Input for the Depleted
Are you at inspiration rock bottom like me?
Check out my first post here to read more about the namesake of this newsletter and make a copy of the input/output tracking sheet if you so desire.
BUSINESS FIRST!
If you’re in the NYC area, I’m hosting author and TV writer Hallie Cantor’s book launch event at Greenlight Books in Brooklyn this Thursday, 4/9 at 7:30pm. RSVP for the event here—I read an advance copy of the novel and loved it so much I interviewed Hallie about it for the comedic fiction chapter in Inside Jokes. Come join us!
Another book I highly recommend came out last week—Mason Currey’s Making Art and Making a Living. I’ll be interviewing Mason about the book soon in this very newsletter! Beyond the fascinating subject matter (the various ways artists have funded their art over time) Mason weaves in his personal history as a writer and speaks honestly about how challenging this book was to write. If you like this newsletter or Mason’s previous books on daily rituals of artists, it’s right up your alley.
Input for the Depleted
We are fast approaching five years of working on Inside Jokes (we wrote and rewrote and revised a proposal before writing and rewriting and revising the book itself) and I am down to the very bottom of my inspiration barrel.
Nonfiction is not a natural mode of writing for me and although I’ve learned a lot in the process, I miss my fictional worlds and made-up satire pieces and using research willy-nilly in whatever way works for my speculative plots. But when I try to write fiction these days, it’s like a car with no gas—I push my mental pedal down, there’s a sputtering noise, and absolutely nothing happens.
Clearly, I need some input.
It’s been almost two years since I gave birth and only now (as numerous Reddit threads promised) is my appetite for movies, TV, theater, and “harder” books coming back (I mean, sure, I read a lot of books post-partum, but they were almost exclusively badly-written thrillers or well-written monster smut, so I wasn’t really working the ol’ synapses).
Here’s what I’m dipping into to consciously activate my brain these days:
Scripted TV: My husband and I are rewatching The Sopranos at night and this time (my third time through) I’m really noticing all the ways Tony uses what he learns in therapy to manipulate and abuse the people around him. The show has aged astonishingly well in many respects, and a sociopath deploying therapy speak to better manipulate people certainly feels relevant to 2026. Once I finish this rewatch (almost at season six) I will feel prepared to watch a show I’ve never seen before—drop recs in the comments.
Reality TV: I abandoned the Real Housewives a while ago and I truly believe Andy Cohen will never see heaven for his recasting sins, but as a native Rhode Islander I was contractually obligated to tune in to the premiere of The Real Housewives of Rhode Island.
My take: there is real potential here! The women know one another in real life and have long-held grudges, there is a blatant personality disorder amongst the cast (Jo-Ellen), as well as a sugar baby for a man who is the son of TV-famous judge who I grew up watching with my grandmother. This is a rich, rich text, and I was delighted to see one of my favorite short humor writers, Tom Smyth, recapping the series for Vulture:
Opera: In a hard segue from Real Housewives, I went with my husband and two friends to see the five-hour Tristan und Isolde at The Met last weekend (or “Irish Romeo and Juliet”), and I can certainly confirm it was five hours long! As someone with no understanding, background, or frankly, interest in opera, I was there for the vibes and some dissociation time in the darkness. German? Don’t understand it, despite my last name. Orchestration? I “played” the “oboe” for years in middle and high school and never even learned to sight read music, so I’m confident I don’t have an affinity for instruments. But sets, lighting, direction? Those are things I know about from my time writing, producing, and directing sketch shows in filthy Chicago and Portland theaters, so that’s what I focused on. The set was constructed like the iris of an eye, opening and closing, and it was mesmerizing. This article (gift link) expands on the inspiration behind the innovative staging and sets (including the movie version of American Psycho), and the below image made me gasp out loud when it appeared on stage. I pinned it to an inspiration board and will be thinking about it for a long time:
Live theater: I have tickets to see John Lithgow in Giant this weekend, a lighthearted play about Roald Dahl being an anti-Semite. And on Mother’s Day, I’m going to see Maya Rudolph maker her Broadway debut in Oh Mary! my very first time seeing it. I’ve heard so much about it from comedy people, I truly cannot wait. I need a good farce in my life!!
Movie: Project Hail Mary hit so hard in the theater—a pure popcorn movie that’s really just a buddy comedy in space. It was funny/corny, not scary at all, and the practical effects looked absolutely incredible. 2.5 hours flew by and I didn’t learn a single thing about relativity (complimentary). I would love to see it in IMax when they bring it back.
Books: Yeah, I read Adult Braces by Lindy West. As a scholar of the discourse I needed to engage with the primary text. There have been enough Substack takes on the book/the triad/the emails to Slate, so I’ll abstain, though I’ll say if you’ve been reading them all please try to buy the book too because she’s (hopefully) going to need money for a divorce lawyer.
I read the other buzzy memoir, Strangers by Belle Burden, and was left a bit cold. A lot of what people are praising as “spare writing” comes across to me as “lawyer-vetted writing,” and I didn’t find it satisfying emotionally. You can read the Modern Love column it’s build on and get the overall gist.
If you want to know more about the financial angle of the book (which is, to me, by far the most interesting), I recommend this video from The Financial Diet:
HATER’S CORNER: I also read an early copy of Yesteryear, which comes out tomorrow. Here’s the very good high concept premise:
A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.
I’m intrigued to talk to other people about it, and all I’ll say for now is it inspired me to draft an entire essay on how people classify novels as “satirical” when they are very much not.
“A bold and biting satire, Yesteryear…will have you cackling and gasping right to the final page.”
—Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid series
Disagree, Nita, disagree.
Congrats to the author for having such an excellent high concept premise; a little less congrats on the execution. I’ll be the first to admit that when that when I have a strong negative reaction to a book it usually means I’m jealous in some way, so I’ll be journaling about that this week!!
Internet reading:
My business boy Cal Newport is back with a great piece in TNY: “There’s a Good Reason You Can’t Concentrate” (gift link). Lot to chew on here, and I’ve been working on my own personal attention retraining program (sounds like a dystopian novel) that I plan to ramp up even more over the summer.
Yes, I am the prime audience for this piece as the mother to a toddler who demands the book via grunts numerous times a day, but this is such a well-done comedic monologue: “The Little Bunny From Goodnight Moon Accepts an Award.”
My favorite Onion piece of the last month, they do silly so, so well: “Sometimes Two People Just Fall Out of Cahoots.”
Out in the real world: We took my son to the Transit Museum a few weeks ago and WOW it’s a true joy to see a toddler realize they are in a wide open space FULL OF TRAINS. He’s never been happier, and their gift shop was excellent. The museum is in a working subway station which adds to the appeal, and the trains from the early 1900’s had rattan seats that were shockingly comfortable! This, the Tenement Museum, and the Frick would be my three smaller museum recs in the city.
Also in the real world—after ten years in Brooklyn in the same apartment, we’re (almost certainly, fingers crossed) moving to Queens next month. I love Brooklyn but I’ve become increasingly concerned about my personal economic indicator, the TSI (turkey sandwich index) hitting $18, so it’s time for a new borough. More on the move soon, but if you want a VERY CHEAP AND GOOD Peloton Tread and can come get it out of my apartment, let me know! Any Queens readers sound off and let me know what you love about your borough.
Please, give me some input (links, TV recs, Reddit threads, YouTube videos, books) in the comments, I am dying of empty brain
ABOUT ME: My name is Caitlin Kunkel and I’m a writer, teacher, and creator of The Second City’s Satire Writing Program. I co-founded The Belladonna Comedy and the Satire and Humor Festival, and co-wrote the satirical gift book NEW EROTICA FOR FEMINISTS. My second book, INSIDE JOKES: A COMEDY AND CREATIVITY GUIDE FOR ALL WRITERS is out March 2026.
Queens Team!! For a good kid-friendly-meets-adult-fun hang, highly recommend a spring/summer visit to the New York Hall of Science followed by being the first people at the Queens Night Market (in the field by the parking lot) when they open at 4 pm
Your description of the Sopranos is the first thing I've heard about it to truly peak my interest! Severance and Andor were my TV favorites of the past couple years 📺