Most days, Marzieh can be spotted at her shop in Paris’s 5th arrondissement, Les Trésors de Perse, where she brings Persian crafts and the beauty of Iranian culture to the French capital. If it’s not too busy, she might be chatting with other local shop owners, sharing tea and cake. When she’s not working, you may see her walking along the Seine if the weather is nice, hopping on her boyfriend’s scooter on the way to a movie or a new museum show, or at the gym, where she strength trains with friends. Here, Marizeh tells us about growing up in Iran, being one of eight siblings, and getting signed up for a dating app by her daughter.
Read MoreCheesemaker, farmer, and clinical psychologist Tamara Jo Hicks is likely to be spotted in the small town of Tomales in West Marin, 60 miles north of San Fransisco’s Bay Bridge. She and her husband run the beautiful Toluma Farms & Tomales Farmstead Creamery, producing award-winning cheese and working to build a healthy community and a healthy ecosystem. Across the Bay, they run Daily Driver, a beloved local bagel business with an on-site creamery. We talked to Tamara about growing up in Oklahoma, her great-grandmother’s chocolate cake, and the art of making cheeseboards.
Read MoreKim Dadou Brown moved around frequently as a child, but Rochester, New York always felt like home. Now that she’s back after seventeen years in prison, Kim, a survivor of domestic violence and advocate for survivors like her, can be found shopping at Goodwill, speaking to lawmakers, or traveling the country as an expert speaker on domestic violence and the impact of criminalization. We talked to Kim about hanging out with her cool cousin in high school, finding love in prison, and making a world where survivors of domestic violence are heard.
Read MoreJewelry historian and entrepreneur Erica Weiner started out designing costume jewelry on the Lower East Side, amidst the music scene of the early 2000s. Over time, her interest in jewelry lead to a career selling esoteric antiques. Here, Erica shares the song she lost her virginity to, the Britpop that soundtracked suburban drives and a semester in Scotland, and the song that sound like the smell of New Jersey roads in the summer.
Read MoreArchitect and urban planner Mette Prag spends most of her time in Christiania, the anarchist commune in the heart of Copenhagen where she’s lived for 37 years. When she isn’t negotiating discussions among the 770 adult residents, she is dancing at a nearby gathering, swimming in winter, or travelling. We spoke with Mette about growing up in one commune and raising her children in another, traveling through the Sahara desert, and going vegetarian.
Read MoreWhen filmmaker Amandine Gay is the creative force behind Speak Up, a documentary about Black Francophone women, and A Story of One’s Own, a documentary about transracial and transnational adoption. She’s also a frequent speaker on filmmaking, feminism, and adoption, and she has her own production company. She might spot you when she’s taking a well-deserved break people-watching in Montreal’s cafés. We spoke to Amandine about developing an Afro-feminist aesthetic, sleeping in on the weekends, and getting a hysterectomy.
Read MoreThese days, publicist Kaitlin Phillips is splitting her time between Manhattan and Marseille. In New York, she’ll meet you for a drink and might even help you get a job. In Marseille, she’s reading on the beach and eating three meals a day, prepared by her husband. We were excited to talk to her about watching the Olympics on a rented television set, finding a job on Facebook, making rent, and more.
Read MoreWe had the chance to talk with actor, writer and content creator Delaney Rowe about the tap dance performances she foisted upon her parents as a kid, developing self-consciousness and a penchant for cringy moments, the luxury of having obsessions, and more.
Read MoreEsthetician Raquel Medina-Cleghorn’s music preferences have traced her journey from San Diego to Portland back to San Diego to her eventual arrival in New York, with early interests in punk giving way to a love of electroclash and shoegaze. Here, she shares the songs associated with some of her strongest memories, from rebellious hair-spiking makeovers with her childhood best friend all the way to her wedding day.
Read MoreLexie Smith is an artist and baker presently based in upstate New York who spends a lot of time researching, thinking about, and making bread. She runs the online resource center Bread on Earth, which explores bread’s “potential as a social, political, economic, and ecological barometer.” In this interview, she shares her favorite spots for pastries, bagels, and loaves in New York City, as well as a variety of books and resources for learning more about bread and grains.
Read MoreWe spoke with designer and archivist Jenn Park about her early love for Marc Jacobs/Juergen Teller ads, her recent success tracking down a lost documentary after a 15-year search, and how she treats her phone as a hard drive.
Read MoreWe were excited to pick Professor Mindy Seu’s brain, as full of associations and asides as a Wikipedia page is loaded with hyperlinks, touching on everything from resistance training to how minds work to the effects growing up in a conservative household had on her sexuality to her love of Dries van Noten — read on for all this and more.
Read MoreWe spoke with photographer Pia Riverola about her tenuous relationship with her iPhone, her favorite newsletter, a tradition of making phone calls with no purpose from her childhood in Barcelona, and more.
Read MoreWe chatted with home aide Siraba Coulibaly about her self-made business, the shocking truths she has to face as someone who often cares for people near the ends of their lives, her favorite colors to wear to make her skin tone pop, and more.
Read MoreWe had the chance to talk to Lexii about how she manifested herself as a superhero (or sexy villain?), the merits of weird art people dinners, empowering sex workers to choose their battles, and much more.
Read MoreEthaney Lee is a vibrant, compelling content creator on Instagram, where as @tenderherbs, she cooks and shares meals that look as beautiful as they seem delicious. We spoke to Ethaney about her procrastination problems, why she doesn’t take food pics on dates, her everlasting devotion to tumblr, and much more.
Read MoreWe had the chance to speak with Maria about her nearly-50-year-long career in nursing, her discerning tastes in fashion and filets, her eye-opening philosophies of life informed by working so close to death, and more.
Read MoreWe chatted with Danny about her unexpected path to fighting (she took a detour in musical theater that taught her a different kind of strength), her non-parent-approved tattoos, the importance of learning how to not get hit, being a constant for her clients, and much more.
Read MoreWe had the chance to talk to Zari about her work in addiction medicine and academic detailing, her ad hoc approach to connecting with her Iranian heritage, and how newfound community in NYC has given her the feeling of “home” for the first time in her life.
Read MoreWe spoke with writer and professor McKenzie Wark about her punk-soundtracked pathway to academia, rave strategies to keep you on the floor no matter your age or the hour of the day, and the manual labor being a writer entails.
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