Kelly Berold

Kelly Berold (KB) is a friend of WITI currently based in Cape Town. She’s a true information omnivore (like many of our readers), and it is a pleasure hearing what is keeping her attention this morning. Have a great week. -Colin (CJN)Tell us about yourself.I'm a bit of a well-rounded media hack – which is to say I've worked in various corners of the mediaverse (PR, publishing, news) but never long enough to claim a specialty. Mainly I'm a strategist, project lead, and writer-editor. Right now I'm a partner at the design firm Studio Collective, where I co-lead brand strategy, and occasionally do writing and research things for policy organizations. I'm South African by origin, but I moved to Paris in 2016, and then to New York for grad school, and then back to Cape Town when the pandemic hit. So that's where I am writing from currently, mercifully. I abandoned my byline a few years ago and keep threatening to resurrect it. Describe your media diet. I read like a 45-year-old man, at least in the morning: I'll skim through the headlines of The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian (UK), FT, The Atlantic, and bookmark any long or interesting reads for the weekend. Lately, I've been trying to be more writer-focused, so I'll see what Thomas Chatterton Williams, Yasmeen Serhan, Helen Lewis, Ed Yong, and others are writing and thinking about. Much of my media consumption happens in the form of podcasts, preferably involving two or more people and smart discussion: current favorites include the Slate Culture Gabfest; Left, Right and Center; On Being; Ezra Klein's show; How to Fail; and The Guilty Feminist, which is hilarious. I'm also really into day-in-the-life type interviews that allow me to creep on other people's careers and methods of working, so I'll dip into Longform, Design Matters, and Slate's Working podcast for that fix. My inbox is a cesspit of unread newsletters, but those I do read usually provide inspiration for work, or tell me what great reads I've been missing out on, like Steve Bryant's substack, Sonder & Tell'sThe Word, The Browser, and Foreign Policy Interrupted.What's the last great book you read?I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell, which is technically a reread. It's a memoir as told through the author's many near-death experiences, with each chapter named after a part of the body. I'm a sucker for that sort of structural playfulness. That and resplendent writing, which this has so much of. What are you reading now?On Immunity by Eula Biss, a 2014 book that explores the history of vaccines and vaccine resistance. I tried to avoid political or news-related books this year, but someone recommended it and so far it is fascinating.What's your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?I'm typically guided by a writer, a section I know well, or a subject/headline that I know I want to read. If it's a perfunctory skim-through of a magazine, I'll go back-to-front. I still have no clue why. What is the best non-famous app on your phone?I'm pretty thrilled with what I've been given: the weather app, access to the internet, and honest-to-goodness note-taking app. That said, I love Skyscanner (is it non-famous?) for the escapism-meets-utility joy it serves me.Who should everyone be reading that they're not?There's a 99% chance I'll recommend someone that everyone is reading. Pre-pandemic, I would have said Ed Yong, who hooked me with a story on the history of whale earwax back in 2018, and whose science reporting is sublime. Same for Allison P. Davis over at The Cut. Ben Taub keeps hitting sixes with his reporting, and John Green's nerdy YouTube channel brings me endless joy. I also think everyone should have some taste of Cal Newport, especially if you're young and/or a little unmoored. (As far as what should everyone be reading, Project Syndicate is a criminally unmentioned world politics resource that I find really useful.)What is one place everyone should visit? The African bush. "Should" is a luxury, but getting to see wildlife, that wild, in the wild, still floors me. And god, if it interests you in the slightest, go to New York at least once. As a kid, I used to think New Yorkers were so unlucky to not have New York to aspire to. I'm far less romantic about it now, but I do still think it's a place of wonder. Trains or planes?Trains. Scenic, shorter pre-boarding wait. Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into.Every so often, I'll get stuck in an obituary section death spiral (sorry), searching for screenplay materials or some formula for success. Slowly finding both. Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Kelly (KB)—Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing (it’s free!).

The Monday Media Diet with Kelly Berold

Colin here. Friends of WITI Kelly Berold (KB) and Jenni Dawes (JD) went super deep on a data-driven end-of-year compendium for our ongoing MMD series. I found it super helpful to zoom out and understand, as well as add some new tabs, follows, and subscriptions. They have also shared their data collection in a spreadsheet here. In their words: “We wanted to keep tabs on all the recs that came up in MMD this year, for our own personal interest. That then evolved into keeping tabs on repeat mentions, then broader patterns, then into a 2022 best of.”We were very happy to have this effort and detail, so thank you both. Happy New Year from WITI. International newspapers are back at the Emirates lounge in DXB. Praise be. -CJNAT A GLANCEInterviewees:51 interviewees39 are based in the US, 6 in Europe and the UK, 2 in Canada, 4 in Asia and Australia, 1 in Mexico (23% are non-American)50% are writers in some capacity (25/51)Half are founders or creators (26/51)Twenty-two work a corporate or  9-5 job Fifteen percent work in radio or host podcastsIndustries: digital media, tech and startups, fashion and circular economy, food, design, community, publishing and magazines, government and security, investing and startups, music, marketing and advertising, hospitalityMediaTop print subscription: The New York Times weekend print edition (11/51)Most mentioned diet opening: Twitter first Most popular reading strategy: skim and selectRepeat newsletter loves: Read Max, Garbage DayMost recommended places to visit: Naoshima, Japan; Mexico City; many go-tos in ItalyRepeated book rec: My Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart (twice)MOST CONSUMEDPUBSMost  mentioned:New York Times, The New Yorker, FT, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, The Economist, El Pais, The Guardian, London Review of Books, Monocle, New York Review of Books, NPR, Pitchfork, The Ringer, Vulture, Washington Post, WSJ.Mentioned more than once: Apartamento, Bankless, Bloomberg, Business of Fashion, CNN, The Creative Independent, ESPN, Fast Company, Gossamer Magazine, The Globe and Mail, Grub Street, The Oxford American, The Paris Review, The Scientific American, Vox, Wired.WITI Classifieds:We are experimenting with running some weekly classifieds in WITI. If you’re interested in running an ad, you can purchase one through this form. If you buy this week, we’ll throw an extra week in for free on any ad. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop a line.BrXnd is a new project at the intersection of brands and AI. Have a play with the first experiment: AI brand collabs. Try it now.January is a great time to begin working with a coach to meet your goals. It's insight, accountability, and support. Subscribe to Mission.PODCAST & RADIOBBC World Service’s Global News PodcastConan O’Brien Needs a Friend.How I Built This with Guy RazInspiring Futures with Ed CottonKeep itKnow your EnemyLongformMultiple podcasts from the Ringer catalog: Reality Show, Big Picture, the Watch, Plain English with Derek ThompsonHow Long GoneNormal GossipNPR Up FirstPivotReply AllSquawk PodThe DailyThrowing FitsWNYCSUBSTACKS AND NEWSLETTERSAir MailAnne Helen Peterson’s Culture StudyBlackbird SpyplaneCoolstuff NYCCraig ModDirtGarbage DayHaley Nahman’s Maybe BabyLean LuxeMatt Levine’s MoneystuffMaxwell Anderson’s The Weekend Readerhttps://monocle.com/subscribe/newsletters/NYT Morning NewsletterOpulent TipsPublic AnnouncementRead MaxSitting PrettySociology of BusinessThe Small BowToday in TabsAPPS ON REPEATBeReal, Brian Eno : Reflection, Dark Sky,, Libby, Flightradar24, Surfline.TOPICS OF INTERESTArtBusiness buildingCollaboration and community buildingDesignEvolution of industryFood and cultureFuturistic ideationHistory and economy of fashionHistory of everythingHuman connectionInterior designInternet cultureLifestyleMetaphysicsMusic musingsNew technologies and their socio-cultural implicationsPhilosophy / psychProfiles and interviewsSport obsessionsStartups and TechStorytellingSubculturesTravelEVERYONE SHOULD READAUTHORSHubert Selby Jr (Zaira Stefani Vallejo)Joseph Henrich, anthropologist (Matthew Weaver)Haruki Murakami (Theresa and Corinna Williams)Kafka (Theresa and Corinna Williams)Terry Nguyen (Kyle Chayka)George Saunders (Louis Cheslaw)Ellen Huet (Mary Childs)Emily Oster,  American economist (Juno DeMelo)Lydia Kiesling (Juno de Melo)Lisa Hanawalt, illustrator (Juno DeMelo)Gwendoline Riley (Megan Gibson)Louise Glück, poet (Rafa Jimenez)Wendell Berry (Ari Kuschnir)Octavia Butler (Saidah Blount)Roxane Gay (Saidah Blount)Maxwell Anderson (Cody Min) Nassim Taleb (Cody Min) Cal Newport (Randa Sakallah)May Sarton (Randa Sakallah)Sheila Heti (Randa Sakallah)Dick Hebdige (Bojan Shahvali)Annie Cohen-Solal, researcher and historian (Kurt Slanaker)Haska Shyyan (Abby Rapoport)Anand Giridharadas (Abby Rapoport)COLUMNISTSGinia Bellafante, NYT culture and city critic (W. Christine Choi)Rebecca Jennings, Vox (Anna Doré)(W. David Marx)Ann Powers, NPR (Saidah Blount)Phil Schneider, The Ringer (Yang-Yi Goh)Amanda Mull, The Atlantic (W. David Marx)Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker (W. David Marx)Simon Kuper, Financial Times (Brian Morrissey)Eric Kim, NYT (Matt Rodbard)Shannon Mattern, Places Journal (Martin Thörnkvist) NEWSLETTERS Laurie Stone’s substack, Everything is Personal (Daisy Alioto)The Fence (Daisy Alioto)Walter Pearce’s substack, walt’s Important thoughts (Tyler Bainbridge)David Yaffe’s music musings on Substack  (Armando Bellmas)A.J. Daulerio and Edith Zimmerman at The Small Bow (Nick Catucci)Edith Zimmerman again with Drawing Links (Nick Catucci)Max Read’s Read Max on Substack (Nick Catucci, David Cho)Brian Morrissey’s newsletter, The Rebooting (David Cho)Luke O'Neil's newsletter, Welcome to Hell World. (Matthew Ingram)Ryan Broderick and Allegra Rosenberg’s, Garbage Day (W. David Marx, David Cho)Puck – a newsletter politics meets media meets the entertainment world. (Marc Polymeropoulos)John Ganz’s Unpopular Front (Abby Rapoport)Craig Mod (Matt Rodbard)BOOKSBob Iger’s memoir, “Ride of a Lifetime” (Murray Bell)Henry Miller, “The Colossus of Maroussi” (Jason Charles)Tao Te Ching and Bhagavad Gita  (Ari Kuschnir)Atul Gawande, “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” (Christine Amorose Merrill)Evan Mandery’s “Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us” (Avery Trufelman)Min Jin Lee's book, “Pachinko” (Scott Norton)“The Longevity Code” by Dr Kris Verburgh (Maud Pasturaud)PUBLICATIONSConsumer Reports! Magazine (Laura Meyer)The journalism project The Long Lead (Alex Thebez)Stranger’s Guide (Abby Rapoport)PODCASTSKnow Your Enemy (Daisy Alioto)OTHERStephen Satterfield (Saidah Blount)Criterion Collection films (Sue S. Chan)Keith Mcnally's insane takes on IG (Cody Min) Anything that helps people understand the frames of thought that drove the creation of the things they love. (Aimee Yang)Claire L. Evans, @theuniverse on Twitter (James Bridle)Subjects that helps us progress as a civilization: formal logic, reason, grammar, and rhetoric (Chris Papasadero)Courtney Desiree Morris (Abby Rapoport)A comprehensive list of amazing music journos here. (Shawn Reynaldo)PLACES TO VISIT* = repeat mentionsAsiaBeniya Mukayu onsen in Kaga, JapanDapur Bali Mula in North BaliKobe, Japan’s most underappreciated cityKoreaNaoshima, Japan*, an island town in Japan where Tadao Ando has installed forever works from James Turrell, Lee Ufan, and Claude Monet.SingaporeAustraliaWalls of Jerusalem National Park in TasmaniaA ski town called Falls Creek in the Australian AlpsCentral & South AmericaChile’s Atacama desertThe island of Nevis in the CaribbeanEurope & UKBarcelona, the group of vermouth bars Morro FiCasa Mãe in Lagos, PortugalCorsicaHelsinkiHiking the first 100km of the Kungsleden in the far north of Sweden, within the Arctic Circle.LondonMatera, an ancient city in southern ItalyNaplesPantelleria, ItalySicilySloveniaStromboli, near SicilyTbilisi, GeorgiaThe Jardin du Palais Royal in ParisNorth AmericaCellar Stories Bookstore in Providence, RIChateau Marmont, LACoatepec near the Gulf of MexicoKauaiMexico City*Monhegan IslandNew York CityOahu, Hawaii,Richmond, VirginiaThe Astoria Greek taverna, Elias Corner for FishThe Barnacle Historic State Park in Miami’s Coconut GroveThe Center for Puppetry Arts in AtlantaThe Flower Shop NYCThe New York Transit Museum!The North Fork of Long IslandToronto (Eat at Milou. Shop at Better Gift Shop and Lost & Found.)Tulsa, OklahomaA holy mountain like Mount ShastaA place like Marfa, that Donald Judd built with the intention of making permanent art away from all peopleAn unnamed inn, built in 1937 along the Big Sur coastlineMiddle East & Central AsiaThe Old Souk in ErbilThe Kolumba in Cologne, BeirutUrban sites in Southern Turkey: Çatalhöyük, near Konya, and Göbekli TepeEssaouira, Morocco  The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast in the Pamir mountains of Tajikistan, adjacent to the Chinese and Afghani borders, a short distance from Pakistan.Location-independentYour local spa or bathhouseAnywhere that would challenge preconceived notions of who you are, and put you in a place of discomfort. Somewhere where they are not the majority.Any national park or some place of great natural beauty QUOTES From ‘Everyone should read…’“Books, printed on paper. I find it astonishing to go into houses and see a complete absence of books. There is something about the physical impact of a book—the dust jacket, the texture, the quality of the pages, the maps, the ability to scrawl in the margins (in 2B pencil) and insert bits of paper as labels—that cannot be replicated in e-books and audio.” - Toby Harnden“We’ve lost the thread on the very subjects that allowed us to progress as a civilization: everyone should be reading about formal logic, reason, grammar, and rhetoric - your classic trivium. These topics are the only antidote to the post-truth cancer.”  - Chris Papasadero“I think people should try to dig deeper to understand the frames of thought that drove the creation of the things they love! As an example, I used to go to Disney World with my family every year growing up. Reading Roger Iger’s book - The Ride of a Lifetime of his 15 years as the CEO of Disney really brought an additional layer of understanding and perspective into the level of thoughtfulness, commitment and care that it takes to build an incredible establishment” - Aimee Yang“I recommend people return to mid-century nonfiction and cultural theory, as these books are always more subtle and complicated than how they are summarized in passing. And writers like Hannah Arendt, Daniel Bell, and Arthur Danto predicted our current cultural moment better than you’d imagine. I also recommend reading books that posit theories you don’t agree with.” - W. David MarxGENERAL“My media diet isn’t publications, it’s people. I like to outsource my thinking to people who are smarter than me on a thing, I think it’s better than having to sift through the opinions of strangers.” - Chris Papasadero“Opening up my sources and feeding my then dormant curiosity made me so much better at my job. I believe linking disparate ideas can help you solve problems in some of the most creative ways. Sometimes the most obscure reference can find its way from my subconscious, into the problem at hand, and create a breakthrough. When that happens, it’s thrilling, and it only makes me more curious.” - Hamish Smyth“[People should visit] anywhere that would challenge their preconceived notions of who they are, put them in a place of discomfort. Somewhere where they are not the majority.” - Alex ThebezThanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Kelly (KB) & Jenni (JD) —Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing.