Digital culture

Benoît Richaud might be one of the most visible people at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Not because he’s a star athlete, but because he is coaching 16 figure skaters from 13 different countries. Each time one of them is on the ice, he…

The curling ice at the Winter Olympics is often full of shouting—but not like this. Last Friday, in a match that Canada won 8-6, a verbal altercation broke out between the third throwers from each team. Near the end of the match, after a…

At the start of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, US figure skater Amber Glenn spoke at a press conference about using her platform as an Olympian to support LGBTQ+ rights. “It isn’t the first time we’ve had to come together as a…

The NHL also pointed WIRED to its partnerships with Pride organizations around the US, Canada, and Australia, as well as pro-inclusivity organization You Can Play, which it's been working with since 2013. The league said it will be hosting…

Bidets are now, once again, having a moment. As international athletes and journalists descend on northern Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics, certain participants have wondered about the additional piece of equipment in their bathrooms.…

Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales has been called the last decent tech baron. It’s sounds like a flattering label, although one I usually associate more with yacht-dwelling meatheads who feed their herds of cattle homegrown macadamia nuts; the kind…

Zohran Mamdani never auditioned for Survivor, but one of his campaign’s final television ads placed him in the middle of the show’s infamous Tribal Council. For roughly 30 seconds, a handful of former Survivor contestants addressed the…

Anyone looking for a vibe check on the populace’s current feelings about AI would do well to check out the walls of the New York City subway system. This fall, alongside posters for everything from dating apps to Skechers, a newcomer made…

Memes are getting a reboot. Not like a Marvel-is-trying-to-make-Fantastic Four-happen-again reboot. More like a rewind. The Great Meme Reset of 2026, as it’s being called on TikTok, demands that on January 1 all memes revert to their 2010s…