Joseph Lamour

Bio

Washington DC native Joseph Lamour is a writer, an artist, and a musician — sometimes all at once. Joe loves to write about the intersection of social issues and pop culture, food, love, and strange things on the Internet. You can see his words on MTV news, Apartment Therapy, and others in addition to Mic. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Joe's work has been displayed in galleries in New York and DC, the Pentagon, Smithsonian, the Pentagon, and the White House (under Obama, of course). You‘ll probably hear him singing if you’re near him for more than 45 minutes.
A blood test could reveal which type of exercise is most effective for you
By Joseph Lamour
For many of us, the past year has included a new and challenging fitness journey. Weight machines were installed in basements around the country, people ran around their own neighborhoods for the first time ever, or fancy Peloton bikes were…
What will the history books say about George Floyd?
By Joseph Lamour
One year ago today, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Time hasn’t dulled the terror of watching the now-infamous civilian video capturing Floyd’s last moments, and it never should. While hellish cases of police…
These states want to ban critical race theory. TikTok might save it
By Joseph Lamour
We’ve recently seen some poor unfortunate souls take to social media using the hashtag #CriticalRaceTheory to support a proposed ban on the truth-seeking academic movement in their states, inundating our feeds with lots of unsettling “there’s not a…
Working too many hours is literally killing people, a new study shows
By Joseph Lamour
Pour one out for all the vaguely “urban” sounding white guy millionaires on Instagram trying to peer pressure you into working your fingers to the bone, since their days may be numbered. New research finds that working too much is linked to a higher…
Dark and Stormy: The whitewashed history of your favorite cocktails
By Joseph Lamour
The history of spirits, liqueurs, and mixed drinks is blurred around the edges, as if it stumbled home barefoot after a wild night out. And although we assume that historical records about how our favorite cocktails came to be are mostly accurate…
The struggle is real, but so is queer Black joy
By Joseph Lamour
It’s still oddly challenging, as a person of color, to find stories about us that focus on joy versus struggle. Of course, literature about the quest for emotional and financial freedom, rights, and our continued stride toward justice are crucial…
Mental health TikTok is vast and daunting. Here are 5 actually helpful accounts to follow
By Joseph Lamour
The trash bunker that was 2020 made many of us think a lot harder about our mental health. Whether it be for entertainment, guidance, or camaraderie, people have been turning to unlikely sources for a little comfort — namely, TikTok. This is a great…
WTF is oat oil and should I be putting it on my face?
By Joseph Lamour
The oil from pomegranates, avocado, roses, and other plants have long been extracted and added to lotions, creams, and an assortment of beauty products with the promise of more youthful skin. As for which ones may actually give you that dewy,…
Inside the growing trend of zero-waste restaurants
By Joseph Lamour
Mic is celebrating Earth Day with an entire week of stories. Over the next few days we’ll be rolling out pieces on hyper-urban farming, the future of construction, the catastrophic environmental costs of the dreaded gender reveal, an optimistic…
Will Michelin's Green Star finally inject some eco-consciousness into fine dining?
By Joseph Lamour
Leading purveyor of elegant automobile tires and fine dining discernment, Michelin is once again set to award deserving recipients their coveted star rating, via the Michelin guide. This year, in addition to the accolade given to affordable quality…
Easter is one of the few days I can flout gender norms without my parents' judgement
By Joseph Lamour
I wear the same shirt every Easter: It’s a lavender button-down by Saturdays NYC. It’s sold as a men’s shirt by a fashion label that doesn’t stray too far from the masculine, but whenever I wear it around my parents, they either ask me if I’m…
Your shrinking pandemic friend group is actually a good thing
By Joseph Lamour
COVID-19 has done a number on our social lives. This terrible, no good, very bad pandemic has been around for more than a year and during this time, you might’ve decided to cut the fat on your friend circle (or that may have happened naturally since…
It's hard to say goodbye to a boat we got this horny for
By Joseph Lamour
Just like the characters in E. L. James's seminal literary classic Fifty Shades Freed wanted to be freed from their demons, the Ever Given is now happily unmoored, floating along towards its intended destination. And just like Anastasia Steele with…
Why I'm going to start celebrating my queeriversary
By Joseph Lamour
A couple of weeks ago, I came out, again. You see, my parents knew about my status as a member of the LGBTQ community (to be specific, that I’m a gay man) because I told them when I was 16. Somehow, years later, I found that they had put me back in…
Europe's third wave of COVID-19 is a clear warning for the U.S.
By Joseph Lamour
It’s been a year since this pandemic began for us. Perhaps if we had better leadership last year, the only waves we’d be worried about right now would be low tide on Miami Beach (or whichever spring destination your heart chose). But here we are,…
The TikTok hot sauce challenge is not for dogs, you monsters
By Joseph Lamour
What would you do if a friend handed you a delicious-looking piece of chicken, and then when you ravenously bit into it, you tasted spicy, fiery doom? You would find a new friend, wouldn’t you? Unfortunately for dogs they don’t have that option,…
There's an alarming spike in liver disease among young women. Is pandemic drinking to blame?
By Joseph Lamour
In the beginning of the pandemic, many of us knew — and feared — that since our vices would go unseen by many in a quarantine lifestyle, that they would go on unabated. Faced with absurdly high levels of stress, grief, and sheer boredom, many of us…
I'm so sorry but everyone needs to skip spring break this year
By Joseph Lamour
Although this current time we live in might seem like one long day punctuated by sporadic naps, a year has passed since the coronavirus reached our shores. And this March, usually a time when college students (and people who miss college) settle on…
Childhood snacks are the perfect pandemic comfort food
By Joseph Lamour
When I was a kid, one of the most amazing commercials ever created would run in between reruns of Seinfeld and Friends. The short, sexy saxophone-infused ad for Viennetta, a British frozen dessert cake, is at the same time deeply hilarious, and…
Our coronavirus precautions made the flu disappear this year
By Joseph Lamour
We’re a full year into the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, although the “feels like” temperature on that is 20,427 years. As we around the bend on February, there's some good news: The flu has virtually disappeared this season; reports…