MediaDiet: Nick Ritchie
Nick Ritchie is reluctantly online
Nick studied journalism and anthropology, which is to say he trained to observe systems and tell stories… then opted out of both almost entirely.
Instead, he works in climate, energy and environmental policy for government, which feels like a fairly logical outcome for someone who still loves social science but has made peace with the idea that traditional journalism is in its death throes “because of the likes of Murdoch, Bezos, Musk and Ellison buying up everything we see and read”.
He knows other things too. He knows our brains weren’t designed to absorb the full spectrum of human suffering via Instagram Reels before coffee. He knows reading five pages of a new book on his balcony is a far better alternative. He knows to quell his media intake before a serious work meeting. And most of all, he knows Lonesome Dove is the best book ever written.
This is a MediaDiet informed by systems thinking, scepticism and bouts of restraint. Nick knows life’s about knowing what deserves your focus, and knowing exactly when you’re about to lose it.
Let’s poodle on in, shall we?
Wake up
Unfortunately, I have developed a habit of doomscrolling a bit first thing, but I’m really aiming to change that this year. I don’t particularly think our brains were designed to cope with the full spectrum of human suffering and emotion within the first five minutes of waking up.
On my best mornings, however, I sit on my balcony and read five pages of whichever non-fiction book I’m currently invested in, which at the moment is This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein (I save fiction for the evenings).
Oh, and I listen to the 7am Podcast and Full Story by The Guardian as I get coffee and make brekkie.
Morning
I generally work from home, so the above kind of covers it. But on days when I do have to catch the train or bus into the office, I’ll probs flick on another pod. For longer journeys I like ABC’s Big Ideas or Modern Confusion – the latter which is two of my American mates just talking a bunch of shit… mostly about pop culture, sport and some politics. It’s very US-heavy but they have a good dynamic and, well, I love them.
Afternoon
My days can be intense work-wise so I try to physically distance myself from my phone for fear of getting distracted by low-quality-memes or going down an Epstein rabbit-hole five mins before I have a serious meeting. That means my daily media consumption is generally sparse until about 5pm.
After that though? I definitely spend a bit too much time melting my prefrontal cortex on Instagram.
Evening
My late evenings are media heavy for sure. After faffing about in the gym and making dinner, I’ll likely watch some TV with my partner and then read. Best show I’ve seen in a long time is Slow Horses; I also re-watched the first season of True Detective recently and was reminded how good that Harrelson/McConaughey pairing was.
At the moment my bedtime book is Juice by Tim Winton. I’m enjoying it enough, but one fiction novel I think EVERYONE should read is Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. It’s a Western epic saga. It’s like 800 pages, and the character development drags on a bit, but I mourned finishing that book like nothing else. Somedays I wish I could go back in time to invest in Bitcoin AND to re-read Lonesome Dove.
Nick’s Picks & Recs
SCREEN TIME: 2 hours on a good day, 3-4 on a bad one.
SUBSCRIBED TO: COMMPRESS :)
SOMETHING I WANT YOU TO READ: The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, Sapiens (duh, it’s a great book) by Yuval Noah Harari, and obviously the aforementioned Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.
SOMETHING I WANT YOU TO LISTEN TO: It’s a bit old now, but S-Town by This American Life is fascinating and phenomenal. Also BBC’s The Coming Storm if you’re into conspiracy-esque US politics stuff.
AN UNEXPECTED GOOGLE SEARCH: Here’s two Google searches I have open atm: “Global AI and data centre water consumption 2025” and “One Last Breath — Creed guitar tab”.
A LINK WORTH FORWARDING: I’ve been trying to up my banana bread game lately, so here you go: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024420-easy-banana-bread