Ten years later, 2016 still feels like it’s running the playlist in your head and picking your comfort watches when you’re tired. We’re marking the 10-year anniversary by building 2016 Pop Culture Mount Rushmores, the kind of friend-group argument that instantly turns into receipts, hot takes, and “wait, that was THAT year?” energy. 

We start with the best movies of 2016 and chase both craft and cultural gravity: Rogue One as the Star Wars outlier that stays grounded, Arrival as sci-fi that hits like a human drama, and the Moonlight and La La Land pairing that can’t be separated from the Oscars moment that made history. From there we jump to the best TV shows of 2016, back when streaming was simpler, and make the case for Stranger Things season 1 as a nostalgia engine, Atlanta as a singular masterpiece, Veep as political satire that keeps aging uncomfortably well, and Insecure as the breakout that turned Issa Rae into a force. 

Then it’s time for the best albums of 2016: Beyoncé’s Lemonade as a full-on cultural event, Frank Ocean’s Blonde as the record people still beg to be followed up, Solange’s A Seat at the Table as a statement with real staying power, and Rihanna’s Anti as the era we’re still waiting to get back. We close with what we’re loving in pop culture right now and what we want to disappear forever. If you’ve got your own 2016 Mount Rushmore, hit play, then subscribe, share the show, and leave a review so we can keep the nostalgia debates going.

Buckle the f*ck in. We’re going back to 2012.

A year when One Direction was a full-blown cult, Instagram filters made every photo look vaguely haunted, Taylor Swift started going pop, and everyone thought the world might actually end.

In the first episode of Nothing’s Ever New, I’m handing out high school superlatives to the songs, memes, movies and cultural chaos that defined my senior year.

We’re talking “Call Me Maybe,” Kony 2012, Honey Boo Boo, the Cup Song, Frank Ocean, The Hunger Games, overly attached girlfriends, sepia filters and five British guys in impossibly tight jeans.

Some of it aged beautifully. Some of it should have stayed buried. And some of it proves the whole point of this show: the names change, the platforms change, but the chokehold is basically the same.

Class is officially in session.