Lies Xhonneux

Read: The Gifts of the Body – Rebecca Brown 

Rebecca Brown is one of Lies’ favourite authors. So much so that she spent four years researching and writing about her. We’re talking, by the way, about the Seattle-based lesbian author who frequently collaborates with legendary City Lights Booksellers & Publishers – not to be confused with her fundamentalist Christian namesake, who gifted the world with titles like ‘Becoming a Vessel of Honour’ and ‘He Came to Set the Captives Free: A Guide to Recognizing and Fighting the Attacks of Satan, Witches, and the Occult’. 

The ‘right’ Rebecca Brown’s oeuvre ranges from the encyclopaedic to the absurd and, as Lies puts it, “gut-wrenching minimalism”. ‘The Gifts of The Body’, which is based on Brown’s experiences as a home-care worker assisting people with AIDS, definitely belongs to the latter category. The novel is stunning in its simplicity: the sentences are short and straightforward, but the effect is all the more penetrating. It taught me that copy doesn’t need a lot of frills to be impactful. And that real emotion always triumphs over cool, calculated smart-assed-ness – also in marketing, even if it means exposing oneself and being vulnerable.” 

Watch: My Octopus Teacher 

Lies is, by her own account, perpetually late to the party when it comes to trending movies. Yet when ‘My Octopus Teacher’ came out, she watched it immediately. Lies: “Documentary-maker Craig Foster, who develops an unlikely ‘friendship’ with an octopus, has been criticised for anthropomorphising the creature and projecting his own feelings – but that’s maybe part of any interaction. I was more interested in the curiosity of both protagonists. Foster finds magic in his own backyard, so to speak (though that is, admittedly, a magnificent South African bay) and the octopus, in turn, seems intrigued by the man who’s visiting her.” 

“To a copywriter, such a sense of wonder is indispensable. The key is to find something interesting in every project and approach it with an open mind. Some of my most memorable interviews were with clients who, at first sight, are not what you’d call sexy, like a waterproofing manufacturer. But then they talk about coating the 25-kilometre-long ‘super sewer’ that’s currently being built under London’s Thames, and you just go: ‘Oh. Wow’.” 

Listen: Lex Fridman Podcast

The topics of this podcast range from philosophy to technology, and the episodes are lengthy – three-hour discussions are no exception. “Fridman is an AI researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So even though his guests include Kevin Spacey, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, or ‘the FBI’s most-wanted con man’ Matthew Cox, he often invites fellow computer scientists – perhaps most famously Sam Altman – and the ensuing conversations are interesting.” 

“Believing in mutual respect and open discussion, Fridman also famously doesn’t shy away from talking to ‘controversial’ figures, like Ye or Tucker Carlson. Fridman may not be the best host: he always sounds like he’s sighing, and the friend who recommended his podcast to me tends to watch it on YouTube at 1.25x or 1.5x speed, but the content is insightful, so that’s a small price to pay. (laughs)” 

Hungry for more? 

There’s other content that makes our colleagues’ hearts sing too. Find out what inspires digital marketer Jolien Vos, content strategist Sven Van Herck and account director Wouter Vandenbogaerde.