I have a habit. I listen to podcasts from the beginning.
Some podcasts require this. For example, Dungeons & Daddies (a D&D podcast, you weirdos!) and The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill are continuous stories, so skipping episodes hurts your listening experience. Philosophize This! (three guesses what that one’s about) studies different schools of philosophy and their history. Since philosophers often build on the ideas of their predecessors, skip at your own risk. But most of the podcasts I listen to—PoliticsGirl Podcast, Consider This from NPR, and Preacher Boys, for example—have largely standalone episodes. Either way, one consequence of my habit? Podcasts have archives. The oldest podcast I listen to is Overdue, a book podcast that celebrated its tenth anniversary this past February.
One night, as I was closing up the coffee shop I work at, I had another long-runner, Pantsuit Politics, in my ear. The hosts, Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers, have published an episode a week since November 2015. I was listening to a Christmas-themed episode from the final days of their 2015 season where they heaped praise on Mark Zuckerberg.
That made me pause at the irony.
Again, this episode was from the Christmas season of 2015. Two years before the Mueller report revealed how Russia used Facebook and other social media sites to dispel misinformation about the 2016 U.S. election. Three years before the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke. And five years before Facebook and Instagram would exacerbate the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting societal chaos by platforming all kinds of misinformation–COVID misinformation, vaccination misinformation, election fraud misinformation, etc.
But hindsight is 20/20. On Christmas of 2015, only the snobbiest of film snobs knew who Harvey Weinstein was, President Donald Trump was a punchline, people thought Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was going to be a hit and that Kevin Spacey had to get into character to play House of Cards’ Frank Underwood, and you had to be deeply invested in the tech world to know who Elon Musk was. Eight years later, Harvey Weinstein has named a trend, “the Weinstein effect,” of exposing powerful people as predators, former President Trump is cocooned in legal webs of his own making, the DCEU died a pitiful death and time will tell if James Gunn’s new direction can make a coherent silver screen DC Universe, Kevin Spacey is a Hollywood pariah, and everyone knows who Elon Musk is, whether they want to or not.
It’s easy to shake our heads at the irony. But consider this: we’ll probably be here eight years from now.
A lot of masks came off in 2023, from Elon Musk continuing to bungle Twitter—sorry, X—to body positivity activist Lizzo being sued for fat-shaming to Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis writing letters to the judge residing over their That ‘70s Show costar Danny Masterson’s rape case begging leniency. But masks are still on. There are still awful people with sterling reputations, morally bankrupt companies with green numbers on the stock market, and pop culture trends that feel inescapable that will join the likes of parachute pants, spray tans, and planking in the “this was a trend…why exactly?” Hall of Fame.
So, as 2023 closes, I’ll leave you the reader with a question to ponder: when it’s 2031 and we turn on podcasts from 2023, what person or thing receiving praise will make us say “Ooh!” and tug our collars?
Noah Keene graduated from Calvin University in December 2021 with a major in creative writing and a minor in Spanish. He currently resides in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. He spends his free time reading and putting his major to good use by working on his first novel. See what he’s reading by following him on Instagram @peachykeenebooks and read his other personal writing by going to thekeenechronicles.com.
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I listen to a few podcasts that include on-site interviews, and it makes me oddly happy to stumble upon interviews that were clearly taped during early COVID years, with the conversation slightly muffled behind masks. It feels like such a specific relic.