The morbid lifelessness of modern beauty
It's Been a Minute
NPR
4.7 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
Today’s guest, Jessica DeFino - beauty reporter, critic, and author of the FLESH WORLD Substack - says contemporary glamorization of anti-aging products and long dead icons like Caroline Bessette Kennedy all fall within a macabre beauty trend, what she calls ‘the morgue gaze.’ Ageless, poreless, lifeless beauty inspiration keeps consumers coming back for more numb, frozen aesthetics - forever. Jessica joins host Brittany Luse to break down what the morgue gaze is and why we’re so fascinated with the beauty of lifelessness.
(0:00) The Resurgence of Carolyn Bessette and the 'Morgue Gaze'
(2:03) Aesthetic Immortality: Unpacking the Morgue Gaze's Appeal
(5:49) From Mannequin Skin to Cadaver Fat: The Rise of Lifeless Beauty
(9:41) Billionaire Longevity: Transhumanism, AI, and the Undead Future
(12:59) The Dissociative Pout
(17:58) The Inescapable Grip of Beauty Culture
Want more about beauty? Check out these IBAM episodes:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | America has recently crowned a new style icon. She is unspeakably chic. Her blonde highlights are |
| 0:10.2 | the reference for hairstylists across America, and she tragically passed away decades ago. |
| 0:16.1 | I'm talking, of course, about Carolyn Bessette, the wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr. Their relationship is at the |
| 0:21.5 | center of the hottest romance on TV. The Ryan Murphy produced FX series Love Story, John F. Kennedy |
| 0:28.3 | Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. The series details the ups and downs of their five-year relationship. |
| 0:34.0 | They both died, along with Bissette's sister Lauren, in a small plane crash in the summer of 1999. |
| 0:39.4 | But in life, they were one of the most famous couples on earth. |
| 0:44.6 | Their enviable style, their enviable Tribeca loft apartment. |
| 0:49.0 | And their on again, off again, relationship had every tabloid. |
| 0:52.9 | And honestly, the entire nation up in their |
| 0:55.8 | business. And I really mean the entire nation. Like, I remember being in elementary school, |
| 1:00.6 | flipping through my mom's issues of Star Magazine, hoping to see the newest paparazzi photo of |
| 1:06.0 | Carolyn Bassett looking fab on the streets of New York. So it's no surprise to me that with this new FX series, |
| 1:13.0 | people are falling in love with Bissette's style. Like make no mistake, she was dressing. |
| 1:19.1 | But the recent surge of interest in her, a woman who was famously private and never even |
| 1:24.2 | gave an on-the-record interview in her lifetime. |
| 1:29.4 | It feels a little weird. |
| 1:33.1 | Fashion brands are using Beset's style to promote their products. |
| 1:40.1 | New York restaurants frequented by the couple have been packed with customers who want to sit at John and Carolyn's table. |
| 1:50.0 | Fans have even been waiting in line at a Manhattan drugstore, hoping to buy a pretty generic-looking plastic headband that Bassett reportedly purchased their decades ago. |
| 1:53.0 | Like, maybe we're doing a little too much. |
| 2:01.4 | But if I take a step back and I really think about it, is this obsession with Carolyn Beset all that different from America's obsession with any other beautiful woman who has gone too soon, some of our most enduring cultural figures, Marilyn Monroe, |
... |
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