MEDIA DIET
By:
October 16, 2026
A weekly series exploring the media “input” of a group of people — HILOBROW’s friends and contributors — whose “output” we admire.
Dan has been a valued HILOBROW contributor since 2015. His first post was on the topic of THE SEVEN CRYSTAL BALLS. His most recent contributions to this publication include: HUMAN FLY | LA PLANÈTE SAUVAGE | DIFFERENT CLASS.
New York…
HILOBROW: What forms of media do you “take in” the most regularly/frequently, during a typical day or week?
DAN FOX: A typical week involves typical chores, and chores require entertainment.
For ironing: I listen to the Archive on Four back catalog (radio documentaries constructed from recordings in the BBC’s vaults), or past episodes of the Backlisted (for old books new to me). Sometimes the London Review of Books podcast, to remind me how little I know about anything.
For the laundry: Stephen Coates’ Bureau of Lost Culture, interviews and stories from what we used to call the underground, and Avery Trufelman’s Articles of Interest, for things I never knew about the history of zips and trouser cuffs.
For cooking and doing the dishes: Through the Night on BBC Radio 3, classical music for the night watch.
Other than these, I listen to NTS Radio almost daily. A big favourite is Optimo Espacio’s show, for the heavy head-nodders. Every Saturday I listen to Gilles Peterson on BBC 6, who plays jazz and soul, music from around the world, new and old, and many points inbetween. Optimo and Peterson remind me of when I used to live in London, spending Saturdays record shopping in the West End with friends. They keep my ears fresh. Algorithms do not.
I look at the news once in the morning, once in the evening. I usually read the Financial Times. Not because I am rich, not because I understand economics, not because I agree with its politics, but because it shows me where the power is in ways that other news outlets do not. I like its “Lunch with the FT” feature, in which they interview a public figure over a meal: spies, artists, chefs, economists, scientists, philosophers, writers, filmmakers, politicians left and right, sociopaths, dictators, crooks, combinations thereof. I find it more informative than drenching myself in the firehose of news opinion.
HILOBROW: What are your reading habits?
DAN FOX: I read whenever and wherever I can.
I once received a letter from a friend, an artist, in which he described the different areas of his apartment in which he preferred to read certain kinds of writing. Following his example, I like the bedroom for fiction, the living room for non-fiction, and the toilet for news.
HILOBROW: What music — genres, particular artists and songs — do you listen to during a typical day?
DAN FOX: I can barely get through an hour without music, let alone a day. But a typical working day involves writing, and it can be tough to pair writing with music. If I begin with a dutiful effort in silence, eventually the itch will become too much, so I scratch it with something instrumental, nothing that will crowd out my words. However, it can’t be wallpaper: the sound has to possess a certain atmospheric specificity, a bit of tooth. Listening to records is better than streaming as it forces me to get out of my chair every twenty minutes to change sides; it’s good for the back and eyes.
On a working day, between sessions at my desk I listen to music connected to whatever it is I am writing. The links between song and subject can be direct or oblique. This keeps my imagination loose-limbed. For example, I am currently working on a book set in 1960s Rome. I have made a mix for it which includes three different versions of the song “Bella Ciao.” These date from the period, and relate directly to my subject. But there’s also incidental music in there by Ryuichi Sakamoto from the movie Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, and from the Vangelis soundtrack to Chariots of Fire. These have no relationship to my subject, but they evoke emotional or textural qualities which I find helpful.
When I’m not writing, the music I listen to changes as it changes for most people; according to mood, occasion, curiosity, entertainment, self-education, time and place, the presence of others.
HILOBROW: Do you subscribe to any magazines or newsletters that you’d strongly recommend?
DAN FOX: I put my subscription money in Jeremy Noel-Tod’s Some Flowers Soon, a newsletter about poetry new, old, famous, obscure, and amateur. He writes with the pithiness of a poet and the wit of a good teacher.
HILOBROW: How do you use social media, these days?
DAN FOX: I don’t use any, apart from Instagram, which I haven’t posted to in years. I loathe it but in my infinite hypocrisy I remain a lurker there, because it occasionally feeds me old photos and film clips that I find helpful to think with. Other than that, it is what a friend of mine astutely calls “a misery machine,” and I would rather look up and out of the window than bow my head in servitude to the screen.
HILOBROW: Anything else?
DAN FOX: My favourite media input is a city walk. I love being amid stores, bars, cafes, museums, parks, flea markets, train stations, buses, even the suburbs and edgelands. I like watching how people behave, how they present themselves. I can get an enormous amount from sitting at home reading or watching something, but a walk through a city will always show me life that media can’t.
MEDIA DIET series: MATTHEW BATTLES | ADRIENNE CREW | HOLLY INTERLANDI | CAROLYN KELLOGG | MARK KINGWELL | FLOURISH KLINK | ADAM McGOVERN | CHARLIE MITCHELL | TOM NEALON | ANNIE NOCENTI | GARY PANTER | LYNN PERIL | JONATHAN PINCHERA | NICHOLAS ROMBES | CARLO ROTELLA | LUCY SANTE | SETH | MIKE WATT | JUDITH ZISSMAN | & many others! Visit the SERIES INDEX.