The Monday Media Diet with Lauren Sherman

Lauren Sherman (LS) is a friend of WITI and the best reporter around on the fashion beat. We’re happy to have her with us. Have a great week. -Colin (CJN)

Tell us about yourself. I’m a reporter. I write a twice-weekly private email called Line Sheet for Puck, a newfangled media biz made up of people like me—journalists who are also experts in the industry they cover. I’ve been writing about the fashion industry for almost 20 years, and I’m very lucky that the business became a real business just as I was starting out. It was a big reporting opportunity that very few people were interested in taking. I grew up in Pittsburgh. I live in Los Angeles with my husband and kid. I lived in New York for 15 years before we escaped in 2020, and am frequently told I still have “New York energy.” I’m co-writing a book about Victoria’s Secret, set to be published in the autumn of 2024 by Henry Holt & Company.

Describe your media diet.

News: Because I live in LA, I usually scan the fashion trades (WWD and BoF only, sorry Vogue biz) right before I go to bed to make sure there’s not any big news that I didn’t know about. Public radio in the morning. KPCC (now called LAist…) in Los Angeles. WNYC in New York. BBC World in Paris or London. Marketplace Morning Report, always. I used to get most of my news from Twitter, but obviously that’s not as easy as it used to be. I get all the breaking emails from the New York Times and Page Six. Zero televised news. I also subscribe to the LA Times, Washington Post, and SF Chronicle.

Print: NYmag (like everyone, I used to read it with more regularity; also it arrives several weeks late in LA, but it’s still a superior product), The New Yorker, Garden and Gun, The Gentlewoman, Konfekt (with reservations; it’s too homogenous, even for a bourgeoisie white girl like me). I do read a good amount of Vogue and GQ, but almost exclusively online. 

Newsletters: Everything from Puck (was a subscriber long before I joined), Casey Lewis’ Afterschool, Rachel Karten’s Link in Bio, Rosecrans Baldwin’s Meditations in an Emergency, Public Announcement, Hunter Harris’ Hung Up, The New Consumer (my husband’s very impressive thing), Lefsetz

Style and shopping newsletters: Magasin, 5 Things You Should Buy, The Cereal Aisle, A Thing or Two, Jane on Jeans, Shop Rat, Hi Everyone, Opulent Tips, Secret Strategist. Altogether, it’s basically one big fashion magazine. 

Youtube: I watch tons of cooking segments to relax, mostly ex-Bon Appetit people—Alison Roman, Molly Baz, Carla Lalli Music, Claire Saffitz—but I also love NYT Cooking’s Eric Kim, Yewande Komolafe, and Vaughn Vreeland.

Podcasts: I have almost zero desire to listen to anything about fashion. I pop in weekly to: A Thing or Two, Jam Session, The Big Picture, Poog. Occasionally: Marc Maron, The Rewatchables, How Long Gone. I’m really enjoying the new Critics at Large podcast from the New Yorker. For narrative, I loved The Girlfriends. For interviews, I sometimes dip into Print is Dead. (Recommend the Adam Moss episode.) 

What’s the last great book you read? Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gornick. (Suggested to me by the smart writer Mattie Kahn.) 

What are you reading now? I have about five books on my side table right now. I’m about halfway through Martin Amis’ London Fields, Unscripted by James B Stewart and Rachel Abrams, and Murakami’s Novelist as a Vocation. I will probably finish London Fields only, but trying to stay positive. 

What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication? I tend to go super, super quickly through the entire thing just to see what I have to work with and then I read the smaller, more digestible bits before diving into a bigger item. Unless, of course it’s a must-read like that Gagosian piece the New Yorker, which I half-read and half-listened to the audio just to be able to get through it as quickly as possible. 

Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?

Plenty of people are reading her, but I don’t think you can undersell Amanda Mull at The Atlantic. 

What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone? None at the moment. I used to love Exit Strategy. 

Plane or train? Train to the airport. 

What is one place everyone should visit? Bell’s in Los Alamos. Best restaurant in America! 

Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into. I don’t really have time for rabbit holes. My entire job is going down rabbit holes. But I am constantly on the hunt for stenographers’ notebooks that are not gregg ruled. (Meaning they don’t have a line down the center.) I like a reporter’s notebook just fine, but they’re very narrow. I used to buy Life’s college-ruled stenographers’ notebooks in bulk, but I can’t find them anywhere now; they only sell the gregg-ruled or grid version now. If you know of a stenographers’ notebook that is not gregg-ruled, call me. (LS)

—

Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Lauren (LS)

—

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.