March Madness is in full swing and I couldn’t be happier! Between this and daylight saving time (hooray for this news) it’s hard not to be in a good mood by the end of March. The seasonal transition has made it weird for my reading habits, but my pop culture isn’t lacking, I promise.

Reading

Like I mentioned, not a ton of reading lately, but a sunny weekend helped! Over the past couple of weeks I listened to Vanderbilt by Anderson Cooper and loved it! I wasn’t expecting to like it that much but was sort of interested in Cooper’s take on his family (his mom is Gloria Vanderbilt). As I listened to it I started thinking – if you like Bridgerton you may want to try this…It also makes me want to watch HBO’s The Gilded Age next. I also finally finished The Secret to Superhuman Strength a graphic novel from Alison Bechdel. It was good, but the way it was formatted made it easy to put down, which I evidently did since I started reading it in August… whoops!

I finally read The Atlantic’s great article on friendships that I’ve seen pop up over the past month on social media. It was really great and made me think about a lot of relationships. Check it out here. For a complete 180 (okay maybe 90?) this piece about cancelling The Baby-Sitters Club on Netflix was really interesting to me (a member of a very specific age demographic here).

Besides books, I also read a ridiculous amount of newsletters each day/week/month. My favorite right now is Culture Study from Anne Helen Petersen. The topics are all over the place but in a fascinating way, and her most recent piece on childcare/eldercare will sit with me for a very long time. Culture Study lead me to Meg Conley and homeculture which is really fantastic as well. The Audacity from Roxanne Gay always has a great wrap up of things she’s reading and tweets that make me laugh and cringe. I recently discovered that the amazing Samantha Irby (read her books they’re all great!) has a newsletter that is so ridiculous you just have to subscribe. It’s not books, but it is pop culture happiness delivered to your inbox!

Watching

Folks, we went to LIVE THEATER this month and it was glorious! My friend Cassie was in a two person world premier play – Svetlana! Svetlana! and it was wonderful! I felt safe in the theater (all masked and vax cards checked) and it was funny and smart and I had no idea the life or story of Stalin’s daughter who escaped to America, but I did immediately find a book from the library to learn more! While the world premier was just two days long, I was excited to learn that the show will be featured in a local theater in the near future.

Besides March Madness and trash talking with my brothers, I caught up on Abbott Elementary which you need to be watching, it’s so great! I loved this season of All Creatures Great and Small, which continues to be just a sweet and nice show that we all need these days. The After Party was hilarious and clever and I’m excited it’ll be back for Season 2!

I loved Inventing Anna and I am really enjoying (probably not the right word…) The Dropout although I wish they would just release all the episodes at once. Top Chef has returned and I couldn’t be happier to have my favorite foodie show back! If you didn’t watch the first season of Upload you should since the second season just start and continues to be clever and enjoyable.

My husband and I watched Race: Bubba Wallace on Netflix last week. It was fascinating. Wallace is the only black driver in NASCAR and the series (just 6 episodes) talks a lot about the Black Lives Matter protests and race discussions that Wallace has pushed and encouraged within NASCAR. You do not need to be a NASCAR fan to watch (because I am not!) I promise!

We are one episode into Severance on Apple+ and we’ll take it day by day, but…woah. I’m going to need to talk about it when we’re finished.

Listening

Besides Anderson Cooper’s book, I have been appreciating What a Day for keeping up on all the current events. I finished listening to The Trojan Horse Affair which I didn’t like as much as I wanted to. I am however loving Offline with Jon Favreau, each week he talks to someone about the relationship with social media and constantly being “on.” His interview with Taylor Lorenz was fascinating to me.

Alright, that’s what got me to spring this year, how about you? What pop culture are you consuming right now? Besides the final season of Ozark what else are you excited for in April?