The Cut

When Michelle Lhooq stumbled onto a protest outside her door, it didn't look like a protest at all. It looked like a party. Or a music festival. In fact, people were calling it "protestchella," and it got a lot of backlash. This summer, when protesting felt both dangerous and at times joyous, many activists started to wonder: is there a right way to protest? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Society is in need of a radical change. And yet, still, we are constantly told that we need to lower our expectations, be reasonable, and be practical. To vote for the moderate, to fall in line. But what do we gain and what do we lose in compromising? This week on The Cut, host Avery Trufelman wonders: am I radical enough? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Being a snob takes too much energy. This is the time for the comfort food of culture. The Cut host Avery Trufelman talks with author Raven Leilani about Leilani’s debut book Luster and the importance of being earnest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It feels like everyone’s moving. The Cut host Avery Trufelman talks with Chanel Miller, author of Know My Name, about what it’s like to move to a new neighborhood when it feels like a shadow of itself and whether we can become our new selves in a new place. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Jane Austen novels to Schitt’s Creek, rich people have been a source of fascination and perverse envy. But there was this moment during our time in lockdown, where the rich and famous seemed so tone deaf, so out of touch, so bad at singing John Lennon songs, that there seemed to be a turn against them. So why can’t we stop looking at rich people? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Emily Ratajkowski is a model. In her line of work, her image is not always treated as her own. Ratajkowski wrote an essay for The Cut about the ways her likeness has been bought and sold and separated from her. Now she talks with the Cut host Avery Trufelman about what it’s like to try and take back her own power. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Finding love in the city already has its own set of hurdles without adding a global pandemic to the mix. But that hasn’t deterred Tamara, our heroine. When she meets her potential dream man online, she makes the ultimate leap of faith and asks: Would you like to quarantine with me? And what happens next is straight out of a rom com… or is it?The Cut is made possible by the team at New York Magazine. Subscribe today to support their work at thecut.com/subscribeWe are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: voxmedia.com/podsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now that hookup culture is on pause, sexting has become a true form of intimacy. And it’s really highlighted how terrible dick pics can be. Aesthetically. We're talking terrifying angles. Ghastly use of flash. Toilets in the background. This week on The Cut: the art of the nude, and why people socialized as male aren’t allowed to see themselves as desirable.The Cut is made possible by the team at New York Magazine. Subscribe today to support their work at thecut.com/subscribeWe are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: voxmedia.com/podsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The images of dolphins in the Venice canals and coyotes parading through Chicago and elephants asleep in a field were held up as the silver lining of 2020. And from these nature memes emerged a sort of mantra: “nature is healing, we are the virus.” But is humanity the virus we’ve condemned ourselves to be? The Cut looks at how people see themselves in the environment, and who is allowed to have access to the outdoors.The Cut is made possible by the team at New York Magazine. Subscribe today to support their work at thecut.com/subscribeWe are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: voxmedia.com/podsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Being an optimist seems ridiculous right now. Especially because the meaning of the word itself is slipping, amid polite talks of "optimistic" reopening schedules and "optimistic" vaccine timelines. The word has become a euphemism for... delusional. In this inaugural episode of the new podcast of The Cut, host Avery Trufelman tries to navigate what it means to begin a new chapter in 2020. Maybe it doesn't matter if the glass is half empty or half full. Maybe we should just throw the liquid out all together. Or maybe we've all just been defining optimism wrong, and the people who have come to represent optimism incarnate have a lot to teach us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices