Caleb Madison
-
![]()
The Atlantic; Getty We’re All Capable of Going ‘Goblin Mode’
The Oxford Word of the Year tells a concise story about how many of us are doing these days.
-
![]()
Paul Spella / The Atlantic; Getty Meta Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does
You might be a hipster if you’re mistaking abstraction for transcendence.
-
![]()
Paul Spella / The Atlantic; Getty How ‘I’m Dead’ Became a Good Thing
Dying of laughter is an exaggeration, but something about it has rung true over the centuries.
-
![]()
Katie Martin / The Atlantic; Getty Trolling’s Surprising Origins in Fishing
A method once used by mythology experts has turned painfully aggressive.
-
![]()
Getty Why People Can’t Stop Adding lol to Texts
It makes virtual communication feel more human.
-
![]()
Prisma / Alamy Why We’re Calling Everything a ‘Hellscape’
The word captures our relationship to the daily chaos of recent years.
-
![]()
Everett Are You Using Gaslight Correctly?
One rule of thumb can help determine whether the word is being diluted.
-
![]()
Gabriela Pesqueira / The Atlantic What Makes Someone ‘A Lot’?
On a surplus of selfhood in relation to acceptable social standards of interaction
-
![]()
Getty The True Meaning of Happiness
What’s the haps on the ultimate pursuit? Ask the Vikings.
-
![]()
Getty; The Atlantic The Two Most Dismissive Words on the Internet
How to instantly end an argument—or maybe just start a new one
-
![]()
Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock / Getty; De Agostini / Getty The Crucial Difference Between Cheesy and Corny
And what our strong neural associations with physical taste have to do with it
-
![]()
Getty The Rap Catchphrase With Metaphysical Roots
How “it’s lit” captured an era’s pop-culture energy
-
![]()
The Atlantic Why We’re All in a Shmood
The Yiddishism kids love
-
![]()
The Atlantic What Love Meant in 4500 B.C.
The Copper Age nomads on the Eurasian steppes might have understood the Beatles.
-
![]()
The Atlantic How Canceled Reached Peak Semantic Power
The metaphorical crossing-out dates back to antiquity.
-
![]()
Lambert / Hulton Archive / Getty Why Everything Online Is Suddenly Cringe
The internet’s new social norms mean there are countless new ways to be humiliated.
-
![]()
The Atlantic How a Crossword Editor Plays Wordle
It doesn’t have the richness of a crossword, but I play it religiously.
-
![]()
Getty; The Atlantic Why We’re All Shooketh
The term is online slang of biblical proportions.
-
![]()
Araki Koman Where Marx Meets Migos
The rap trio’s usage of bougie preserves the philosopher’s original intention.
-
![]()
Olivia Arthur / Magnum Doing Grown-Up Tasks, in Millennial Slang
“Reaching biological maturity” doesn’t quite capture it.
