information to Substack following our move from Patreon, your comped subscription to our exclusive episodes and newsletters has now expired.

To remain subscribed to exclusive episodes and all the glamour of our premium content—including Course Materials—you’ll need to add your payment information at this link.

Without further ado, here are our personal picks for the week of August 31:

Ep. 171: The Ballad of Nimrod Workman | Study Break

Nymphet Alumni — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 20:28:19 GMT

In this edition of Study Break, we discuss the coiffed Californian camp of Ryan Murphy’s The Shards, KATSEYE’s continued reign as the queens of sensory overload brainrot pop, and a new cast of nominatively absurd figures including Igby Rigney, Stella Lefty, Chanty Beluga, and Nimrod Workman. We also ponder Ella Langley as the new poster girl of American alt-lite, and we consider the uncomfortable indignity of life after fleeting virality as illustrated by Jools Lebron and the Love Island USA cast. Perhaps most importantly, we pause to mourn the loss of American Founding Mother and universal aphorist Dolly Parton :(

Links:

Dolly Parton and her parents sing “In the Pines” (1976)

“Evening Shade” by Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton last health update vide on Instagram

TikTok #searchfordolly audition videos (exhibit A, exhibit B)

“How ‘The Shards’ Blew Up at HBO — and Ended Up in Ryan Murphy’s Hands” by Benjamin Svetkey in The Hollywood Reporter

Kaia Gerber and Homer Gere shot by Steven Meisel for Vogue September 2026 Cover Story

Kaia Gerber prompts BBL accusations in Alaïa F/W 2026

Kaia Gerber says she had an exorcism performed on her with a didgeridoo

Nymphet Alumni Ep. 6: The Milf-ification of Billie Eilish (Emergency Roundtable)

First look of Billie Eilish as Esther Greenwood on the set of The Bell Jar dir. Sarah Polley

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Official Teaser from HBO Max

“Happee Birthdae Harry” merch in the Harry Potter Japan Store