pplpod

Ty Dolla Sign's 2016 Election Time CapsuleThere's a version of 2016 that gets told through polling numbers, cable news chyrons, and electoral college maps. This episode tells a different version — thr...

7 Apr 16min

Tyga's "Stimulated" Was a Calculated LieIn the summer of 2015, Tyga released a song called "Stimulated" that contained a lyric directly addressing his relationship with Kylie Jenner, who was seventeen...

7 Apr 18min

Umberto Eco and the Architecture of MeaningUmberto Eco was one of the rare thinkers who could move between rigorous academic theory and wildly entertaining popular fiction without losing anything in t...

7 Apr 19min

Vera Rubin and the Invisible UniverseIn the 1970s, astronomer Vera Rubin did something that quietly broke physics: she measured how fast stars orbit the center of galaxies, and the numbers didn't add ...

7 Apr 22min

Viola Davis and the Fight for AuthenticityViola Davis is one of the most decorated actors of her generation — the first Black woman to win an Emmy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award. But the arc of her caree...

7 Apr 18min

Walt Whitman Was a Shameless Hustler — And That's Exactly the PointWhen most people picture Walt Whitman, they see the gray-bearded sage of American poetry — the tender, visionary voice behind "Song o...

7 Apr 21min

The typo has a secret life online. What looks like a careless mistake can be one of the most effective tools in modern political and cultural communication — generating virality, building in-group ide...

7 Apr 19min

The hundred dollar bill feels like the ultimate statement in cash today, but it is actually a minnow. For most of American history, it swam alongside leviathans — individual banknotes worth $500, $1,0...

7 Apr 18min