Vivian Hu
Dignity and Access | On Food and Power
Vivian Hu
Back during the end of history, Thomas Friedman presented his “Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention” in a 1996 New York Times op-ed. As he put it, “no two countries that both have a McDonald’s have ever fought a war against each other.” There was “no question,” he declared, that McDonald’s “is part of this worldwide phenomenon of countries integrating with the global economy and submitting to its rules.” Today,...
Voraciousness and Shame | Ozempic’s Weight Loss Counterrevolution
Vivian Hu
In a March 2024 special titled “Shame, Blame, and the Weight Loss Revolution,” Oprah Winfrey aired what was essentially an infomercial for a new class of drugs that promised to revolutionize the way we thought about obesity. The hour-long segment promoted Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy, which target GLP-1 (and, in Mounjaro’s case, GIP) receptors to make people feel fuller and slow the rate at which their stomachs empty. On the...
Arrangements | Fiction
Vivian Hu
When I felt particularly bad about the night before, I chugged a glass of saltwater, to flush out the toxins. If I timed it right, I could dial in to our Monday call and say hello before situating myself over the toilet, my insides liquefying into painful sludge as my coworkers said their good mornings and asked about the weather in Seattle or Houston or Tampa or wherever it was...
