Nymphet Alumni

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



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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 ~


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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


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nymphetalumni.com/subscribe

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


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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.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nymphetalumni.com/subscribe