Who are you, and what do you do?
I'm Parker Molloy. I'm a writer living in Chicago, Illinois, with my wife, Kayla; my dog, Meatball; and my two rabbits, Jeffrey and Benjamin. For the past three years or so, I've worked at Upworthy.com, where I'm a senior writer. My work has appeared places like the New York Times, the Guardian, Rolling Stone, and Vice, among other outlets. I spend a lot of time on social media, especially Twitter, partially as a way to keep up with the world for the sake of work/trying to find new story ideas, and partially as a way just to stay connected with people. In my spare time, I like making GIFs and short videos, as well as editing photos.
What hardware do you use?
I work from home, so I kind of just make do with what I've got hanging around. That said, I use a 13" MacBook Air I picked up in early 2015 with a 1.6 GH Intel Core i5 processor and 8 GB of memory. I feel like it's nearing the end of its life, but it's served me (mostly) well. Most of the time, I have it hooked up to a 23" Dell monitor. I use a Logitech wireless keyboard and an Apple Magic Trackpad. On occasion, I'll do someone's podcast, and for that I use a Blue Yeti USB microphone. I also use a Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam for video chats. Working in a remote office environment, I've found that having a decent camera set up is a good thing. For interviews in the field, I have a Zoom H4n handheld recorder. Also, I have an iPhone 8 Plus.
And what software?
I use GIF Brewery 3 to make GIFs, Skitch for quick photo edits, and Photoshop for more detailed work. I make do with iMovie and GarageBand for audio and video work. For writing, I use the built-in Notes app for quick projects, but use Google Drive, Word, Scrivener, and Final Draft 10 when the situation calls for it. I get a lot of use out of Spotify during the workday, and the whole thing runs on macOS High Sierra.
What would be your dream setup?
I like a lot of what I've got, to be honest. For my skill level, I don't feel like I need some massive professional suite of audio/video/photo software (as it is, Adobe InDesign and Illustrator mostly just languish unopened on my hard drive). I really would like a newer laptop, though. I've gotten to like using Apple products over the past several years. If given an unlimited budget, I think I'd get one of the new iMac Pro 27-inch Retina 5K desktops and a 15-inch MacBook Pro for work on the go. I do a lot of work from my phone, so the ease of being able to shift between the three depending on the situation would be ideal. In an ideal world, I'd probably spring for a better desk and chair, as I'm using this big hulking wooden desk from my childhood bedroom and a pretty standard adjustable swivel chair.