Ashley Mears works primarily at the intersections of economic, gender, and cultural sociology. She studies how societies value people and things. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation, and featured in outlets like the New York Times, The BBC, The Economist, NPR, and Chinese Cosmo.In this conversation we discuss her newest book, Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit and the implications of it for our everyday interactions relating to Gender relations, the foundations of relationships, the meaning of status in a Capitalist society, and the depth within the club life of the elite and how does this extrapolate to all human interactions.I really enjoyed reading Very Important People, and having the opportunity to talk with Ashley about it has been a very unique experience. I encourage you to read Very Important People as Ashley provides an inside look into a world that is oftentimes not studied yet has immense implications in our reality, such as nightclubs.Enjoy!---Website: https://www.ashleymears.comBook: Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit--- Highlights —2:00 Why study clubs?6:02 Why do we party?11:00 How does the club life extrapolate to other parts of our daily interactions?17:40 What is Status? How does it emerge and why does it have such a gravitational pull for us?24:35 Potlatches and modern society.27:47 Gayle Rubin's work on Feminist Theory and its implications for today's gender relations.32:05 The future of Gender relations.38:40 The Gender Of Capital: How Families Perpetuate Wealth Inequality40:20 Are all relationships transactional?45:20 Is love a social construct?47:40 The emergence of Aspirational Dating websites.51:30 Sugar Daddy's, Mommy's, and Baby's.1:02:05 The resurgence of clubs after the pandemic.1:06:30 Ashley's biggest insights while writing her book, Very Important People--- Support Me ---Thanks for tuning in for this edition of Through Conversations Podcast!If you find this episode interesting, don't miss out on new conversations and subscribe to the podcast at any podcast feed you use, and leave me a review.Consider sharing it with someone you think can enjoy this episode.--- Keep The Conversation Going ---Instagram:@thruconvpodcastTwitter: @ThruConvPodcastWebsite: throughconversations.com--- Credits ---Our New, Awesome Music by Joe Lyle.  More info can be found at https://joelyledrums.comHosted, Produced by Alex Levy.