The Monday Media Diet with Priyanka Mattoo

On Craft Talk, Vittles, and The Day I Became a Runner

I was browsing a bookstore in Venice last weekend, when I saw Priyanka’s new book. I emailed her and evidently they had put it out before the pub date. I now have a cool rare signed copy, and also asked her to do round 2 of MMD. Her first one from four years ago was epic. Also bonus points for her turning around such quality in 24 hours. Buy her new book here! -Colin (CJN)

Tell us about yourself.

I am a screenwriter/filmmaker and (now!) author, who was formerly a talent agent and producer – I joke that I’ve had every job in Hollywood. I’m a contributor to The New York Times and The New Yorker, and write an ongoing career advice column for Vulture. 

I was born in Kashmir, and raised in England and Saudi Arabia before moving to the U.S. in high school, then studied Italian and Law at the University of Michigan. I now live in Venice (California) with my husband and our kids.

Describe your media diet. 

Well - since the last time I wrote one of these, Twitter imploded, and the internet in general has become such a deeply unpleasant place to hang out. It’s driven me into a slower-paced reading life, and one lined with newsletters. My brain is much happier and healthier for this, to be honest. 

I start the day with the actual news. NYT, WaPo, LA Times, Guardian, BBC, Indian papers. 

Then my newsletters: WITI, of course. Jami Attenberg’s Craft Talk, for writers (or aspiring ones). I love love love Youngna Park’s newsletter Making it Work - seemingly the only parenting (-plus) content out there that doesn’t run on anxiety. Her writing is so grounded and warm, she’s funny, and she has great taste. I came to it on my own, after being a fan of her generally, and have since realized she’s a friend of WITI!  

Yolo Intel for travel insight - although the budgets can be astonishing, they do great cheap and cheerful lists as well. My friend Philip Andelman, the busiest, most excitable man in Paris, also compiles these unbelievable travel guides you can sign up for, called Tripping with Phil - and you can trust he’s done an ungodly amount of on-the-ground research. When we first became friends, he shared his Paris list, and we were given strict instructions not to forward, but now you can read it yourself. 

A large chunk of my interests are food-related, and I tire of what the internet has done to food coverage. It simply doesn’t pay for sites to do anything other than heat maps or listicles, and in my opinion it’s turned much of their public into anxious automatons who run from one hotspot to another like it’s a race. I wrote about slowing down and re-developing our sense of food discovery recently for Taste, in a piece called The Best Restaurant in Town - this is me being an activist. But there are so many wonderful food writers who are doing great, interesting work. I love my friend Khushbu Shah’s Tap is Fine!, she was formerly the restaurant Editor at Food & Wine, and responsible for scouting and elevating the country’s best new chefs - she knows the food scene in the US  better than almost anyone. And her new cookbook, Amrikan, is a spectacular feat. Emily Wilson writes a great LA food newsletter called The Angel. Thoughtful and measured. Taste itself also has a great newsletter, as well as a fantastic podcast. 

Vittles, out of the UK, is consistently my favorite writing about food on the internet. Nobody cares more than Jonathan Nunn, and you don’t need to live there to be affected, enchanted, amused by it. 

In the newsy/Politics area, I subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American just like any other hopeless optimist. Big by Matt Stoller centers on the history and politics of monopoly power, which I know seems fairly specific, but gives me crumbs of hope that the endless pursuit of shareholder value over consumer experience and worker life isn’t going to ruin this country. I also love Lyz Lenz’s newsletter Men Yell At Me - I simply adore a mouthy midwestern lady. 

And I still love my print magazines, which I read cover-to-cover: The Atlantic, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Food & Wine, Milk Street, Bon Appetit. The kids get Highlights, The Week Junior - and the most amazing find, the Week Junior Science and Nature, which comes from the UK and is incredible. 

Podcasts: As a former podcast executive (yet another career!) I’m allowed to say there are too many podcasts. I’m loving Jane Marie’s Finally, a Show… - Jane started out as a star producer at This American Life, and you can hear it in everything she touches. She can do no wrong on the audio front (and on any other fronts, honestly). I find If Books Could Kill really fun, those boys (Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri) make me laugh. Even if it is a little shooting-fish-in-a-barrel, I love it. Maintenance Phase – another Michael Hobbes joint, with Aubrey Gordon – is great. Fun Fact: I wanted to profile Michael for an Important Publication but he wanted the attention to remain on the work, which I can respect!

I’ve spent two decades working in comedy, and two of the funniest women in the whole world are my former podcasting partners Amanda Lund and Maria Blasucci, who do their pod Big Ones on Patreon, now. Nobody makes me laugh like them. Comedian John Early once told them they had “front porch energy,” which is absolutely correct - they’re just over there being funny, and you can come hang out, or not, no sweat. 

What’s the last great book you read?

I loved Margot’s got Money Troubles. Rufi Thorpe is a writer of exceptional heart and actual hilarity - imagine Elmore Leonard in Southern California, straddling the worlds of wrestling and OnlyFans. You kinda just have to read it. 

What are you reading now?

A terrific book called The Day I Became a Runner, by Sohini Chattopadhyay. It tells the modern history of India through the lives of a handful of women runners, and weaves in her own evolution as a runner. I love creative nonfiction - the kind that blends a personal story with a specific thread of history - Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller has been my north star standard for this type of book–please read, it’s a masterpiece –and this so scratches that itch. 

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

I used to read a few pages here and there where I could find time between kid stuff, but the kids are now 10 and 5, so now I announce I’m going to sit down and read a magazine, and then I do, with my earplugs in. It’s a process, but we are getting there. 

Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?

People are definitely reading them, but even more should: Kerry Howley (nonfiction) and Katie Williams (novels). Pemi Aguda (short stories) and Laurie Colwin (essays, novels). I’ve had a startling number of conversations with people who will announce they don’t read fiction, or don’t read non-fiction, or don’t “do” memoir or short stories. I’m not sure what that’s about. Either you’re curious or you’re not. 

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

Forever: Paprika! My favorite recipe organizing app. You can put any link in the browser and it will download the recipe at the end of a chatty monologue. Even I, a writer of chatty monologues about food, can get behind this.  

Plane or train?

Plane travel has become so horrible, hasn’t it? It’s only just starting to find its post-pandemic footing, but I’m not sure we’ll ever claw our way back from feeling like we’re packed onto a bus. Even so, I still feel a thrill every time I see a plane take off. I am, however, always dreaming of a long train trip - I find them so soothing. Maybe once both kids can read. 

What is one place everyone should visit? 

We spent a chunk of last summer on Whidbey Island, off the coast of Washington. The light slants at an angle you can’t believe, even just driving to the local store had me gasping at the drama. It’s so beautiful, without being pretty. I can’t wait to go back. 

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

I fell down so many rabbit holes while writing my memoir, and I’ve come to realize it’s part of my process - becoming bizarrely interested in something and figuring out why. One recent one is the origin story and international expansion of Kidz Bop. Did you know they have foreign-language versions as well? Every once in a while a German or Spanish song will sneak its way into one of the kids’ playlists and I’ll fall in love with it and track down the original. But this will go in the next book, because every rabbit hole is a longread, if you burrow in the right direction.

-Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Priyanka (PM)

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