Ben Mora arrived in New York this summer with nothing more than a carry-on, and he has no plans to decorate his sublet: a monklike cell with a full-size bed, a fan, and bare white walls. But Mora thinks that if you look close enough, you can tell this is the room of a 31-year-old gay man in the city. “You get male immediately. Cis male,” he says. The tells are no hangers in the closet, balled-up socks shoved into a corner, and a suit thrown over a floating shelf. As for gay: “The beauty products would probably give it away,” he says, pointing to serums on a closet shelf.
This is Mora’s shtick, a bit he turned into the celebrity-studded online game show Interior Motives, which debuted last summer on YouTube. It now has 120,000 subscribers on that platform, more than 5 million views, an international version, and a Patreon, where fans pay $7 per month for extra, R-rated episodes and the chance to play against one another live. Contestants join Mora on a recorded remote call to look at photos of three bedrooms and try to guess an owner’s gender identity, sexuality, age, and location.
The idea that our objects are actually legible in this way, Mora says, “is fundamentally stupid.” But certain guessers are surprisingly astute in ways that are mesmerizing to watch and occasionally informative. A poster of Zendaya may seem femme but actually suggests masculinity to the artist Juliana Huxtable, who notes that the actress has “really intense futch energy.” In a messy, mattress-on-the-floor room with a Swans poster, actress Ivy Wolk doesn’t spot enough books for an incel, and Courtney Love agrees.
Read our full interview with Mora on how the show has grown, since launching from his childhood bedroom in Iowa: https://t.co/uGjHj5x2t8
In Tampa today! Knocking doors to help re-elect @KathyCastorFL. DeSantis gerrymandered her district to get her out of Congress. In November, she’ll win anyways.
A House committee approved a bill that would impede DC's ability to close tax loopholes & deliver a more affordable DC.
Let the people of DC govern DC. We've balanced our budget on time for each of the last 30 years. The last time the federal government could say that was 2001.
Rep. @AOC to me on why it’s taken so long for Congress to legislate on member relationships with staff: “Do you know what percentage of Congress is male?”
"Hope is a responsibility. If you share that with others, it’s also a duty to deliver on it."
Read our interview with @ZohranKMamdani: https://t.co/M9TGLD8MXw
.@AOC speaking out against data centers: “Ask Peter Thiel, ask Elon Musk, ask Mark Zuckerberg if they want one of these data centers in their own backyard..”
Sen. Ossoff: Tonight, Donald Trump, the world's most famous sore loser, will deliver a prime time presidential sour grapes address to pursue his 6-year-old grievances about the 2020 election.
the air quality sucks, the food gives you explosive diarrhea, we have no public transport, medical care is unaffordable, they’re tearing down forests to build AI data centers and I still have to clock in for work
NEW: Clark says she will vote YES on the Massie amendment, breaking w/ Jeffries.
“I will be voting yes, not because I agree with the entirety of the amendment, or the GOP’s cynical motivations for its consideration, but because I believe we must change course.”
🚨 | Zohran Mamdani joins the Ferrari Driver Academy
The 34-year-old driver previously competed in the New York City Mayoral Election and was the series champion