How We Heard It

2025 won't be remembered as the year for love, peace and harmony.

War and military attacks were happening everywhere - from the Ukraine to the Middle East to Venezuela to Nigeria. Natural disasters like wildfires and floods swept the U.S. And not only did we lose beloved celebrities like Diane Keaton, Robert Redford and Ozzy Osbourne, other popular figures - from Rob and Michele Reiner to Charlie Kirk to Melissa and Mark Hortman - died in devastating ways that shocked the world.

Political differences polarized Americans with increasing intensity, AI made us increasingly unsure what was even real, social media became a toxic wasteland, and millions were facing the loss of health insurance at year's end as a result of the expiration of ACA subsidies.

We could go on and on, but we know you lived through it, too.

So this week your hosts of "How We Heard It" decided to highlight some positive things about 2025 with lists of the year's best songs and albums and movies and TV shows.

They were riveted by movies like "One Battle After Another," "Sinners" and "Weapons" and intrigued by films like "Nuremburg," "Companion" and "Good Boy." On the small screen, your hosts were thrilled by "IT: Welcome to Derry" and "Alien: Earth," challenged by "The Bear" and "White Lotus" and tickled by "The English Teacher" and a revived "South Park."

Musically, Kendrick Lamar and SZA teamed up on a sizzling tribute to Luther Vandross, the U.K.'s Wet Leg brought back rowdy alt-rock excitement, and Taylor Swift may have saved us from the fate of Ophelia.

It was almost enough to inspire them to do that little Swiftie dance.

If they could dance.

Everyone with a physical music collection - you know, stuff you can hold in your hands like albums and compact discs - has had to decide how to store it all.

You never see them coming, and yet they never stop coming.

From the beginning of popular music to today, offbeat songs just keep pushing into our consciousness. As much as we’re conditioned to respond to formula-based songs that fit into established genres, the outliers just keep catching our attention and burrowing into our brains.

Over the decades, there’s been a singing nun and chanting monks, weird mini-musicals from the likes of Queen and Paul McCartney, unlikely foreign-language acts promoting red balloons, taxi drivers and whatever “Gangnam Style” was. Unconventional instruments, animals (including the performer who thought she was a cow), cheerleader-esque songs and mashed-up genres also found fame. And in just the last year we’ve seen the charts topped by everything from a song based on a Korean drinking game to a country hit that was completely invented by AI.

On this week’s “How We Heard It,” your hosts explore some of the strangest songs that have ever been made - funny, bizarre, racy, disturbing, catchy … and sometimes annoying in the long run.

Expect the unexpected!

Snappy holidays, y’all!

Find out what your hosts would give Beyonce, The Weeknd, Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, Bad Bunny, Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Nickelback and more.

Feeling out of sorts?

Your hosts of the "How We Heard It" podcast usually have a general goal in mind when they pick a topic ... but when they came up with this idea, they had no clue what they were in for: "Hey, let's dig through our music collections and just see what we find."

Keep in mind that these guys have each amassed thousands of albums and compact discs (and even some 8-track tapes for Wayne), accumulated over decades thanks in great part to record companies sending the guys an avalanche of free music, hoping for reviews.

Amazingly, Wayne and John independently decided they wanted to start the podcast with the same artist. And Chuck quickly remembered he didn't like the smell of the cardboard in album covers and had never even listened to many of the artists in his collection.

On this week's episode, the guys talk about some of their initial findings, their random systems of filing and storing their collections, some hidden gems they turned up, and some unexpected, funny and baffling memories that surfaced with their research.

The guys came up with ample podcast material when they had barely made even a dent in their collections, so they decided they'll dig deeper for future podcasts.

Meanwhile, have you poked around in your music collection lately? You might be surprised by what you find.

Seems like every day another performer has said the wrong thing or done the wrong thing. And if we like them, that's just more spice in the sauce. And if we don't, we just hate them even more.

But the controversy wheel just keeps on spinning, regardless of how you feel. It could be a manufactured scandal, like a diss track, or something out of control, like an act of violence. Sometimes it's hard to know if it was planned or not - you know, like when one singer pulls the top off another singer during the Super Bowl halftime show.

On this week's episode of "How We Heard It," your hosts spin through some of the biggest and some of the strangest controversies ignited by musicians, either by design or by accident.

They poke through scandals from recent years and look back at some from decades ago to see how they hold up now. For example, most of Madonna's shenanigans from the 1980s seem rather tame by today's standards. But on the flipside, you might be surprised (and disappointed) to learn how many of your favorite singers from classic rock days were routinely sleeping with underage fans ... and how it generated relatively little concern back then.

Your hosts also look at the current social environment and how performers are forced into controversy against their will and how stars are no longer allowed to be neutral about issues. This is why Taylor Swift couldn't be another Dolly Parton, even if she tried. (Why is everybody always mad about everything all the time?) 

So join us and find out if your favorite singers have been naughty or nice ... and if it changes how you feel about them, for better or worse.

The United States may have an official day of gratitude every November with Thanksgiving, but for many of us, most every day could be a day of appreciation.

A sincere "thank you" is rewarding for everyone: It feels good to say it and it feels good to hear it.

However, appreciation can be complicated and "thank you" may come with a twist. Sometimes we're grateful (in hindsight, at least) for the lessons we've learned from difficult people. Sometimes we feel generalized happiness for family and/or friends. Sometimes we're just thankful to no one in particular that we're happy for no reason in particular.

And of course sometimes expressions of gratitude are just a cover for dark feelings.

In this episode of "How We Heard It" your hosts sift through an array of old and new songs that directly or indirectly express gratitude. Artists include Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, The Kinks, Sly and the Family Stone, The Beatles, Big Star, Natalie Merchant, Taylor Swift, Bob Hope, Elton John, Louis Armstrong, Rihanna, Gwen Stefani, The Beach Boys, Backstreet Boys, Alanis Morissette, James Taylor, Small Faces, Kool & the Gang, U2, Spice Girls, Boyz II Men and many more.

Thanks for listening!

When we're listening to music, most of us tend to focus on the singer. And why not? Singers spell it out for us. They give us a human voice, and the words, to understand the meaning of songs.

But we don't always need someone holding our hand and walking us through a song. Sometimes the lyrics are trite and the vocals are lame.

With instrumentals, you get to choose your own adventure. You can feel the music and define the meaning to suit yourself. Without all those words getting in the way, you can be absorbed into the sonic wonderland of a song and come up with feelings that you tailor for yourself.

This week your "How We Heard It" hosts explore the beauty of instrumental music and the freedom it gives its listeners, whether they just need background noise to clean house or they need to focus without distraction.

Instrumentals are more common in some genres - such as classical, jazz and bluegrass - but they exist in all forms, be it on soundtracks, in lounges or at nightclubs. And your hosts even drift into altered-state uses of instrumental music - like if you're trying to sink into a meditative sleep or even astral project.

So, buckle in and let them take you away.

Face it, everyone loves a good fight. And musicians and singers are always adding an extra layer to their entertainment value - intentionally or accidentally - by engaging in battles with their peers.

Some of these feuds are exaggerated and some are underplayed. Some have an obvious bad guy while in others it seems like both parties should share the blame. Some seem to be about nothing, and others seem to be about everything.

It seemed like the stakes couldn't have been higher than they were in the recent Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar feud ... that is, until you remembered Tupac Shakur vs. The Notorious B.I.G. (both of whom died from drive-by shootings just months apart).

Internal wars chipped away at some of rock's best bands - from the Beatles and The Kinks to Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac. Meanwhile, some of the most iconic singers were locked in bitter rivalries, including Prince and Michael Jackson as well as Axl Rose and Kurt Cobain.

Then there were the entertaining battles of the divas - Cher vs. Madonna, Elton John vs. Madonna, Whitney Houston vs. Mariah Carey, Mariah Carey vs. Jennifer Lopez. ... And we'll never forget the most inexplicable feud that just seems to go on and on: Kanye West vs. Taylor Swift.

This week your hosts of "How We Heard It" recap all of these fights and many more - the ones that made them laugh, the ones that made them wince and the ones that made them scratch their heads.

They also take a look at the artist who seems to be fighting the entire world. Even if you've never heard of her.