What Meow Wolfers Are Consuming

Have you recently just finished your twentieth rewatch of The Sopranos and now you’re like, “Well, what do I consume now? I have been making and making and making and now it is time for me to refuel with something new to give me a new creative jolt? But I know The Sopranos by heart so what could I possibly listen to/watch/read?” I have too, which is why I took the time to ask some of my coworkers what they’ve been listening to/watching/reading lately, to get me out of my constant nostalgia feedback loop. 

I chose to ask people who I both personally and professionally adore to pieces, including myself. These coworkers are all inherently cool and clever and talented and are generous enough to share those features with Meow Wolf. I interviewed our marketing creative director and incredible muralist, Kat Lam; our brand creative lead and wood-whittling hobbyist Phil Jones; the sweetest angel you’ll ever meet Anna Isenberg, who is the Visitor Services Coordinator for Meow Wolf Santa Fe; and a fan favorite as well as our best dressed Han Santana-Sayles, our Director of Artist Collaboration. Their answers were predictably flawless, and so I felt it would be cool to share them all with you! Here are what some Meow Wolfers have been consuming lately:

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‍What have you been listening to lately?

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Kat Lam: LOTS of UK Jazz: Yussef Dayes, Tom Misch, Obongjayar to name a few.

‍Anna Isenberg: My two current hyperfixation songs are Small Red Boy by AJJ and Good Kisser by Lake Street Drive. I also listen to a lot of DND podcasts since I'm that guy - Specifically the Balance arc of The Adventure Zone, and Dimension 20's Neverafter.‍

‍Phil Jones: I've been listening to Mother Earth's Plantasia by Mort Garson on a loop recently. My plants love it and I'm rendered helpless to anything created on a Moog Synth.  

‍Quinn Fati: The new Fever Ray album, Radical Romantics, Yaeji's album With a Hammer, and this experimental Persian artist who works in traditional instruments that he puts through pedals and modalities or whatever, his name is Sote, the album is Parallel Persia.

‍Han Santana-Sayles: I’ve been listening to a podcast called “Aware and Aggravated”.

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‍Which shows or movies have you watched recently and loved?

Kat Lam: Jo Koy's stand up. This is the opposite of what you asked but I saw Cocaine Bear and it's the worst movie I've ever seen.

‍Anna Isenberg: Season 2 of Shadow and Bone has consumed my entire identity. I'm also rewatching Arrested Development because it's so good and comforting lol. 

‍Phil Jones: Recently I've been on a steady diet of 90's shows with stilted dialogue. At the top of that list has been Renegade featuring the bad-boy hunk Lorenzo Lamas as an ex-cop turned bounty hunter. It's terrible and I can't get enough of it. 

‍Quinn Fati: I watched In Fabric recently and that was honestly such a treat. Scratches a weird itch for horror and flowery language and saturated colors that I crave. 

‍Han Santana-Sayles: The last movie I really liked was an anime called “Paprika” by Satoshi Kon.

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Any books you’re reading right now?

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Kat Lam: The Therapeutic Uses of Rap and Hip-Hop (just finished Empire of Pain and re-read Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind).

‍Anna Isenberg: Leigh Bardugo (who wrote Shadow and Bone) just released the second book of her separate series called Hell Bent which is phenomenal!

‍Phil Jones: When I'm winding down in the evening, I like to dig through the archives of Better Homes and Gardens. I love reading about the problems, issues, and concerns that kept 1940's housewives up at night. 

‍Quinn Fati: I've been taking my time with Salman Rushdie's Joseph Anton (which is an autobiographical piece on when he was in hiding after he had fatwā declared on him in the 90s), Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature, and Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Manhunt which is beyond my wildest horrifying dreams.

‍Han Santana-Sayles: I’m reading two books: Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey and 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled by Kala Ambrose.

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‍What has occupied your thoughts?

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Kat Lam: The ocean and how happy it makes me. Also I’ve been thinking about how people are like bodies of water. Some of us are as deep as oceans and are here forever while others have moderate depths that flow in a singular path like a river. There are so many different ways to describe people. I just try to keep my distance from all the puddle people out there—ya know the type. They’re very shallow and tend to disappear after just a short time.

‍Anna Isenberg: A lot, trans rights, LGBTQ rights as a whole. How I can further support marginalized communities while living paycheck to paycheck myself, ADHD and organization, therapy, and just a lot of jumble. LOL, it's a time. 

‍Phil Jones: I've been thinking about the history and purpose behind cautionary tales and how everyone's advice is a form of this storytelling construct. 

‍Quinn Fati: The malleability of wood and sticks, body fluidity, and light projections.

‍Han Santana-Sayles: I’ve been thinking about how to respect my own feelings. Grief has put all of my feelings so close to the surface; emotions I was once able to bury are a maple leaf’s width away from emerging. Part of my journey of expansion through grief is learning to look inward and comfort myself through huge emotions. I’ve meditated on how loving oneself means actions of love, one of which is believing my own feelings, and respecting and protecting the way I feel. It sounds so basic but many of us are put in positions of repression from early ages, or perhaps we just need to integrate into society, and we learn to put our feelings on a shelf. I’m finding that once you awaken to those emotions they don’t want to be buried again. It’s a powerful act of acceptance and love to welcome them back in.

Oh, and I've been thinking about how to keep my cat from being such an amazing bird-killer. Like, damn! I have saved many creatures from her jaws of death!