For the first time in as long as I can remember, I didn’t read a single book in October. Also, I have never had an October like this before! Running for office, every day has something new happening and my attention span is SHOT – I can barely focus on a Gilmore Girls rewatch. I did manage to catch a cold at the beginning of the month and read my first People magazine in years – the crossword continues to be a guilty pleasure. I did consume a bit of pop culture this month, here’s what is getting me to election day…

Listening

Last week I was able to get out for Name That Tune at a local watering hole with some friends. It was a great night and the theme was Classics (Pre 1980). I spent the day listening to Steely Dan in preparation and was disappointed they didn’t make an appearance. Who did make the list? Norman Greenbaum, Ziggy Stardust, and Eminem (the whole category was songs he sampled – clever…) It was a fun night, I will be back!

The Wirecutter Show, What a Day, Think Out Loud, The Daily, Pod Save America, Offline, and OPB Politics Now continue to fuel me through this election season. And I find myself turning it off for music or the radio more frequently…

Watching

I finished English Teacher on Hulu last week and it was so funny and smart and raunchier than expected. If you haven’t binged it yet, add that to your to do list on a rainy fall weekend! I just finished the latest season of Only Murders in the Building and the cameos and celebrity appearances were fantastically over the top. Plus – I am in full support of the rumor that Meryl Streep and Martin Short are dating, it’s adorable. Abbott Elementary, Shrinking, and Somebody, Somewhere are back and I couldn’t be happier about it! SNL is back and every single election year cameo is PERFECT!

Earlier this month we watched Will & Harper and it is as wonderful and kind and thoughtful as everyone is telling you. I can’t recommend watching it enough, I even believe it could be a good choice over the holiday with families if they’re SNL fans. Seth Meyers has a new special on HBO Dad Man Walking and I didn’t think a comedy special could be written specifically to my brother and nephews, but here we are. It was hilarious, I will be rewatching it more than once.

After the election we will run away for a few days to unplug and rest. I can’t wait. It will be lots of long walks, ignoring my phone, reading, and binging a few shows. I’m looking forward to it! What are you excited for in November? Any new pop culture you’re looking forward to? I can’t wait for the next season of Bad Sisters, the new season of The Diplomat and the new Marisa Pessl book Darkly.

I’m not going to lie, between politics, the Olympics, and baseball – my pop culture consumption this month is a little off. Did anyone else have a big let down when the Olympics were over and we no longer had a combined FUN thing to talk about? The Olympics are exactly what we needed this summer… Oh, and the Foo Fighters.

Reading

Between The Olympics and Politics this month, I couldn’t get into an audiobook so my reading goal is behind further than I’d like it to be (but also expected for this year with everything going on!) I did finish reading The Cassandra which I really liked! If you watched Oppenheimer and wanted to learn more about the Northwest connection at Hanford, this book is a good historical fiction place to start. My husband is from the Tri-Cities and many family members have worked at Hanford over the years so it was especially interesting for me.
I picked up a rom com book a while back, You, Again and read it over a couple of weekends. It was fine, but about 100 pages too long and the leading characters were not redeemable enough to make it worth while. I have a couple of library books on the end table, we’ll see if I can get into one this holiday weekend before they’re due!

Listening

Two years ago my husband and I had tickets to see the Foo Fighters in Seattle, and then Taylor Hawkins died and the tour was cancelled. We FINALLY had the chance to see this bucket list concert at Providence Park and it was INCREDIBLE. I am mad it took so long to finally see them but Dave Grohl can do no wrong and that show was 3 hours of rock and roll.

I have been mildly obsessed with Wirecutter from the New York Times for years now, and they JUST started a podcast which I am super excited about. The first episode is about laundry, and I may finally read that owners manual from when we got a new washer a few years back.

Of course I’ve been listening to a LOT of political podcasts, from The Daily, to What a Day, to Think Out Loud, to Pod Save America, there’s been a lot going on! However, I am super excited that one of my favorite journalists, Leah Sotille has a new podcast launching in September and the first episode previewed on The Evergreen this week. The podcast is called Hush and it’s about a man who was on death row in Salem, Oregon and then was released from jail for the crime he didn’t commit. I do love some local true crime…

Watching

Liked I mentioned, it was all things Olympics and then it wasn’t. Luckily baseball returned so my evenings have been spent at the ballpark or in campaign meetings/events, so my TV habits have been pretty self soothing – a lot of Veep and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. With Glen Powell doing a bunch of interviews for Twisters (which I still need to see) a few people brought up Everybody Wants Some a movie he was in a few years back. So, one Saturday night we watched it, and it was great! It’s by Richard Linklater who did Dazed and Confused and it is absolutely the 80’s college version of that, but with a baseball team. It’s hard not to like Glen Powell…

I’ve decided to stock pile Bad Monkey and the new season of Bel-Air to binge, and I’m really excited that Only Murders in the Building is back! Hopefully that gets me through September, along with a new season or two of some Housewives (NYC & SLC I think?)

Alright, I hope your summer pop culture was more extensive than mine – what have you been reading, watching and listening to while on vacations and road trips?