Katie Kramer's Cultural Life
Rejoice! The CNBC Squawk Box and Squawk Pod producer shares her dazzling cultural treasures and reveals her cheeky shame over 5,213 reminders that she has not finished Ron Chernow's "Hamilton."
Prepare to take notes. You will want to know more as you read this edition of Now You Know. Guest Katie Kramer is senior producer of Squawk Box, CNBC’s essential morning business program, and producer and host on its companion podcast, Squawk Pod. Her cultural treasures include YouTube cooking videos, The Brownstone Boys, Sondheim, Tina Brown’s diaries, Ella and Dinah. You can see her at work in a video her podcast. Read on to learn what a television produces watches.
Favorite author or book.
The classic would have to be Jane Austen. I can -- and do -- read Austen over and over, liking different novels more at different times of my life and marveling that she wrote so crisply and with such power of observation over 200 years ago. I picture her with a pencil over stacks of papers in busy family homes, raising eyebrows at the local drama coming in and out. Contemporary, I’d say Ann Patchett. She writes gripping stories and characters – and she is funny!
The book you are reading.
The two at my bedside at the moment are “The Vanity Fair Diaries” by Tina Brown, which covers her decade running the magazine and is full of great, gossipy nuggets of 1980’s New York. I find myself rooting for her wins at the office, even though I already know it turned out pretty well. And the soon-to-be-released new version of “Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit & Wisdom of Charles Munger.” That one’s for my job; the longtime Vice Chair of Berkshire Hathaway speaks his mind simply and powerfully. He is turning 100 January 1st, 2024 and may be the best living example that purpose, work and curiosity keep you going.
[Here are Charlie Munger’s 20 book recommendations that will make you smarter.]
The book you couldn’t finish.
“White Teeth” by Zadie Smith. I tried ... I brought it on multiple airplane trips, over multiple years. I let it sit on the shelf as a shameful reminder of my short attention span for about a decade.
Also, I joined Goodreads in 2008 when a friend who had moved to a new job suggested we could all stay in touch with a kind of digital book club. (Clearly, this was before we understood Facebook!) So, I signed up and wrote I was reading Ron Chernow’s “Hamilton,” which I had just bought at Barnes & Noble. In the years since, I never added another book to my Goodreads profile and laugh whenever I get an auto-generated email from Goodreads that says/accuses something like: “you’ve been reading ‘Hamilton’ for 5,213 days.”
The book you’ve long intended to read but never get to.
Goodness, the list is long. Starting with what’s achievable: “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead. What may have to take a lifetime to do: “Middlemarch.”
Most memorable live performance.
In 2005, Symphony Space on the Upper West Side celebrated Stephen Sondheim’s 75th birthday with “Wall to Wall Sondheim,” a free 12-hour marathon of panels and songs featuring brilliant Broadway performers. Audience members, theoretically, could come in and out all day. But this one drew a crowd with a line that stretched around the block and the lucky ones inside were reluctant to give up their seats. A friend and I packed our pockets with water and bagels and joined the line early. We made it in a little after noon and held on to our two seats until the very end, jumping up for the two show-stopping standing ovations -- Angela Lansbury and Elaine Stritch -- and joining the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to the composer. He was Saturday-casual in a knit sweater, perfect for a party with old friends. I still think of bits of that day and the performances. Plus, the bagels we snuck in were delicious.
Your best binge.
I’ll do podcasts, since I listen to a lot during commutes and long drives – long drives cry out for a binge. I most regularly recommend “Sweet Bobby”– a crazy story of relationships in the digital era and family and a bunch of other things I don’t want to give away. Go listen! And I’m listening now to “Ghost Story.” It’s great – part true crime, part family secrets, part old-fashioned radio drama.
Favorite TV series.
I’ll watch all the prestige streaming stuff, but you can’t beat “Jeopardy” for consistency and for teaching its audience new things. I reconnected with it as a comfort watch during the pandemic and now record it to be able to have episodes on hand (yes, on a DVR. I’m sorry to be so old). I sit on the couch and yell out the answers.
A YouTube video you find yourself returning to.
Usually recipes, there’s a Pasta alla Gricia from America’s Test Kitchen that we first came across on a lonely socially-distanced day in 2020 and have made many times since. Treat yourself to a fancy pasta with ridges, it holds the sauce better.
Favorite piece of music.
For sheer beauty, Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major.
The music that cheers you up.
I love having American standards or jazz on in the background at home or on walks. I’ll happily listen to Ella Fitzgerald or Dinah Washington any day.
If you could own one painting it would be…..
Edward Hopper’s “Chop Suey.” His New York-set paintings are all so cinematic, you can almost feel the scene unfolding. I want to sit right down with those two women and ask about their days. And their hats!
The lyrics you wish you’d written.
The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Bob Dylan. Each verse has a different audience – from the public (Senators, Congressmen) to the personal (Mothers and Fathers). The metaphors and rhymes hit just right. It feels both immediate and like time travel to the 1960s.
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'
The poem/song that makes you wonder
Apologies that I was introduced to it via “Four Weddings and a Funeral” in the 90s, but “Funeral Blues” by W.H. Auden is just gorgeous writing. From what I’ve read, Auden wrote it as political satire, but he managed to present grief in simple and universal terms – its triggers are sometimes dramatic and sometimes mundane. I wonder about that; when did he know his joke was such a beautiful love poem?
The instrument you wish you’d learned to play.
Piano, it’s such an elegant instrument and those who play always look so alive at the keys. I played an uneven flute in middle and high school and while I enjoyed being able to do it -- practice was not a passion of mine.
Your guiltiest cultural pleasure.
Old house renovation Instagram accounts! I live in a modern Brooklyn apartment building, so I can’t get enough historic homes with layers of complications and architectural surprises. The Brownstone Boys are local and probably my favorite – they show thoughtful respect to the past but don’t end up with homes that feel like museums. I recently found The Great House Exmoor – a c. 1690 inn in England that does clever videos about finding centuries-old fireplace tiles hiding under 1970s finishes. Will there be antique wooden floors beneath that carpet? I will absolutely watch every second to find out.
You wasted an evening…….
Scrolling historic home renovation Instagram accounts!
Something that ought to be better known.
A recent discovery.
Newsletters. Ruth Reichl writes a great one on restaurants, food and life. She shares classic menus from events or places that don’t exist anymore. It’s a nice, cozy read.
Two podcasts you try not to miss.
The first one is easy – my own! We do a daily digest of CNBC’s Squawk Box in an approximately 30-minute version, called “Squawk Pod” (Available wherever you listen to podcasts), that I produce and regularly host. We offer the best guest discussions and analysis from the TV show -- plus additional context or reporter interviews -- for an audience that doesn’t necessarily have time to watch a 3-hour morning show but still values the information. We launched in late 2019 and figuring out how to do it ... and then figuring out how to do voiceover alone in my closet was quite the adventure. We’ve built an unusual news audio hybrid. I’m so proud we can get our coverage out to a modern audience, wherever and whenever they are.
And, I love “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me.” We listen on Sundays while cooking or doing chores around the house. Jokes, limericks, news quiz, it’s fun.
You’re having a fantasy dinner party, you’ll invite these guests…..
Ok, such a puzzle ... FDR and Ben Franklin for some good stories, Dorothy Parker for the jokes, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant for glamour. Can I suggest the location? Philip Johnson’s The Glass House would be perfect.
The place you feel happiest.
Outside, just before a late Great Lakes sunset in the height of summer, right when the lightning bugs come out.
The book, movie and/or television series that best depicts the life of a news producer.
Super dark and absolutely a satire, but “Network” captures the TV business in a definitive way that is hilarious and cringe-worthy. It was made in the mid-70s, but the story is scarily timeless. You could remake it today and hardly need to change a word in the script – just add iPhones!
And “The Morning Show” gets a lot right about the absurdity that can happen behind the scenes. But, the mechanics of the job and the news stories they cover never quite hit the mark.
Your inspiration for getting into the news business.
How many people say watching reruns of the Mary Tyler Moore Show on Nick at Nite?
Thank you, Katie Kramer.
*************************************************************************************************************
Christmas is at our throats again, Noel Coward observed. Here’s Ella to sort it out.