What a New York Times critic-at-large is listening to...
Amanda Hess shares her High Five!
Each month, I ask an author I love to share five recommendations they have for other writers, whatever is the wind beneath their wings when they sit down to write. This month I reached out to the fantastic Amanda Hess, a critic-at-large for The New York Times who writes about internet and pop culture.
In 2015, she won the National Magazine Award for Public Interest with her reported feature on the online harassment of women. Her first book, Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age, about how technology mediates our relationships with our kids before they're even born, is out now.
So without further ado I’m handing the metaphorical microphone over to Amanda!
The YMCA: The perfect gym: a pool, a sauna, three StairMasters, a single unmarked soap dispenser in the shower and weekly childcare hours. I would watch a reality show about the exercise instructors.
The Rehearsal Season 2: I think I lost my ability to watch decent television when my kids were born, but now I'm slowly navigating my way back from the wilds of the Hallmark Channel. I'm currently watching Hacks, The Pitt and the second season of The Rehearsal, the absurdist comedy where Nathan Fielder creates elaborate reconstructions of real-life scenarios in order to explore various psychological and existential problems. The current season kicks off with Nathan attempting to prevent plane crashes through hyper-realistic cockpit role play but quickly evolves into a meditation on the question of antisemitism in Jewish art. It's the ideal show to watch with my husband (Jewish identity bf, aviation disaster gf).
Benefit's Wild Plum mascara: I'm fair with strawberry blonde hair, and my four-year-old says WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR EYES whenever I put on mascara. This burgundy shade mitigates that stunned and horrified reaction.
Parker Posey's audiobook: I profiled Parker ahead of her White Lotus season this spring, and I listened to the audiobook of her 2018 memoir "You're On an Airplane" as I prepared for our interviews. The book is unlike any celebrity memoir I've ever read — whimsical, moving, and a testament to Parker's skill not just as a performer but as a storyteller with a truly singular perspective. Plus there are sound effects.
Loathing "generative" A.I., literally everything about it: We've got to hack into the mainframe or whatever and stop this nonsense before it destroys everything good about being alive.
