Candice Lim is joined by culture journalist Cat Sposato to trace the rise of this year’s most promising pop act, Tate McRae. McRae gained national attention as a 12-year-old dancer on So You Think You Can Dance. While pursuing a legitimate dance career, she posted an original song on YouTube that led RCA Records to bet on her as the next big pop star. After two albums, certain people on the internet still accuse McRae of being an industry plant, but her path has been oddly traditional and well-d...
Jan 06, 2024•36 min
Candice Lim is joined by Slate senior editor Rebecca Onion to talk about their love of romance novels. The romance genre grew rapidly this past year, becoming the fastest-growing category of fiction and generating over $1.4 billion in sales revenue. Partly thanks to Goodreads and BookTok, romance novels are getting into the hands of younger, more outspoken and vocal readers. But recent scandals, including last year’s Hockey BookTok disaster, question the limits of literary thirsting and ask whet...
Jan 03, 2024•32 min
On this episode, The Outward hosts break down the million dollar takeover ad on X for Prager University’s documentary Detrans: The Dangers of Gender Affirming Care. NBC reporter Jo Yurcaba joins Bryan, Christina, and Jules to tackle the misdirections and anti-trans agenda of the documentary and take a look at the transphobic shifts on the social media platform. Email us at: [email protected] Podcast production by Palace Shaw. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 30, 2023•32 min
In 1992, a Minnesota-based software company known for its educational hit The Oregon Trail released another simulation-style game to school districts across the country. Freedom! took kids on a journey along the Underground Railroad, becoming the first American software program to use slavery as its subject matter. Less than four months later, it was pulled from the market. In this episode, we revisit this well-intentioned, but flawed foray into historical trauma that serves as a reminder that t...
Dec 27, 2023•48 min
From Goodreads scandals to relationship prompt Twitter, the internet has been rife with trends to get mad about. On today’s episode, Candice Lim is joined by Vox’s Alex Abad-Santos and journalist Sylvia Obell to audit everything they lived through online in 2023, discussing the good, the bad and the truly unhinged. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim and Rachelle Hampton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 23, 2023•39 min
On today’s episode, Candice Lim is joined by Kristen Meinzer (Daily Fail, How to be Fine) and Tre’vell Anderson (FANTI, What A Day) to recap the year in celebrity breakups. Lately, it feels like everyone in Hollywood is breaking up, but have there really been that many more celebrity splits than usual? Was Scandoval really proof that love is dead or have we been placing celebrity couples on way too high a pedestal? And has the internet created a reaction ecosystem where Twitter aggregates like P...
Dec 20, 2023•44 min
On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim are joined by Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe to conclude their list of the top internet moments of the year. In their previous episode, Rachelle and Candice memorialized Elon-held Twitter, the most famous submersible online and reunions that shouldn’t air live. But no moment superseded the viral drama, cultural legacy and aquatic meme-ifcation of a singular historic event that happened on August 5, 2023. This podcast is produced by Se’era S...
Dec 16, 2023•47 min
On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim announce their top internet moments of the year. Is it the MirandaSings controversy? The Shein influencer factory tour? The internet boyfriend wars of Al Pacino vs. Robert De Niro? They bring their picks and ruminate on the year of Elon Musk and OceanGate. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim and Rachelle Hampton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 13, 2023•53 min
On today’s episode, Candice Lim is joined by journalists Bomani Jones and Tamerra Griffin to cover the biggest moments of sports that happened online this year. From basketball stateside to women’s soccer abroad, the internet has a way of picking up the little moments you don’t see in a stadium and making major waves about them. It’s the reason why an athlete’s behavior in one singular moment can become a platform for our projections and how Twitter can make anyone a talking head. Today, they’ll...
Dec 09, 2023•41 min
On today’s episode, Candice Lim is joined by culture journalist Cat Sposato to run down this year in concerts, from the Renaissance alien to the perils of standing room only. They get into the value of concert films, how internet standom translates to venue fandom and why pop stars have become the target of flying objects. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim and Rachelle Hampton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 06, 2023•44 min
On today’s episode, Candice Lim is joined by NPR producer J.C. Howard to walk through his personal experience of buying a car. The heyday of Toyotathon and Happy Honda Days are being replaced by car reviewers who have become influencers (and dealers) for major brands. From CarTok to CarTube, vloggers like EverydayChris and Gjeebs are not only upending the dealership model, but also creating parasocial relationships between cars and their consumers. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ric...
Dec 02, 2023•37 min
On today’s show, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim are joined by writer, producer and former video blogger Franchescha Ramsey to discuss the return of Colleen Ballinger. Ramsey was last on the show earlier this year, decoding the firestorm that engulfed Ballinger, better known as her alter ego MirandaSings. After a four-month hiatus and a now-infamous ukelele “apology” video, Ballinger has returned to daily vlogging at the most lucrative time of the year. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragl...
Nov 29, 2023•53 min
On today’s episode brought to us by Slate’s The Waves, we’re digging into the Bravo network. From Below Deck to Selling Sunset to Vanderpump Rules, the Bravo TV network is a reality television behemoth that has made millions on the backs of its female cast members. But is it actually good for women? ICYMI founding host Rachelle Hampton and culture writer Shamira Ibrahim discuss the current Bravo era, how much of Bravo belongs to famous producer Andy Cohen, why cast members can’t rely on a reunio...
Nov 25, 2023•40 min
Today, Rachelle and Candice celebrate ICYMI’s third annual Friendsgiving episode. They’re joined by Weight For It host Ronald Young Jr. and ICYMI producer Daisy Rosario to run down the internet moments that made them laugh out loud this year. They cover viral moments such as the adventures of George Santos, gamer thirst traps and little girls singing iconic jingles. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim and Rachelle Hampton. Learn more about your ad choice...
Nov 22, 2023•53 min
In this episode, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim are joined by writer, comedian and Glamorous Trash host Chelsea Devantez to break down this watershed year of celebrity memoirs. The trio crowns the best and the worst titles, dissect what separates a good memoir from a great one, and reveal the shocking figure who has appeared in way more memoirs than you’d expect. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim and Rachelle Hampton. Learn more about your ad choices...
Nov 18, 2023•47 min
On today’s episode, Rachelle and Candice are joined by Patrick Marlborough to discuss their recent essay for Slate, “The Death of the Internet as a Haven for People With Autism.” They wrote, “Things began to shift, if imperceptibly at first, with the advent of social media, and the steady corralling and corporatization of that otherness, weirdness, fun, and joy.” On the show, Marlborough describes what they see the internet what they see the internet shifting away from and what it’s shifting tow...
Nov 15, 2023•44 min
In this episode, Rachelle and Candice map out what happened when TikTok food personality Keith Lee traveled to Atlanta and ignited a culinary controversy. Lee is a former MMA fighter-turned-influencer who has been taking food tours around the country, ranking their cuisine and posting his reviews on TikTok. He was tasting restaurants in Atlanta when the itinerary took a turn for the worst: badly-reviewed establishments were fighting back online, one restaurant started receiving death threats, an...
Nov 11, 2023•54 min
On today’s episode brought to us by WBUR’s Endless Thread, co-host Ben Brock Johnson and producer Nora Saks look at the Lofi Girl phenomenon. At least 13 million YouTube users subscribe to the channel Lofi Girl. Created by the mononymous French music producer Dimitri, Lofi Girl is a 24/7 livestream of an anime girl studying in her room and listening to lofi hip hop. For many, she’s become the perfect study buddy, and the music may actually be helping concentration. Endless Thread producer Nora R...
Nov 08, 2023•40 min
In this episode, the co-hosts of Slate’s ICYMI, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim, join Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about whether the following categories of people are unreasonable: moms who bring their kids to wineries, boyfriends who refuse to hard launch their girlfriends on social media, and husbands who are suspicious of their wives’ friendships with single men. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an ext...
Nov 05, 2023•44 min
In this episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined by Slate staff writers Nitish Pahwa and Nadira Goffe to discuss their respective pieces about Hasan Minhaj. Since the New Yorker published their article on Minhaj’s “emotional truths,” the comedian has been at the center of a media firestorm that led to him publishing his own 21-minute response video. In the resulting discourse, questions have been raised about the role of truth in comedy. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosari...
Nov 04, 2023•51 min
On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim are joined by Amy S. Choi, co-host of The Mash-Up Americans podcast. They talk about the burgeoning phenomenon of immigrant mom TikToks, videos and sketches that showcase the hilarious and loving ways children see their immigrant parents. They ask why immigrant moms get more online love than immigrant dads, and how these videos are healing both creators and viewers. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim ...
Nov 01, 2023•50 min
On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim walk through DJ Envy’s latest legal troubles, which include seminars, flipping houses and a Ponzi-like scheme. Then, they’re joined by legal affairs reporter Meghann Cuniff, whose extensive coverage of the Tory Lanez trial crowned her the Batman of Black Twitter. Cuniff talks about her first internet memory, how she ended up covering the Lanez trial and how the DJ Envy allegations may play out. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks...
Oct 28, 2023•45 min
On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim dive into the saga of Jon Romano. At the age of 16, Romano walked into his high school with a shotgun in an attempt, he says, to commit law-enforcement-assisted suicide. Though no one was killed in the ensuing violence, a teacher was shot and injured. Romano pled guilty to attempted murder and reckless endangerment. He served 17 years in prison and was released in 2020. Since his release, he’s been a public advocate for mental health reform an...
Oct 25, 2023•49 min
On today’s show, Rachelle and Candice hang out with Teen Vogue associate editor Aiyana Ishmael. They dive into Aiyana’s internet diary, which includes an early Timothée Chalamet fandom, her Dance Moms obsession and dressing up like Bella Hadid for a week. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim and Rachelle Hampton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 21, 2023•46 min
On today’s episode, Rachelle and Candice answer a question from a listener about a viral pesto recipe. Susi Vidal, a 25-year-old food influencer, posted a simple recipe for pesto on September 1st. Since then, the introduction to her video which goes “Call me crazy but I’ve never liked store-bought pesto” has been used as a launching pad for wild stories about everything from terrible breakups to long-lost parents. Earlier in the episode, Bobbi Althoff makes a return. This podcast is produced by ...
Oct 18, 2023•41 min
On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim dive into the decades-long transformation of LinkedIn from a website for digital resumes to a social networking platform whose devotees have earned the name LinkedIn Lunatics. Founded in 2003 and sold to Microsoft for $26 billion in 2018, LinkedIn has become an inescapable feature of the job hunt. But while the site is ostensibly founded on professionalism, in recent years its fomented its own particular and peculiar brand of terminal onlinene...
Oct 14, 2023•47 min
On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim talk to writer Cyrena Touros about Dracula Daily, a newsletter that emails bite-sized passages from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel to more than 235,000 readers. As an epistolary novel, Dracula is broken into letters written between May and November. Dracula Daily emails those letters to readers, who have now created a book club-like fandom rife with memes and sidebars about a guy stuck in a vampire’s castle. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragl...
Oct 11, 2023•35 min
On today’s episode, Rachelle and Candice discuss if movies should be posted on TikTok, why eavesdroppers are turning brunch into an unsafe space, and how a scamming minister almost got away with alleged fraud. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim and Rachelle Hampton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 07, 2023•51 min
On today’s show, Rachelle and Candice are joined by Jessica Bennett and Susie Banikarim, the hosts of In Retrospect, a newly-launched podcast that explores pivotal moments from the ‘80s and ‘90s that shaped them. Bennett and Banikarim crack open the pages of their internet diary, revealing their first fandoms and the internet fights that still loom large in their memory. The four discuss the way that nostalgia shapes our current cultural moment and how it’s become the currency of the decade. Thi...
Oct 04, 2023•44 min
On today’s episode, Rachelle and Candice dive into the latest mystery plaguing the internet—the unprecedented rise of podcaster Bobbi Althoff. Althoff launched The Really Good Podcast in April and since then has landed interviews with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, including Drake, Offset, Tyga, Lil Yachty and Shaq. But the admitted “master interviewer with weeks of experience” seemingly came out of nowhere, earning her industry plant accusations. This podcast is produc...
Sep 30, 2023•47 min
