Credit - Pop Culture Since 2018, Slate critic Willa Paskin has explored bizarre and delightful cultural phenomena from"Baby Shark"toChuck E. Cheeseto try to understand what makes people obsessed with arbitrary touchstones. Some of the episodes are bona fide time capsules: A particularly compelling entry discusses Gen X's disdain for"selling out"as manifested in movies likeReality Bitesand novelist Jonathan Franzen's refusal to appear on Oprah—a concept that has been totally lost on Gen Z, many of whom aspire to become influencers shilling for companies in exchange for free products. Through conversations with experts, fans, and fellow journalists, Paskin manages to transform a topic that might spark mild interest into one of utter obsession. She lends a sympathetic ear to fanboys and fangirls to understand how the strangest subcultures can elicit an emotional attachment and radically transform the cultural zeitgeist. Write toEliana Dockterman ateliana.dockterman@time.com.
