Five Fun Questions (and a recommendation)

with Seth Werkheiser

Jun 10, 2025

Hi! I’m Keris. I’m an author writing about writing and books and music and life, and the last song I listened to was Only the Good Die Young by Billy Joel, because it was mentioned in the novel I’m currently reading.

A few weeks ago, Anne Kadet - writer of one of my very favourite Substacks, Cafe Anne - wrote a mini profile of one of her subscribers (her 450th paid subscriber, in fact). I loved the interview and also loved the idea of interviewing people for no other reason than I’d like to chat to them.

So I asked my paid subscribers for question suggestions, added a couple of my own, and slid into Seth Werkheiser’s DMs to ask if he’d be interested in answering five fun questions.

Seth has been writing Social Media Escape Club (which I love, despite having no plans to escape social media) since 2021. He launched a metal blog for AOL Music, did metal trivia on Twitter for a couple of years, and these days does freelance email marketing operations for Grammy Award Winning MNRK Heavy. When not on a computer you can find him running in the woods, or watching Star Wars with his cat Blue in his lap.

Someone gives you $10k. You HAVE to spend it on travel. Where do you go? What do you do?

Pacific Northwest. Seattle. Portland. I don't even know exactly, but I absolutely love rainy weather, and the woods, and rivers, and everyone tells me I'd love it there, so I'd have to do that.

And since it wouldn't cost that much to fly there, even from PA, I'd spend the money on nice lodging and places to eat. Get expensive coffees and go running in the woods as much as I could, which would then increase how much I spend on food. Like, groceries, hotel, nice rental vehicle for all this. Yeah, I think $10K would work for that.

What's the most delicious thing you've ever eaten? And the worst?

The pizza from Pizza Brain way back in like 2013 or 2014 or so, in Philadelphia. I think it was the total vibe, the owners, the people, the atmosphere... I don't know. I was all just so good.

Worst? Does the lack of mashed potatoes at a Thanksgiving dinner one year count? Because I will never forget that.

If you could learn a new skill from anyone in the world, what would you want to learn and who would you want to teach you?

I love watching videos of Danny MacAskill on YouTube, and while I don't wanna do all the insane and dangerous things he does, I wouldn't mind learning some of the basic moves and techniques from him. Sort of boring, but I don't wanna do anything too dangerous or extreme. If I could just learn how to hop up on a picnic table I'd be so stoked. And I probably wouldn't die in the process, so that's a bonus.

This is the first video I saw from him:

What would be the title of the story of your life?

"Making it up as I go along," I guess. I haven't had a full-time job since 2006, and somehow I've been able to keep things going, more or less. There's been some low points, whew, but thankfully figuring things out in my late 40s.

What (fun) question should I ask the next person I interview?

When's the last time you had a happy cry?

Please recommend something - a book, film, TV show, song or album - and tell me why you love it.

Just discovered 'HOW LONG CAN YOU KEEP UP A LIE?' by Saya Gray. Heard it on French radio of all places, and it really caught my attention. Enough that I looked it up and found it on Bandcamp and bought the full album.