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SPENT: Episode Three | Whitney Mallet
SPENT: Episode Three | Whitney Mallet
Whitney Mallet has spent years moving through magazines, galleries, performances, readings, and the shifting ecosystems that surround contemporary culture - not as an observer standing outside of it, but as someone committed to paying attention.
In this conversation, Whitney sits down with Ajay Kurian to talk about criticism, instinct, and what it means to build a practice around curiosity. They discuss magazines as art projects, the lag between cultural change and cultural criticism, and why making connections between unlikely people, scenes, and ideas can create something more exciting than simply reinforcing what already exists.
Whitney reflects on developing taste, not as something fixed or innate, but as something shaped through obsession, attention, and years of showing up. They talk about influence, authority, and the slow process of learning to trust your own perspective.
Throughout the conversation, Whitney returns to a tension that runs through both criticism and creative work: the pull between analysis and instinct, busyness and reflection, skepticism and hope.
What emerges isn’t a defense of optimism so much as a practice of remaining open. Believing that culture can still surprise you, that intensity is worth pursuing, and that staying curious might be one way of resisting disappointment.
Hosted by Ajay KurianEdited by Peter GroppeProduced by NewCrits
The Whitney Review of New Writing:
https://www.whitneyreview.org/
00:00 — Intro
04:50 — Running a Magazine by Instinct
09:20 — Taste, Influence, and Learning What You Like
15:10 — Building Unexpected Encounters
20:30 — Trusting Your Own Authority
27:15 — Information, Obsession, and Developing Taste
33:40 — Work as Practice
38:20 — Edging Burnout
43:45 — Busyness, Avoidance, and Personal Writing
49:30 — Disappointment, Intensity, and Staying Optimistic
55:15 — Criticism, Attention, and Cultural Delay
1:01:20 — The Internet, Institutions, and the Changing Role of Reviews
1:07:15 — Writing Without Permission
1:11:40 — Earnestness, Cynicism, and Seeing Through Things
1:16:20 — Breakthrough or Burnout
1:18:00 — Outro
Get full access to NewCrits Substack at newcrits.substack.com/subscribe
View all episodes
By with Ajay KurianSPENT: Episode Three | Whitney Mallet
Whitney Mallet has spent years moving through magazines, galleries, performances, readings, and the shifting ecosystems that surround contemporary culture - not as an observer standing outside of it, but as someone committed to paying attention.
In this conversation, Whitney sits down with Ajay Kurian to talk about criticism, instinct, and what it means to build a practice around curiosity. They discuss magazines as art projects, the lag between cultural change and cultural criticism, and why making connections between unlikely people, scenes, and ideas can create something more exciting than simply reinforcing what already exists.
Whitney reflects on developing taste, not as something fixed or innate, but as something shaped through obsession, attention, and years of showing up. They talk about influence, authority, and the slow process of learning to trust your own perspective.
Throughout the conversation, Whitney returns to a tension that runs through both criticism and creative work: the pull between analysis and instinct, busyness and reflection, skepticism and hope.
What emerges isn’t a defense of optimism so much as a practice of remaining open. Believing that culture can still surprise you, that intensity is worth pursuing, and that staying curious might be one way of resisting disappointment.
Hosted by Ajay KurianEdited by Peter GroppeProduced by NewCrits
The Whitney Review of New Writing:
https://www.whitneyreview.org/
00:00 — Intro
04:50 — Running a Magazine by Instinct
09:20 — Taste, Influence, and Learning What You Like
15:10 — Building Unexpected Encounters
20:30 — Trusting Your Own Authority
27:15 — Information, Obsession, and Developing Taste
33:40 — Work as Practice
38:20 — Edging Burnout
43:45 — Busyness, Avoidance, and Personal Writing
49:30 — Disappointment, Intensity, and Staying Optimistic
55:15 — Criticism, Attention, and Cultural Delay
1:01:20 — The Internet, Institutions, and the Changing Role of Reviews
1:07:15 — Writing Without Permission
1:11:40 — Earnestness, Cynicism, and Seeing Through Things
1:16:20 — Breakthrough or Burnout
1:18:00 — Outro
Get full access to NewCrits Substack at newcrits.substack.com/subscribe