Steven Phillips-Horst

Steven Phillips-Horst on Leaving Your Door Unlocked, Marvel’s Spider-Man (PS4, 2018), Never Douching, and more.

April 19, 2023

By clicking "SUBSCRIBE" you agree to our Terms and Privacy conditions.

—

Steven Phillips-Horst is a Boston-born, Queens-based writer and podcaster. His hilarious & unhinged podcast, which is co-hosted by Lily Marotta, is called ‘Celebrity Book Club’ and dives into the celebrity memoirs of people like Paris Hilton, Anna Kendrick, Nora Ephron, and Barbara Corcoran. His very popular column, ‘Talk Hole’, is currently on hiatus since Gawker went out of business, but they’ll be back soon. In the meantime you can check out the videos they made at Art:Basel Miami, Steven’s appearance on ‘The Adam Friedland Show’, or his recent piece in Mr Porter. Lucky for us, Steven is here to tell us what he’s been into.

🏠

Apartment Swapping

If you live in an expensive, desirable place like New York City or Key Largo, try swapping apartments with a young freelancer in a Tier 4 city who probably lives in a massive loft. For free. Put your performative Airbnb guilt to good use—take a midcation!

🕳️

Never Douching

Your ass doesn’t need to be a paved tunnel. Some of these gays douche the second they wake up, just in case they get fucked on the way to Starbucks. It’s so transactional. Live in the moment!

🚧

@health_and_safety (Instagram account)

Epic construction fails, men doing crazy unsafe jobs, and occasional near-death misses. It’s a testament to the chaos of society, the benefits of regulation, the pratfalls of development, and the fragility of humanity. Call it manual labor fetishism, but it’s good to see real men doing things and be reminded of how weak you are.

🎧

Audio Quality

If you have the temerity to start a podcast in this economy, I would encourage you to google things like “Noise Gate,” Compressor,” “De-Esser,” and “best EQ settings for spoken word.” Good luck!

🤠

KFM (Podcast)

This is a hybrid talk/country music radio show and I can’t believe it’s taken society this long to make something this good. I love hearing new tracks from C-list Nasvhille chicas mixed with slacker-savant host Sam Buck’s roving commentary on topics like Brittany Aldean totally shitting the bed on her Tucker Carlson appearance. Saddle up!

🚪

Leaving Your Door Unlocked

What are you afraid of? You think someone’s gonna kill you? Don’t flatter yourself.

📖

What Are The Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO (Audiobook)

The MyPillow guy’s self-published memoir, read aloud in his thick Minnesotan accent. He’s a professional card counter, constantly $80k in the hole, blowing coke in his Chevy, chased by cops, threatened by drug dealers in Mexico, all while running 3 bars in greater Minneapolis. And that’s before he invents the pillow.

🧠

This Jungian Life (Podcast)

I think my analyst is Freudian, but I have a soft spot for Jung because my parents are from LA. I love hearing analysts use terms like “the imp of the perverse” to talk about procrastination. I especially love the dream analysis, where they’ll tell some random guy the burning hearth in his dream means he’s taking on a feminine role in his marriage.

📺

Couples Therapy (on Showtime)

A groundbreaking reality show that will 100% force you to realize you, too, are constantly reenacting childhood family dynamics with your current partner. Watch with your husband to see how strong your marriage is.

🎨

Marvel’s Spider-Man (PS4, 2018)

When people say “video games are art” they usually mean Death Stranding, or some other cinematic opus with adult themes (bisexual characters). I mean this children’s game. Webslinging through Manhattan at 100 mph—soaring above midtown’s concrete canopy then swandiving through its glass canyons—it’s balletic, liberating, a fusion of viewer and subject that only the medium of video games can provide.

PERFECTLY IMPERFECT IS A CULT FAVORITE NEWSLETTER AND AN APP FOR YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS

We've interviewed guests like Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo, Francis Ford Coppola, Charli XCX, Ayo Edebiri, Michael Imperioli, Emma Chamberlain, Clairo, Ice Spice, Molly Ringwald, Weyes Blood, Jeremy O. Harris, Conner O'Malley, Rayne Fisher Quann, Julian Casablancas, Alexa Chung, Mac Demarco, Moses Sumney, Omar Apollo, Suki Waterhouse, Narwuar, The Dare, and hundreds more in the Perfectly Imperfect Archive.

The history of PI is well-documented by The New York Times, NYMag, Vanity Fair, Interview Mag, Flaunt, Office, The Verge, and NPR.

Steven Phillips-Horst

RELATED

Perfectly Imperfect