The Making of Martha Stewart’s Dinner Party Empire
By Wim Langedijk for HURS
The Making of Martha Stewart’s Dinner Party Empire
HUR Reads is our definitive shortlist of the most prominent articles from around the web.
By HURS Team
1
No, Women Aren’t the Problem
Sophie Gilbert pushes back against Helen Andrews’s claim that America’s decline stems from a “feminization” of culture. Instead, she suggests the real crisis lies in the rise of performative masculinity; an age of bravado, aggression, and nostalgia for lost dominance. With clarity and restraint, Gilbert reframes empathy and reason as enduring strengths, questioning why the traits most often labeled “feminine” are still treated as faults.
THE ATLANTIC
Arabelle Sicardi sits down with Sotheby’s auctioneer Phyllis Kao, whose poise and wit have turned the auction podium into a global stage. A former violin prodigy, Kao conducts multimillion-dollar sales with the precision of a maestro and the style of a fashion icon. Between tailored jackets and perfectly timed quips, she’s redefining what authority looks like in an industry still learning to recognize women’s command of both art and desire.
SSENSE
A Rabbit’s Foot profiles Eva Helene Pade, the 28-year-old Danish painter transforming nightclub euphoria into painted mythology. Now based in Paris and represented by Thaddaeus Ropac, Pade paints like she’s moving through sound, her brushwork alive with rhythm. Her canvases pulse with the delirium of nightlife and the quiet reckoning that follows, merging the sensuality of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with the grit of club culture. “Painting,” she says, “is a magical process of letting go.”
A RABBIT’S FOOT
Julia Moskin revisits Martha Stewart and her seminal cookbook Entertaining, newly reissued decades after its 1982 debut. More than a manual for dinner parties, it established Stewart as the original lifestyle mogul, blending domestic skill with ambition and style. Her insistence on perfection redefined home entertaining as both art and enterprise, leaving a lasting influence on how Americans cook, host, and aspire, and sparking debate over whether her vision is liberating or performative.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Actress Tessa Thompson and painter Nina Chanel Abney met with T Magazine in New York to discuss what it means to make work under scrutiny. Both navigate industries that politicize their identities—Black, queer, and public-facing—while balancing personal vision with commercial pressures. Their conversation explores the delicate line between social responsibility and self-expression and disagree about what makes a good painting.