The Monday Media Diet with Yang-Yi Goh

On Tottenham, Larry McMurtry, and old Conan and Letterman merch

Yang-Yi Goh (YG) was introduced to us by WITI friend Gabe Brosbe. He’s manning the helm of style coverage for GQ. Today, he talks us through his browsing habits, and also makes browse flights for a return to Singapore! -Colin (CJN)

Tell us about yourself.

I’m the style editor at GQ, which means I write about clothes for the print magazine and website and spend an inordinate amount of time shopping online. I’m from Toronto and am obnoxiously proud of it, though I now live in Brooklyn with my fiancée and our dog—the world’s goodest boy—Ziggy. In my spare time, I obsess over sports to an unhealthy degree, watch as many movies in theaters as I can, and listen almost exclusively to the same pop-punk and emo bands I liked at 13. 

Describe your media diet.  

I read The New York Times and The Globe and Mail, mainly, for news. 

I’m a Tottenham Hotspur supporter, which is the main reason I’m in therapy, and I get all my transfer updates and match reports from The Guardian and Cartilage Free Captain. I read Sportsnet to keep up on my hometown teams—Raptors, Leafs, Blue Jays. I’m also a not-so-secret pro wrestling fan, and read a British site called WhatCulture for all the hot goss in that world. 

For culture stuff, I cycle through a fairly standard set of spots: Vulture, The Ringer, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, AV Club. 

Most of my style news, honestly, I absorb through Twitter and Instagram. But I love reading my old colleague Rachel Tashjian’s fashion criticism for Harper’s Bazaar, and I like to flip through Japanese menswear mags like Popeye and Brutus. 

I listen to an outrageous number of podcasts, so let me just run through a handful of those here. For sports: No Dunks, The Lowe Post, Men In Blazers, Stadio, The Fighting Cock, The Raptors Show, The Masked Man Show. For pop culture: The Watch, Columbia House Party, The Big Picture, How Did This Get Made. For comedy: Good One, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, You Made It Weird, Comedy Bang Bang. 

I don’t subscribe to all that many newsletters, but the ones I do I like a lot: Sitting Pretty, Opulent Tips, Blackbird Spyplane. 

And finally, I’m a little biased, but everything on GQ.com is extremely worth your time.  

What’s the last great book you read?

I spent the last year ravenously consuming Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove tetralogy, which I can’t recommend highly enough. If you take the plunge, be sure to read them in publication order. The second book, Streets of Laredo, is probably my favorite of the four—a taut, unrelenting meditation on the death of the Old West. 

What are you reading now? 

I just started Dan Ozzi’s Sellout, which chronicles a handful of punk bands making the leap to major labels in the ‘90s and early aughts. It’s pretty fantastic so far. 

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

I like to sit in a quiet corner and read the entire thing cover to cover, a habit I formed at age 8 with my first subscriptions to Nintendo Power and Archie’s Pals ‘n’ Gals. 

Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?

As a fan who doesn’t often have time to actually sit down and watch the ludicrous number of hours of television that WWE and AEW produce every week, Phil Schneider’s thoughtful, deeply knowledgeable breakdowns of the week’s best wrestling matches are indispensable. 

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

I’m not sure if they count as apps, necessarily, but I’ve sadly fallen victim to the Wordle Spinoff Industrial Complex. Every morning, in addition to the OG, I play Quorlde (four Wordles at once), Heardle (Wordle for music), Framed (Wordle for movies), and Worldle (Wordle for geography). It’s a sickness. 

Plane or train?

I do love the train, but prefer flying only because it means I can fall asleep without any fear of missing my stop. 

What is one place everyone should visit? 

Singapore! My folks are from there, and I miss it—and its excess of absurdly delicious street foods—very much.

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

I’m a late night geek, and there’s an absolute glut of incredible old Conan and Letterman merch on eBay that I’m constantly monitoring. My proudest possession might be my vintage Roots “Conan In Toronto” beanie from his post-SARS visit to my hometown back in 2003. (YG)

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Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Yang-Yi Goh (YG)

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