A weekly series, which kicked off in February 2026, exploring the media “input” of a group of people — HILOBROW’s friends and contributors — whose “output” we admire.
Illustration by Joe Alterio
JOE ALTERIO: “I look at my phone while peeing / I draw to music over sitcom re-runs” | MARTHA ARANGO on: The Herds, Walter Kempowski’s All for Nothing, Emilia Pérez | MATTHEW BATTLES on: La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, Judee Sill, Scavengers Reign | BRIAN BERGER | VANESSA BERRY on: 2SER, Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, zines | ALICE BOONE
Photo courtesy of Adrienne Crew
MARIANE CARA on: 1970s music, Black Mirror, Millôr Fernandes | DEB CHACHRA on: the Library app, Midnight Radio, Vancouver museums | ADRIENNE CREW on: the Thoth Tarot, Captain YAR, Murderbot | GORDON DAHLQUIST on: Gerald’s Party, Goodbye, Dragon Inn, Barry Lyndon | DREW DANIEL on: Golden Age mysteries, Hegel, the Nifty Archive | JENNY DAVIDSON
Photo courtesy of Carolyn Kellogg
DAN FOX on: the Financial Times, Gilles Peterson on BBC 6, “Bella Ciao” | JOSH GLENN on: Glasshouse, Absolute Martian Manhunter, fakemink’s “MAKKA” | MICHAEL GRASSO on: Vintage Obscura, conspiracy cheapies, Piers Plowman | JIM HANAS | HOLLY INTERLANDI on: Monocle, metal, horror stories | CHELSEY JOHNSON | CAROLYN KELLOGG on: WFMU’s Wake ‘n Bake, history, Fitzcarraldo | MARK KINGWELL on: Sports clips, North by Northwest, Indie Pop Rocks
Photo courtesy of Fr. Flourish Klink
FR. FLOURISH KLINK on: the Gospel, a Book of Common Prayer bot, singing | RAMONA LYONS | ADAM McGOVERN on: Shazam discoveries, “The Firebird,” concentricity | DEVIN McKINNEY on: old records, Nabokov, Gore Vidal’s Narratives of Empire | SÓNIA MARQUES on: Salman Rushdie, library reading, the films of Denys Arcand | CHARLIE MITCHELL on: Mary Oliver, TrueAnon, The Blindboy Podcast | TOM NEALON on: Czarface, Parable of the Sower, Gargantua & Pantagruel
Photo courtesy of Lynn Peril
ANNALEE NEWITZ | ANNIE NOCENTI on: Burn Book, Deadwood, Bugonia | GARY PANTER on: Godzilla Minus One, Popeye comics, The Devil’s Triangle | MARIA PAPANTHYMOU on: Armen Zakharyan’s YouTube channel, Plato’s Gorgias, Asterix comics | LYNN PERIL on: weird old books, ’60s garage rock, live music | LISA JANE PERSKY | JONATHAN PINCHERA on: Instagram reels, the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit, Ren & Stimpy
Photo courtesy of Lucy Sante. Credit: Raphael Pierson-Sante
HEATHER QUINLAN on: The Master and Margarita, Hard ’N Heavy, sports fandom | SUSAN ROE on: reading classics together, Strata: Stories from Deep Time, Hacks | NICHOLAS ROMBES on: 50 Watts Books, Vaclav Havel, the vibes of recent movies | CARLO ROTELLA on: Chicago blues, baby-making slow jams, The Week | LUCY SANTE on: NYRB, “Lovers Rock,” Shadow Ticket | SETH on: old TV broadcasts, The Leopard, The Victorian Kitchen Garden
Photo courtesy of Judith Zissman.
RANI SOM | MIKE WATT on: Shannon Kim, Pynchon, The Kagero Diary | MARC WEIDENBAUM | JUDITH ZISSMAN on: “Ellis Island,” Moon Lists, Taskmaster
& more to come.