Ellen Cushing

New York

Staff Writer at The Atlantic

I write about food (mostly) for @theatlantic and my email address is [email protected] 🌞

Articles

The Absurdity-And Genius-of the Mother’s Day Opt-Out Email

1 week ago | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

Cameo is a platform that allows everyday people to commission B-to-Z-list celebrities to record personalized videograms for any occasion. Some time ago, when my friend Caroline was in the hospital, I used it to buy, for $12.59, a 2-minute, 14-second pep talk for her, delivered by a man who is famous online for dressing like a dog. More than two years later, Cameo wants me to know that if I would like to not receive Mother’s Day–related promotional emails, I can opt out.
The End of the ‘Generic’ Grocery-Store Brand

2 weeks ago | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

Inflation was high, economic growth was stagnant, and food prices were soaring: It was the 1970s, and everyone needed to eat to stay alive, but no one had any money. So a few enterprising grocery stores had an idea—they began purchasing their own food straight from the manufacturer, putting it in ostentatiously no-frills packaging, and selling it for significantly less than the name-brand stuff.
The Perfect Logic of Katy Perry in Space

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

Katy Perry climbed aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocketship with a smile on her face. She held a daisy, in tribute to her daughter, Daisy.
The Perfect Pop Star for a Dumb Stunt

1 month ago | ca.news.yahoo.com | Ellen Cushing

Katy Perry climbed aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocketship with a smile on her face. She held a daisy, in tribute to her daughter, Daisy.
The Absolutely, Positively Correct Way to Load Your Dishwasher

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

When the couples therapist inevitably asks, I’ll have an answer ready: The trouble began in August 2017, when my boyfriend and I moved in together, and I quickly revealed myself to be an absolute ding-dong at loading the dishwasher. I am not what you would call “precise” or “tactical” in really any aspect of my life, but certainly not in front of an open dishwasher. I lack the structural engineer’s mind for space optimization, or maybe I lack the functional adult’s patience to figure it out.
Americans Will Never Quit Soda

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

A young woman is at a diner with friends, being stared down by a waitress with frosted lipstick and no time to waste. What she wants is a soda—but for whatever reason, she can’t bring herself to have one. Same with the girl at the pool party, and the one at the drive-through, and the one sitting in what looks like a sorority house, and the guy at the convenience store.
Kosher Salt Is Actually Just Big Salt

2 months ago | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

Listen1.0x0:009:17Listen to more stories on harkWhen I was a child, in the 1990s, there was only one kind of salt; we called it “salt.” It came in a blue cylindrical container—you probably know the one—and we dumped it into pasta water and decanted it into shakers. I didn’t know that any other kind existed, and the women who taught me to cook didn’t seem to, either: Joy of Cooking, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and Moosewood Cookbook all call, simply, for “salt” in their recipes.
The Failed Utopia of the Starbucks Bathroom

Jan 25, 2025 | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

In Blaine, Washington, there is a very special Starbucks. Like every Starbucks, this one has tables and chairs and coffee and pastries and a pacifying sort of vibe. Also like (most) Starbucks, it has a bathroom, open to anyone who walks in. The bathroom is important because this Starbucks is located about three-quarters of a mile past Peace Arch, the busiest border crossing west of Detroit, and a wretched, wretched place where you can sometimes get stuck in a car for several hours without warning.
Americans Need to Party More

Jan 4, 2025 | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

We're not doing it as much as we used to. You can be the change we need. This much you already know: Many Americans are alone, friendless, isolated, undersexed, sick of online dating, glued to their couches, and transfixed by their phones, their mouths starting to close over from lack of use. Our national loneliness is an “urgent public health issue,” according to the surgeon general.
The False Promise of Seasonal-Color Analysis

Dec 30, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

As long as people have been able to dress in color, we’ve been desperate to do it better. In the mid-19th century, advances in dyeing technology and synthetic organic chemistry allowed the textile industry, previously limited to what was available in nature, to mass-produce a rainbow’s worth of new shades. The problem was, people began wearing some truly awful outfits, driven to clashy maximalism by this revolution in color. Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.