Culture Creep
Notes on the Pop Apocalypse
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Culture Creep
Buy for $22.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kristen Sieh
-
By:
-
Alice Bolin
About this listen
"This book re-framed my entire adolescence. I highly recommend you read it."—LING MA
From the critically acclaimed author of Dead Girls (“stylish and inspired”—New York Times Book Review), a sharp, engrossing collection of essays that explore the strange career of popular feminism and steady creep of cults and cult-think into our daily lives.
In seven stunning original essays, Alice Bolin turns her gaze to the myriad ways femininity is remixed and reconstructed by the pop culture of the computer age. The unlikely, often insidious forces that drive our popular obsessions are brilliantly cataloged, contextualized, and questioned in a kaleidoscopic style imitating the internet itself.
In “The Enumerated Woman,” Bolin investigates how digital diet tracking apps have increasingly transformed our relationships to our bodies. Animal Crossing’s soothing retail therapy is analyzed in “Real Time”—a surprisingly powerful portrait of late capitalism. And in the showstopping “Foundering,” Bolin dissects our buy-in and complicity with mythmaking around iconic founders, from the hubristic fall of Silicon Valley titans, to Enron, Hamilton, and the USA.
For fans of Trick Mirror and How to Do Nothing, Culture Creep is a swirl of nostalgia and visions of the future, questioning why, in the face of seismic cultural, political, and technological shifts as disruptive as the internet, we cling to the icons and ideals of the past. Written with her signature blend of the personal and sharply analytical, each of these keen-eyed essays ask us to reckon with our own participation in all manner of popular cults of being, and cults of believing.
©2025 Alice Bolin (P)2025 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
Things in Nature Merely Grow
- By: Yiyun Li
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 21
Yiyun Li’s remarkable, defiant work of radical acceptance as she considers the loss of her son James. Things in Nature Merely Grow is a testament to Li’s indomitable spirit.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Be careful with this
- By whosis on 06-17-25
By: Yiyun Li
-
The Dry Season
- A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex
- By: Melissa Febos
- Narrated by: Melissa Febos
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10
In the wake of a catastrophic two-year relationship, Melissa Febos decided to take a break: For three months she would abstain from dating, relationships, and sex. Her friends were amused. Did she really think three months was a long time? But to Febos, it was. Ever since her teens, she had been in one relationship after another with men and women. As she puts it, she could trace a “daisy chain of romances” from her adolescence to her midthirties. Finally, she would carve out time to focus on herself and examine the patterns that had produced her midlife disaster.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent again!
- By scott bridger on 06-10-25
By: Melissa Febos
-
Audition
- A Novel
- By: Katie Kitamura
- Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 50
Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day–partner, parent, creator, muse–and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Bizarre
- By Kevin on 04-23-25
By: Katie Kitamura
-
Everything Must Go
- The Stories We Tell About the End of the World
- By: Dorian Lynskey
- Narrated by: Dorian Lynskey
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 13
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10
As Dorian Lynskey writes, “People have been contemplating the end of the world for millennia.” In this immersive and compelling cultural history, Lynskey reveals how religious prophecies of the apocalypse were secularized in the early 19th century by Lord Byron and Mary Shelley in a time of dramatic social upheaval and temporary climate change, inciting a long tradition of visions of the end without gods.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A book that I needed
- By TJ Schreiber on 02-19-25
By: Dorian Lynskey
-
Second Life
- Having a Child in the Digital Age
- By: Amanda Hess
- Narrated by: Amanda Hess
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 10
As an internet culture critic for The New York Times, Amanda Hess had built a reputation among readers as a sharp observer of the seductions and manipulations of online life. But when Hess discovered she was pregnant with her first child, she found herself unexpectedly rattled by a digital identity crisis of her own. In the summer of 2020, a routine ultrasound detected a mysterious abnormality in Hess’s baby. Without hesitation, she reached for her phone, looking for answers.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Important documentation of one woman's honesty
- By TreasureHunter on 06-12-25
By: Amanda Hess
-
Victorian Psycho
- By: Virginia Feito
- Narrated by: Anna Burnett
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 306
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 301
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 301
Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess—she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate’s dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family—Mr. Pounds can’t keep his eyes off Winifred’s chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband’s wandering gaze.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
meh
- By Pamela Y. S. on 02-13-25
By: Virginia Feito
-
Things in Nature Merely Grow
- By: Yiyun Li
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 21
Yiyun Li’s remarkable, defiant work of radical acceptance as she considers the loss of her son James. Things in Nature Merely Grow is a testament to Li’s indomitable spirit.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Be careful with this
- By whosis on 06-17-25
By: Yiyun Li
-
The Dry Season
- A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex
- By: Melissa Febos
- Narrated by: Melissa Febos
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10
In the wake of a catastrophic two-year relationship, Melissa Febos decided to take a break: For three months she would abstain from dating, relationships, and sex. Her friends were amused. Did she really think three months was a long time? But to Febos, it was. Ever since her teens, she had been in one relationship after another with men and women. As she puts it, she could trace a “daisy chain of romances” from her adolescence to her midthirties. Finally, she would carve out time to focus on herself and examine the patterns that had produced her midlife disaster.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent again!
- By scott bridger on 06-10-25
By: Melissa Febos
-
Audition
- A Novel
- By: Katie Kitamura
- Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 50
Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day–partner, parent, creator, muse–and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Bizarre
- By Kevin on 04-23-25
By: Katie Kitamura
-
Everything Must Go
- The Stories We Tell About the End of the World
- By: Dorian Lynskey
- Narrated by: Dorian Lynskey
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 13
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10
As Dorian Lynskey writes, “People have been contemplating the end of the world for millennia.” In this immersive and compelling cultural history, Lynskey reveals how religious prophecies of the apocalypse were secularized in the early 19th century by Lord Byron and Mary Shelley in a time of dramatic social upheaval and temporary climate change, inciting a long tradition of visions of the end without gods.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A book that I needed
- By TJ Schreiber on 02-19-25
By: Dorian Lynskey
-
Second Life
- Having a Child in the Digital Age
- By: Amanda Hess
- Narrated by: Amanda Hess
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 10
As an internet culture critic for The New York Times, Amanda Hess had built a reputation among readers as a sharp observer of the seductions and manipulations of online life. But when Hess discovered she was pregnant with her first child, she found herself unexpectedly rattled by a digital identity crisis of her own. In the summer of 2020, a routine ultrasound detected a mysterious abnormality in Hess’s baby. Without hesitation, she reached for her phone, looking for answers.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Important documentation of one woman's honesty
- By TreasureHunter on 06-12-25
By: Amanda Hess
-
Victorian Psycho
- By: Virginia Feito
- Narrated by: Anna Burnett
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 306
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 301
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 301
Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess—she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate’s dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family—Mr. Pounds can’t keep his eyes off Winifred’s chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband’s wandering gaze.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
meh
- By Pamela Y. S. on 02-13-25
By: Virginia Feito
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
What Is Wrong with Men
- Patriarchy, the Crisis of Masculinity, and How (Of Course) Michael Douglas Films Explain Everything
- By: Jessa Crispin
- Narrated by: Jessa Crispin
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 4
How to be a Man? That question—and all the anxiety, anger, and resentment it stirs up—is the starting point for a crisis in masculinity that today manifests as misogyny, nativism, and corporate greed; gives rise to incels and mass shooters; and leads to panic over the rights of women and minorities. According to Jessa Crispin, it is the most important question of our time, and the answer to it might be found in an unlikely place: the films of Michael Douglas.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing insights
- By Anonymous User on 06-16-25
By: Jessa Crispin
-
Dead Girls
- Essays on Surviving an American Obsession
- By: Alice Bolin
- Narrated by: Em Eldridge
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 53
In this poignant collection, Alice Bolin examines iconic American works from the essays of Joan Didion and James Baldwin to Twin Peaks, Britney Spears, and Serial, illuminating the widespread obsession with women who are abused, killed, and disenfranchised, and whose bodies (dead and alive) are used as props to bolster men’s stories. Smart and accessible, thoughtful and heartfelt, Bolin investigates the implications of our cultural fixations, and her own role as a consumer and creator.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Okay.
- By Naomi on 04-13-23
By: Alice Bolin
-
Sick and Dirty
- Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness
- By: Michael Koresky
- Narrated by: Robin Speare
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1
From the 1930s to the 1960s, the Motion Picture Production Code severely restricted what Hollywood cinema could depict. This included “any inference” of the lives of homosexuals. In a landmark 1981 book, gay activist Vito Russo famously condemned Hollywood’s censorship regime, lambasting many midcentury films as the bigoted products of a “celluloid closet.”
By: Michael Koresky
-
Meet Me at the Crossroads
- A Novel
- By: Megan Giddings
- Narrated by: Brittany Bradford
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall2.5 out of 5 stars 2
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 2
-
Story2 out of 5 stars 2
On an ordinary summer morning, the world is changed by the appearance of seven mysterious doors that seemingly lead to another world. People are, of course, mesmerized and intrigued: A new dimension filled with beauty and resources beckons them to step into an adventure. But, perhaps inevitably, people soon learn that what looks like paradise may very well be filled with danger.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I really wanted to like this book but its just not as deep as it thinks it is
- By chris allmon on 06-09-25
By: Megan Giddings
-
I Want to Burn This Place Down
- Essays
- By: Maris Kreizman
- Narrated by: Maris Kreizman
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
A debut essay collection by the inimitable cultural critic Maris Kreizman—an introspective, searing account of the life experiences that have pushed this former “good Democrat” even further to the political left.
By: Maris Kreizman
-
More than Words
- How Talking Sharpens the Mind and Shapes Our World
- By: Maryellen MacDonald PhD
- Narrated by: Maryellen MacDonald PhD
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars 1
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1
The groundbreaking science of how and why we talk, and how this ability impacts every area of our lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very interesting but the author should not have narrated too
- By johnm on 06-14-25
-
What Is Wrong with Men
- Patriarchy, the Crisis of Masculinity, and How (Of Course) Michael Douglas Films Explain Everything
- By: Jessa Crispin
- Narrated by: Jessa Crispin
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 4
How to be a Man? That question—and all the anxiety, anger, and resentment it stirs up—is the starting point for a crisis in masculinity that today manifests as misogyny, nativism, and corporate greed; gives rise to incels and mass shooters; and leads to panic over the rights of women and minorities. According to Jessa Crispin, it is the most important question of our time, and the answer to it might be found in an unlikely place: the films of Michael Douglas.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing insights
- By Anonymous User on 06-16-25
By: Jessa Crispin
-
Dead Girls
- Essays on Surviving an American Obsession
- By: Alice Bolin
- Narrated by: Em Eldridge
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 53
In this poignant collection, Alice Bolin examines iconic American works from the essays of Joan Didion and James Baldwin to Twin Peaks, Britney Spears, and Serial, illuminating the widespread obsession with women who are abused, killed, and disenfranchised, and whose bodies (dead and alive) are used as props to bolster men’s stories. Smart and accessible, thoughtful and heartfelt, Bolin investigates the implications of our cultural fixations, and her own role as a consumer and creator.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Okay.
- By Naomi on 04-13-23
By: Alice Bolin
-
Sick and Dirty
- Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness
- By: Michael Koresky
- Narrated by: Robin Speare
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1
From the 1930s to the 1960s, the Motion Picture Production Code severely restricted what Hollywood cinema could depict. This included “any inference” of the lives of homosexuals. In a landmark 1981 book, gay activist Vito Russo famously condemned Hollywood’s censorship regime, lambasting many midcentury films as the bigoted products of a “celluloid closet.”
By: Michael Koresky
-
Meet Me at the Crossroads
- A Novel
- By: Megan Giddings
- Narrated by: Brittany Bradford
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall2.5 out of 5 stars 2
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 2
-
Story2 out of 5 stars 2
On an ordinary summer morning, the world is changed by the appearance of seven mysterious doors that seemingly lead to another world. People are, of course, mesmerized and intrigued: A new dimension filled with beauty and resources beckons them to step into an adventure. But, perhaps inevitably, people soon learn that what looks like paradise may very well be filled with danger.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I really wanted to like this book but its just not as deep as it thinks it is
- By chris allmon on 06-09-25
By: Megan Giddings
-
I Want to Burn This Place Down
- Essays
- By: Maris Kreizman
- Narrated by: Maris Kreizman
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
A debut essay collection by the inimitable cultural critic Maris Kreizman—an introspective, searing account of the life experiences that have pushed this former “good Democrat” even further to the political left.
By: Maris Kreizman
-
More than Words
- How Talking Sharpens the Mind and Shapes Our World
- By: Maryellen MacDonald PhD
- Narrated by: Maryellen MacDonald PhD
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars 1
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1
The groundbreaking science of how and why we talk, and how this ability impacts every area of our lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very interesting but the author should not have narrated too
- By johnm on 06-14-25
-
The Dry Season
- A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex
- By: Melissa Febos
- Narrated by: Melissa Febos
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10
In the wake of a catastrophic two-year relationship, Melissa Febos decided to take a break: For three months she would abstain from dating, relationships, and sex. Her friends were amused. Did she really think three months was a long time? But to Febos, it was. Ever since her teens, she had been in one relationship after another with men and women. As she puts it, she could trace a “daisy chain of romances” from her adolescence to her midthirties. Finally, she would carve out time to focus on herself and examine the patterns that had produced her midlife disaster.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent again!
- By scott bridger on 06-10-25
By: Melissa Febos
-
Park Avenue
- A Novel
- By: Renée Ahdieh
- Narrated by: Michelle H. Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 14
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 14
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 14
Jia Song has always been destined for greatness. As the daughter of Korean bodega owners, she promised herself that she would have every Fifth Avenue luxury when she grew up, and it is all finally within reach. She has just made junior partner at her prestigious Manhattan law firm, she can count on her two best friends to have her back, and she is about to score the ultraluxe gold-on-gold Birkin bag of her dreams. So when her boss asks her to sit in on the hush-hush family implosion of a high-level client, she accepts without hesitation.
By: Renée Ahdieh
-
The Slip
- By: Lucas Schaefer
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Renata Friedman
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3
Bobbing and weaving across the ever-shifting canvas of a changing country, The Slip is an audacious, daring look at sex and race in America that builds to an unforgettable collision in the center of the ring.
By: Lucas Schaefer
-
Endling
- A Novel
- By: Maria Reva
- Narrated by: Max Meyers, Saskia Maarleveld, Maria Reva
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall1.5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Performance2.5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Story1.5 out of 5 stars 3
Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who lives out of her mobile lab. She scours the country’s forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails, while her relatives urge her to settle down and finally start a family of her own. What they don’t know: Yeva already dates plenty of men—not for love, but to fund her work—entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they’ll find docile brides untainted by feminism and modernity.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
This might be a really good book to read
- By A on 06-11-25
By: Maria Reva
-
The Catch
- A Novel
- By: Yrsa Daley-Ward
- Narrated by: Yrsa Daley-Ward
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Twin sisters Clara and Dempsey have always struggled to relate, their familial bond severed after their mother vanished into the Thames. In adulthood, they are content to be all but estranged, until Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like their mother on the streets of London. The catch: this version of Serene, aged not a day, has enjoyed a childless life.
By: Yrsa Daley-Ward
-
Trick Mirror
- Reflections on Self-Delusion
- By: Jia Tolentino
- Narrated by: Jia Tolentino
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,954
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,641
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,621
Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Couldn’t stop listening
- By Alice on 08-25-19
By: Jia Tolentino