Still Processing: What I'm Reading, Watching, and Listening To Lately

Ina Garten’s memoir, The White Lotus, a personality soundtrack, and a Barbara Kingsolver interview from the archives

Mar 17, 2025

I don't know if it’s the post-time-change adjustment or the fact that spring has shown its face here in Portland but the sunshine hasn’t for days on end, but I was left feeling uninspired as to what to write about this week. So, I thought I’d try something relatively new—a round up of notable content I'm consuming lately.

I usually don't write about things until after I've finished them, typically a test of whether something is memorable enough to come to mind weeks or even months later, but I wanted to try my hand at detailing my thoughts while I’m actively consuming something. With the exception of one item on the below list that I’ve finished, the others I’m squarely in the middle of.

🎙A particularly striking interview on The Ezra Klein Show, "Barbara Kingsolver Thinks Urban Liberals Have It All Wrong on Appalachia" 🌽

Recorded in July 2023, I don’t remember what drove me to this podcast from the archives, but it was so good. For starters, you’ve probably noticed by now based on the amount of times I mention his show, I’m a big Ezra stan. This interview was no different. They discuss Appalachia through Kingsolver’s eyes, an author who grew up there and moved back as an adult. She centers the place in her latest novel, Demon Copperhead, a modern-day retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. I haven’t read the book yet—honestly, I wasn’t sure I would beforehand—but this interview made me move it up in my TBR.

Published in 2022, I'm a little late to the party here but I think the interview is highly relevant to today, regardless of the book itself. While they touch on some of its plot points, there weren't any spoilers to my knowledge. Instead, their conversation is largely about the great misunderstanding of the Appalachian region of our nation—somewhere I’ve never been to1 or know many people from.

I picture it as a beautiful place based on Kingsolver’s wonderfully descriptive prose about her family farm in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, but admittedly hadn’t given much thought to the people. Demon Copperhead is her attempt to authentically capture the struggles they face (specifically the opioid epidemic) since this population has largely been stereotyped as hillbillies and are unfairly depicted in media and entertainment.2

This really made me think. I was left feeling like, given our current political climate and impending reality, it’d be a particularly poignant time to read it. Appalachia is JD Vance’s homeland, after all. I read The Hillbilly Elegy years ago when a colleague recommended it to me shortly after Trump won his first election. It was being touted as a book that “helped you understand why people voted for Trump.” So maybe it’s a remnant of that thinking that is contributing to my curiosity about Demon Copperhead? I suspect it’s the same line of thinking that I wrote about here, right after the election. My attempt to understand the struggles of other people in our nation, and how their experiences might’ve influenced them to vote for Trump. While there was hardly a mention of Trump in the interview, it's clear through the episode's pointed title that this is political, like it or not.

The book aside, another striking point Kingsolver made was on farm land. Appalachia is typically seen as a very poor region of the country, namely “poor” in the capitalist sense of the word, i.e. money. What’s often overlooked is their riches of farm land and natural resources, i.e. their ability to grow and provide food for themselves, something that most city-dwellers don’t know the first thing about or aren’t positioned to do. Because so many people grow food that they eat themselves, i.e. not for profit, these bounties aren't taxable and therefore the region is cast aside in the capitalist economy’s eyes, because there’s nothing to be gained monetarily. I learned too that due to the rolling, hilly terrain of the region, most of the land has avoided corruption by industrial farming since this topography doesn’t lend itself to plows and other machinery. How fascinating, then, that a population of our country that is seen as lacking in so many ways is so completely self-sufficient when it comes to basic needs?

She also talked about the value of community that’s deeply ingrained there. Speaking as a complete outsider, it sounded similar to the vibe you'd get in a small town, like my parent’s coastal community with its population of fewer than 700 residents. Regardless, community and knowing where your food comes from are both strong curiosities of mine, so this added to my desire to read her book.

📖 Ina Garten’s memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens 👩🏻‍🍳

I didn't know much about Ina before starting her book. I haven't made many of her recipes and don't own any of her cookbooks, but of course she's a legend in the food world. The extent of my experience with Ina’s recipes is her famous chocolate cake, which was the first cake I ever made. It tasted amazing and impressed both me and Pete when I made it for the first birthday of his that we celebrated together.

I'm halfway through listening to her memoir and really enjoying it. I decided to give the audiobook a try because I’m trying to diversify my commute entertainment and give audiobooks a chance. As someone who strongly prefers having the physical book in hand, audio is still an experimental format for me.

After struggling to appreciate a literary mystery on audio last fall, I decided nonfiction may be better suited for me, especially something easily digestible like a memoir. I placed a library hold after hearing how greatly received Ina's memoir was due to the fact she narrates the audiobook herself. I can attest her narrating is great—she chuckles at herself and I can feel her personality exuding through every word. It's such a cozy, heartwarming listen and I'm surprisingly getting a lot from it.

What a feminist Ina is! I had no idea. I love her energy. She talks at length about her relationship to her husband and how, in the 70s when the feminism movement was picking up, she was adamant about redefining gender roles in her own marriage. She wanted to be equal partners and not fall into the traditional domestic role of wife while her husband was the head of the household. He respected that and from day one supported her dreams and ambitions. I was shocked I never knew this about her and it's made me love her more.

Something random she's mentioned a couple times that caught my attention is the act of changing a behavior to get a different result rather than just talking in circles, expecting results to come. A lesson that can be applied in many facets of life!

Another thing she mentioned was this book, Passages by Gail Sheehy, that helped her feel seen as she transitioned from her early adulthood into her 30s. A sucker for a good self-help book, I immediately looked it up once I got home and added it to my TBR. (Are you sensing a pattern?)

Lastly, in the chapter I just finished listening to she referred to the origin of the word “foodie," which I appreciated learning about since I often call myself one. It was first coined by food critic Gael Greene in the early 80s3, when a different appreciation for food emerged alongside the farm-to-table movement started by legendary restaurateur Alice Waters. Until that point, any fine dining or highly praised restaurants were all rooted in fancy French cuisine. It was Alice who was credited with pushing the industry forward by embracing quality local, seasonal, and fresh ingredients to make a simple meal delicious. It made dining more accessible and ushered in what we now know as foodies.

With this many notable discoveries already, I’m looking forward to gobbling up the second half of Ina's life story!

🎧 Enneagram soundtrack 9️⃣

I went through a bit of an Enneagram phase last year, when I was typed through a work-related event and began researching more about it on my own accord afterward. (If you're not familiar, the Enneagram is “a typology of nine interconnected personality types” that dates back to the 1950s and had a resurgence around 2019.) Pete became curious about it too, and while doing our deep dives we started thinking the type that was originally assigned to me isn’t accurate. Pete himself was stuck between two for a while and had to use the wings to figure out which one felt most true to him. At some point I got distracted with something else and put it in the back of my mind, resolving to resume confirming my type at a later date.

Well, that time may be now because the Enneagram found its way back to me this past week via this album—the artist Sleeping at Last wrote a song, complete with lyrics, for each of the nine Enneagram types. I've listened to about half so far and am finding it a fun way to revisit the types I had memorized pretty well during my deep dive last year. I was also intrigued by someone who said listening to this album helped them hone in on their type (i.e. which lyrics strike you the most?). If you know your Enneagram type and give this a listen, let me know! Does your song feel true?

📺 Season 3 of The White Lotus 🌴

I forgot just how utterly unlikeable the characters on The White Lotus are, but this season seems to have amped it up a notch. Despite hearing the general populous likes this season less than the first two, I’m really digging it (except for the theme song, take me back to the season 2 riff). Every scene is cringe-inducing as you watch these completely un-self-aware characters navigate social situations in a plot that is leading to a murder (not a spoiler, this is the premise of every season as we're left to guess who will be the killer, as Vulture so aptly tracks).

I am finding myself completely engrossed. I’m sure that’s in large part due to the beautiful setting and jaw-dropping aesthetic of the luxury hotel. This season takes place in Thailand off what appears to be a hard-to-get-to coastline and it’s just gorgeous. I mean, that scene with hammocks staked into the ocean, so you can hang right above the water? Sign me up.

If you’re watching—need to know who your cringiest character is. Mine is Saxon.

Notable mentions that I didn’t have time to write about go to Severance season 3 and

Chelsea Bieker

’s novel Madwoman. Clearly loving dark and escapist content. 😅

What are you reading, watching, or listening to lately?