Today's guest is someone I've been following on sub stack for quite a while. She's a cultural commentator and a journalist. Her name is Anne Helen Peterson and she writes the newsletter called Culture Study.

Anne is the author of four books.

Most recently, Out of Office, The Big Problem and Bigger

of Working From Home, which comes out in December of 2021. I'm sure that I will be reading that

book, it sounds right up my alley. An's substack is read by thousands and thousands of people, and she has her finger on the pulse of some of

our most pressing concerns.

I am eager for you to get to know her today and to discuss the topics that intersect between her curiosity and my lived experience.

Please join me in welcoming Anne Helen Peterson.

So Anne, it's just great to have you here. I've been reading your substack for a while and I wondered if for our audience you could just define who you are and what you do.

My name is Anne Helen Peterson and I am a journalist, a former academic, an author, and now my main job is writing the newsletter culture study,

but I also have written four books and write for other places periodically as well.

So what is it that has fascinated you, keeps you going, gives you energy?

When I read your sub-stack, you cover such a wide range of issues what would you say that

your main interest is do you have a specific focus like when you're doing

research what are you looking to find what draws your attention? You know sometimes people ask like how do I find

things to write about and it is honestly never a problem and I think part of that

is just this general posture

that everything is interesting, right?

Like everything you can drill down a little bit more

and be like, oh, what's going on here?

And think about where this thing, whatever the thing is, right,

whether it's a trend, a phenomenon, a piece of culture,

...