The Week In Recommendations 9.20.23

A memoir about manhood, a podcast about life coaches, love for "Love Island," celeb-approved statement earrings, and a probiotic soda.

This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter about cultural obsessions from your Internet BFFs Emma and Claire. If you like what you see and hear, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Our latest podcast was about friendship in your 30s, with “Normal Gossip” host Kelsey McKinney! Rich Text is a completely reader-supported project — no ads or sponsors!

Today is the last day of our fall sale! Get 20% off of a yearly subscription now!

While Claire is out on maternity leave, we’ll be featuring guest recommendations from some of the coolest tastemakers we know. This week, that guest is journalist and former Editor-In-Chief of Jezebel Laura Bassett, whose expert reporting has inspired projects like Netflix’s “The Keepers.”

Laura has been reading… 📖

“Dirtbag, Massachusetts” by Isaac Fitzgerald. I normally gravitate toward books written by and mostly about women, to be honest, but I happen to be reading a memoir right now by a man about manhood that I couldn’t recommend more highly. Through a series of incredibly moving and brilliantly written essays about his own wild, difficult life and the mistakes he made growing up in a “town with the highest teenage pregnancy rate per capita in the state of Massachusetts,” Fitzgerald reckons with the question of, as the New York Times headlined its review of the memoir, “What’s Wrong (and Sometimes Right) With American Men?” I’m only halfway through the memoir and don’t have a clear answer on that yet, but I can say that Fitzgerald’s writing is downright perfect.

Laura has been watching… 📺

I’m absolutely addicted to “Love Island,” wherein a bunch of hot people live in a villa somewhere tropical and sleep in couples all in the same room, constantly re-coupling as new people catch their eye, and the audience votes on their favorite pairings and kicks people out until the final couple standing wins a bunch of money. I watched Seasons 9 and 10 of the original UK versions in South Africa and Mallorca and just watched Season 5 of the USA version in Fiji, and all three were incredible. There’s objectively way too much content–like 60 episodes on each of the UK seasons and 37 on the USA season–but somehow I find myself mesmerized to the very end and mourning each season when it’s over. It’s hands down the best mindless reality dating show that exists, and I’ve watched pretty much all of them.

Laura has been listening to… 🎧

The Jungle’s new album, “Volcano.” You’ve probably seen and heard the one song from it, “Back on 74,” via the incredible choreography and dancers going viral on Instagram. Yes I’m in love with Will West, the dancer in the white tank in the video. But the neo-soul album is perfect on its own even without the visuals. 

Laura has been buying… 🛍️

Culture Pop probiotic sodas. They’re much tastier and more interesting than La Croix for only 40 calories, good for the gut, and the only thing that feels remotely like a substitute for wine when I’m watching “Love Island” for ten straight hours and don’t want to be wasted by the end.

Emma has been reading… 📖

I’ve been raptly following the discourse kicked off by Allison P. Davis’ controversial NYMag cover story about the gulf that forms between people who have children and people who don’t. (And reminded me why Claire and I have done so many pod episodes about this gap and how to bridge it and what is at the center of it.)

I thought this NYTimes op-ed by Jessica Grose made a great companion piece to the NYMag story, and managed to get at the parts of Davis’ piece that irked me and the pieces that rang kind of true. “Ultimately the possibility for bruised egos on both sides may have more to do with the cultural pressures around idealized families that today’s youngish adults are still marinating in, rather than an actual friendship rift, or a built-in stalemate between parents and non-parents,” writes Grose.

Also, I immediately clicked on

Stephanie McNeal

’s excellent profile of Madi Prewett in Glamour, which charts her transition from “Bachelor” frontrunner to televangelist for the TikTok generation. This line in particular made me chuckle: “She’s Billy Graham with an iPhone and better hair.”

Emma has been watching… 📺

“Love At First Sight,” a sweet Netflix rom-com based on Jennifer E. Smith’s Y.A. novel, “The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.” The movie stars Haley Lu Richardson (Portia from “White Lotus”) as Hadley, who is en route to her father’s wedding in London, and Ben Hardy as Oliver, a statistics-obsessed guy headed to the same city for his dying mother’s living memorial. They have a meet-cute, they bond on their flight — helped along by omniscient Lady Fate (Jameela Jamil) — and then they get separated at customs. Will they defy the odds and come back toghether?

Did I love this movie? No. Did I still really enjoy it and find it very sweet? Yes. Do I want a constant stream of new rom-coms to watch? Also yes.

Emma has been listening to… 🎧

Jane Marie is back with season 3 of “The Dream”! I’ve been obsessed with this podcast since season 1 — which explored the scammy AF world of multi-level marketing schemes — premiered in 2017. (And I’ve followed Marie’s work for much longer.) Season 2 dove into wellness treatments and supplements, and season 3 explores the wild world of life coaches. What makes this podcast special is Marie’s distinctive voice. She exudes a mix of intense and healthy skepticism, and a desperation to move about the world in a way that feels better, lighter, happier — essentially the very things that drive people towards life coaches. Marie approaches. the subjects she digs into with sharp reporting while interweaving her personal experience. It is my favorite kind of storytelling, expertly executed.

Emma has been buying… 🛍️

Last week, I had dinner with my friend Fatima, who is basically an expert on all of the good, affordable gold earrings on the market. (Especially if they have been worn by très chic celebrities.) She was wearing these gorgeous Jenny Bird Nouveaux Puff Earrings, and they were so striking that I went home and basically immediately ordered them. They arrived wildly quickly, and I took them for a test spin a couple days ago and LOVE them.

They’re light for statement earrings, but still a bit heavy for me to add them to my daily rotation. (I also grabbed these instant lift earring backs to give my lobes a bit of extra support.) However, they are perfect evening wear — especially effective for when you want to elevate a simple outfit. If you’ve never shopped at Jenny Bird before (as I had not), there are a handful of discount codes that seem to work on most items: HELLOJB, WHW15, JBTIKTOK.

If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack!

Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription