Libby Copeland

Writer. Editor. Cultural Spelunker.

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The Washington Post

Below are a handful of more recent pieces. A few of the articles Copeland wrote during the 2008 presidential election include a look at the denigrating rhetoric of how Hillary Clinton became “Poor Hillary,” this take on John McCain during the last hours before the vote (“The king of doggedness, who knows something about patience, and something about being a pain, and whose charm and gall derive from that combination…”), and the unlikely love story of Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich, which involved “Indian nuns, a bust of Gandhi, a portrait of ‘conscious light,’ a mystical opal ring," and, naturally, Shirley MacLaine. She also accompanied Johnny Weir on a designer shopping trip during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy (the sight of a knockoff "hurts my feelings," he declared, dropping $1,330), and during the 2005 Michael Jackson molestation trial, she chronicled the shady culture of Neverland – “a hotbed of intrigue and petty theft, disgruntled employees and hangers-on.”

She thought she was Irish, until a DNA test opened a 100-year-old mystery (The Washington Post, Longreads Best of 2017)

Libby Copeland November 15, 2017

If the information Alice Collins Plebuch was seeing on her computer screen was correct, it posed a fundamental mystery about her very identity. It meant one of her parents wasn’t who he or she was supposed to be — and, by extension, neither was she. We are only just beginning to grapple with what it means to cheaply and easily uncover our genetic heritage.

Categories: Best Of, Science, Technology, Washington Post Tags: Alice Collins Plebuch, at-home DNA testing, DNA, recreational genomics

Is your persimmon soap infused with geisha wisdom? The precious world of artisanal beauty.

Libby Copeland March 27, 2017

The brands may be small-scale and homespun, but artisanal beauty is fast becoming a big business, with more and more dedicated websites and retail outlets cropping up.

Categories: Marketing, Pop Culture, Washington Post Tags: artisanal beauty, credo beauty, NPD Group, persimmon soap

Our messed-up relationship with food has a long history. It started with butter.

Libby Copeland March 27, 2017

Butter’s story is a very American story, because the arc of its vilification and subsequent redemption is a parable for how we get food wrong time and again. We alternately demonize and idealize individual ingredients — not just butter but also sugar, caffeine, red wine and supposed miracle foods featured on “The Dr. Oz Show” — and in doing so, we miss the big picture.

Categories: Marketing, Pop Culture, Washington Post Tags: butter, carbohydrates, elaine khosrova, fat, nutritional science, obesity

Is Howard Stern Going Soft or Just Getting Sharper?

Libby Copeland January 28, 2016

Those who stopped tuning in when the pioneer of shock jock culture left terrestrial radio for satellite a decade ago have no idea what they’re missing. Late-night TV has all but abandoned the art of the Q&A for goofy games and scripted shtick — and Howard Stern has unexpectedly emerged as the most potent and powerful interviewer in American broadcasting.

Categories: Pop Culture, Washington Post Tags: Artie Lange, Bob Lefsetz, Daryl Hall, David Letterman, Howard Stern, Jackie Martling, John Melendez, Madonna, Marci Turk, pop culture, Stuttering John

Dave Grohl is a back-aching, coffee-guzzling, minivan-driving classic rocker

Libby Copeland June 26, 2015

Even before he fell off a stage in Sweden and broke his leg, Dave Grohl was feeling creaky. He is 46, drinks too much coffee, and wakes up at 6 wherever he is, even on days he doesn’t need to pack lunches and get the kids into the Honda Odyssey.

Categories: Pop Culture, Washington Post Tags: Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters, Grohl broken leg

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