Modern Love Podcast: A Mother’s Secret

Ayad Akhtar’s parents met in Pakistan in the early ’60s, when they were both medical students and “ridiculously attractive” — or so their friends say. Despite having a love marriage (against the wishes of their parents), theirs was rocky from the start. “By the time I was 4, I already knew my father had ‘other…

Computers and Painting’s Identity Crisis

Every new generation of artists, curators, and critics seems to feel the need to defend painting. It makes sense: paint on canvas, good for little else, is basically synonymous with big-A Art. Painting stands for art’s angels and demons, its optimism and attention, its arrogance and solipsism. “The Painter’s New Tools” at Nahmad Contemporary in…

Let Them Have Couture

PARIS — I spent quite a long time sniffing the candle, twisting the mirrored jar around in my hands and tilting my head, as if inhaling from different angles might yield new discoveries. I was probing for smells I’d read about earlier that day, in a news release from Balenciaga about the candle. The list…

How to Bulgogi Your Tofu

Good morning. I may hawk recipes in this space, but I don’t always use them. That’s especially true in the middle of the week when I’m ground down by the realities of a working life and don’t have a moment to browse our app. Time sneaks up on me, and suddenly it occurs to me…

Victoria’s Secret and What’s Sexy Now

When Victoria’s Secret announced, back in August 2021, that it was rebranding after years of falling sales and falling cultural credibility — that it would become a champion of female empowerment, replacing its bevy of supermodel angels with the VS Collective, ten women of great accomplishment as well as varying ages and body types —…