For this issue, we do a mini-dive into the wild, weird, wonderful world of food: the new trends, the old reliables, the ubiquitous, and the rare.
Kicking us off is Kyndall Cunningham with a fun explainer on the mainstreaming of mukbangs — livestreams of people eating large quantities of food, sometimes while chatting, sometimes in dead silence. It’s a genre that’s gone big, and Kyndall explains why it has become our guiltiest pleasure.
Keeping on theme, Anna North reflects on the past, present, and future of the popular and polarizing go-to for millions of parents: the chicken nugget. Whizy Kim explains the American obsession with sauces of all kinds. Charlotte Lytton offers a peek into a future of only seedless fruits, and Keren Landman reports on the rise of “functional beverages” — new lines of drinks that promise not just to quench our thirst, but also boost our immunity, improve our gut, and make us calmer, among other tantalizing benefits.
Elsewhere in the issue: Allie Volpe has a helpful reflection on the idea of “making it” and why that looks different for everyone. Rachel Cohen examines a new cheap housing experiment in San Bernardino, California, that could be an answer to the US housing crisis. Marin Cogan writes about a quietly influential book that has changed the way cities think about crime, and Sam Delgado has a piece on the mass killing of stray dogs in Turkey and poses more humane alternatives.
Rounding out the issue is Oshan Jarow on what’s next after the FDA’s rejection of MDMA therapy. Finally, there’s a wonderful conversation between Noam Hassenfeld and Ethan Mollick on how we can use AI right now to help us with how we work and create.
Thank you, and happy reading!
—Elbert Ventura, executive editor
Mukbangs are everywhere, for better or worse
How the act of eating became mass spectacle.
By Kyndall Cunningham
Why America loves to hate chicken nuggets
Kids love to eat them. Parents love to fight about them.
By Anna North
America’s spicy, smoky, sweet sauce obsession, explained
From hot honey to buffalo ranch, we really, really, really love to make our dry foods wet.
By Whizy Kim
You may never have to pick out seeds from your fruit again
Gene editing could deliver a future of seedless fruit. Is that a good thing?
By Charlotte Lytton
When did sodas, teas, and tonics become medicine?
From prebiotic sodas to collagen waters, beverages are trying to do the most. Consumers are drinking it up.
By Keren Landman, MD
The impossible promise of “making it”
You’ll never have life all figured out. That’s a good thing.
By Allie Volpe
A plot of land in Southern California could be a game-changer for the housing crisis
Factory-built housing, ADUs, and community land trusts — all at once.
By Rachel M. Cohen
This book is changing how cities fight gun violence
Thomas Abt’s Bleeding Out has become foundational in tackling urban violence across the US.
By Marin Cogan
Turkey’s plan to remove stray dogs is inhumane. There’s a better way.
We don’t need to pit dogs against humans.
By Sam Delgado
Psychedelics and therapy might come apart
After FDA rejection, the industry is reconsidering its approach to approval.
By Oshan Jarow
What a practical approach to AI looks like, according to an expert
How Ethan Mollick uses AI to help him write.
By Noam Hassenfeld
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