The Monday Media Diet with Ruby Psuedo

Jenny Owen aka Ruby Psuedo is a very astute consumer and trends researcher. I met her a long time ago at a PSFK conference in London and have followed her work ever sense. Happy to have her on the page today. -Colin (CJN)

Tell us about yourself.

I’m never that good at this, perhaps it’s me being very British. I talk to people for a living and hope I help brands do better…. Bio at www.rubypseudo.com if you’d rather ;) 

Describe your media diet. 

My media ‘diet’ is mainly fasting; I start the day with the BBC news, about two seconds on Instagram [truthfully, I think the algorithm is shit at the moment] and then very little else online. I get excited every week when the New Yorker arrives and have rituals around that, trying to make reading it last a week. As a publication, I think it arguably holds up the tradition of journalism more than most. I also have The Face delivered and SOLE DBX in Dubai kindly send me their wonderful magazine Sole too. I buy Monocle at the Airport and often wonder why afterwards. I used to buy Fast Company a lot and don’t necessarily know why I don’t anymore. Sometimes I get the Sunday papers, but not often. I like books, snacks in a diet aren’t my thing. 

What’s the last great book you read?

A book on Shackleton while being snuck in the snow, looking out at the mountains. Work wise, I’ve recently I’ve been reading old anthropology books on travel and tourism in Japan, including a book on transplanting the Disney experience to Asia called ‘Riding the Black Ship.”

What are you reading now?

The New Yorker, it just arrived. 

I’m looking forward to starting W. David Marx’s book Status and Culture too, he very kindly signed a copy for me when I met up with him in Tokyo and popped me in the acknowledgements, I’d sent him a few rare and random books for his research. That nod of appreciation from him made my year. He’s a very clever man. I’m also reading a book on the SOE lectures that my oldest brother got printed into a book for me one birthday, I’m about to have it reprinted for a friend, too. 

What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?

If it’s the New Yorker, which tends to arrive just before the weekend from the US then it’s a long Sunday night bath, beginning with the Tables for Two column and reading till the water gets cold. With books, I have to admit I’m a highlighter and notes person; I upset people turning the page corners over, scribbling all over it and making notes in the front and back of the book. They look like they’ve been attacked after I’ve finished reading them. 

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Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?

Ah, I just want more people to read. Read something that stretches your brain, start the day with a Stoic meditation, read something to fall asleep to, just read. I don’t think there’s an author people should read more… Maybe Vonnegut to understand how to write utter nonsense impeccably, I don’t know. Vonnegut is probably my answer. But only because you pushed me… 

What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone? 

I don’t have one. I’m not being a dick, I just don’t like technology. There is no ‘favorite’. 

Plane or train?

Either, I love a long journey to read. I have more systems around plane travel and genuinely get excited that I can turn my phone off, so huh, maybe planes. Plane, my answer is plane. 

What is one place everyone should visit? 

Their parent’s house. 

Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into.

I think the last rabbit hole I fell into was surgeons discussing buccal fat removal, I don’t understand what the fuck we’re doing to our faces anymore. “Curiosier and curiosier” to tie this chat about books and rabbit holes up rather nicely… 

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Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Ruby (PS)

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