My Internet: Sean Fennessey
The Big Picture co-host is uncomfortable with the reach of his voice.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.
Every other week (or so) we quiz a “very online” person for their essential guide to what’s good on the internet.
Today we welcome Sean Fennessey, co-host of The Big Picture podcast and an editor at The Ringer since its founding in October 2015. He recently launched a newsletter, Projections. Sean feels degraded using TikTok and searches eBay almost everyday for rare Blu-rays. —Nick
EMBEDDED: What’s a recent meme or post that made you laugh?
SEAN FENNESSEY:
EMBEDDED: Do you tweet? Why?
SEAN FENNESSEY: I do. I’ve been there since 2009. I’ve nicely curated my algorithm so it’s confined to movies and the Mets-Knicks-Jets. I never blocked a single person for more than a decade. But since the platform changed ownership, I block anyone I find annoying. It’s the only healthy way for me to be there.
EMBEDDED: What do you use Instagram for?
SEAN FENNESSEY: Promoting podcasts, posting physical media stacks, and sharing photos of my five-year-old with friends and family.
EMBEDDED: What do you like about TikTok? What do you dislike?
SEAN FENNESSEY: Not a user. I feel degraded using it.
EMBEDDED: Do you watch Twitch, Kick, or any other livestreaming services? If so, which streamers?
SEAN FENNESSEY: No.
EMBEDDED: Where do you tend to get your news?
SEAN FENNESSEY: The New York Times, The Wall St. Journal, texts from Chris Ryan.
EMBEDDED: How do you keep up with the online discourse? How important is it to you to do this?
SEAN FENNESSEY: For my particular corner of the world, movie news, it’s essential. So I’m on social media, I read the trades, lots of criticism. It can curdle after looking at the same argument loop for more than a day, but I think having a sense of the reception of certain things can be helpful for making our show.
EMBEDDED: What’s the last strong opinion you had about a story, topic, or controversy online?
SEAN FENNESSEY: I feel Victor Wembanyama should have spent a single night in prison for his assault of Jalen Brunson.
EMBEDDED: What’s a popular misconception that you see repeated online?
SEAN FENNESSEY: About me: That I don’t like Christopher Nolan! Lots of Rewatchables listeners crying because I don’t care for Inception or Interstellar. And I don’t really care for those movies.
EMBEDDED: What are your favorite newsletters?
SEAN FENNESSEY: Mets Fix, GOOD MOVIE, What I’m Hearing.
EMBEDDED: How do you think Substack has changed media, if at all?
SEAN FENNESSEY: There are many ways, but I’ll note the one that has resonated for me. I think it has supercharged writers and thinkers with a foothold and allowed a genuinely unique relationship between reader and writer to concretize. Part of that uniqueness is that there is a transaction that feels akin to how a sidewalk caricaturist works—the artist draws the subject in his own image the same way Substackers respond to what subscribers like in their work and iterate around that without a filter or systemic blockade. As a person working in traditional media for 20+ years it’s a historic shift.
EMBEDDED: How would you describe the culture of Substack, in terms of the types of writing and thinking that it has encouraged?
SEAN FENNESSEY: I don’t think I’m yet entrenched enough to classify it. I’m very focused on my own interests and the microcommunities formed around things like Mets fandom (which is frequently exasperated and hostile). I do think there’s a fusion of the colloquial “Hey dudes…” blogging ethic of the ’00s and the “I’m getting paid for this” formalism of trad media that feels like something new creatively. There’s lots of quant chart interest for visual learners, and also lots of freewheeling emotional essaying. So it all feels unsettled.
EMBEDDED: What’s one positive media trend? What’s one negative trend?
SEAN FENNESSEY: I love readers/listeners/viewers being able to support the work of individuals. This felt impossible when I was getting out of college. There’s a completely new path to sustainability.
I don’t like private equity buying media organizations to dismantle them over time.
EMBEDDED: Have you found Claude, ChatGPT, or any other AI tools useful? How so?
SEAN FENNESSEY: Don’t use ‘em, not interested. Researching and writing through my thoughts, whether it’s a podcast or a written piece, is an essential part of my process.
EMBEDDED: Are smartphones bad for us? Where do you fall on the Jonathan Haidt-Taylor Lorenz divide?
SEAN FENNESSEY: I try not to be a technology alarmist, but I don’t feel good about what it’s doing to me individually.
EMBEDDED: Do you try to limit your phone use? If so, what methods have been helpful for this?
SEAN FENNESSEY: Some days yes, some days no. Simply placing my phone in another room—during meals, while watching a film, playing outside with my daughter—goes a long way.
EMBEDDED: What’s something that you have observed about the online behavior of Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and/or Boomers?
SEAN FENNESSEY: The internet makes everyone unwell. We’re more alike than we are different.
EMBEDDED: How do you find recommendations for what to watch, read, and listen to?
SEAN FENNESSEY: I feel I have accumulated enough recommendations at this point and am trying to cut through the my watch/read lists. I have 100s of Blu-rays sitting here unwatched. And forget about books. Charles Portis’ Norwood has been staring at me on a shelf for 10 years. One day.
EMBEDDED: Have you had posts go viral? What is that experience like?
SEAN FENNESSEY: Sure. It’s annoying. I’m already uncomfortable with the reach of my voice at this point. Unfortunately I am an inveterate poster, and so sometimes you hit one clean. Just mute the thread and move on.
EMBEDDED: Who’s the coolest person who follows you?
SEAN FENNESSEY: Amanda Dobbins.
EMBEDDED: Who’s someone more people should follow?
SEAN FENNESSEY: More people should read Tyler Parker.
EMBEDDED: Which big celebrity has your favorite internet presence, and why?
SEAN FENNESSEY: Francis Ford Coppola is pretty wholesome and positive. Paul Schrader is operating in another stratosphere.
EMBEDDED: Are you into any podcasts right now? How and when do you usually listen?
SEAN FENNESSEY: Lol. I am always listening to a podcast. I listen in my car, in my house, doing the dishes, while compiling lists, managing Letterboxd. We make a lot of podcasts at The Ringer.
EMBEDDED: How would you describe Tumblr’s legacy?
SEAN FENNESSEY: Dwindling, but we don’t forget the power of posting images without context that were deeply meaningful to us. brokedownpalace.tumblr.com, real ones know.
EMBEDDED: Do you use Slack or Teams for work? What’s the best thing about Slacking with your co-workers? What’s the worst thing?
SEAN FENNESSEY: I used it vigorously for years, but have since mostly disassociated. It necessitates too much attention—it’s all the worst parts of texting with few of the benefits.
EMBEDDED: What is your Wordle starting word?
SEAN FENNESSEY: “wrist”
EMBEDDED: What words or phrases do you have muted?
SEAN FENNESSEY: There’s one proper name I think most people can safely assume.
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?
SEAN FENNESSEY: My movie- and physical media-obsessed chain with some prominent podcasters, actors, writers, and filmmakers is called “News and Deals,” titled as such because when Blu-rays go on sale, we all race to the thread.
I was also proud to be a member of “The Knicks Shiva” with several other psychotic Knicks fans. The name has since been rechristened “Knicks Wear Shiny Rings.” And they certainly do.
EMBEDDED: What’s your go-to emoji, and what does it mean to you?
SEAN FENNESSEY: 😈😈😈😈😈😈
Always my response when I attempt to reverse-jinx something and it comes true.
EMBEDDED: Do you text people voice notes? If not, how do you feel about getting them?
SEAN FENNESSEY: I receive them, but never send. This might sound strange, but as a podcaster, I feel people are hearing from me plenty.
EMBEDDED: Do you pay for a music streaming service, and if so, which one? What’s a playlist, song, album, or style of music you’ve listened to a lot lately?
SEAN FENNESSEY: I work for Spotify, so yes. I made a playlist in 2012 called “Triangle Inside of Square” that features some avant-garde and leftfield composers and songwriters, including Iannis Xenakis, Popul Vuh, Fennesz, Steve Reich, Oneohtrix point never, Goblin, Cornelius, and Forest Swords. It’s my go-to writing music lately. Discordance drives me to finish the work.
I also listen to Fiona Apple’s entire catalog about once a month. She’s my favorite singer-songwriter.
EMBEDDED: If you could only keep one streaming service for TV and/or movies, which would it be, and why? What’s a show that you’re really into right now?
SEAN FENNESSEY: The Criterion Channel, the greatest streaming service in the world.
Loving Widow’s Bay on Apple TV+, the rare horror-comedy fusion that understands the intrinsic connectivity between the feelings of fear and laughter.
EMBEDDED: What’s your favorite non-social media app?
SEAN FENNESSEY: AMC Theatres app! I’m an A-List member who is constantly perusing showtimes for reasons both professional and personal.
EMBEDDED: What’s the most basic internet thing that you love?
SEAN FENNESSEY: boxofficemojo.com—an imperfect and yet invaluable resource.
EMBEDDED: Do you regularly use eBay, Depop, or other shopping platforms? What’s a recent thing you’ve bought or sold?
SEAN FENNESSEY: I look at eBay almost everyday for rare Blu-rays. It’s a gift.
EMBEDDED: Do you consume any content about fitness, diet, or other types of “wellness”? What creators or sites do you find most useful?
SEAN FENNESSEY: Literally none, proudly! (My wife is a very conscientious consumer of sites like this and meaningfully improves my life everyday.)
EMBEDDED: What’s the last thing that brought you joy online?
SEAN FENNESSEY: The trunkful of Knicks championship gear I bought online after their victory.
Thanks Sean! Subscribe to his podcast and his newsletter.
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