This holiday season, 国产吃瓜黑料 editors eased into downtime and burned through travel time by bingeing听on podcasts, revisiting favorite childhood authors, and catching up on lots of television. We also liked the new , don鈥檛 @听us.
What We Read
Like millions of others, I grew up obsessed with the wonderful and peculiar worlds created by children鈥檚 book author Roald Dahl, which were always just the right combination of grotesque, fantastic, and funny.听I didn鈥檛 know that Dahl鈥檚 real life was just as colorful until I read , by Donald Sturrock, last month. With stellar research and access to Dahl鈥檚 family, Sturrock paints the famed writer听as a genius (see: any of his children鈥檚 books), obstinate (he burned bridges like he had stock in ferries), and passionate (he loved his family dearly but was far from the best father and partner). At 672 pages, the book is a tome, but fans will find it worth getting through.
鈥擶ill Taylor, gear director
I read Philip Pullman鈥檚 trilogy for the first time when I was 12鈥攜es, the same age as Lyra and Will鈥攁nd it鈥檚 remained my all-time favorite collection of books. (To this day, I鈥檝e only cried once while reading, and that was the first time I got to the end of .) I disliked the of just as much as everyone else seemed to听but felt cautiously optimistic about . Before watching the show, I obviously had to reread all the books, so I spent the holidays听with Lyra and the armored bears for the billionth time.
鈥擷ian Chiang-Waren, associate editor
What We Listened To
During a particularly long drive through a blizzard to the Santa Fe听Ski Basin, I binged on to curb my road rage. The podcast follows Julissa Trapp (who must be the most badass detective in California, not to mention the only woman in Anaheim鈥檚 homicide department) as she investigates a series of sex-worker murders. Trapp鈥檚 cases are just as compelling as her personal life, and the podcast gives audiences a window into both.听
鈥擜bigail Wise, digital managing director
I saw Little Women twice over the holidays, but you probably don鈥檛 need to hear more about how great it is. Instead, I鈥檒l recommend with director Greta Gerwig鈥攊t covers her writing and creative process, insights into some of her decision-making while adapting the book into a screenplay, and a bunch of other interesting tidbits. It鈥檚 a treat for anyone who鈥檚 interested in storytelling.
鈥擬olly Mirhashem, digital deputy editor
Last month听I drove home to Ohio from New Mexico. In total, I spent over 48 hours in the car and digested a lot of podcasts. I binged the whole series from the Los Angeles Times,听which Bravo later turned into a . I also started , a new ten-part podcast from Texas Monthly about the听oil boom in the Permian Basin, in west Texas and southeast New Mexico鈥攂ecause if you鈥檙e听not paying attention to big oil, are you really paying attention?
鈥擡mily Reed, video producer
What We Watched and Otherwise Experienced
Last year, Kelly Slater generated the biggest headlines in competitive surfing, as he has for nearly three decades. This time听it wasn鈥檛 another record-breaking title that caused the commotion听but rather the 11-time World Surf League champion鈥檚 preseason announcement that 2019 would be his final year competing. Would Slater really retire? That鈥檚 the question HBO set out to answer in 鈥,鈥澨齛n hourlong special episode of the network鈥檚听sports-documentary series, which follows Slater in the lead-up to the Billabong Pipe Masters competition (the 2019 pro tour鈥檚 last stop). The documentary gives an intimate view of the legendary athlete鈥檚 home life, his approach to competition, and his ruminations about his final (maybe, possibly, we鈥檒l see) event as a pro. By the end of the episode, no one鈥攏ot the HBO producers who funded this expensive, well-deserved hagiography, nor Slater鈥攕eems to have any idea when the big guy will put away his shortboards. Either way, Slater still makes for fascinating television.
鈥擟hris Keyes, editor
Over the holiday break, I caught up on some of the 200-plus听stories and videos I had bookmarked in my account throughout 2019. One highlight was an opinion piece from The New York Times, 鈥,鈥澨齛 gorgeously produced, five-minute video that breaks down the process of recycling. I was shocked by one line in particular: 鈥淎ccording to the EPA, in 2017, as little as 8.4 percent of our discarded plastic went through that magic recycling process.鈥澨鼳fter watching, I鈥檓 newly inspired to work on consuming less plastic in the first place.
鈥擩enny Earnest, audience development director
In December, I went to see with my entire family. I know it鈥檚 supposed to be polarizing, and people are pissed about it, but honestly? Everyone in it is hot, there are cute aliens and lots of big explosions, and I don鈥檛 really understand how, in a world descending into chaos, this would be the hill you choose to die on. I loved it, and I choose not to take my space trilogies so seriously. (But for a truly groundbreaking intergalactic odyssey, I鈥檓 holding out for the new Dune movie.)听
鈥擜bbie Barronian, assistant editor
Over the holidays, I watched all of 听on Netflix with my mom. The show is about four girls (plus their guy friend) who attend a Catholic girls鈥 school in Northern Ireland in the nineties听during a period of historic national unrest called . My mom and I can have a hard time finding common ground when it comes to movies and television, but Derry Girls鈥 Cranberries-heavy soundtrack听and its characters that seemed pulled from our own wonderful-but-wild Catholic family听brought us together. We cried from laughter and teared up during some heartfelt moments; my mom called it 鈥渇unnier than ,鈥 which for her is really saying something.听
鈥擬aren Larsen, Buyer鈥檚 Guide deputy editor
New Year鈥檚听is a popular time to think about diet and exercise. If you鈥檙e into that sort of thing, as a lot of us at 国产吃瓜黑料 are, the documentary is worth a view. It鈥檚 about vegan and听vegetarian athletes听and how they believe their dietary choices affect performance. While I can鈥檛 say I鈥檝e gone all in on the meat-free thing (I really do love a juicy aged rib eye), the accomplishments (and the abs) of the pros in the film convinced me that cutting back on meat and dairy couldn鈥檛 hurt.
鈥擩ulia Walley, marketing art director