pop culture

A local soda is making a comeback in Turkey

Food

Gazoz is an old-school, hyper-local soda that’s been ubiquitous in Turkey since it was invented more than a century ago. Every town has a signature brand, often incorporating local flavors like pine, lavender, or sweet almond. The World’s Durrie Bouscaren reports from southern Turkey on why this beloved drink is having a moment.

Comic still of woman against yellow backdrop holding up a book and pen

Author Saladin Ahmed has found mainstream success in the US — while being ‘unapologetically Arab and Muslim’

Books

Commentary: Billboard

Arts, Culture & Media

Commentary: Today’s World War II Pop

Arts, Culture & Media

Commentary: Good Pop, Bad Pop

Arts, Culture & Media

Commentary: Intergalactic Pop Culture

Arts, Culture & Media

Kurt wonders if the long-divided cultures of art and science are finally finding common ground.

Commentary: The Dumb and the Bland

Arts, Culture & Media

It’s commonplace to hear cultural critics lament the popularity of reality television, but Studio 360’s Kurt Andersen argues the bread and circus of bad TV in 2005 is the result of a generational shift.

Special Guest: Cintra Wilson

Arts, Culture & Media

Cintra Wilson is a playwright and performer with a penchant for pop culture. She’s a regular contributor to Salon, where her annual scathing review of the Oscars, is a must-read each year. She’s the author of A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined as Grotesque Crippling Disease, Other Cultural Revelations, and Colors Insulting to Nature.

Murakami

Arts, Culture & Media

Teenagers and young adults in this country are embracing Japanese art and pop culture like never before. An exhibition at the Japan Society in New York has filled the museum with colorful toys, strange dolls and paintings of schoolgirls. It’s all very cute, but it doesn’t take long to sense some dark undercurrents below all […]

Big Eyes

Arts, Culture & Media

We love big eyes on anything — babies, puppies, cartoon characters, Christina Ricci. But our fondness for big eyes is the work of nature, not Disney. Studio 360’s Eric Molinsky found out how evolutionary psychology butts into pop culture.