Publishing is full of rankings, from power lists to best-dressed lists to under-40 lists. The CULT100 is different. There is just one criterion for inclusion—but it’s a high bar.

To qualify, a candidate must be actively shaping and changing our culture in real time. The people on this list represent five generations and hail from the worlds of food, publishing, art, fashion, activism, and entertainment. To put this group together, CULTURED‘s editors leveraged the full strength of our network, tapping artists, writers, and cultural leaders to tell us who they look to when they want to feel challenged, hopeful, and inspired.

Some members of the CULT100 are household names; others have been working behind the scenes to make possible the cultural encounters that stop us in our tracks. In a time of binary thinking, the creators featured in this year’s list are embracing contradiction, bouncing willfully between disciplines, and refusing to take no for an answer. They have guts, vision, and a potent cocktail of realism and optimism. None of them is shying away from the anxiety of our moment. Instead, they are thinking big, sharing generously, and embodying courage. The good news is, their work makes us all a little bit braver, too.

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YOUNG MAZINO
CLAYTON CUBITT
Photography by CLAYTON CUBITT

TONY TULATHIMUTTE

WRITER

The Whiting and O. Henry–winning writer of  Private Citizens turned the literary world on its head last year with the release of  Rejection, which maps our modern, digitally mediated discontents.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF IN YOUR INDUSTRY? LESS OF? It would be nice to see more of an even playing field with debut books—fewer seven-figure jackpots at the expense of other threadbare advances. I would like to see health insurance for writers happen somehow. Also, you should always buy from indie booksellers unless it’s absolutely not an option.

WHAT’S SOMETHING PEOPLE GET WRONG ABOUT YOU? My last name. You get four letters in and then it just breaks your will.

"Suffering, shame, humiliation, and a one-pan roasted salmon and broccoli recipe that will knock your socks off."

DESCRIBE A RECENT CROSSROADS AT WHICH YOU FOUND YOURSELF. Recently, I had to decide whether to be a loose-jeans guy. My friends tell me it’s what Zoomers are wearing, but I’m doing it precisely because I’m middle-aged. I’ve bought a trial pair of Levi’s 555 Relaxed Straight Jeans and am going to wear them until I get made fun of. Then it’s back to the millennial 501s I guess.

WHAT’S YOUR TRADEMARK? Suffering, shame, humiliation, and a one-pan roasted salmon and broccoli recipe that will knock your socks off.

WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE, WHAT WERE YOU KNOWN FOR? I was generally not known at all, but I was probably best known in second grade for being accused of dealing drugs after I offered another kid an Altoid. This was at the height of the D.A.R.E. era. They made me go to the principal’s office and presented me with the Altoid in a baggie and everything. Curiously strong indeed!

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NARA SMITH
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YOUNG MAZINO