Culture Club - Alix Earle And The Literary Crisis, The Privilege Of Logging Off & Olivia Rodrigo’s Invasive Paparazzi

00:00:00.000 alex earl and the literary crisis olivia rodrigo speaks out about invasive paps and the privilege

00:00:11.180 of being off social media i'm maggie zau and i'm jasmine wallace and you're listening to culture

00:00:15.980 club where two writers and editors analyze pop culture the internet and the arts today we are

00:00:21.880 on the lands of the wuundjeri woi wurrung people of the kulin nations we would like to pay our

00:00:26.620 respects to elders past and present and extend that to any aboriginal or torres strait islander

00:00:31.440 listeners today guess what i did last night what did you do i went to a reading party wait i love

00:00:41.980 that i wait i was actually gonna say i think this year slash next year is a year of like the very

00:00:47.540 specific party you know like a hot pot party a bagel party now we're talking about a reading

00:00:52.560 party yeah but this is like a reading party book club okay tell me the collective is called reading

00:00:58.420 party melbourne and it's super interesting so you buy a ticket it's like 20 to 30 dollars and you

00:01:04.140 go to a bar it's like a specific spot and you meet with strangers people usually come alone

00:01:09.780 and then you read in silence for an hour and then afterwards you can mingle with the people as well

00:01:16.340 that reminds me of primary school when after like play play time you would have like silent

00:01:21.820 reading time and how good was that yeah I felt like um I don't know if you had this in Victoria

00:01:26.480 because I went to school in New South Wales but we had like a roll call and then after roll call

00:01:30.360 you had to like read for 15 minutes in silence it did feel a little schoolish but it was the time

00:01:37.660 went really fast I brought two books and then on my way down I went to I walked past the hill of

00:01:43.080 content so I was like I have to go into hill of content I'm going to a reading party it's one of

00:01:47.840 the best independent bookstores in Melbourne I picked up the book people with money by Melbourne

00:01:51.920 writer Jess Ho and I started that one at the reading party but I also had two books in my bag

00:01:56.980 so many books I'd put them all on the table because like being German I was like I don't

00:02:00.300 know what I want to read I started with people with money and the time went so fast like I put

00:02:05.140 a chapter down because I was like okay I think I'm done with this for now went to pick up another

00:02:08.740 book and then the bell rang as in like they have like a little physical bell and um the time was

00:02:13.660 up so it was a really it's an interesting concept because you are paying for the privilege of like

00:02:22.120 reading you're paying for someone to force you to get off your phone and read also there's a

00:02:29.740 social aspect as well but it's not marketed as a social club like a supper club or a dinner club

00:02:35.620 that are kind of all over melbourne as well yeah i think it's also like paying for that parallel

00:02:39.500 play experience like I posted on my story today and I was like I've been going to the park to

00:02:45.200 read a lot whereas I still I have a backyard at home and it gets like sun and stuff but there's

00:02:50.120 something about being in a space with others that just it's way more enjoyable yeah it definitely

00:02:55.280 felt different than reading at home yeah this particular reading party club was started by

00:03:01.620 Sonia Rose and Samara Sequeira two friends and housemates who just wanted to be forced to read

00:03:08.220 basically and it's growing you know each and every week they do it Sonia also hosts a writing club

00:03:15.100 um I'll link their instagrams in the show notes um so that's every fortnight and it's similar

00:03:20.700 concept so you go and you write with strange so definitely more of the parallel play because

00:03:24.420 you're physically writing together it's different to a book club obviously because everyone's

00:03:28.580 reading different books and you don't have to talk about the books but of course bookish people

00:03:31.780 will go to a reading party uh yeah it was fun and I do think it will hopefully get me out of

00:03:37.780 the reading slump that i'm currently in good i have hope for you too i'm like well and truly out

00:03:42.180 of my slump so you'll be hearing more book recommendations in the future you've also

00:03:46.480 had an eventful week you went to olivia dean on monday night honestly i had the best time on

00:03:55.080 monday i feel so lucky that i was able to attend the art of loving tour the thing is i didn't get

00:04:01.340 tickets and then i've been on tixel waitlist for over eight months like guys i've been waiting out

00:04:05.980 since the start of this year, missed out on Tix or Still,

00:04:09.360 and then friend of the pod, ADK.

00:04:11.620 Lucky enough, she's a woman with many connections

00:04:14.200 and she had like a promoter ticket and we got to go.

00:04:17.580 And we got to go and I'm so, I was so excited.

00:04:21.720 I was almost in disbelief when she told me like two days before,

00:04:24.640 like, we're going.

00:04:25.640 And I was like, what?

00:04:27.440 Anyway, this concert, and I think you might have seen

00:04:30.440 from other people's stories or friends who might have attended,

00:04:34.500 was so freaking good.

00:04:35.980 It was so much fun.

00:04:37.740 Olivia Dean, I think what I forgot is how charismatic and charming she is.

00:04:41.740 She's funny.

00:04:42.740 She's obviously so beautiful.

00:04:43.940 She's so talented, but she's so magnetic.

00:04:46.400 That's a word I'd probably use to describe the whole thing.

00:04:48.800 I was just blown away.

00:04:51.080 Brodie Lancaster, who is a Melbourne writer, she rated it five stars for The Guardian,

00:04:56.240 which we love.

00:04:57.560 She also talked about the fact that this show was inspired by the Black American artist

00:05:02.400 Mickalene Thomas and in turn Olivia Dean was talking about how she was very inspired by

00:05:08.960 bell hooks all about love and throughout the whole show she had like beautiful like morsels of like

00:05:13.700 like advice or self-reflection that was so beautiful one thing she said was quote this

00:05:21.240 album was about me trying to understand what love really means to me and she paraphrased

00:05:26.620 something from bell hooks's book to love another person is to want them to be the best version of

00:05:32.840 themselves love them outside of who they are to you oh shivers i love that so maggie coded it's

00:05:41.100 so sweet did you know that she's exactly a month and one week younger than you yes i do when i

00:05:47.320 first learned about that i was like what so she's a pisces too she's a pisces too i do feel like

00:05:53.980 you're very yeah similar energy beautiful i didn't get tickets i saw olivia at laneway fest and then

00:06:01.280 when she came to forum last year as well i didn't i don't know i just seem to kind of miss out every

00:06:06.760 time but i feel like i'm seeing it through people's instagram stories so and you know what i

00:06:13.540 didn't realize like i have been a fan of her for a long time but the first song i saved um from her

00:06:18.520 was from 2020 yeah i've been a fan for like six years i would say i was i became a proper fan in

00:06:23.380 2022 like i remember the song be my own boyfriend i think i talked to you about it because i was oh

00:06:27.780 wait you shared it with me yeah i just realized oh my god yeah i remember listening to her yeah

00:06:33.300 2021 when she just had a couple eps yeah so it's awesome to see her rise obviously was like around

00:06:39.560 melbourne she's in sydney and going to new zealand etc she was spotted in mecca back street melbourne

00:06:45.900 which is like the biggest beauty store like standalone beauty store in the southern hemisphere

00:06:50.780 it's like the hottest spot oh my gosh i can't believe she went what do you mean by hottest

00:06:55.760 spot like it's where all the girlies are yes all the time and all the olivia olivia dean girlies

00:07:01.200 definitely i got a literal press release about this visit from mecca the headline was literally

00:07:06.960 olivia dean visits mecca burke street they literally wrote what she purchased which felt

00:07:12.460 like a little invasion really but i think it's fair game but yeah interesting she well she olivia

00:07:19.100 shared her purchases via an instagram story that included a diptyque candle and love intention

00:07:24.580 crystals from sage and salt god love that for her olivia is in a little bit of hot water this week

00:07:30.100 though she's been accused of copying the melody of bill withers classic just the two of us and

00:07:36.060 it's for her song i've seen it which is the final track on her new album damn i hadn't seen this

00:07:41.660 news actually um but of course she's very much inspired by his music and this era of like soul

00:07:48.020 music yeah so the publishers of um the late singers catalogue allege that the two songs

00:07:53.700 quote share musical features and apparently the similarities are quote so striking bill withers

00:07:59.800 publishers also allege that his song is so popular that there's no way that olivia wouldn't have

00:08:05.460 heard it because her publishers were saying like well you can't prove anything you can't prove

00:08:09.100 that she even knows the song and they will clap back being like it's one of the biggest songs

00:08:12.640 of course of course the lawsuit isn't seeking damages from olivia specifically or her co-writers

00:08:19.180 instead they're going straight to the parent company uh universal music group and her record

00:08:24.260 label Capitol Records. Speaking about another favourite Olivia, who is also a Pisces, who is

00:08:39.900 also younger than me. Olivia Rodrigo is a cover star of The Hollywood Reporter. There have been

00:08:45.840 a couple of headlines that have come out of this feature piece. Number one, she addresses AI.

00:08:51.620 and like do you think olivia rodrigo would use ai for her music no i'm glad that we have that on

00:08:56.660 record she said quote i would never use ai in any of my music absolutely no hard line on that the

00:09:03.600 closest i've ever got is that once me and producer dan were like god i wonder what ideas chat g pt

00:09:09.700 would have for an olivia rodrigo title and they were all fucking awful what would they be called

00:09:15.140 like the girl who rocks she's not heartbroken anymore vodka cruiser in this article olivia

00:09:24.660 also addressed the photos that were going around earlier this year of her and the new york city

00:09:29.280 finance bro julian krunenberg which gained a lot of traction we spoke about it on the podcast as

00:09:35.660 well people were kind of were they making fun talking about the fact that she was like dating

00:09:41.380 a finance bro and in her in her song expectations she's like I want I don't want a guy with a fake

00:09:46.900 job and people kind of making fun and I remember when we were on the podcast yeah we were talking

00:09:52.320 about it and it was kind of like the headlines like Olivia's new boyfriend and I was like she's

00:09:55.540 just standing with him in the airport like I literally remember being like okay sure we can

00:09:59.720 like speculate but also if you're just seen standing next to any single man who's roughly

00:10:05.220 your age is that does that mean you're dating but soon after that they were like photographed

00:10:10.300 cuddling in the park together and stuff like that so so I feel like it's I find this like a hard

00:10:16.100 line to tote because we'll get into some of her quotes which I totally respect and see but it's

00:10:20.680 hard when you're one of the biggest pop stars in the world yeah who's just gotten out of a very

00:10:24.860 public breakup of course people want to speculate and talk about it um I was reading from a

00:10:30.460 cosmopolitan article that was pulling from this and they're like yeah and respect her space but

00:10:34.820 I'm like also they definitely would have written the headlines exactly and we're guilty of that

00:10:39.420 too but let's talk about her quote she said it's so hard and kind of sad especially because

00:10:44.820 relationships are supposed to be something private I feel like every time I go on a casual date with

00:10:49.780 a guy there's a picture of her on the internet which feels really invasive sometimes you're out

00:10:55.100 with a guy who's not your boyfriend and suddenly the internet's like they're married blah blah blah

00:10:59.480 she continues I understand that that's sort of part of the you know what no so she stops herself

00:11:05.520 halfway through the sentence and then says it actually really sucks and it feels really invasive

00:11:10.040 it feels like you're being stalked and then judged for pictures like I said I'm single I don't have

00:11:15.380 a boyfriend and to be stalked outside of your home and then these pictures are being used as

00:11:19.680 evidence that you're a bad person it's just the craziest thing but I know who I am I know what my

00:11:24.580 values are and I try to just hold on to it at the end of the day I wish that I could be 23 years old

00:11:29.340 and experience life normally that last quote is sad it's sad it reminds me of um taylor swift

00:11:36.180 yeah of people being like but you talk about your boyfriends in all your songs and your heartbreak

00:11:42.160 and like when i think of olivia as an artist i think like heartbreak sadness like i know she's

00:11:49.420 a pop artist but i think her best work is her like tragic balance totally she can't escape it

00:11:55.860 No. So I think it's interesting when a lot of artists do this as well.

00:12:00.080 And I do think there is a line between like public and personal and like working through feelings, through song and art and creativity and then having a private life invaded.

00:12:10.200 But I do think it's a push and pull.

00:12:12.420 And I think sometimes when it's like, I want to live a normal life, it's like, but you don't.

00:12:17.320 You don't. And you get millions of dollars.

00:12:19.460 Yeah.

00:12:20.060 And you get to make art and do what you love and share that with the world.

00:12:23.120 so of course there's going to be compromises and it's not like a pretty ethical line that we can

00:12:27.920 draw so that's why it's a bit complicated but i'm proud of her for saying this

00:12:32.100 this week vanity fair posted an interview featuring jeremy o'harris and the vanity

00:12:40.920 fair global editorial director mark guiducci this is part of vanity fair's new interview

00:12:46.980 series called fair game in their words this series has in-depth and far-reaching conversations with

00:12:53.060 the most interesting characters from the worlds of Hollywood, politics, style, Silicon Valley

00:12:57.800 and beyond. It's all fair game. So if you might be like me and I was like, oh, I know the name

00:13:03.600 Jeremy O'Harris, but I didn't really know who he was. He is an American playwright, actor and

00:13:09.260 screenwriter. He's most known for his 2018 play called Slave Play. And that received a record

00:13:16.360 12 Tony nominations, which broke the record for plays at that time. So he didn't actually take

00:13:22.480 homo win that night um he's also in the press cycle at the moment because he just made his

00:13:28.000 music video directorial debut with none other than carly ray jepson for her song don't leave

00:13:34.520 me on the dance floor and that happened in august what range that's amazing no jeremy's episode is

00:13:39.920 titled jeremy o'harris wants to fix the american theater and society too and throughout jeremy

00:13:45.380 talks about his childhood the state of politics and why he thinks phones should be allowed in

00:13:50.680 theatres but there's one snippet in particular that's making headlines and definitely getting

00:13:56.860 people talking it is about tech leaders and AI but also the part that media has to play in it

00:14:04.420 I think what was really powerful about this conversation is Mark and Jeremy they're friends

00:14:09.080 and they say that up top um and the way that they're able to disagree I would say or have

00:14:15.200 these hard conversations is really powerful and palpable it's not like a very polite surface level

00:14:20.480 conversation they push back on each other a lot like as jeremy's talking mark's like i don't agree

00:14:25.500 you know and it makes for a really like in-depth and thorough discussion it's like a 35 minute

00:14:32.320 discussion but it's really great so we're gonna play a clip of that uh snippet talking about tech

00:14:38.520 it's a it's a bit longer but i think it's worth playing it concerns me deeply that the tech bros

00:14:46.480 the newly rich of today are not interested in social climbing they don't care i've thought

00:14:51.520 about this a lot they do care the problem is you guys don't care you social gatekeeper tell me more

00:14:58.900 again i hope this doesn't like make me like some pariah but i do think that like you and anna and

00:15:06.420 so many other people around the world have like such immense power over these people's

00:15:11.080 self-perception, right? Their perception of themselves as people who are or are not a part

00:15:17.360 of society. They did not grow up in classed enough environments to understand that the height of

00:15:23.920 society wasn't the Vanity Fair Party or the Met Gala. But they think it is, right? For them,

00:15:28.200 those are the two highest spots. The Vanity Fair Party, the Met Gala. That is society to them.

00:15:33.980 And you guys gave that to them without them having to do any of the other legwork.

00:15:37.600 I view my job and the job of the magazine to reflect society.

00:15:43.020 And the print is not that anymore.

00:15:45.260 It is advertising.

00:15:46.500 Like, you guys are advertising people.

00:15:49.060 Even if you're writing about them.

00:15:50.540 Listen, you can disagree.

00:15:51.580 I disagree.

00:15:52.200 You can disagree.

00:15:53.060 But I'm saying, like, Elon Musk gets his dick so wet knowing that he, like, is in Vanity Fair.

00:16:00.320 Sam Altman is so hot to be in.

00:16:02.920 Because it's like, my picture got taken.

00:16:04.580 Like, that is for them.

00:16:06.640 like I won you know fuck you bullies and I'm like no we shouldn't give them that they should be told

00:16:12.360 they're ugly and like bad for society for the rest of their lives until they start doing more for

00:16:15.920 society such an interesting conversation and also important because Vanity Fair just had Sam Altman

00:16:21.920 on the cover he's facing out towards an ocean it's shot by Annie Leibovitz and it's a reference to

00:16:28.760 Caspar David Friedrich's wanderer above the sea of fog from 1818 it's just a painting um you will

00:16:36.080 pop it up or put it in the show notes like once you see it you know what it is so it's a direct

00:16:40.280 reference it's definitely meant to reference you know exploring new worlds and vanity fair above

00:16:45.540 the headline it literally says the new establishment sam altman sees the future are we in it there was

00:16:51.160 a good top comment on instagram and it said he's back his turn literally and figuratively to us

00:16:56.320 i like that they had the debate about no we're reflecting society versus we're advertising

00:17:03.000 amazing because that was my first thought as well like when I saw this headline I was like

00:17:06.280 working in media sometimes I can get a bit defensive of like but why are you platforming

00:17:10.840 this thing or why are you even talking about this like we should just not even talk about them

00:17:14.660 because then we're giving them like the attention that they want kind of thing but media's job

00:17:19.400 isn't to do that media's job is to well it used to be the fourth estate to hold power to account

00:17:26.320 but Jeremy is right in saying that it's not really that way anymore and we saw that with

00:17:32.620 um you know jeff bezos being able to buy his way into the met gala and as jeremy said having these

00:17:37.900 tech billionaires you know sam altman at vanity fair parties i think they are infiltrating fashion

00:17:44.840 and culture spaces it kind of harks back to the conversation we had about robots the other week

00:17:49.060 as well robots and tech infiltrating into these yeah fashion spaces and i do appreciate the part

00:17:56.360 where jeremy says they do care about social status and climbing they do care about the image

00:18:02.000 and they are trying so hard to change public perception about what they're doing and how

00:18:08.040 they're changing the world. And I just don't think it's working at all. And do you think

00:18:12.500 that Vanity Fair or places, the media like that, do you think that they are assisting

00:18:17.640 these tech moguls in changing their perception or do you think they're platforming them and they're

00:18:22.620 still getting like embarrassed on the daily? I think they definitely are playing a part

00:18:28.020 into kind of uplifting these tech oligarchs into mainstream culture.

00:18:35.380 I wouldn't say popularity necessarily

00:18:37.040 because I do think the general public does have a distaste for these men.

00:18:40.920 I think a great example, and they talk about this in the Fair Game interview,

00:18:47.160 is how great that feature was earlier this year

00:18:50.340 that Vanity Fair put out when they photographed the White House

00:18:53.240 and that really glaring bright flash close-up portraits

00:18:57.160 of these politicians the US politicians and they looked ugly yes ugly in like a soul way you know

00:19:03.760 yes that's right they were really close-up portraits and they were like just asking

00:19:09.560 general questions kind of if you were in that room you would have thought oh we're getting profiled

00:19:14.080 but it was almost like a satire and Mark again he's the editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair I hated

00:19:20.940 the way he kind of weaseled out of that um conversation in in this interview because he

00:19:25.320 was like oh no we were just taking their photo he literally says we're just I think we were just

00:19:28.960 taking their photo like trying to play the game of appeasing the interviewees which is a very

00:19:34.680 hard line to toe but I like how Gemma is like no you guys know what you're doing like you've you've

00:19:39.900 got a perspective and I think I I think media needs to take that um to heart for sure I I actually

00:19:48.520 agree with his point I do think media is about reflecting reality to its people but don't

00:19:53.460 pretend you don't have a perspective there. This isn't the first time that Jeremy has spoken about

00:19:59.300 OpenAI and Sam Altman as well. I don't know if you remember this headline a few months ago,

00:20:05.160 back in March, Jeremy drunkenly confronted Sam at the Vanity Fair Oscar party and he allegedly

00:20:11.980 called Sam a Nazi. They also talk about this in the interview because it was supposed to be like

00:20:18.580 an offline, like off the record part of the night, but somebody captured that.

00:20:23.460 I think it was just like someone overheard and then it was just like said.

00:20:27.600 I don't think there was like actual footage of it.

00:20:30.120 In this Page Six article, they're actually called Sputtering Spies.

00:20:33.720 Great alliteration.

00:20:35.100 Sputtering Spies at the exclusive post-Oscars bash told Page Six

00:20:39.440 that Jeremy accused Sam of being the, quote,

00:20:42.320 Joseph Goebbels of the Trump administration.

00:20:45.260 So true.

00:20:46.480 It's said that Sam Altman responded quite calmly to Jeremy's comments.

00:20:51.060 In a similar vein, this week in Australia, the Social Reckoning movie came out.

00:20:57.120 This is, of course, a sequel to The Social Network, which explored Facebook's origins and rise.

00:21:03.560 This Social Reckoning is set in 2021 and it follows how a Facebook whistleblower exposed Meta's secrets.

00:21:10.660 It, of course, stars Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong and Mikey Madison as well.

00:21:17.140 The film centres on Frances Hogan, who is a former Facebook employee who disclosed thousands of pages of internal documents in 2021.

00:21:26.100 So Mikey plays this real-life woman and whistleblower.

00:21:29.600 While doing press for this movie, Mikey's been speaking about her own social media habits or lack thereof.

00:21:35.900 Yeah, so she talked to Entertainment Tonight and she said,

00:21:38.600 I haven't had social media, I think, for, I mean, the entirety of my adulthood.

00:21:44.120 I think if anything, after doing this film and learning more about like the real numbers

00:21:48.020 and statistics of how these things are affecting people, it really confirmed a lot of what

00:21:52.460 I was already feeling.

00:21:53.560 To E! News as well, she says that I've never really been on social media.

00:21:58.680 It was just a personal choice I made a really long time ago.

00:22:01.940 It's just what I know and what feels right for me personally.

00:22:05.580 Mikey is 27.

00:22:06.640 I think that's quite impressive to be born in 1999 and not have had social media, not to need to be on social media.

00:22:17.720 When I first saw these headlines, I felt very almost defensive about it, which I thought was an interesting reaction.

00:22:25.400 And I don't know if it was a jealousy or a defensiveness because I felt like I honestly felt like, oh, it must be nice.

00:22:33.180 Yeah. Oh, same. I think same.

00:22:35.400 and to add to that if I can be really transparent as well I'm like she's a beautiful woman who

00:22:40.880 looks like she would thrive in Hollywood like I feel like that extra labor of having to build

00:22:46.820 that presence might not have been applicable but I'm making that like I'm projecting that like

00:22:51.380 obviously who knows yeah I don't know if it was just the lack of and not everything needs a

00:22:56.900 freaking disclaimer I understand that it's like bean soup theory but I think it was also the lack

00:23:01.660 of like there was no insight into why she doesn't need it whether it's like oh my agent does

00:23:07.920 something or like there was no backstory just kind of like oh just like personally it's not for me

00:23:12.420 and I think that's pretty bold when you work in the entertainment industry I know loads of people

00:23:19.620 who either don't have social media or they don't use it very frequently or they only they never

00:23:24.020 post they post like once a year lots of people in our life who don't work in media or entertainment

00:23:29.360 but I think if you're in this business it's almost like a mandatory thing yeah totally and I feel

00:23:36.100 like I feel like we should also describe a bit about her because people I'm like oh yeah I know

00:23:41.060 her but I realize that she's not like a household name so she has been in movies like the Scream

00:23:47.180 franchise Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Nora was kind of a big role for her a very big role

00:23:52.560 she won an Oscar for it yes actress incredible um and she is quite like an it girl figure I would

00:23:58.760 say but she was a child star and she's also the child of psychologists I think two of those things

00:24:07.320 really add up to maybe why she's off social media of course having parents who are experts in mental

00:24:15.380 health would contribute but she's also been working for from a young age yeah so it's like

00:24:20.340 her resume was already really strong before she got to her early 20s I can imagine the disdain

00:24:25.460 or like the frustration from people who are wanting to be our actors or artists and stuff

00:24:31.320 and you know people do hear on the casting call out to be like you need a minimum 100k followers

00:24:36.840 to apply for this yeah like that's a very normal thing also in the realm of like our work there

00:24:42.180 was this funny meme going around which is like what was it was like anyone with a big instagram

00:24:46.580 following has a book in them yeah right yeah so this is um she's there is truth to this we were

00:24:53.340 at an event recently as well and you talk to people and they're like oh what do you do and

00:24:57.060 you say I do I do a bit of this I do a bit of content do a bit of writing do a bit of podcasting

00:25:00.700 and people go oh my gosh you do like so many things and I'm always like you have to you have

00:25:08.100 to now you can't just be a writer well you can just be a writer but it's a lot harder to make

00:25:13.840 money when you are niched down and how do you have a platform to like share your work and also

00:25:22.660 so much of this industry and like when I say this industry I'm speaking about entertainment more

00:25:27.440 broadly you have to also be top of mind so people I've been in rooms who are making decisions about

00:25:33.600 talent and it might not even be an influencer it's like we need a chef who can cook this particular

00:25:40.000 meal but it's for a publication so therefore they should have a bit of a platform so who's top of

00:25:44.480 mind oh I saw this person post this last week let's just contact them totally it's like that

00:25:49.580 word of mouth slash who's in your network mentality but social media only just fuels that

00:25:57.000 i also saw a post this week from luk that got me thinking about this topic as well

00:26:01.080 they announced a slate of contributing editors for their magazine a few of them are journalists

00:26:08.800 broadcasters podcasters but all of them have really big platforms yes the caption reads meet

00:26:15.780 the inspiring thinkers, expert commentators and tastemakers spanning the worlds of fashion,

00:26:20.780 beauty, culture and beyond. They'll be showing up across all of our platforms in the year ahead.

00:26:25.960 So some of these include OG people like Susie Lau, who is at Susie Bubble on Instagram. She's an

00:26:32.900 original fashion blogger. She has 701,000 followers. They also have Andrea Chong, who is an amazing

00:26:39.620 author, podcaster, and slow fashion expert. She's got 169,000 followers on Instagram.

00:26:47.080 It's also the makeup artist Ngozi Esther Edeme, who has 399,000 followers on her platform.

00:26:54.620 Yeah. As you mentioned, there are a lot of women from different industries, authors,

00:26:58.420 broadcasters, podcasters, models, bloggers, et cetera. And this is definitely no means to

00:27:04.380 discredit their expertise and their work at all. We are just pointing out the fact that they also

00:27:09.420 do have a bigger social media presence to complement that and that is something that

00:27:15.380 brands and media take into consideration when working with someone now. And locally Glamour

00:27:21.020 Australia launched a social first publication although in saying that I saw this morning they

00:27:25.460 are announcing their first print magazine but they launched locally recently with a slate of fashion

00:27:33.200 influencers including Sophia Berg aka Sofa Dofer and Riley Henson. Yes this was their launch

00:27:40.240 technique you know they got this group of women to post and be the faces of their campaign launch

00:27:47.300 which was cool to see and now I mean I personally haven't I follow a lot of these women and I

00:27:52.920 haven't seen much posting on their end about Glamour but they have been posting some videos

00:27:58.560 to glamour's page to glamour's page a few look i just did a big scroll and it's like okay from

00:28:03.340 july is kind of the last time i saw a big post about their editors in residence yeah yeah we're

00:28:09.280 kind of getting a little bit myopic on the examples i think but the point of this is i think

00:28:15.780 there's a valid reason why i felt envious jealous and defensive about mikey's social media comments

00:28:21.840 because i was like oh it's just frustrating when what you want to do is like write or write movies

00:28:28.380 or whatever it is but to get there you have to build yourself an audience and a platform and

00:28:34.180 people need to know who you are and what your work is you can do it without it but it's harder

00:28:39.420 so i think in the world of like and again last week we spoke about pete davidson's comments about

00:28:45.840 you know people make 410 million dollars doing what dancing in front of a camera

00:28:49.440 then it's frustrating having like real artists who've like won oscars yeah quote unquote

00:28:54.660 coming out and be like oh it's just not really my thing yeah it's not a lot of people's thing

00:28:59.820 no exactly I think it's a privilege to be able to be in a position where you don't

00:29:03.340 need social media to benefit your career

00:29:05.880 are we in a literary crisis are books hot or not let's dive in oh my god your friend just

00:29:22.640 kind of giving Clairo which is perfect because she was she's in this next segment it's been

00:29:27.140 fashion week and Valentino did something different for their show for their spring 2027 show which

00:29:33.260 was called Anti-Bibliotheca Catalogue of the Unread I feel like this was one of the fashion

00:29:39.740 shows that cut through to a more like mainstream like cultural consumer they chose to show at the

00:29:45.740 Bibliothèque Saint-Jean-Vivre in Paris for the 2027 show. In the invite, Alessandro Michel asked

00:29:53.340 guests to bring along a book, new or from your own library, and after the show, the collected

00:29:58.440 volumes would be donated to local libraries. Yes, and there was a slew of celebrities in the mix.

00:30:05.180 Cynthia Rivo brought Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. Tamara Weaving, Australian, brought

00:30:11.800 Evenings and Weekends by Oshin McKenna.

00:30:15.860 Naomi Watts brought Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

00:30:20.040 Anna Wintour actually brought Pride and Prejudice.

00:30:23.920 Claro brought Clarice Lispector's Covert Joy.

00:30:26.860 Alexander Skarsgård opted for the Swedish edition of Icelandic Tales.

00:30:31.600 And Joe Alwyn, random, he brought in James the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.

00:30:36.680 That is so rogue.

00:30:38.160 But okay, he's a quirky little guy.

00:30:39.620 I've been liking some of the social media things I've been seeing.

00:30:42.780 He did like a BTS.

00:30:44.360 Was it for Days?

00:30:45.240 Yeah, I think it was for Days and he just had like funny quips.

00:30:48.440 I think winner though would go to Coleman Domingo who chose Julia Child's

00:30:53.120 Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

00:30:54.920 That is so chic.

00:30:56.440 I love him.

00:30:58.060 Julia and Julia, one of the best movies ever made.

00:31:00.160 I watched that so much.

00:31:01.620 It's my comfort watch.

00:31:02.640 Yeah, I totally see that.

00:31:03.820 So love it.

00:31:04.540 This fashion show did take place inside that library.

00:31:07.640 um interestingly locally melbourne fashion week is around the corner and there's actually a fashion

00:31:13.000 show taking place in our state library too so cool i do think libraries are getting some more

00:31:19.400 flowers recently i saw a tiktok getting more flowers concept libraries good i love that no

00:31:25.780 but getting they are getting flowers someone sent me my friend friend of pod paris she

00:31:30.240 dm'd me a tiktok of nice libraries in sydney oh nice and i can't remember the tiktok user sorry

00:31:36.960 but i'll link it in the show notes and she was like i'm working from a cafe but i remember that

00:31:41.380 libraries exist and they're free and like that's so great and it's it's so true i often forget that

00:31:47.600 you know i can work from a library babes i've been working at libraries i've been i've

00:31:51.720 reinvigorated my love of them well i love working at the state library but the local one not as

00:31:58.840 popular for me but what makes me sad in the state libraries you can't bring coffee like or a hot

00:32:03.460 drinking yes you can only have water so then i'm like i want to work with a coffee so you go to a

00:32:07.200 cafe anyway getting outside of the point it's nice to see the appreciation of libraries again

00:32:12.600 totally and that's just like in their big beautiful reading room the state library i think you can

00:32:16.980 know the whole thing the whole thing i've tried to walk in the back entrance where readings it's

00:32:20.940 sorry this is getting hyper local yeah the back entrance where readings is and they have like a

00:32:24.120 security guard on the door and it says it's science there's no hot drink okay i'm sorry

00:32:28.160 about that and that's why the cafe at the back is always so rammed yeah okay there are other libraries

00:32:32.500 there are there are local libraries okay support your local library speaking more about libraries

00:32:36.940 so early this year um my what i want to say friend of the pod jua lipa also opened her own uh she

00:32:44.840 didn't really open a library but she's got a collection in a library and will take that

00:32:48.540 that happened in june this year um it is called the manifesto library it houses 100 band books

00:32:55.500 in the bookshop liveraria lello in porto portugal um this bookshop is one of the most famous book

00:33:02.180 stores in the world because of its neo-gothic and art nouveau architecture the 100 titles are

00:33:09.620 arranged across the four themes power control voice and memory so some of them include the

00:33:15.100 second sex by simone de bovart omar l akard's one day everyone will have always been against this

00:33:20.980 the handmaid's tale by margaret atwood the memory police by yoko agawa which was a book club read

00:33:26.880 recently. The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Yes, this makes sense.

00:33:33.900 You might be like, well, Dua Lipa, the pop star, but she's been in the literary space. She is a

00:33:40.100 founder of Service 95, which is a curated newsletter on culture, politics and world issues.

00:33:45.720 And she, of course, also has a book club called Service 95 Book Club, which is dedicated to

00:33:50.900 reading the world differently. My favourite thing was, this stays in my head rent-free,

00:33:55.700 a few months ago I saw this TikTok from this like from this like guy and he was literally like oh

00:34:01.740 Dua Lipa like I love her podcast and I love her interviews with authors and her book club

00:34:07.140 he didn't know that she was a musician wait that can't be real no it's real it's real I believe

00:34:13.640 I'm gullible um no and he's like yeah I just like really love her her take on books well I do really

00:34:20.420 like a podcast especially if you're not into literary fiction as we are there's also the coach

00:34:25.840 book collaboration there was like the book charms there was a book charms celebrities like

00:34:31.540 carrying around books at part of their shows as well and then you also have the whole like

00:34:35.980 performative man reading in public and like hot dudes reading instagram account i i rolled at

00:34:41.900 that yes so on one hand and we've been here before we've talked about how celebs have their book club

00:34:48.960 accounts and book accounts, whatever. So, in one hand, it's like, yes, like books and reading is

00:34:54.660 cool. On the other hand, another big pop culture celeb conversation we've seen this week is around

00:35:00.300 Alex Earle and her comment around books and reading. Okay, let me give you the backstory.

00:35:07.680 So, she was in an interview on an Instagram reel with Interview Magazine's editor-in-chief,

00:35:14.080 Mel Odenberg. And I need people to know, if you haven't seen this full interview,

00:35:18.040 it's very quick fire and it's like silly okay so she is answering light-hearted for a lot of these

00:35:23.560 so i wouldn't be like oh she's speaking 100 facts but she was asked what's the last book you read

00:35:29.420 and she says i've never read a book like maybe dr seuss for context alex earl is one of the biggest

00:35:35.300 u.s influences in the country massive star i don't know if this was a joke or not people were taking

00:35:42.800 it quite seriously but also I think if she'd said something really like one of Dua Lipa's 100 books

00:35:49.880 you know from that list people would have been like she's being performative so I actually don't

00:35:54.480 know if she could have won either way which I think is sad and unfair but it did do the rounds

00:36:00.600 a little bit. Impact which is a Gen Z media company they put out a post called Alex Earl

00:36:05.940 saying she's never read a book ever is a sign of a post-literate society. Yeah and in that carousel

00:36:11.580 they reference a piece written in the atlantic called the end of reading is here and the

00:36:16.840 journalist rose horowitz found that in the u.s people who read a book or an article on a typical

00:36:22.380 day have decreased by about 40 percent in the last two decades i think we don't even sometimes

00:36:29.400 need stats like that to kind of know the general direction that society is reading and i was

00:36:35.140 talking to a editor at a publication the other day and they were like yep they're featured

00:36:41.560 they've had to cut down word counts because people just aren't reading as much i also saw this when i

00:36:47.660 posted an article that i wrote for firing 29 and it did numbers on social media like the post that

00:36:53.680 i made tens of thousands saved likes shares and then i asked the editor oh like how many clicks

00:37:01.660 did i actually get and it like the gap between the numbers it did on social media and the people who

00:37:07.600 went and read the article there was a huge gap and i didn't when i posted the article i didn't

00:37:13.620 post the whole thing i just posted like the main kind of talking points because it's meant to

00:37:17.760 back in the day back in my day when i started media the instagram post was meant to direct you

00:37:23.840 link and bio called action to go to the website and read but people aren't visiting websites

00:37:27.740 anymore and i'm guilty of this as well the amount of articles i will save when i see on my scroll

00:37:32.680 instagram posts and then i'll be like oh i'll get around to reading the full thing unless we're like

00:37:36.460 talking about on the podcast i don't i really like this article written for l australia called

00:37:41.680 alex earl not reading isn't as cute as she thinks it is that was written by noni reginato and we

00:37:48.120 were lucky enough to have noni read out some of the piece in her own words though the global

00:37:53.460 decline in literacy including here in australia occurred long before chat gbt and all of its

00:37:59.180 nefarious friends, AI definitely accelerated it. Literacy rates are staggeringly low and test

00:38:06.640 results in the US suggest that Gen Z will be the first generation for which levels of intelligence

00:38:12.240 are lower than the generations that came before it. Knowing all of that and admitting to never

00:38:18.580 reading a book seems like less of a gag and more of a major and justified worry. American test

00:38:25.560 results have shown that Gen Z is the first generation to perform worse academically than

00:38:31.780 its preceding one. In Australia, the results are similarly concerning. As obvious as it might seem,

00:38:38.620 the benefits of reading are abundant. Improving memory, broadening vocabulary,

00:38:44.600 honing our ability to comprehend and critically think and empathise. The prospect of future

00:38:51.340 generations lacking these skills and fundamental literacy capabilities in general is extremely

00:38:57.840 alarming. And judging by the data, it's becoming pretty likely too. If there's any takeaway from

00:39:03.820 Alex L's joke about not reading, it's that we all should be doing more of it. And it's actually not

00:39:11.360 really a joke at all. So while I might roll my eyes at those hot men reading book Instagram

00:39:18.140 account and maybe be a bit cynical about brands who use books as a prop I still do think it is

00:39:26.360 moving the needle slightly in making books and reading and being literate cool again so I I'm for

00:39:34.780 it. Now it is time for Bookmarked, where we share a recommendation of something that we have enjoyed

00:39:49.720 reading, listening, or watching. First up is our community Bookmarked. So to remind you,

00:39:55.600 we are now accepting voice note submissions from you, our dear listeners. We need a 90-second or

00:40:01.260 under voice note to include in the episode. Share your recommendation with us. Send that to our

00:40:06.840 email, cultureclubmail at gmail.com. All the details are in our show notes. Today, we have a

00:40:12.760 special Friend of the Pod recommendation from Izzy White. I was actually on an episode of The

00:40:19.080 Grill, which is one of my fave comedy podcasts. So we'll also link that down below. But here is Izzy.

00:40:25.900 Hi, Culture Club Pod. Izzy from The Grill here. For my bookmarked, I want to recommend a book

00:40:31.040 called Matthew by SNL writer Matthew Golden so it's a collection of essays it's pretty short

00:40:38.200 and it was recommended to me by my podcast co-host Ben I really trust his judgment and he didn't

00:40:43.060 disappoint um it kind of brought to my attention the fact that so many books had on the front a

00:40:48.060 testimonial that would say that they will laugh out loud funny and like how many are actually

00:40:52.280 laughing out loud too you know what I mean this genuinely cackling truly hard to read in public

00:40:58.840 um it's sort of loosely a memoir it's a little surreal it's super observant it's kind of

00:41:08.420 dystopian but not in a depressing way um which is important to me matthew be doing things with

00:41:13.460 english language that may have never been done before and it's really really an entertaining

00:41:19.940 read uh he kind of mishes like internet lingo with surprising moments of poetry um and really

00:41:27.380 like high level, beautiful vocabulary and prose. I found myself a little surprised at times,

00:41:35.080 but mainly the most important thing, very, very funny. My favorite essay is Barbicide.

00:41:40.740 Please read it. Love you all. Bye. Thank you so much, Izzy. This was a niche deep cut wreck. I

00:41:46.600 had to like Google a few times to like try find it, but it looks amazing and we appreciate you

00:41:51.960 sharing jazz what do you have for us today on monday i was lucky enough to head to the melbourne

00:41:58.460 premiere of sense and sensibility you well it was actually your invite i was your plus one and then

00:42:05.120 on monday morning or sunday you were like by the way i'm going to olivia dean yeah sorry i was like

00:42:10.640 fair enough to swap a concert for a movie ticket but i ended up taking my grandma um we had dinner

00:42:16.740 out as well which is like so sweet so it was a really nice night out but the movie sense sensibility

00:42:21.380 obviously Jane Austen adaptation it also has a movie that was made in 1995 which is really

00:42:28.600 popular with the girlies it's kind of like one of the all-time period drama movies I had not seen it

00:42:35.020 and I also had not read Sense of Sensibility but I knew the vague plot it's based on the 1811 novel

00:42:41.440 and it follows two sisters Eleanor well technically three but the main two Eleanor and Marianne and

00:42:48.280 then there's margaret who's the younger sister them and their mother are forced to move houses

00:42:52.800 after their father passes away and the estate passes over to a half-brother and his new wife

00:42:59.000 so they're kicked out of the home and then like all kind of period drama or austin novels they

00:43:04.900 need to find wealthy suitors to not live in poverty anymore this movie was directed by georgia

00:43:10.880 oakley and the screenplay was by australian writer diana reed we've had diana on culture club a

00:43:17.020 couple of years ago when her book seeing other people came out we'll link that in the show notes

00:43:21.400 if you want to hear back it's a couple years old now but really awesome to see an Australian writer

00:43:26.160 heading overseas and working on a big feature film like this I really enjoyed this movie it was

00:43:31.200 really laugh out loud funny I really recommend seeing it in a cinema if you can because there

00:43:35.320 was so many laugh out loud moments and I thought the script was really really clever at some points

00:43:39.540 it was almost a little satirical of you know making fun of the way women had to survive by

00:43:46.500 like marrying and dating and being like quote unquote engaged but they're not really engaged

00:43:51.500 like all the kind of social politics that come with um that era but really funny really sweet

00:43:57.380 beautiful visuals as well of course set in england so beautiful you know rolling hills

00:44:03.160 at one point they also go live by the beach that's really beautiful the lead love interest

00:44:07.340 is george mckay he was also a lead in rose of nevada that i recommended a few weeks ago from

00:44:13.060 myth he was really great really lovely yearning between him and daisy edgar jones daisy edgar

00:44:19.600 jones plays eleanor and esme creed miles plays marianne i'd not seen esme in anything before

00:44:26.020 but i really liked her performance overall it was a nice easy watch definitely like similar vibe to

00:44:31.420 the 2005 pride and prejudice of like a nice sunday evening pretty easy yearning love story

00:44:38.980 I had a little tear at the very end highly recommend I think it was a well done project

00:44:46.120 all around thank you for recommending this I do want to see it I had FOMO not seeing this one

00:44:51.160 with the girlies but I will be getting to see this love Daisy Edgar Jones love Diana Reed

00:44:56.860 Maggie what's your recommendation for us this week okay I have one that's more of a fun fact

00:45:02.240 a fun fact recommendation because it's a movie that wasn't like it was fine

00:45:07.180 But, Jazz, what's my favourite movie?

00:45:09.180 Not a trick question.

00:45:10.920 What's one of my...

00:45:11.360 You've Got Mail.

00:45:12.540 Yes.

00:45:13.400 Who wrote that?

00:45:15.180 Nora Ephron.

00:45:16.000 Yes, with somebody else.

00:45:18.500 Did you know that Nora Ephron, and you might, I had no idea,

00:45:21.960 Nora Ephron is one of four girls.

00:45:25.500 All of them are writers.

00:45:27.460 Yes, I know she has a sister who's a writer.

00:45:30.020 Yes, all of them are, but there's one sister in particular

00:45:32.980 that she's worked quite closely with.

00:45:34.680 Her name is Delia.

00:45:35.480 and delia also wrote you've got mail okay and then i saw this movie come up on my netflix or

00:45:42.100 whatever and it is called hanging up this is from the year 2000 and it's a comedy drama it

00:45:49.120 and you won't believe who's in it okay you ready meg ryan diane keating lisa kudrow written by

00:45:56.240 nora efron and her sister delia so good that is like the most powerful group of women

00:46:01.980 and and I was like oh my gosh how did I not know about this I think what's special about this is

00:46:08.020 this is a movie about sisters who are going through um a difficult family situation where

00:46:13.360 their alcoholic and quarrelsome father is kind of he needs care and these are three sisters who are

00:46:20.160 all badasses Diane Keating is this like fashion magazine editor um Lisa Kudrow is like the

00:46:25.920 younger sister who's an actress and meg ryan is like a successful events planner so cool the movie

00:46:33.120 itself was like fine it was like it's just a 90 minute film but i just think seeing these

00:46:38.820 incredible women together was such a treat i've not seen it yeah this is definitely getting added

00:46:44.600 to my list ticks all the boxes we love some sister sister crossover time famously if you're

00:46:52.500 new here jazz's sister india edits our podcast and my sister katie has helped with our graphic

00:46:57.700 design that means we had two sister recommendations because really sense and sensibility is about

00:47:03.000 the love of sisters and doesn't everything just go back to sisters thank you for listening to

00:47:09.220 today's episode we really hope you enjoyed it if you did maybe give us a little rate and review on

00:47:13.980 apple or spotify and also if you want to be featured in our brand new community bookmark

00:47:18.660 section just email a 90 second or under voice memo to cultureclubmail at gmail.com and you

00:47:24.500 could be featured in an episode we can't wait to talk to you next time bye bye

Culture Club - October 12, 2026

Alix Earle And The Literary Crisis, The Privilege Of Logging Off & Olivia Rodrigo’s Invasive Paparazzi

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