The story behind the playlist: Putting together the playlist for the Winter ‘24 issue took almost as long as writing all the profiles. The seven-song compilation went through at least thirty overhauls until I felt that each song accurately captured the essence of the six friends in the issue, and until the overall sound reflected the winter-induced, futuristic introspection that I had found myself in while writing this issue. Blue Hawaii’s “On a High” was the only track that had this sentiment in its DNA, and was therefore the right choice for the opening track of this issue. The intrepid “Intro” by Kelis is one of my favorite songs, and I have no idea why it took so many overhauls for me to realize that it brilliantly captured Lisa Archibald’s courageous, determined, and dynamic personality. For Arun Singh, I knew that I needed an instrumental track; one without any association to a language, and one that could bring to life his thoughtfulness and worldliness. Fatima Al Qadiri’s “Hip Hop Spa” was the perfect fit because it checked all these boxes and because Al Qadiri also did the entire soundtrack for Atlantics, a movie that both Arun and I love. Finding a song to represent Sandra Cule’s profile was tough because I needed a track that felt gentle and romantic and feminine but, at the same time, limitless and larger-than-life, which is how I feel about Sandra and how I have felt about the days we had spent together in California. Jessie Ware’s “In Your Eyes” ultimately came through as the song to do all of that. I rummaged through all of my playlists for days to eventually rediscover DJ Koze’s “XTC” and realize it was the perfect track for Daniel Brown’s profile: a bit ethereal, a bit mysterious, very homey, and very hilarious. For Patty Mayer, it was important for me to have her profile associated with a song like Junior Boys’ cover of “What You Won’t Do For Love,” an invigorating track that is also unabashedly quirky and sassy (especially at 01:59). “Thoughts Wasted” by Róisín Murphy was the only song that was part of the playlist from the beginning and that survived all the overhauls. With its experimental flow, spoken-word performance, and cartoonish marimba bridge, I knew it was the right choice to represent Megan Brubaker and her kind, playful, and theatrical personality.