The Future of Summer Camp, Post-Camp Mystic
The Future of Summer Camp, Post-Camp Mystic  
Podcast: Culture Study Podcast
Published On: Wed May 27 2026
Description: I grew up going to all manner of camps: church camp, science camp, French camp, cheerleading camp... if there was a way for me to be away from home (and have a fun packing list), I took it. I loved the freedoms and rituals of camp, the goofy, cool counselors who felt like visions of my potential future, and the cachet that accumulated with each passing summer. Camp was a place where I could be a different person, or at least a better, more likable one. I thought I was a camp person. But when I reached adulthood, I realized my camp-ness was nothing in comparison to the people whose families had dedicated their kids' summers to one camp... for decades. That's what Camp Mystic was — and still is — for thousands of former campers. So when a flash flood last July took the lives of 28 Mystic campers, questions about the future of the camp also became questions about the future of that identity. Kerry Howley spent six months reporting a stunning feature for New York Magazine on the aftermath of the Mystic flood. She joins the pod to answer your questions about Camp Mystic itself, but also the larger culture of camp and its role in identity formation. This conversation's going to stick with me for a very long time. A Camp Mystic Brochure from 1981 (via Getty) Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Get $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood—delivered right to your door. Go to:  https://www.wildalaskan.com/CULTURE Ollie. Feed the Obsession. Go to ollie.com/culture and use code culture to get 70% off your first box! Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/CULTURE Go to Biologica.com/CULTURE, take their quick Hormonal Life Stage Quiz to find the formula that’s right for you, and get up to 32% off your first subscription order today!  Show Notes: Read Kerry Howley's incredible New York Magazine feature — "Could the Girls of Camp Mystic Have Been Saved?" — here Read more of Kerry's features at NYMag here Find out more about Kerry's work here and buy her book Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State (a real fave in this household) here We're currently looking for your questions for future episodes about: THE NEXUS OF LLMS/A.I. AND CREATIVITY: A.I. Boosters argues that LLMS can free us for more creative endeavors — or "facilitate" our creative work. THOUGHTS???? (This one's with the brilliant Vauhini Vara, whose work grapples with these questions in a way I've never seen before). Hopefully this week's piece on how A.I. keeps wasting my G-D time will spark some questions on your end. WOMEN'S FITNESS INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. As our co-host Zoe Rom puts it: "Women are told they need to do fasting, creatine, lifting, fueling, and recovery differently than men. Sometimes the science backs it. More often the "different" is a marketing mechanism: invent a gendered problem, sell a gendered protocol, collect the markup." What's going on here? Where have you seen it, what pisses you off about it... take this wherever you'd like. INTERGENERATIONAL FRIENDSHIP with Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less (and Villa Coco, a new book with an intergenerational friendship at its center). You can ask questions about how to find intergenerational friends, how to sustain those friendships, what people seem to love so much about them, wherever your heart takes you. Anything you need advice for/want musings about for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything — it’s literally the name of the segment. Join the ranks of paid subscribers and get bonus content, access to the discussion threads, ad-free episodes, and the knowledge that you're supporting an indie pod trying to make its way in the world.Got a question to submit, a prompt for Ask Anne Anything, or an idea for a future episode? Tell us here.Catch up on everything else happening in the Culture Study universe here.Transcripts will be available here within 24 hours of publishing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.