Culture Diet: A fine-art museum director who loves 21 Savage 

Welcome to Culture Diet, a new feature where we ask movers and shakers in Lane County about their podcast picks, literary faves and guilty pleasure watches.

Lookout recently interviewed the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art’s new director, Olivia Miller, about her career in museums and what she’s looking forward to with her new role. We tacked on some fun questions at the end.

Responses have been edited for clarity.

Lookout Eugene-Springfield: What music are you listening to these days? 

Olivia Miller: It is an array. I’m definitely on a Taylor Swift kick, but actually older Taylor Swift. I didn’t really listen to her earlier albums, and I’m enjoying them more than I thought I would.

The re-releases or the originals?

A little bit of both. I will say I’m a huge fan of rap. That’s probably my favorite music genre. So I listened to a lot of rap from the ’90s to today. My Spotify list, you would be like, “What is going on here?” Because it’s like ’90s rock and ’70s classic rock. It’s a mix.

What rap today? Can you drop a name?

I really like 21 Savage. 

What are some of your favorite podcasts? 

I like “Trust Me.” It’s a podcast about cults, and I think the hosts both had experience with that, so it’s nice that it’s hosted by people who have had direct experience. You don’t want to have cults be entertainment for you. I really feel like they have a good balance between having a certain sense of humor about things, but it’s serious content, and they’re really trying to educate people. 

I have always loved Spanish. I’m not fluent, but it’s one of my goals at some point, to really be able to dedicate time to learning Spanish. So I always have a Spanish podcast on. It’s just called Intermediate Spanish.

What was the last movie you loved? 

God, what was the last movie I even saw? I might have to think on that one. I have a son, he’s 10. So usually the movies we watch, I wouldn’t say love them.

Are you more of a TV person? Anything you’ve been hooked on recently?

We’re watching “Wednesday.” I’m going to be Wednesday for Halloween. I was just telling the staff, I have my comfort shows, though. So I do like a lot of new TV. I loved “Severance,” loved “Succession,” but I watch “The Golden Girls” on repeat. I watch “The Office” on repeat, and I watch “Schitt’s Creek” on repeat.

Any favorite books, or a recent favorite? 

I really like memoirs. I do read a lot of different types of books, but memoirs tend to be something I go back to often. I thought “Educated” was really good. I also really like adventure-writing memoirs, so survival stories of various kinds.

They blend in with the podcasts, because I also listen to adventure survival, like “I Survived” the podcast. So I listen to a lot of those, and they blend in where I’m like, “Did I read the book, or did I listen to the podcast about that particular incident?” I’d have to look at my Libby. [Looks at Libby.] 

I just read “The Chronology of Water.” It’s not an adventure survival story, but it’s beautiful and actually it has a Eugene connection, because the author got a PhD here, and I think she lives in Portland, Lidia Yuknavitch. 

You talked earlier about comfort watches, but do you have any guilty pleasure media to share?

I’m embarrassed to say I did watch the most recent season of “Love Island USA.” It’s so good, so bad it’s good.

You know, I had watched the first few seasons of “Love Is Blind,” and then I kind of got sick of it, and then my former co-workers, there were a few of them where they were just always talking about “Love Island,” yeah. And I was like, OK, I’ll do it.

What couple did you want to win? 

I mean, like, none of them. All of them? I liked the couple that won, honestly. At first, she kind of bothered me, but then by the end of the show, I was like, I love this girl. I forget her name. 

Amaya. 

I was challenged by her, but eventually, I was like, “I do really like her.” I was happy that she won. What about you? 

I mean, here’s the thing, I like Huda. [Huda Mustafa, a contestant on the recent season of “Love Island USA,” inspired divisive reactions from the audience who were split on her up-front personality and frequent “crash outs” yelling at men she was paired up with.]

Thank you! Because I said that to my co-worker, and she was like, “No.” I really liked her.

Do you have someone to suggest for our next Culture Diet, or someone you would want to hear from? Drop me a line at annie@lookoutlocal.com.