MEDIA DIET
By:
February 17, 2026
A weekly series exploring the media “input” of a group of people — HILOBROW’s friends and contributors — whose “output” we admire.
Adrienne has been a valued HILOBROW contributor since 2011. Her first post was on the topic of CHARLOTTE RAMPLING. Her most recent contributions to this publication include: CILANTRO | WATCH YOUR PENNIES | POOR DEVIL.
Long Beach…
HILOBROW: What forms of media do you “take in” the most regularly/frequently, during a typical day or week?
ADRIENNE CREW: My media diet is a blend of the mystical, the analytical, and the indulgent. It moves from tarot symbolism to global headlines, from think tank reports to spicy romance novels. Before I feed my body each morning, I feed my mind.
I begin the day with my tarot practice. I use the Thoth Tarot, painted by Lady Frieda Harris under the guidance of Aleister Crowley. The deck is dense with symbols drawn from astrology, science, mythology, and esoteric traditions. I draw three cards and ask three questions: What does the universe want me to learn today? What does it want me to release? What message does it want to give me? I integrate the cards into a brief meditation ritual and record my reflections in a small black notebook. The process centers me. It frames the day as intentional rather than reactive.
After meditation, still in bed, I turn to the news. My inbox fills with morning briefings from The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Washington Post, Portside email newsletter, and The Daily Beast. I skim headlines, read long-form reporting, and absorb the broader narrative of the world before I step into my own responsibilities.
At work, my media diet shifts toward trend analysis. Trend spotting fascinates me. So I follow Trendwatching.com posts, Casey Lewis’s newsletter, After School, which tracks trends amongst Gen Z and Gen Alpha. I enjoy VML Intelligence’s reports as well as Natalie Javeys’ column “Like and Subscribe” on the Ankler network.
As a job developer, I track labor market shifts, hiring practices, and emerging technologies. I follow workforce strategy, the future of automation, and debates about whether AI will eliminate — or transform — jobs. I read think tank reports, AI newsletters like Captain YAR, and Substack essays to keep abreast of changes in the geo-political climate. Occasionally, I turn to ChatGPT or Gemini to help structure presentations. AI formats slides and documents efficiently; I supply the judgment and lived experience.
By lunch, the tone lightens. I glance at trend pieces, fashion commentary from outlets like Vogue, and Booth Moore’s Substack posts. After work, I decompress with Instagram videos of animals — dogs, kittens, baby goats, ducklings. A current fav is the feed of Ducktavious @rasgathewander.
Evenings include ska music or podcasts through Spotify, and selective television. I avoid true crime and formulaic procedurals. I prefer character-driven dramas and sci fi. By nine, the house quiets. Dishes done, teeth brushed, I read — often a spicy mafia romance on my phone, sometimes serious nonfiction. Recently I’ve been absorbed in The Last Million and revisiting Pat Barker’s reimagining of the Trojan War women.
Before sleep, I return to my black notebook and reread the morning’s tarot reflections. My media diet begins and ends with intention: a conversation between myth and market, romance and reality, soul and strategy.
HILOBROW: What are your reading habits?
ADRIENNE CREW: My reading life is promiscuous. I move easily between the canon and the Kindle Unlimited abyss, between war epics and mafia billionaires, without apology. Taste, I’ve decided, is elastic. Some days I want rigor; other days I want yearning, preferably involving a hockey player or a morally compromised werewolf.
I read every day — novels, essays, nonfiction — but my true indulgence is romance. The plots are outrageous, the sex is hot, the endings blessedly certain. That certainty feels radical. And yet I’m drawn to serious contemporary fiction. Pat Barker’s Women of Troy trilogy remains a touchstone — brutal and intelligent in its reckoning with the aftermath of war. Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale waits on my nightstand. I’m also enjoying the Murderbot sci fi series. My nonfiction stack is equally alive. I’m currently reading David Nasaw’s The Last Million, borrowed from the Los Angeles Public Library’s e-book platform — a sweeping history of Europe’s displaced after World War II.
As a native Angeleno, I gravitate toward Hollywood memoirs not out of celebrity worship but out of nostalgia. I’m interested in what has vanished: the restaurants, the bungalows, the shimmering middle-distance of old Los Angeles. Matthew Specktor’s The Golden Hour captures that feeling precisely, mapping a childhood spent orbiting power and illusion.
HILOBROW: What’s the best TV series you’ve seen recently?
ADRIENNE CREW: On television, Alien: Earth on FX on Hulu has been the season’s most ambitious spectacle.
Synthetic humans, cyborgs, and hybrids collide when the USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth carrying lethal alien lifeforms. One standout episode flashes back to the doomed crew’s final moments, echoing the pacing and dread of the 1979 Alien. The series stumbles at times, but its imagination is ferocious.
If my media diet proves anything, it’s that seriousness and pleasure are not enemies. They coexist. I can mourn the displaced, revisit Troy, binge alien body horror, and still fall asleep with a romance novel. Culture, at its best, makes room for all of it.
MEDIA DIET series: MATTHEW BATTLES | DEB CHACHRA | ADRIENNE CREW | HOLLY INTERLANDI | CAROLYN KELLOGG | MARK KINGWELL | ADAM McGOVERN | CHARLIE MITCHELL | TOM NEALON | PEGGY NELSON | ANNIE NOCENTI | GARY PANTER | LYNN PERIL | JONATHAN PINCHERA | HEATHER QUINLAN | NICHOLAS ROMBES | CARLO ROTELLA | LUCY SANTE | SETH | MIKE WATT | JUDITH ZISSMAN | & more to come! Visit the SERIES INDEX.