"We tell ourselves stories in order to live," reads the famous opening line of Joan Didion's 1979 book of essays, The White Album. In 2019, the line reads like prophesy: with the proliferation of social media, it almost seems like a truism to note that we're constantly writing and rewriting our lives, consuming the lives of others, imposing a narrative line on the raw experience of our day-to-day lives.

But we can intentionally distort the story of our lives on social media, too (see: the tragic case of Lil Bow Bow and the subsequent "Bow Wow Challenge"). We can, for example, make our lives appear to be nothing less than a series of enviable triumphs, one after the next. We can project the image of a perfect life, and, importantly, let our followers know that they can have a perfect life as well. Enter the concept of "inspo," or social media self-helpism. Episode 9 of the Now That You Mention It podcast features Kevin and Dane interrogating the idea of the narrativity of self, the self-help industry at large, and the widespread and sometimes bizarre phenomenon of Instagram "inspo".

Before that: another installment of Good Rapper, Bad Bars, this one featuring Prodigy (again), and Jay-Z. Plus, what's up with these wack, click-bait top 50 rappers of all time lists?

Intro and break music courtesy of Chris Giuliano.

Works Cited:

Alexandra Schwartz: Improving Ourselves to Death

Instagram Star Reportedly Couldn't Sell 36 T-Shirts to 2.6 Million Followers

Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson: Getting A Life: Everyday Uses of Autobiography