My all-time favorite movies, TV, books & albums - Ep 105
A few weeks ago, I was having coffee with my friends from high school when my friend Artoun posed a deceptively simple question:
What is your TV Mount Rushmore? Essentially, what are your top four TV shows of all time?
No objective critics allowed, no strict rules—just pure, unfiltered personal taste.
I am a firm believer that a person’s favorite media says everything about who they are and I’ve been sitting on this question, letting it marinate, because I knew it would make the perfect podcast episode.
Today, we are settling the score. Not only am I giving you my definitive TV choices in real time, but I'm also expanding the game to three other categories: Movies, Albums, and Books.
Create & consume:
What Austen is creating: partnership with the Central Park Conservancy!
What Austen is consuming: The Curly Tie by Sleepy Tie, still on a mission to find a heatless curls method that works
In this episode:
Movies
We are starting with the list I locked in immediately.
I’ll be the first to admit it: my taste in movies is incredibly basic. I don’t see a ton of films, and I will choose a TV series over a movie ten times out of ten.
But when I do love a movie, I rewatch it into oblivion.
My Movie Mount Rushmore is pure, nostalgic comfort:
Clueless (the perfect Jane Austen 90’s adaptation)
The Devil Wears Prada (prestige comfort)
27 Dresses (the ultimate rom-com)
National Treasure (peak cinema)
Albums
Moving on to music, this list came together surprisingly fast, though the honorable mentions list could stretch for miles.
My top four represent distinct eras of my life that completely shaped my taste.
The Core Four:
Taylor Swift – folklore
Green Day – American Idiot
Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster
Avril Lavigne – Let Go
Honorable Mentions: Lorde’s Melodrama, Ellie Goulding’s Halcyon Days, Imagine Dragons’ Night Visions, Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving, The Killers’ Hot Fuss, and of course, the cultural reset that was Metamorphosis by Hilary Duff.
Also if you want to hear me rank every Taylor Swift album, you can listen to that dedicated episode.
Books
For books, I couldn't just pick one vibe. To make it a true Mount Rushmore, I had to look across genres to see which books left the most permanent marks on my brain.
Memoir/Nonfiction: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (Devastating, gorgeous, essential)
Romance: Every Summer After by Carley Fortune (The ultimate nostalgic summer romance)
Literary Fiction: This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub (Time travel, family, and so much heart)
Business: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (The Nike origin story that reads like a thriller)
Honorable Mentions: Book Lovers by Emily Henry, Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, and Atomic Habits by James Clear.
TV shows
Finally, we arrive at the question that started it all—and the one I struggled with the most. When building a TV Mount Rushmore, do you go for balance (a little comedy, a little drama, a little reality), or do you go for pure comfort?
I had to look at the board of contenders:
The Comfort Watches: Gossip Girl, Gilmore Girls, Felicity, Psych, The Summer I Turned Pretty, Sex and the City
Makes You Think: White Collar, The Good Place, Paradise
Reality Obsessions: The Traitors, The Amazing Race, The Bachelor, Love is Blind, Project Runway
30-Minute Comedies: 30 Rock, Brooklyn 99, Silicon Valley
My definitive TV Mount Rushmore:
The Good Place (The most perfect, tightly written four seasons of television ever made)
30 Rock (For the endless, rapid-fire joke density)
Gossip Girl (For the formative, chaotic high-fashion nostalgia)
The Traitors (Because modern reality TV has reached its absolute peak performance here)
Summary:
There you have it—my definitive pop culture Mount Rushmores. Now it's your turn.
Drop your top four in the comments, or shoot us a DM on Instagram @createandconsumepod. I want to see your lists!
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