Cat Zhang

Hey, I’m Cat! I cover cul­ture at New York Magazine’s The Cut. Previously I was an as­so­ci­ate ed­i­tor at Pitchfork, where I edited re­views and wrote widely across the site. In 2022, I re­ceived the American Society of Magazine Editors’ Next Award for Journalists Under 30.

Reach out with work-re­lated re­quests at cat.zhang @ ny­mag.com
Send recs, links, jokes, ad­vice, thoughts on the be­low — just not PR! — to per­pet­u­al­novice0 @ gmail.com
Find your lo­cal mu­tual aid group here

Currently lov­ing:
Ordinary Unhappiness pod­cast
404 Media
Smerz, Big city life
Nick Leon and Ela Minus, “Ghost Orchid”

Essays and Reporting

• Wait, Partiful’s Founders Worked at Palantir?
• 2024 in Review: The Year of the Bisexual
• 2024 in Review: The Year the Office Brought Sexy Back
• Discord and the Future of Music Fandom
• The Anatomy of a TikTok Hit
• TikTok Face
• The Endless Lifecycle of Japanese City Pop
• What Is Asian American Music, Really?
• The Sapphic Audio Erotica Boom

Reviews

• Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume I & II
• Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection
• Esther Yi’s Y/N
• Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want to Turn Into You
• Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts
• Barbie: The Album
• Water From Your Eyes’ Everyone’s Crushed
• Mitski’s The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
• Kesha’s Animal

Profiles / Interviews

• Tinashe
• PinkPantheress
• Greta Lee
• Chappell Roan
• Yaeji
• Jane Remover
• Grace Ives

Scene Reports

• CUNY Hunger Strike for Palestine
• Doggy Drag Pride Parade
• NYFW with JoJo Siwa
• F1 for Sailing
• NYPL Halloween Costume Competition
• New York Fungus Festival
• Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

Appearances

I’ve been a guest on the New York Times’ Popcast, NPR’s All Things Considered, Slate’s ICYMI, Vulture’s Switched on Pop, and the Pitchfork Review. Netflix sub­scribers can find me on sea­son 3, episode 11 of the Vox do­cuseries Explained.