Summer is here, and so are the superhero movies and hit pop songs that define the season. We discuss the politics of “Wonder Woman,” the first female-fronted and female-directed superhero blockbuster. We also search for the definitive summer jam of 2017 and try to define what makes a great summer song along the way.

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Last week, the Baywatch franchise returned — this time on the big screen — with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Zac Efron leading a cast of tan, muscled lifeguards. But the film isn’t just a goofy romp; it presents the beach as a place of danger that needs to be patrolled, raising questions about who beaches are for. Jenna spends as much time at the beach as she can, while Wesley has always resisted going. As they try to untangle why that is, they discuss the history of American beaches and American beach movies, and the beach as a place of infinite possibility and mystery, as bearing the traces of racial segregation and as being one of the most liberating environments in the world.

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In the last 30 years, blackness has migrated from the margins of American popular culture to its center. Right now, a bounty of television, movies, and music engages with the question of how people signal to each other that they’re down with blackness. And it isn't just white people doing the signaling. It's black people too, albeit in a different way. We’ll dig into Netflix’s new show “Dear White People,” and television and film from the 1980s and 1990s and try to understand: what does it mean to perform blackness?

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Donald Trump has changed the way we watch TV, whether it’s the reality show within the White House, or the scripted dramas we can’t help but compare to our political situation. New Yorker television critic Emily Nussbaum joins us to analyze what Trump's persona in "The Apprentice" might tell us about how he wields power as president, and to talk about how living in Trump’s America changes the way we watch political television, including shows like "The Leftovers" and "The Handmaid’s Tale."

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It has been five years since Whitney Houston died. She was one of the biggest pop stars of her time and a glorious singer — but we don’t properly remember her for that. Instead, she is considered a tragic figure who sacrificed herself to drugs and her marriage. This week, we felt a reappraisal of Houston was in order. It’s a chance to argue that the music is much more important than any of the scandal. So we listen to some of her best recordings and live performances. And yes, we walk through the bad years, but only to remind ourselves of who we actually lost: the greatest singer of the rock ’n’ roll era.

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The ruthlessness of Silicon Valley companies like Uber is out of control, but why do we expect more from the tech industry than from corporations like McDonalds or Exxon Mobil? We also discuss the bloody rivalry between the big-screen queens Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, as depicted in Ryan Murphy’s FX drama “Feud,” and whether the show defies stereotypes or perpetuates them.

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A conversation with the director of "Moonlight" about his cinematic style, his forthcoming adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s "Underground Railroad," his love of science fiction and, yes, that crazy night at the Academy Awards.

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We discuss Kendrick Lamar’s new album, “DAMN.,” and listen closely to “XXX,” one of our favorite tracks. Is his latest project a breakup with America, or with an older version of himself? Then we speak to Valerie Jarrett, a former White House adviser, about what she and the Obamas have in store.

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We’re back! And we’re picking up right where we left off: thinking about “Get Out.” Jordan Peele’s instant classic is the lens through which we’re seeing everything these days, from the hit podcast “S-Town” to that Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad the internet will never let us forget. We've got a grand theory about how it all connects.

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We’re not over what happened at the Oscars on Sunday. You probably aren’t either. But we’re ready to move onto next year’s Oscars, where we fully expect to see “Get Out,” currently the No. 1 movie in America. We talk to its writer and director, Jordan Peele, about carving out space in the horror genre, how to deal with your liberal white friends and what it’s like to ask an actor to play a racist. Then, before the show takes month-long hiatus, we meditate on what we’ve learned doing Still Processing.

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