How HGTV Shapes and Refines Our Taste

How do the politics of taste and HGTV shows intersect? Why do we watch, why do we feel the way we do when we watch, and how is taste shaped in the process of watching? When Jonathan Menjivar, host of the fantastic podcast Classy, told me he wanted to talk all things HGTV, I was thrilled. In this episode, we discuss the aesthetics of “quiet luxury,” Ben and Erin Napier vs. Chip and Joanna Gaines, the newly ubiquitous neo-farmhouse look and so much more.

Show Notes:

• Listen to Classy and read my interview with Jonathan about the making of the show and “Am I Classhole??” here

• You can read my big feature on life in Waco in the post-Fixer Upper world here

• One of my favorite interviews I’ve ever done in Culture Study = talking to Rebecca Lee Potts about the “shiplap frontier”

• When I interviewed Ben and Erin Napier for Townsizing

• Jonathan mentions Donald Judd furniture— here’s a sketch of a Donald Judd stool that costs $3,200

We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• The culture of conspiracy theories!

• Why is Paul Mescal so hot

• Sydney Sweeney (and Gen-Z Stardom)

• Learning to craft / make things / hobby-around-the-house

• For our continuing series on romance novels: QUEER ROMANCE

• Artificial Intelligence (we’re gonna see if we can figure out an actually interesting theme here, so send us your weirdest or most mind-boggling questions)

• The economy, a.k.a. why is everything so damn expensive right now (my dream here is like an Odd Lots guest who doesn’t have private equity brain, please let us know if you have suggestions!)

• Contemporary ideas of self-care

• Buy Nothing groups and/or the current state of the secondhand market

• Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment

• You can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here (this is the subscriber-only form!)

For today’s discussion: Why do you watch HGTV? How has it implicitly and explicitly affected your taste? Or anything the episode made you want to talk about!