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Aida Amoako

Aida Amoako is a writer and cultural critic from London, UK.

Bill Clinton plays the saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show, 1992

The Late-Night Circuit: Why Do Politicians Do It?

With a captive audience of millions and a relaxed atmosphere, the late-night talk show offers a good opportunity to make policy discussions more memorable.
Bookshelves in a library with marble busts

Dark Academia’s Roots Lie in the Campus Novel

Revolving around student life, campus novels present a microcosm of the outside world, staged far from the humdrum of middle-class realities.
Photograph: French fashion designer Christian Dior sketches a dress at his salon in Paris, France, February 1948

Source: Getty

Christian Dior vs. Christian Dior

The designer’s impulse to convey his two selves to the public stemmed from a desire to be seen as genuine artist working in a world of artifice.
A fresco of Artemis from Pompeii and a photograph of Princess Diana

The Goddess and the Princess: Why Diana Endures

Twenty-five years have passed since the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, yet pop culture and gossip mags continue to be fascinated by her life and legacy.
Odysseus und die Sirenen by Alexander Bruckmann, 1829

From Ancient Greece to a TikTok Trend

We know the sirens of Homeric Greece sang a seductive song, but what did they look like, and why are they going viral on social media?
JFK with Caroline on the Honey Fitz (presidential yacht), 1963

The Ideological Slipperiness of the Kennedy Legacy

Politicians from both sides of the aisle have sought to stake a claim to the evocative power of the Kennedy legend. What is it about Camelot?