My Internet: Carla Lalli Music
The Carla's Cooking Show host prefers not to use WiFi at home.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.
Most weeks, we quiz a “very online” person for their essential guide to what’s good on the internet.
Today we welcome Carla Lalli Music, the author of the New York Times bestseller That Sounds So Good and James Beard Award-winning cookbook, Where Cooking Begins. She hosts “Carla’s Cooking Show” on YouTube and recently launched a newsletter,
.Carla is reliving pandemic moments she’d rather forget thanks to the Instagram Stories memories feature, worries about what people who watch extraction videos are doing to their skin, and walks around her home with her laptop tethered to a 100-foot ethernet cable. —Nick
EMBEDDED: What’s a recent meme or other post that made you laugh?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Literally anything that includes someone playing an instrumental accompaniment to a dog howling so it turns into a song. Sorry for being basic.
Also, the entire trend of the TikToks set to Nicki Minaj’s “Roman’s Revenge.” I will laugh every time.
EMBEDDED: What shows up on your TikTok For You page?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Oh it’s a mess right now. I had a really incredible other TikTok account that I started in [coughs] 2020 that was private and separate and it didn’t know I had anything to do with food. It was a magical time: hours consuming things that were funny to me, joyful discovery of ordinary but hilarious humans. Months later I got locked out because I forgot the password and had never set a backup email, so that was the end of that.
I had to start over with a new account that I attached my name to. I spend way less time there, because it is currently serving home invasion, occult, people self-recording their layoffs via Zoom, The Office bloopers, and Meredith’s viral foundation technique. I am currently not willing to devote the hours it would take to correct these issues.
EMBEDDED: Has your Twitter experience changed since Elon Musk took over? What would it take for you to quit?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Yes, I made my account private because that’s what the privacy and security people said to do, and I set up accounts on Mastodon, Hive, and Post that I literally never look at. Secured my handle though! On Twitter, the trending topics now seem manufactured and fake, nothing is funny anymore, and Elon is a garbage person. Suggested posts in my timeline make me insane with rage. Nonetheless, I am proud of this moment:
When will I quit? Dunno. Is quiet quitting not enough for you people?
EMBEDDED: Have you found any good alternatives to Twitter?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Uh. I subscribe to a lot more Substacks now!
EMBEDDED: What do you use Instagram for?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Work, negative self talk, anxiety, and comparing myself to others in an unhealthy way. Oh, and now thanks to the “memories” thing in stories, also for reliving moments of the pandemic that I’d rather forget. I recently asked a friend who works in social media if I could go off Instagram for a month and devote that time to TikTok instead. She told me that was not a good strategy. A girl can dream!
EMBEDDED: What types of videos do you watch on YouTube?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Dogs getting baths; Trixie putting on makeup; abridged episodes of Intervention (why am I admitting this?); America’s Test Kitchen product reviews; Emma Chamberlain even though new videos are rare nowadays, and very recently, Soft White Underbelly, which is so dark, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to find something out about the guy who makes the videos that I don’t want to know. Also the one upload a week from RuPaul’s Drag Race that previews the upcoming episode, a nice little fix to tide me over! Oh, and a lot of Shorts of people getting chiropractic adjustments. ASMR for the back-cracking community.
I subscribe to a lot of food channels but the only ones I watch regularly are Chinese Food Demystified and Doobydobap (below), who is actually named Tina. She and I met in person one time when she was in NYC, and I adore her.
EMBEDDED: Have you had posts go viral? What is that experience like?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: See above re: Elon, one of my most liked tweets ever.
In the summer of 2021 I posted a photo on Instagram of my friends Molly Baz and Rick Martinez hugging, and it blew up (relatively speaking). I think we were all starved for human touch, and this image soothed that, but I’m sure it also hit a nerve with ex-fans of the BA Test Kitchen who missed seeing us together.
EMBEDDED: Who’s the coolest person who follows you?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: My son, Leo, who just took Instagram off his phone.
EMBEDDED: Who’s someone more people should follow?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: I am a huge fan of Nykita (@neoitgirl) on TikTok. She’s blown up of late, so maybe enough people ARE following her, but, still. She’s great. I came for the makeup tutorials and stayed for the trans-positivity. It’s always nice seeing someone you followed when they had like 11,000 followers get huge by just being themselves and doing their thing.
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EMBEDDED: Where do you tend to get your news?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: WNYC/NPR daily and Rachel Maddow, as a podcast, on Tuesday mornings, because she’s only on air on Mondays now. I’m in love with her. I also listen to the podcast version of Face the Nation on Sundays, usually when I’m making pasta e fagioli. Margaret Brennan is the GOAT, but sometimes I can’t stand listening to the politicians spin garbage and lies.
If I’m hanging out with my dad, who consumes news during all of his waking hours, he’ll fill me in on everything I missed. I basically stopped reading The New York Times a few months ago and haven’t had any issues keeping up with conversation when I go out, so.
EMBEDDED: What’s one positive media trend? What’s one negative trend?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Positive: The declining influence of legacy media.
Negative: If I were a dermatologist, I’d probably say too many people messing up their skin after watching all those extraction videos.
EMBEDDED: Are you into any podcasts right now? How and when do you usually listen?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Poog. Jacqueline and Kate, if you’re reading this: I love you.
EMBEDDED: When was the last time you browsed Pinterest? What for?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: A photo editor I once worked with described Pinterest this way: If it’s on the internet, it’s on Pinterest. So true. I have a private board with my sister, Nina Lalli, who was the prop stylist for both of my books, where we share vibes. We used it a lot for the mood board for the second book, That Sounds So Good. I have fun when I’m on it looking for something specific, but don’t think about it unless I have a specific purpose or project.
EMBEDDED: Do you typically start searches on Google, Reddit, TikTok, or another source? Have you tried AI-powered search on Bing or elsewhere?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Google. If I’m trying to figure out if I should make a video about a certain recipe or food, I’ll search on YouTube to see if there’s a ton out there already or nothing yet.
EMBEDDED: What most excites you about AI text and art generators? What most concerns you?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: My 7th grader used AI to write a research paper last semester, which was concerning lol. He got caught, obviously. I love when Siri does math for me, but they suck at so much else. I appreciate when my mail knows I want to respond, “Thanks for the update!” Exclamation point included. Generally, though, I’m not sure I have ethical concerns. Like, if they gain consciousness, we can revisit.
EMBEDDED: Do you have any predictions for cryptocurrency, the metaverse, and/or Web3?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: I am choosing of sound mind and body to not understand the metaverse and/or Web3. There was a minute when I felt stupid for not investing in cryptocurrency, but I don’t feel that way now! Keep your car filled with gas (or all charged up), that’s my advice for surviving the future.
EMBEDDED: Are you currently playing any games on your computer or phone?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: No, and why did I stop! Oh yeah to make room for those depressing Skid Row interviews on YouTube. I like dumb stuff like Ballz.
EMBEDDED: What’s your most-used messaging app?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: iMessage, though Signal was the MVP during the summer of 2020. I miss it.
EMBEDDED: Do any of your group chats have a name that you’re willing to share? What’s something that recently inspired debate in the chat?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: The thread with my parents, sister, our husbands, and phone-aged children is called “Our Side No Sports.” It used to be just “Our Side” but a couple of years ago my dad and brother in law were going on and ON about the playoff games or basketball and then the rest of us banned sports talk from the thread. Debate this week centered around whether or not my parents’ giant Samoyed dog would return after being missing for two hours in the recent Nor-easter. He loves snow. He eventually came back.
EMBEDDED: What’s your go-to emoji, and what does it mean to you?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Probably the tilted face sinking into a puddle, which means fuck my life.
EMBEDDED: Do you text people voice notes? If not, how do you feel about getting them?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Yes! LOOOOOVE to send and to receive.
EMBEDDED: What’s a playlist, song, album, or style of music you’ve listened to a lot lately?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Having a great time with Kid Cudi’s entire library, which transitions seamlessly from the gym to the kitchen to the late afternoon hype-up sessions I sometimes have with myself. Also Beyoncé’s Renaissance, it’s nothing short of majestic.
EMBEDDED: What’s your favorite non-social media app?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Tossup. For public transit: MYmta. If you had told younger me that it would be possible to know when the BUS was coming, she would have keeled over right then and there. The power! The freedom! The intense devastation when it arrives early and you miss it!
Then there’s ParkNYC. I am doing a thing where I leave the house without a credit card or cash and see how many days I can go with just my phone “wallet,” and the answer is: weeks. Paying for a metered parking spot while you’re still in the car? Exquisite. It sucks when the app is down, though, and this has resulted in me being ticketed at least once. But you know what, I wasn’t towed, and that’s what matters.
EMBEDDED: What’s the most basic internet thing that you love?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Okay this is truly embarrassing but no, I’m proud of it: I have a 100-foot long ethernet cable that I plug into my laptop so I can turn WiFi off and live a secure and stable online existence. I drag it around the house with me like a blankie and tell everyone I live with how great it is to be tethered. So grounding, highly recommend.
EMBEDDED: Is there any content you want but can’t seem to find anywhere online?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: Yes, but it’s a secret because I also plan to solve the omission.
EMBEDDED: What’s the last thing that brought you joy online?
CARLA LALLI MUSIC: I accidentally on purpose bought a six-pack of Mama Teav’s. Treat yourself.
Thanks Carla! Watch her show, subscribe to her newsletter, buy her books, and follow her on Instagram.
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