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"Graydon Carter"

56 min episode · 2 min read
·
Graydon Carter

Episode

56 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Career Growth, Relationships, Investing

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Magazine transition strategy: Airmail succeeded by building digital-first from inception rather than converting legacy print formats, designed by magazine veterans as weekend edition of non-existent international newspaper avoiding Boston-Washington corridor news saturation.
  • Cultural pendulum theory: America experiences wider cultural swings than Britain or Canada—the investment banker ethos peaked harder in New York than Vancouver, love movement stronger in San Francisco than Toronto—current extremes will settle toward middle ground.
  • Privacy currency prediction: Private lives will gain greater social cache within three to five years as backlash against oversharing intensifies, similar to vinyl's resurgence—young people will adopt specialty visual magazines costing twenty dollars with thick paper.
  • Editorial survival approach: Vanity Fair's success came from avoiding office drama, waiting two years before removing three troublemakers, writing monthly thank-you notes to contributors and advertisers, and assembling writers like Christopher Hitchens with photographers like Annie Leibovitz.

What It Covers

Graydon Carter discusses his career founding Spy Magazine and editing Vanity Fair for twenty-five years, plus his current media venture Airmail, cultural shifts in journalism, and predictions for social media's future backlash.

Key Questions Answered

  • Magazine transition strategy: Airmail succeeded by building digital-first from inception rather than converting legacy print formats, designed by magazine veterans as weekend edition of non-existent international newspaper avoiding Boston-Washington corridor news saturation.
  • Cultural pendulum theory: America experiences wider cultural swings than Britain or Canada—the investment banker ethos peaked harder in New York than Vancouver, love movement stronger in San Francisco than Toronto—current extremes will settle toward middle ground.
  • Privacy currency prediction: Private lives will gain greater social cache within three to five years as backlash against oversharing intensifies, similar to vinyl's resurgence—young people will adopt specialty visual magazines costing twenty dollars with thick paper.
  • Editorial survival approach: Vanity Fair's success came from avoiding office drama, waiting two years before removing three troublemakers, writing monthly thank-you notes to contributors and advertisers, and assembling writers like Christopher Hitchens with photographers like Annie Leibovitz.

Notable Moment

Carter reveals he screens dinner reservations at Waverly Inn by blocking the 203 area code to prevent Greenwich hedge fund managers from booking tables, demonstrating his longstanding practice of curating clientele based on cultural values rather than wealth.

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Episode Transcript

Knock, knock. No, I guess you can't say. So I'll do, okay, I'll play both. Knock, knock. Who's there? Smartless. Smartless who? It's an all new Smartless. Smart. I realized that I think that I I curse too much. You do? Oh. Yeah. What are you fucking talking about? There we go. Wait. Really? Why do you say that? I don't think you do. Because don't you think I do? I feel like I do. No. It just occurred to me that I feel like I curse too much, and maybe I just don't know. I think not enough. What what why did you did you get that feeling, because you were hanging out with your dad and you had to you caught yourself a couple of times? I did. No. Truly. Like, where did this thought come from? You're too old enough. I just I think I was, I think I was talking about hockey with somebody the other day, and I realized that every I think when I especially when I talk about hockey, I'm like, these fucking guys and look at this fucking team. Blah blah blah. And and I was like, wait. How often do I say And and I saw this, review of some gadget that somebody, that they've just released, the some AI gadget that documents the, you know, words that you say throughout the course of a day or a week or a month, etcetera. And, and this woman was talking about how much she had hurt. She was cursing. And I was like, I wonder how much I curse. Really? Yeah. A little bit. It it used to be my if I got nervous, I used to swear a lot. Mhmm. Like, the very first time I met Steven Spielberg in his office Oh, no. All I did, every other word was fuck. What? I was like, yeah. And his kids were playing video games. They're like, oh, that's fucking cool. How many when did you fucking get that? That's fucking amazing. I couldn't stop saying it. I remember I once I I once had a I want the guy who, wrote and direct I think he wrote, but he definitely directed, Napoleon Dynamite, this guy Jared Hess. He's a great director. Yeah. Amazing. He's great. And and I I got a a meeting with him just after Napoleon Dynamite. I was so excited. And, just like I get lazy with cursing as just, like, sort of like a way to bond. You know? Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Right. And and so I'm just, like, every word is this and that fucking and I'm driving home, and I call my agent. I say, oh, the meeting went really, really well. And and, and he goes he goes, you know, I I I was gonna say something. I was wondering if it did did, because I know you your family lived in Salt Lake City for a few years, and I …

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  • AirmailBy guest
    his current media venture Airmail, cultural shifts in journalism, and predictions for social media's future backlash

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  • Carter reveals he screens dinner reservations at Waverly Inn by blocking the 203 area code to prevent Greenwich hedge fund managers from booking tables

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