MOPC is a majority-female collective, composed of four highly decorated, award-winning female pop-culture writers (plus one man, just to mix things up a bit), devoted to in-depth cultural reporting.
Ministry of Pop Culture was born out of a writers’ group formed during the pandemic. Five writers—Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, Saul Austerlitz, Erin Carlson, Thea Glassman, and Kirthana Ramisetti— gathered together monthly via Zoom to share the loose outlines of story pitches. Often, it was the pitches that didn’t sell that seemed the most appealing—too quirky, too nerdy, too personal, without a hard peg or a major celebrity tie-in. We wanted a place to share our own stories, and Ministry of Pop Culture was the result.
At the Ministry, all of pop culture matters, whether it happened 50 years ago, 20 years ago, or yesterday. We’re not interested in hot takes for clicks, but we are interested in cold takes with hindsight. Here, history matters, issues matter, and most of all, pop culture’s deep and lasting effects on our lives matter.
(For more on our origin story, check out this post at Attention Economy.)
Why subscribe?
Our team of cultural ministers will publish twice a week, offering a mix of original reporting and expert analysis. Modeled after writer-run collectives like Defector and Flaming Hydra, Ministry of Pop Culture seeks to offer a new model for smart, engaging cultural coverage, bringing together five authors who have written a combined 20 books, and whose work has been published in outlets including the New York Times, The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, BBC Culture, Vulture, Slate, The New Republic, Los Angeles Times, Elle, and Salon to form a pop-culture Avengers, if the Avengers were actually cool.
With so much cultural coverage turned over to aggregation and clickbait, we wanted to form a publication that would offer readers something fresh. Journalism is at a crossroads. It is time for something new. Why not visit the Ministry of Pop Culture and stamp your passport for something different?
And! We’re offering a ton of valuable bonuses for people who become Founding Members now, helping us to establish an active community of folks who find meaning in pop culture.
Founding Members will get a choice of:
a five-pack of signed books, one of from each of our founders.
a critique of your query letter or first five pages of your novel (from Kirthana)
a 20-minute Zoom to offer writing and publishing advice (from Kirthana)
a 30-minute in-person or virtual Zoom with your book club + annotated copy of the book selected for the book club (from Kirthana)
a trivia night hosted at the location of your choosing if based in NYC (or via Zoom if outside NYC!), This minister's specialties are Gilmore Girls, Friends, The Office, Schitt's Creek, Sex and the City, Dawson's Creek and The Mindy Project. Pick your favorite and come prepared for—according to previous feedback—quite possibly the hardest, funnest round of trivia ever. (from Thea)
a 30-minute Zoom to offer advice on freelance journalism and chat through your pitches. We'll flesh out ideas and discuss the best outlets to get them placed! (from Thea)
a list of five personalized pop culture recommendations, based on what you tell me you already like. (from Jennifer)
a 30-minute Zoom AMA about one of my books of your choice (Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted, Seinfeldia, Sex and the City and Us, Pop Star Goddesses, When Women Invented Television, So Fetch, or the forthcoming Parks and Rec). (from Jennifer)
a 30-minute Zoom about one of my books of your choice (I’ll Have What She’s Having, Queen Meryl, or No Crying in Baseball). (from Erin)
an annotated copy of one of my books. (from Erin)
A 30-minute Zoom or in-person meeting to talk about careers in writing or the arts. (from Saul)
A personalized pep talk designed to pump you up about whatever’s getting you down. (from Saul)
A 30-minute discussion about your book idea. (from Saul)
(To receive your Founding Member bonus, send your receipt and your selection to ministryofpopculture24@gmail.com.)
Who Are the Ministers?
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, Minister of Enlightened Analysis and Heartfelt Recommendations
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong's writing takes readers behind the scenes of major moments in pop culture history and examines the lasting impact that our favorite TV shows, music, and movies have on our society and psyches. She investigates why pop culture matters deeply, from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Seinfeld, to Sex and the City and Mean Girls, to Beyoncé, Taylor, and Barbie. Her nine books include the New York Times bestseller Seinfeldia, When Women Invented Television, So Fetch, and the forthcoming Parks and Rec. Her favorite recent pieces include a contemplation of Britney Spears' head-shaving as a radical spiritual act and an argument for more death on TV. She's currently rewatching Six Feet Under, loves Cowboy Carter, recently fell in love with the band Nicotine Dolls through their covers on Instagram, and is more Midnights than Tortured Poets.
Saul Austerlitz, Minister of Dumb Comedy and Smart Politics
Saul Austerlitz is the author of six books, including Kind of a Big Deal: How Anchorman Stayed Classy and Became the Most Iconic Comedy of the Twenty-FIrst Century, which was selected by New York magazine as the best comedy book of 2023, and Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era. His favorite recent story he’s worked on was about the Apple commercial “1984.” He has been accused by his children of “liking nine-hour Ukrainian movies,” which…fair. Recent favorites include We Are Lady Parts, the Max docuseries One South, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses, and Kevin Baker’s book about baseball, The New York Game.
Erin Carlson, Minister of Lowbrow Phenomena
Erin Carlson is a journalist and author of nonfiction books about movies and the people who make them. They include the USA Today-bestseller No Crying in Baseball, Queen Meryl and I'll Have What She's Having. Her work appears in outlets such as Vanity Fair, The Cut, The Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter and her personal newsletter, You've Got Mail, which she named after her favorite movie. She's currently watching The Bear and Bridgerton.
Thea Glassman, Minister of Cozy Nostalgia
Thea Glassman is the author of the book Freaks, Gleeks and Dawson's Creek, a behind-the-scenes deep dive into the making of seven groundbreaking teen television shows. Her forthcoming book, Who's That Girl: The Definitive History of New Girl, will be released by Macmillan in 2026. If you cracked her open, you'd find Stars Hollow in the winter, Nora Ephron's New York City in the fall and Schitt's Creek all year long.
Kirthana Ramisetti, Minister of Storytelling
Kirthana Ramisetti is the author of Dava Shastri's Last Day, a Good Morning America Book Club selection optioned by Max, Advika and the Hollywood Wives, a Book of the Month pick, and The Other Lata, which will be published in April 2025. She worked on these novels while rewatching Mad Men, Gilmore Girls, The Good Wife and multiple Bravo shows, so it might not be surprising to learn she keeps a Steven Soderbergh-inspired diary of everything she reads and watches. But it is surprising (even to her) that she co-wrote a song inspired by her debut novel, which can be heard here.
Recent favorite pieces include advocating for And Just Like That to bring back Carrie Bradshaw's writing career and riding the author roller coaster with the help of Olivia Newton John.
