Welcome Wags!

You have excellent taste and a wicked wit. You are always on the hunt for the best diversions, and you are the Smarty Jones others seek out for advice on what to read, watch, and listen to. You’d very much like to have a good laugh again, and are well over tired old takes from wheezing legacy media, flimflam from digital hucksters, and the hectoring bile of 24/7 news and social platforms. You understand storytelling isn’t a sideshow, but fuel for an essential industry, and most importantly, food for every human soul.

I launched CultureWag because, after heading up entertainment content at a big legacy media brand, and then reinventing another brand as an editor-in-chief, I was having all of my most interesting and delightful conversations outside of work. The thing was, I wanted those conversations to be my work, because they were what lured me into this line of business to begin with. There’s nothing I like better than smart, funny people who are passionate about culture — high, medium, or deliciously low. If you can crack jokes about War & Peace and discuss Gossip Girl in deadly earnest, you’re my kind of Wag. That sort of conversation is endless fun, and it’s powerful, too.

Larkin, our CultureWag dog, is here to point you to great content in a very cluttered world. We send out a V.I.P. recommendation letter via culturewag.substack.com and publish longer takes on the culture business, and how entertainment, ideas, and politics intersect (among other things) here. BookWag, our weekly column from Bethanne Patrick, the Bookmaven, gives you all the best new reads. We hope to bring you a few insights and some laughter, and that you’ll want to join in.

At Wag Industries, our motto is expertise refined. If you want the inside track on the best that Hollywood and life have to offer, and are ready for a good time after so many long dark days, welcome home. You’ve earned it. 

JDH