If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what everyday stuff famous people add to their carts — like hair spray or an electric toothbrush. We asked Alison Stewart, a journalist and the host of WNYC’s “All of It,” about the noise-canceling headphones, curl cream, and coffee maker she can’t live without.
I often wear this to work because wearing perfume got to be too much in the little WNYC studio. It not only moisturizes your skin and keeps you from having ashy elbows, which nobody wants, but it also leaves this really elegant, subtle scent on your skin. So if I have to shake hands with anybody, I don’t feel strange about it. I keep it by my desk and find myself needing to put it on my hands when I get in from walking to work. It kind of starts my day. I first discovered it while walking around C.O. Bigelow, and I remember seeing the name and thinking, Oh, what’s that? Then I put some on my hands and just smelled them and thought this could be the answer to no perfume in the studio. It smells like really expensive body powder from the ’40s — the kind they would put on with a big puff and puff it all over themselves.
I have very, very, very curly hair, and anybody with curly hair can tell you that any day could turn into a bad hair day. This stuff works magic with curls, and it takes the frizz out. Almost all of Curlsmith’s products do. I tend to use this one when I know I will be taking pictures with guests at work because I know my hair is guaranteed to look great and the curls will hold really well. They’re not super-crunchy, which can happen when you have too much hair product in; it doesn’t weigh down your hair, so it feels very light; and I don’t have to use a lot of it to make it work. Sometimes curly-hair products can get stuck in lumps, but this goes into wet hair really easily.
I am a hat girl. I have always been a hat girl. If you look at my office right now, there’s a hat on my bookshelf; I find that it can instantly pick up your day if you put on a bright fedora. I have two places where I love to get them. They’re both Black-owned: Ashaka Givens and Esenshel. I think Ashaka just opened a store in Brooklyn, but she sells online, too. Esenshel does a little more high-end. He’s, like, a runway-type person. He’s got a shop on East 4th Street. Walking down the street with a really bright fedora on starts your day in the best way. I will buy one every fall. I have pink, I have red, I have bright blue, and I have a purple one for summer. I have an orange one that’s a little different, not necessarily a fedora but a stacking hat. I’ve got a gray Russian cuff. I love watching these milliners create the hats and make them really sparkle. Recently, I have been wearing a red fedora from Esenshel with a brim that goes out to the side instead of the front. It’s pretty cool.
It took me forever to find the right planner. I needed something with a monthly view that I could also use to take notes. And it had to fit in my bag. This 18-month planner has a large calendar so that I can put the date and the time of something. And then it’s got another page, which is full of dots, that is perfect for making lists for the day. A little bit like bullet journaling, but not for a person who’s totally crazy. I use it to keep track of my schedule, my son’s schedule, my work schedule. I like to make little boxes that I can check, and it feels really good to check off the stuff I have to do. It also has a little spot for a pen and a pocket in the back. I think I’m on my fourth one now. 2025 is red — that’s going to be my color for the year. It’s cool because I can kind of look back on previous years to see what I was doing. I just pull out my old datebooks and look.
The hours of my show, 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., are kind of weird and overlap with classic lunchtime. So usually in the morning, I eat a little salad that I have made and put it in one of these bowls. Besides being just a nice-shaped bowl, it also squeezes down so that when I take it home, I don’t have a giant lunch bag with me. I take it home, rinse it out, put it in the dishwasher, and I’m good to go.
My son had a pair of these headphones, and I tried them one day and was like, “Whoa, these things really cancel noise!” I had brain surgery this year, and one of the outcomes of it is that I hear things really loudly in the street, which is really hard for New Yorkers. Car horns are now much too loud for me. Ever since I had my surgery, I can just hear things really well. It’s kind of a joke. I have to figure out a way to make money doing this, but I can really hear people’s voices — I think they’re right behind me, and they’re actually a block away. It’s so strange. These headphones are genius. I put them on and I can walk home in relative calm. They really give me peace.
I have a lot of things that I’m quite good at, but making coffee is not one of them. I’ve tried all kinds of coffee machines. I’ve tried single-person machines. I’ve tried all brands. At some point, my sister was over at my house. She was just like, “I’m going out to get coffee. You can’t make it.” That was it. So I bought this Beautiful by Drew coffee maker in cornflower blue. Then I sat down with the instructions. I read them carefully, I reread them, and now I make gorgeous coffee. It’s got a nice set of filters, which allows you to pick the strength of your coffee, which has helped me sort of adjust because I was putting in too much coffee and it was coming out really dark. So I just lightened it up, and it was better. If you look at it, it’s got three lines. That lets you choose how strong it is. I can make one to four cups, as opposed to making a huge amount of coffee, which I really like.
So last August, I gave my sister a kidney. And as a result, the doctor said I have to drink a lot of water. That’s just the deal. I bought a 64-ounce water bottle, and I’m pretty good about it, but I get bored with it. Somebody told me about True Lemon and how it adds a little something special in your water. I tried it and fell in love. I drink a lot of water after the show, and I always put in a True Lemon packet to make it taste better. It’s crystallized lemon that’s unsweetened. I mean, it’s just like walking around with a lemon slice in your purse.
I interviewed Kate Berlant, and her picture on the cover of her show’s Playbill is her wearing these boots. I said to her, “I can’t say this on the air, but do those boots start with an L and end with a Q?” And she said, “Yes, and I did my whole one-woman show wearing them.” So I looked them up, and choked on the price, but I just kept going back to them. And I did that thing in my brain: Well, if I save a dollar every time I wear them, eventually I’ll catch up. I wear them so often. They’re so comfortable. I could walk all over New York in them. If you had to buy a pair of investment boots, these are them. They’re very handsome. They can dress up: You can wear them with a suit; you can wear them with a dress and tights. They kind of shape-shift a little bit depending on what else you’re wearing. I love wearing them so much I’ve already had to have them resoled.
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