Hey there! Welcome to issue TWO of my newsletter. To start, I think y’all will really enjoy this week’s episode of the show, in which I talk with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson about her new book on… climate change. I know. Not a topic you’d expect to be discussed on a show all about entertainment and fun. 

But a lot of Dr. Johnson’s work centers on finding ways to make addressing the climate crisis manageable, and even enjoyable. She thinks the solutions need to include entertainment, and Hollywood, and maybe even poetry, magic, and dancing.

If you’re like me and avoid talking about climate change because it’s so depressing, you’ll love this chat. Because it’s the opposite of that. And if you do, you can keep that vibe going by picking up a copy of Dr. Johnson’s book, What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures.

With that, I want to follow up on a topic I wrote about last week: celebrating the enjoyment of BAD pop culture — you know, awful TV, music, movies, etc. As promised, I went to see Francis Ford Coppola’s mega-flop Megalopolis on Sunday. And it truly exceeded my expectations. It was corny and bloated, visually unsettling, too long, and full of acting that never actually matched the script or the scene. And ya know what? I LOVED it. Laughing out loud at that film with an audience of strangers was the most fun I’d had in a movie theater in years. And I’d do it again. 

Something happened about 20 minutes into the screening I was at. We all realized, completely, that the film was so bad it was actually a comedy — and so we all decided to abandon all rules of decorum and laugh and talk at the screen the entire time. Imagine the energy of a Halloween night screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. We channeled that boisterous, sing-along vibe and truly had a blast. I recommend you do the same at a theater near you before this one is off the big screen! 

My viewing of Megalopolis is high on my list of the most enjoyable pop culture moments of 2024. (And yes, I keep a running list of these things.) I’m also putting together lists of my favorite movies, TV shows, music, and more, and trying to pull together a year-in-review episode for the show! So I’m asking for *your* help: If you could sum up this year of pop culture in, let’s say… three words… what would those words be? Reply to this e-mail and I’ll read what you write! And try to incorporate your thoughts into our upcoming year-ender. For the record, my three — fine, four — words would be: “too much, too fast.” It felt like all of the culture moved WAY too quickly for me this year. Just when I was settling into “brat,” we moved on to “demure” etc. Nothing stuck around long enough, and EVERYTHING moved too quickly.

Alright, my current book obsession! I’m knee-deep in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ latest right now, The Message. You may have already seen coverage of some of the themes in this book, namely Ta-Nehisi’s thoughts on the Israel/Palestine conflict and his recent charged interview with CBS about those themes. Read the book for that, but even if that’s not your jam, check out this book just for the way Ta-Nehisi talks about the act of writing itself. Here’s a little example from the first few pages: 

“Haunt. You’ve heard me say this word a lot. It is never enough for the reader of your words to be convinced. The goal is to haunt — to have them think about your words before bed, see them manifest in their dreams, tell their partner about them the next morning, to have them grab random people on the street, shake them and say, ‘Have you read this yet?’” 

Just beautiful, right?! Thanks for reading this far. ‘Till the next edition of this newsletter, I hope you find some pop culture, book or otherwise, that absolutely haunts you in the best way. 

Talk soon, 

Sam