Cool Girl's Guide to Culture Consumption 🍽
A guide to being the interesting cousin this Thanksgiving
Being multi-dimensional has always been a preoccupation of mine.
scratch that.
It’s not exactly being multi-dimensional that has always preoccupied me, coming across as cultured and sophisticated is more like it. I’m someone who likes to read books and magazine, go to art exhibits and the theater. I’m extremely intentional with the time I spend watching movies or TV, admittedly it is spent on what can be referred to as ‘trash television’, however it is also of great matter to me to be informed on the goings on of the world. One of my fears is to be asked for my opinion on a topic and not be able to give even a shabby, half hearted response.
Maybe it’s a byproduct of growing up in a family of know it all’s, my holidays filled with family competitions of Scrabble and trivia, or being a digital native with a technologically affected attention span causing me to jump from activity to activity. Whatever you chock it up to, at the end of the day, I have always loved consuming and experiencing the world through all the different mediums it has to offer. Books being my first love, music being my second; I have obsessively explored a variety of different cultural mediums. Sometimes in an effort to immerse myself in the lives of those I admire, others simply due to the natural curiosity of my disposition.
Most of our consumption of information comes in short form content seen on TikTok or other social media platforms. And I don’t just mean news and politics, I mean everything… who hasn’t seen a sped up movie being narrated in parts on TikTok?
In an effort to do my part for this upcoming holiday season, I thought it would be a good idea to pull together my go-tos and tricks I use that guarantee me being the interesting, opinionated girl in the room. A relatively cool girl’s guide to consuming culture.
Starting with some essential reading…
It always helps to be well-read, however, reading books on books on books won’t serve you any good unless the subject is of your genuine interest. Instead of loading up your TBR (to be read, duh) list with each and every title you see talked about online or hailed by the New York Times. The reality is a lot of us don’t have time to read books, a downside of adulthood that breaks my heart. Don’t fret though, magazines are the perfect intellectual pick me up. Although magazine’s have declined dramatically in popularity with the coming of the digital age, online subscriptions and access are much more affordable than the paper alternative. Many Conde Nast publications (Architectural Digest, The New Yorker, Vogue) allow you to read articles for free as long as you give them your email. If you don’t know where to start but want to be able to say “I read in X Publication ….” I’m here to help:
First, we have this article in The Cut on Emma and Jens Grede, the power couple behind Kardashian brands, Good American and Skims.
Then we have this heartwarming interview between Snoop Dog and Latto for Rolling Stone.
Lastly, this NYT article tying the act of ghosting to the ghostly theme of contemporary horror films.
The same goes for newsletters and podcasts, not only are they more platforms to explore cultural material, newsletters and podcasts also serve as regular dumps of information and can center on an endless array of niche topics. Some substacks I highly highly recommend include Elevate with Yung Pueblo, Embedded and shit you should care about.
and then some of my favorite podcasts to get you started…
Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness
Sounds Like a Cult with Amanda Montell and Isa Medina
Where Should We Begin? With Esther Perel
Cultured = Experienced
Another great aspect of following media publications, is they publish articles on the world around you so you can go engage with the same experience. Speaking from experience, people write about the things they think other people should know about it. Luckily, I live in New York City and it is so easy for me to attend a gallery opening or eat at a new, trending restaurant. I encourage you to search the internet or the travel section of well known magazines for your own home’s cultural attractions.
Lastly, if you do have the time to indulge in a literary hobby…
I’ve found some of my favorite reads just browsing a bookstore. However, if you like to be told what to do and find the Reese’s book club picks to be a bit too ‘vacation read’-y much like I do, I would highly recommend the Service95 Book Club or landing page of recommendations. I’m also including three of my own recos below - great conversation starters and books I genuinely enjoyed reading.
