Pop Culture Diaries: Meredith Lynch
This week: An LA comedian/podcast host/content creator goes full time on content creation while celebrating her birthday, making a classic Ina Garten recipe, and reviewing While You Were Sleeping
This is a free post for subscribers of Landline, a pop culture and history newsletter for people who care about the Titanic, and the the Kate Winslet vehicle of the same name. Consider subscribing to the paid plan to get my weekly email of recommendations and links, a podcast episode, and more! You can also help me spread the word by sharing it with a friend who would love it.
Welcome to Pop Culture Diaries. Forget tracking calories and dollars—here, we follow the consumption that actually matters: books, music, TV, movies, threads, podcasts, YouTube videos, memes, and more. Think of this as a guilt-free way to read someone else’s diary and discover new pop culture obsessions, one week at a time.
If you’d like to submit your own Pop Culture Diary, you can do so using this online form.
PS I’m starting to plan Landline for 2025. Taking this brief and anonymous survey would really help me out. Thanks!
Name: Meredith Lynch
Occupation: Content Creator (Writer, Comedian, Host)
From: LA (by way of Boston)
Week Covered: 12/8/24-12/15/24
Sunday:
I kicked off my Sunday with a terrifying revelation, I had run out of tissues. I don’t know when I turned into someone’s nana but I’m at the place in my life where I need a box of tissues in the living room, bedroom and bathroom.. I am also at a point where I really only believe in the Puffs plus Lotion pop-up tissues. I begrudgingly realized this would mean a trip to the grocery store.
Living in LA can be tricky, you meet someone and you think this is the coolest person I have ever met in my life, we are best friends, we should go in on a mausoleum together, and then you find out they live in Silverlake. Not that there's anything wrong with Silverlake but I live in West LA and maintaining a friendship that crosses over multiple highways is nearly impossible here.. Lucky for me my lovely friend Shannon lives down the street and had invited me over for an afternoon tea in honor of my birthday. My birthday is often on Thanksgiving which I used to loathe because it never felt about me but wow what a metaphor for life in the long run, because nothing is truly about us.
Shannon had prepared a plethora of homemade snacks including the trending egg salad which was delicious. I had been really sick for the last two weeks and it was great to catch up. When I moved to LA I really had ZERO friends so the fact that I have lovely people that make me a beautiful birthday spread makes me feel incredibly grateful.
I did a quick workout while I watched Victoria (Masterpiece). I’m a sucker for period pieces, in particular Masterpiece. Justice for The Paradise!!! To be honest I watched Victoria when it came out but sometimes I will do a rewatch of a show for workouts so if I miss something it doesn’t really matter. I don’t know a ton about Queen Victoria but cursory research has told me the retelling paints a better picture of the reality of her reign.
Before I went to bed I promised myself I would read some pages from Night Watch. It’s the third in a trilogy about the Civil War except I never read one or two and the prose is a bit daunting some nights. I put it down after a page and turned to TikTok where I watched this guy I have been obsessing over “@guynamedJoe1”, just google him you won’t regret it.
Monday:
This marked the start of my last week at my 9-5 job, a liberal arts college in Los Angeles. This is a big part of what brought me from Boston to Los Angeles and it has been a wonderful experience working there for the last 4.5 years. One of the things I will miss the most is my beautiful office. “Office” feels like I’m not doing her justice because the true name is the Doheny Mansion. The campus was once the enclave of the Doheny family, yes Teapot Dome Doheny. I think Mary and I should do a whole podcast on this because it’s endlessly fascinating but the mansion where the Doheny’s resided was eventually left to the Catholic church. It is also home to the oldest working private elevator and the first inground pool in Los Angeles, both of which I utilized quite a bit. Perhaps the most “instagrammable” part of the mansion is that it also served as the Genovia consulate in the movie Princess Diaries. I will miss walking up the sweeping staircase. However, in the words of Jon Gosselin, life is about change and after many months of planning, dreaming, and scheming I decided to dive into content creation life full-time.
A lot of my day was spent cleaning up my office, but I took a few minutes to enjoy the Christmas decorations that are popping up around the mansion. I love a good Nativity. Growing up we had this Nativity set from Sears and my mom had to negotiate many an argument between my sister and I on whose turn it was to set it up for the day. Yes, we were reorganizing the Nativity on a daily basis, we weren’t super religious, but we were super obsessed with anything that involved world-building. My dad recently shipped me my childhood Playmobil Victorian dollhouse and I need to figure out a way to get it set up in my apartment.
That night I cooked one of my favorite meals, it’s the Barefoot Contessa Weeknight Bolognese. I’m an Ina stan, and no I haven’t read her memoir yet but I will. I make some tiny tweaks to the recipe, I add Bell peppers and carrots to add some extra veggies AND i swap the cream for sour cream. I have turned a lot of my friends onto this recipe, I promise you will love it. You can also do it with ground turkey (which my husband and I both prefer).
Tuesday:
On my way to work I listened to the Wicked soundtrack. I saw the movie on Thanksgiving and I have to admit, I loved every minute. I had never seen the play and my knowledge of the story was a perusal of the Wikipedia page a few months ago. I will admit it’s not an easy story to summarize on Wiki, I would recommend seeing the movie before you read the Wiki. There is something I really love about when movies take off like this, Wicked, Barbie, Me3gan (hear me out M3gan was a MOMENT). Many things aren’t equitable when it comes to pop culture, The Era’s Tour, comes to mind, but so does the Broadway production of Wicked. A movie on the other hand can be much more equitable because many people can get to theaters and it’s not a terrible financial burden to attend. I would love to see the play now, but in the meantime WOW does that soundtrack hit and I love Ariana and Cynthia’s voices.
After work, I spent some time working on private equity research for my podcast Oddly Specific. The tagline for the show is the only podcast that covers private equity to Pete Davidson, it’s a mix of pop culture and private equity. Recently we have had episodes on private equity in veterinary care and private equity in the US prison system. I am working on an episode about the NFL, and you thought the worst thing about football was CTE!! Actually it is, but this is not great too.
Wednesday:
I worked from home on Wednesday because I had a dermatology appointment in the afternoon,. I saw a TikTok that scared me that a spot on my face could be skin cancer. Here’s the deal I’m pretty good about sunscreen and I recently had my yearly check but this derm on TikTok was really convincing as was Google images. Anyway, my doctor took one look and said, nah I don’t think so and did something to freeze the spot off. I think it’s important to get your skin checked and I’m glad I went but also this was a tiny reminded for me to not go to my FYP medical advice. I did however load up on more of my favorite sunscreen. If you haven’t tried Ulta MD SPF I cannot recommend it enough. You could PUMP this stuff in your eyes and they won’t sting. This is not sponsored but Ulta MD I’m ready and willing.
The nice thing about WFH is I get to spend extra time with my dog. Kelly is an 11-year-old lab mix and she is still keeping me on my toes. My husband and I love to make up fake scenarios about Kelly. We pretend she works at this Catholic bookstore down the street from us, Pauline Media, however, she is always causing problems at the store, for example, she steals, she skips shifts, she eats the Communion wafers. People ask me why do you make your dog have a job? The question is why DON’T you? One of the things I love the most about my husband is he’s down to clown about a scenario where our dog works at a religious bookstore, it passes the time.
Thursday:
Thursday was my last day at work! I couldn’t believe how fast it crept up on me. I had been dreading this day, mostly because I’m Irish. I know it sounds silly but I truly believe the Irish Exit, not the alcohol-fueled one, but the deep dislike and avoidance of emotions that bring up grief and loss can be real. It probably doesn’t just apply to the Irish, but come on let me have this one!
My party though was lovely, and I only cried a few times. I have met so many wonderful people over the years and I’m proud of the relationships I have made there. If you want a book that helped inspire me when it came to how I wanted to be at work I recommend, Treating People Well, by Lea Berman and Jeremy Bernard. Lea and Jeremy were both White House Social Secretaries (under different administrations) and they offer a fun glimpse into their world but under the guiding principle that kindness and respect are paramount.
My friend told me I looked like Cher Horowitz meets Cruel Intentions during my party and that felt like a win.
I changed at work and headed to Hollywood, or as I like to call it HollyWEIRD, for the Spotify Wrapped party. Living in LA and doing the content thing sometimes you get invited to things and sometimes you see things in Instagram stories and you think, that would have been fun to get invited to. I say this because for the last two years I have seen the Spotify party and thought ugh that would be fun to be invited to but then who would watch Forensic Files that night? I cannot let HLN pull Forensic Files. Anyway, yes I snagged an invite this year thanks to my lovely friend Stephanie. The party was awesome, they had a ferris wheel, Erewhon smoothies, Haim dj-ing. As Stephanie said it was giving Euphoria vibes, in a good way (true fans will get it). The headliner was Kesha but Stephanie and I both hit almost pumpkin status and we peaced out at 9:30.
Friday:
I had to rise and shine because I had a ton on my plate for a girl who didn’t get home until 10:15 pm the night before. I stopped drinking a couple of years ago just to see what my life would be like without alcohol and honestly, I love it, I don’t see myself going back. When I quit I thought I would never be too tired in the AM again, spoiler alert, I still am all the time.
I do one-on-one social media consulting and I had one that morning, I love meeting with folks and working through ways to grow their social media authentically. Social media gets a bad rap, and some of it is deserved, but so of it is also amazing and can bring people together and that’s what I lead with in my consults. Then I recorded with my friends Molly and Kristina. We had the brilliant idea to do a holiday-themed podcast this year around movies we love. Each of us picked a movie and then we recapped. It was Molly’s turn this week and we did “While You Were Sleeping” or as I call it the slightly more ethical Overboard.
Saturday:
One of the hardest things about living in LA is being away from my loved ones on the East Coast, and that includes Dunkin Donuts. We have a few Dunkin in West LA now but I know it’s been a long time coming and even still they are not the Dunkin on every corner that I am accustomed to back home. Recently though they opened one about a mile from my apartment so I love to wake up on Saturday AM and walk to get one when I get my crap together. My order? So glad you asked, small iced with skim. Yes, I’m drinking cow’s milk, cancel me!!!!!
When I got home I did some stuff around the house and threw Victoria on in the background. One of the perks of having a small-ish apartment is you can just crank the tv up a little and do your chores to the sweet sounds of the tube. It felt like a productive day and eventually, I took a shower and got ready for a belated birthday dinner with my husband.
My favorite place for special occasion dinners in Los Angeles is The BLVD at the Beverly Wilshire. It’s the hotel from Pretty Woman and the lobby is a dream. The restaurant has a cozy vibe that reminds me of Boston. We had an amazing prosciutto and fig pizza to start and then I had the short rib and my husband had the lobster pappardelle. If you visit LA and you want a fun Beverly Hills experience (yes it is a splurge) you can’t beat this place, it’s great people watching, you’re right off Rodeo so you see great cars, and the lobby is always worth it.
In the words of Hilary Duff, well that’s my life, thank you so much for spending time with me, I hope you enjoyed it, cause I know I did!
To learn more about Meredith, you can follow her on Instagram, TikTok, listen to her podcast, and check out her website.
Pop Culture Round-Up: Meredith’s Week in Review:
Books
Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips
Treating People Well by Lea Berman and Jeremy Bernard.
Movies
Music
Podcasts
“While You Were Sleeping” on Santa Claus is Coming to Podcast featuring Kristina Lopez & Meredith Lynch
Recipe
Barefoot Contessa Weeknight Bolognese
Television
Victoria (Masterpiece)
TikTok
Call Me! (or not!)
I’d love to hear from you! Drop your thoughts in the comments to share with the Landline community, or reply to this email to contact me. You can also find me on Instagram, or email me. I don’t have a dedicated phone line yet (just like in my youth), but maybe someday I’ll achieve Claudia status and get a Landline.
Thanks for reading!
This is a free post for subscribers of Landline. Consider subscribing to the paid plan to get my weekly email of recommendations and links, a podcast episode, and more! You can also help me spread the word by sharing it with a friend who would love it. Thank you for being a friend!
Note: All books referenced in Landline can be found in my bookshop.org storefront from which I earn a small percentage of all books purchased.