This is a Headgum podcast.

Lights are going up, snow is falling down. There's a feeling of goodwill around town.

It could only mean one thing. McRib is here. People throwing throwing parties ugly sweaters everywhere. Stockings hung up by the chimney with care.

It could only mean one thing. McRibb is here.

At participating McDonald's for a limited time.

The UK in the 1990s saw the emergence of so-called Lad culture,

a celebration of young men getting drunk, watching football, and generally being Randy.

And with it came the rise of Ladd magazines, print publications that blended ribald writing with softcore wank material,

with names like For Him magazine, or FHM, stuff, loaded, zoo,

and nuts. A similarly unapologetic celebration of mailness surfaced stateside, though lads were

instead called doos, randiness was called horniness, and football was of course of the American sort.

And so too the lad Mag migrated across the pond,

though with the breasts covered for the Puritans, U.S. versions of FHM and Stuff, along with the most

successful import, Maxim Magazine. Featuring an array of saucy celebrity photoshoots

and articles like legalized steroids and cheat and don't get caught, the publication peaked in circulation

and relevance in the early 2000s. But Ladmags, along with magazines at large, faded away in the

21st century due to the rise of the internet, and by the early 2010s, Maxim had declined from a

circulation of 9 million to around 2 million. Inter Sardar Beglari, CEO of his eponymous Biglari holdings.

As reflected on his company's remarkably crude website,

Biglari owns a diverse slate of interests, including stake chain Western Sizzlin,

First Guard Insurance, and Southern Oil of Louisiana.

In 2014, Biglari added to his holdings by purchasing Maxim for $12 million, promptly adding

...