The Monday Media Diet with Molly Hawkins

On Young Turks, quantum physics, and Apartmento

Molly Hawkins (MH) is the creative director for Harry Styles and a woman of many talents. We’re happy to have her taste on the page this week. Enjoy the run-up to the holidays. -Colin (CJN)

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Molly Hawkins, I’ve been working in music since I was 18 in one way or another and I’m about to turn 40. 

For the last eight years I’ve been Harry Styles’ creative director which means I help him conceive album art and music videos, I direct the live show with a huge team of talented people and generally oversee all visual communication. I also helped conceive Harry's brand Pleasing as creative director. It was really fun to work across so many mediums with so many talented people, from naming the brand to coming up with the product design- I’’m especially proud of our fragrance bottle- campaigns, designing the pop up stores. It was fun to test my idea out on a non-music project, seeing if you can tell a story with a bottle for example.

Before that I worked at Young f.k.a. Young Turks, a British indie record label who during my tenure was responsible for The xx, Sampha, fka Twigs, Jamie xx and Koreless.  

I have two baby girls, ages 1 and 2, Pearl and Georgie respectively.

Describe your media diet. 

Quite recently I completely overhauled my media diet. I realized I wasn’t really learning anything, just listening to people opine about subjects in which they are neither experts nor are they directly impacted by whatever they’re discussing. This isn’t only a social media issue, this is also podcasts and cable news—but mostly it is a social media issue.  

There’s an element to social media that I really needed for a couple years. There’s a hard edge that kept me honest in my work, but now it feels more like a razor to my throat. 

Back to your question: I tend to read books most of the time I’m consuming media. I love poetry and science fiction, fantasy, biography, historical fiction and pop science, especially quantum physics. As the mom of two young kids, a lot of my "reading" is currently done via audiobook. I also love a few podcasts and recently realized I might have a couple parasocial podcast-host-relationships with some that need examining.

For podcasts, I listen to In Our Time, Code Switch, Science Friday, Lovett or Leave It, New Yorker Radio Hour, Not Just the Tudors, Cafe insider and Strict Scrutiny every week. Like I said, when you have two babies you get a lot of headphone time.

I keep up to speed with the news via Pitchfork, The Guardian, the Axios newsletter, the Planetary Society newsletter. Politico I stopped reading in the aforementioned overhaul. The New York Times I get delivered on Sundays so I read it on Sundays, sometimes begrudgingly.

What’s the last great book you read?

I got kind of obsessed with Wolf Hall and the two subsequent books in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. Even though Cromwell is a masculine character, the way he maneuvers with Henry VIII and the courtiers reminds me so much of how many of my colleagues and friends who aren’t cis men feel they need to present themselves in professional situations—cloaking their ideas as those of their bosses, etc. Mantel sadly passed away this year.

I read another trilogy just before I gave birth to my older daughter Georgie that I thought about everyday when I was pregnant with my second—The Broken Earth series by NK Jemisin. The depiction of a mother as an unbreakable anti-hero messiah at the end of the world resonated. What can I say? I just went ahead and read them again.

What are you reading now?

On Freedom by Maggie Nelson. I have to google a few words on each page but it’s worth it. Once I understand what the fuck she’s talking about I feel absolutely illuminated. Hearing someone speak with conviction about the fact that what you or I or we think (about art and politics) might not be objectively true forever is just such a relief. 

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

Great interior magazines are simultaneously my soothing salves and my stimuli. Cabana is probably my favorite but I love Apartmento and World of Interiors as well. I like to spend half an hour giving a quick look at each page and then a week reading every word. I keep them with me until the next issue, dog-earing the pages with details I love. Luckily Cabana only comes out biannually so I get plenty of time to luxuriate

Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?

I’m not sure who people are reading now, but a few ideas if you’re stuck: Aja Monet, Ursula LeGuin, Colson Whitehead, Anne Sexton, Nnedi Okorafor, Carl Sagan, Italo Calvino, NK Jemisin, Sigrid Nunez

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

I love AllTrails. It offers trails near you with a ton of great data including reviews and updates about conditions, downloadable layered maps, elevation gain, etc. It’s really fun to have while traveling.

Plane or train?

Train is of course more romantic but plane for the quiet and the solitude and the distance.

What is one place everyone should visit? 

The Pasadena antique stores are so totally inspiring and unexpected. Revival and Pasadena Antique Center are my favorites—there are so many stories in every square inch of these places. You could live the full human experience studying these objects, from the person who made it to the person who bought it originally to the person who brought it to the antique store. 

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

We moved into a house in Pasadena that is 120 years old and has only had two owners. The last person that lived here raised her three children and grand children here, lived here for 76 years! The house is in great condition with a lot of original features but needed a lot of updating. It’s an Arts & Crafts, so I started researching the methods and artists of the period to help inform the approach. I began by going to the book departments in the antique stores around Pasadena and getting monographs of tile makers of the period (for example). I spoke to my neighbors and the people who work at Pasadena Architectural Salvage who have so much knowledge about this specific era. Then I kind of let that information recede to the background and began looking for inspiration in textiles.

When my girls grow up, I want them to remember each room, surfaces, light fixtures. With my husband’s help I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone visually to try to make little moments of whimsy for them- little surprises to discover. It’s going to be a life long project for which I am very deeply grateful. (MH)

Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN)

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