Charlie Harding 9/1/26 Charlie Harding 9/1/26

Questionably Country

For the first time in history, five country songs were at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. But are they really country?

Nate Sloan 8/25/26 Nate Sloan 8/25/26

Phoebe Bridgers opens her Moleskine

Many of us keep a journal, but few of us are able to turn our unvarnished thoughts into cultural moments quite like Phoebe Bridgers

Reanna Cruz 8/18/26 Reanna Cruz 8/18/26

We have Confessions to make…

Confessions II is Madonna’s biopic, allowing her to tell her story on her own terms

Charlie Harding 8/11/26 Charlie Harding 8/11/26

A piano lesson that will change how you listen (ft. Lang Lang)

Charlie sits down with Lang Lang at the Steinway showroom in New York City to see how taste changes over time

Charlie Harding 8/4/26 Charlie Harding 8/4/26

Take It to the Bridge (ft. Tayla Parx)

Bridges open up the world of a song, but some critics say they’re in danger of disappearing.

Charlie Harding 7/28/26 Charlie Harding 7/28/26

Preaching to the Chorus

When everything's a hook, is anything a chorus?

Nate Sloan 7/21/26 Nate Sloan 7/21/26

Justice for the verse

Everybody sings the chorus. Superfans quote the verse.

Charlie Harding 7/14/26 Charlie Harding 7/14/26

Let’s get it started

Charlie and Nate kick off their Netflix launch and probe what an intro means in today's musical landscape

Reanna Cruz 6/30/26 Reanna Cruz 6/30/26

Music only the World Cup could make

Every four years a new crop of songs gets commissioned to drum up excitement for the World Cup

Reanna Cruz 6/18/26 Reanna Cruz 6/18/26

2hollis is the underground’s genre-hopping vampire

In the last episode of our feral pop miniseries, we take a look at the 22 year old rave-rapper primed to take over the world

Reanna Cruz 6/17/26 Reanna Cruz 6/17/26

Pop music for an internet-pilled generation

No feral pop artist is more tapped into that microgenre than underscores

Reanna Cruz 6/16/26 Reanna Cruz 6/16/26

The new wave of pop is here, and it’s feral

While the charts have been stagnant, Gen-Z has been crafting a sound that is exciting, unpredictable, and above all else, feral.

Nate Sloan 6/15/26 Nate Sloan 6/15/26

Olivia Rodrigo has The Cure for sadness

Olivia Rodrigo channels spiral song forms and thwarted desire on her third album.

Charlie Harding 6/9/26 Charlie Harding 6/9/26

Paul McCartney went back to Liverpool for something new to say

Boys of Dungeon Lane, McCartney's collaboration with producer Andrew Watt, came when McCartney was 83.

Charlie Harding 6/5/26 Charlie Harding 6/5/26

How a sci-fi dystopia became a personal utopia (ft. Arc Iris)

Arc Iris on the release of iTMRW

Charlie Harding 6/2/26 Charlie Harding 6/2/26

Why bands give us purpose (ft. MUNA)

MUNA makes the case for the band in a culture built for solo acts

Reanna Cruz 5/26/26 Reanna Cruz 5/26/26

Drake's Slop Era

Drake is back with three new, wildly different albums

Nate Sloan 5/22/26 Nate Sloan 5/22/26

Kacey Musgraves walks country’s borderlands

The country outlaw explores her Texas roots

Charlie Harding 5/15/26 Charlie Harding 5/15/26

Rostam reimagines American music

Rostam’s ‘American Stories’ fuses Americana and Persian sounds

Reanna Cruz 5/12/26 Reanna Cruz 5/12/26

Eurovision is back – but not without controversy

The Eurovision Song Contest is upon us once again, but with an asterisk

Mini Series

Featured

Listening 2 Madonna: Ray of Light

The third essential aspect of Madonna's holy trinity is her ever-shifting spirituality.

Listening 2 Madonna: Spanish Eyes

To understand Madonna is to see her music as a cultural melting pot.

Listening 2 Madonna: Who's That Girl?

The way Madonna communicates gender is integral to understanding her and her music.

Featured

Newcomers: Porter Robinson

The new sound of Porter Robinson

Newcomers: Jhayco

Jhayco moves from the background to the foreground

Newcomers: Magdalena Bay

Few pop groups are making music as imaginative as Magdalena Bay.

Featured

Listening 2 Daft Punk: Random Access Memories

The robots gain a heart and soul - and self-destruct in the process

Listening 2 Daft Punk: Human After All / Alive 2007

The French duo’s anti-utopian disco-rock record makes us question, are they robot, or are they human?

Listening 2 Daft Punk: Discovery

On their second album Discovery, Daft Punk fully lean into the artificial – singing through robotic vocoders that correspond with their now-iconic robot helmets.

Listening 2 Daft Punk: Homework

On their first album, Homework, Daft Punk stretched the boundaries of electronic music and began wiring the circuits that would become their robot alter-egos, asking a fundamental question: where does the human end and the machine begin?

Featured

Listening 2 Britney: Gimme More

Leave Britney’s (voice) alone

Listening 2 Britney: Toxic

How Bollywood strings, surf guitar, and Britney’s ethereal vocals add up to pop perfection

Listening 2 Britney: I’m A Slave 4 U

Enter The Neptunes – Britney’s Virginia Beach Era

Listening 2 Britney: ...Baby One More Time

Breaking down the unmistakeable voice of Britney Spears

Featured

Modern Classics: Carina del Valle Schorske on Cat Power's "Manhattan"

Why every song about Manhattan is a pop song

Modern Classics: Mark Ronson on Ginuwine's "Pony"

The "Uptown Funk" hitmaker breaks down the innovations behind pop's biggest smashes

Modern Classics: Yola on Childish Gambino’s “Redbone” and the Longevity of Soul

“I realized that Classic Soul can exist with everything and somehow not lose its potency.”

Modern Classics: Labrinth's "Sexy MF" (with Sam Sanders)

“They're all these little secrets and surprises that pop up...it's like bespoke, maximalist, power pop.”

Featured

THE 5TH — MOVEMENT IV, What Beethoven Would Have Wanted

When we listen closely to the Fifth, we hear that's it more than a museum piece, it’s a living testament to self-expression and determination.

THE 5TH — MOVEMENT III, Putting the Classism in Classical

Before Beethoven’s time, classical music culture looked and sounded quite different. In episode III we explore how Beethoven’s symphony was used to generate the strict culture of classical music — and the politics that undergird those norms of behavior.

THE 5TH — MOVEMENT II, From Struggle to Victory

In movements II , III and IV, Beethoven keeps trying to overcome his dark fate with bright major melodies, and keeps getting defeated.

THE 5TH — MOVEMENT I, A Battle Brewing

The first four notes of the piece are more than a modern meme, they’re the main character in a drama life and death.

Featured

ANTHEMS: Missy Elliott — Work It

Cultural critic Ivie Ani breaks down how Missy Elliott broke into the pantheon of anthems, and how she changed the scope of who could belong.

ANTHEMS: Smash Mouth - All Star

How “All Star” became an anthem played in sports arenas, soundtracked by Hollywood, and embedded into seemingly every internet meme.

ANTHEMS: Jock Jams — Get Ready For This

n 1995, ESPN launched Jock Jams Volume 1, a compilation record that would define the sound of sports for the next quarter century.

ANTHEMS: Queen — We Are The Champions

Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles’ album “Something To Say” makes you want to get up and dance as much as it makes you want to take action.