A Beige New World

Endless Thread

WBUR

Reddit, Technology

4.1 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What's your favorite color? If you ask the algorithm, the answer is probably beige. The internet loves neutrals. Aesthetic coffee shop videos feature white walls and minimalist decor. Influencers film from houses decked out with all the beige fixings. When you shop online, you'll be presented with products in a wide range of bland colors — from eggshell, to taupe, to... slightly darker taupe.

So where did all the color go?

Hayley DeRoche, a librarian and writer known as SadBeige on Tiktok, has been watching this unfold for a while. Hosts Ben and Amory talk with Hayley about the internet's love affair with beige and discuss her new book “Dress Your Baby In Sage and Taupe: A Handbook for the Sad Beige Parent.”

Show notes:

SadBeige (TikTok)
The tyranny of the algorithm: why every coffee shop looks the same (The Guardian)
You read that white: Pantone's 2026 Color of the Year is 'Cloud Dancer' (NPR)

Credits: This episode was produced by Kalyani Saxena, and co-hosted by Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson. It was edited by Meg Cramer. Mix and sound design by Marquis Neal.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Endless Thread comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at Mathworks.com.
0:16.0	Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Marotra Institute at BU Questrum School of Business.
0:24.5	In a recent episode, the show explores whether private equity is a job creator, making the economy more efficient, or if it's a plunder machine, loading the system with risk and hidden costs.
0:36.7	Stick around until the end of this podcast to preview the episode.
0:42.0	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:49.9	Welcome to Werner Herzog's new line of children's clothing, sad beige clothes for sad beige children.
1:03.0	This is Werner Herzog.
1:06.0	Okay, rather it's an impression of the German filmmaker Werner Herzog by Richmond, Virginia, Haley, DeRosch.
1:12.7	I am a librarian slash poet slash writer.
1:16.6	Haley is also very online, where she spends a lot of time thinking and posting about color.
1:23.4	If you could give Richmond, Virginia, a single color, what would it be?
1:27.9	Ooh, that's a good question.
1:29.4	I think right now it would have to be yellow green, like a, well, I guess, yeah, yellowish green for the pollen.
1:38.0	It's probably more accurate to say Haley spends a lot of time thinking about one specific color.
1:44.2	The neutral, inoffensive, and frankly, a little boring, beige.
1:50.2	Beige. Beige. Beige. Beige. Bege. Bege. Bege. Beage. Beage. Beage clothes. Beage children.
1:57.2	On TikTok, Haley's known by the handle, Sad beige. She makes videos, like the one we just heard,
2:04.0	poking fun at children's clothing that leans aggressively neutral. I'm talking eggshell,
2:10.7	top, slightly darker than tope. What are some other neutral colors, Ben?
2:16.6	Oh, man.
2:18.1	Chestnut.
2:21.0	Beach sand?
	...

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