This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter about cultural obsessions from your Internet BFFs Emma and Claire. If you like what you see and hear, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Rich Text is a reader-supported project — no ads or sponsors!

We soft launched Rich Text one year ago. It was supposed to be a hobby, an experiment, an attempt to rediscover joy in writing after a demoralizing year of Covid scares, lockdowns, and (for Claire) new motherhood. Instead, in the 12 months since our inaugural newsletter — thanks to an unexpected layoff — it became one of our primary projects and sources of income.

We rapidly ramped up our newsletter capacity, and, in an attempt to keep up with our Bachelor coverage as Matt James’s season wound to a chaotic close, we began publishing our recap podcasts here as well. Our Bachelor podcast, Here to Make Friends, eventually found a new home with Stitcher as Love to See It with Emma and Claire, but we immediately realized that we had an opportunity with Rich Text to podcast about everything else: scripted TV, books, weird Twitter storms like Bad Art Friend and broader cultural topics like motherhood. We kept writing essays, if less frequently than we should have. In the year since we launched this newsletter, it’s grown from a tiny side gig to the center of our work life.

And that, to be honest, is about all of you. We were, and are, profoundly grateful for everyone who subscribed to the newsletter in the wake of our involuntary departure from HuffPost, and we are grateful for everyone who subscribes now. We appreciate everyone who reads and/or listens to Rich Text, everyone who shares it, and everyone who lets it pile up in their inbox because it really can be pretty hard to keep up with all your subscriptions (Claire says, eyeing her stack of unopened NYRBs in the corner). And, of course, we appreciate those readers and listeners who pay for premium subscriptions. Everyone who pays to subscribe to Rich Text makes it possible for us to keep doing what we love, which is writing and talking about culture.

Starting a newsletter was a sort of optimistic, clean-slate New Year’s gesture in 2021, when we wanted it to signify our renewed commitment to blogging it out and keeping our synapses firing. Now it’s another new year, and another moment to take stock. Much like 2020, 2021 didn’t go much like we expected (globally, politically, professionally, or personally). Professionally, it’s been a terrifying and yet exhilarating new world for us. In this week’s pod, we talk about how this year of Rich Text went, what we’re proud of, and what we want to work on in 2022.

This week, in lieu of recommendations, we’re digging into the Rich Text archives. Here are our favorite podcast episodes and essays of 2021.

Claire

Emma

Podcast Episodes

Please let us know in the comments what you’d love to see more of in 2022! And again, thank you for being here. Happy New Year!

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