Anthony Mason is a veteran journalist with decades of experience in conversation with the artists who make our cultural record. Alchemy is the show he's spent a career preparing to host. Sign up for the Alchemy newsletter to check out behind-the-scenes stories from decades of fascinating interviews, and the the books, films, art shows and music Anthony's loving lately.
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Issue 7 / September 9, 2026
IN THIS ISSUE: Summer fades, a chicken shop closes, and a country star gets bold
Dear friends,
Welcome to the seventh edition of the Alchemy newsletter.
I write this as Labor Day is ending, and we mourn the passing of summer. Not quite dead yet, but fading fast. Some thoughts on the change of season below.
On the latest episode of Alchemy this week, we welcome a hugely talented singer, Carly Pearce. She broke out in 2017 with the No. 1 country hit "Every Little Thing," and for a time was one of the few women given airplay on country radio. She curls up on our gold guest chair for an honest conversation about making it in Nashville.
But we begin with the recent news from the host of Chicken Shop Date, a young woman who became an unexpected inspiration to me when I interviewed her a few years ago.
- Anthony
The Chicken Shop Shuts Down
At Amelia's former school, Central Saint Martins (2023)
Amelia Dimoldenberg announced last week that she’s ending her hugely successful YouTube series, Chicken Shop Date, after 12 years and 115 episodes.
When I was planning Alchemy, I often thought about Amelia, who I interviewed in London a few years ago. More than a fan, I became an admirer and have taken great inspiration from all that she’s accomplished.
Early in 2023, my producer, Rebecca, came to me with the idea of doing a story on Chicken Shop Date. I confess I hadn’t heard of Amelia then, but I was immediately impressed.
Her style, playful and deliberately awkward, had a way of keeping her guests slightly off guard. It led to peculiar little moments of truth. “And I love those moments,” Amelia said. “I almost see it as more of a comedy series than an interview series in a way.”
But it was surprisingly effective as both.
“You’ve kind of elevated awkwardness to an art form,” I told her.
“Wow,” she said. “Can I get that in writing? I’ll put that everywhere. I’ve always found awkwardness to be quite charming.”
“And disarming,” I added.
“And disarming. Awkwardness is a part of life. It happens everyday. Especially if you’re British.”
In person, Amelia herself was anything but awkward. A serious businesswoman, even as a 17 year old when she came up with the idea for Chicken Shop Date — first for a youth magazine, then as a video series — she started by interviewing local rappers. Most were not global stars, “but everyone to me was interesting.”
In the early days, she did literally everything. She was the writer, researcher, interviewer, and producer. “The weight is on your shoulders and that has often filled me with a lot of worry.”
“How do you deal with that worry?” I wondered.
“You just have to make the thing. You just have to keep going. I always believed in the idea so strongly. I've always just loved every time I've got the rushes back and like — I can't wait for people to watch this!”
As Chicken Shop Date began to catch on around 2020, she started getting offers to sell the copyright.
“But you didn't sell?”
“No. I really wanted to because I had no money to make it. ‘We'll pay for it, [they said] but we have to own the copyright.’ And that was too much for me. I always wanted to own what I created. So I said no. And it was the best thing I ever did was saying no.”
She had other tempting offers. When Drake heard he was her dream guest, he agreed to do the show. He was very busy though and could only meet her in Sweden. Amelia turned him down.
Not many people would reject Drake, even in Sweden, I pointed out.
“It’s true,” she admitted, “but we need to keep it authentic. And so, for me, it was important that we did it in a local chicken shop.”
Her commitment to her concept was what struck me most deeply. Amelia knew exactly the show she wanted to make and even when it would have been easy to compromise, she never wavered. Anyone who has ever pitched a series or needed money to produce it understands how hard that can be. As we were getting Alchemy off the ground, whenever I felt my confidence challenged, I reminded myself of what Amelia went through.
When we met, Amelia was already hosting red carpet events — the Golden Globes, the Barbie premiere. She’s now the red carpet correspondent for the Oscars. Even then I could tell she was looking for a way to wrap up the series, which had opened all these other doors for her. She never did get Drake to London. But many of those 115 episodes are absolute classics and will be watched for a long, long time.
Congratulations, Amelia!
This week on Alchemy: Carly Pearce
Photo: John Tanner
Carly Pearce came by the apartment last week. I was thrilled to finally meet the 36-year-old singer, who over the past decade has been one of country music's most successful female artists with half a dozen platinum singles. She's won four ACM awards, another three CMAs, and a GRAMMY. But her new album, "Honest Woman," takes a bold look at the price of that success.
"I lost my ability to see myself for me," Carly confesses on the latest episode of Alchemy. "And I kind of was only able to see it through songs on a chart, [award] nominations, social media likes, all of those types of things. And over time, it really kind of made me lose myself. And what this album really represents for me personally, is kind of a journey to find myself again."
That's a frank admission from an artist who was the CMA's Female Vocalist of the Year in 2021. The crisis came a few years ago when she was left off the ACM nominations list. I asked her how she found her compass.
"I had to metaphorically go back home."
Carly grew up in Kentucky, where she began writing songs at age eleven.
"I used to go to concerts and watch the crowd connect with a song that someone else wrote that was singing it on stage, and that lit me up - the idea that you could write something that people could find themselves in."
-Carly Pearce on Alchemy
At 16, she got a job at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, performing six shows a day at Dolly Parton's amusement park. Two years later she headed to Nashville.
On Alchemy she says, "My mom reminded me that my value is not in my job. And really, in my deepest moments of needing that affirmation, would sit with me. And just like I was a little girl again, moving to Nashville, saying, 'Nobody wants to sign me.' I went right back and I was like, 'Mom, nobody likes me anymore.'"
"And I think we were both able to kind of come to this place of like, you made it. You did it. Don't let it steal your joy."
Carly works through it all on songs like "Dream Come True" and "Happy For Myself"
"What did this record give you?" I ask Carly.
"I found the joy again."
Photo: John Tanner
Click here to see Episode 10 of Alchemy with Carly Pearce
The Summer Wind
A slight chill came into the air on the east end of Long Island this past weekend. It felt refreshing in the daylight, but by evening it had a bite to it. 65 degrees, when it suddenly returns after time away, can feel frosty. My daughter, Olivia, pulled out her old college sweater, a comfy cable knit that used to get her through raw Scottish nights at the University of St. Andrews.
I was reminded of a feeling I often had as a kid during these September days. It would blow in with that first little chill. You’d feel it on your bare forearm and then it would seep under your skin, a sense of dread, a feeling of forewarning that “back to school” beckoned and a cold curtain was coming down on summer and all the freedoms it offered a boy. Around Labor Day in our old unheated summer house at the end of a potato field, that chill would start to creep through the walls. At night, we would huddle around the fireplace and listen to the snap and crackle of the burning wood we’d gathered from the yard.
This Labor Day weekend out in Southampton, we took a walk into the village — my son, Nick, my daughter, her fiancé, and their friends. Olivia had suggested a trip to Sip’n Soda for lunch. We slipped into a couple of booths at the old diner and soda fountain that’s been in the same spot since 1958. The place was packed, parents clutching their kids in the doorway waiting for tables.
Olivia asked if it had changed much since I was a kid. I looked around, at the phone booth in the back and the red swivel stools at the counter where I used sit to order ice cream cones. No, I said, it felt pretty much the same. And I could see my seven-year-old self, in shorts and flip flops, waiting at that counter for a chocolate chip cone dipped in sprinkles. I knew what that boy would be thinking right about now — summer couldn’t be over, could it? Not if they were still serving ice cream?
My son, Nick, who sat across from me in this restaurant I’ve been visiting for decades now, ordered a cheeseburger and a vanilla milkshake. I had my usual these days, a root beer float. We slid in our straws and both sighed as we drew the first sips from the bottom of the glass. I thought about how you could come so far and still end up in the same old place on another Labor Day nearly 70 years later. That boy at the counter would have been in denial about the change of seasons, clutching his cone and the last days of summer with a death grip. But now I could sit in Sip'n Soda, savor my root beer and vanilla ice cream and just let them go.
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Anthony Mason is a veteran journalist with decades of experience in conversation with the artists who make our cultural record. Alchemy is the show he's spent a career preparing to host. Sign up for the Alchemy newsletter to check out behind-the-scenes stories from decades of fascinating interviews, and the the books, films, art shows and music Anthony's loving lately.
