Liam McBain

What's the cost of a childhood online? Getty Images/Overearth/Photo Illustration by NPR hide caption

Transcript (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) BRITTANY LUSE, HOST: What's something from your childhood that you would have been really embarrassed if your parents had posted about?

There are influencers taking money to promote music – and not telling you about it.It's great when you find people who put you on to hot new music that matches your taste. But online tastemakers might be getting secretly paid to shill for labels. This is not a conspiracy theory – it's a real practice. NPR music reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento spoke to several online content creators who told her about how labels approached them – and who they’re being asked to promote. By the way – this is potentially illegal. But what does it mean for regular music enjoyers that music discovery is so weighed down by dollars? And can we ever disentangle money from the Internet – and from culture?Brittany is joined by Isabella to get into the juicy details and the broader implications of this practice.For more episodes on the state of music in culture, check out:The shelf life of a pop starThe D-List pop star purgatoryCan TikTok spark a new era of protests?Support Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluse

Transcript BRITTANY LUSE, HOST: Whose music recommendations do you trust, and why?

Transcript BRITTANY LUSE, HOST: Have you ever had a moment where you're like, OK, I'm being a baby woman, and I need to grow up a little bit right now?

You might be more influenced by yuppie taste than you’d think.Back in the eighties – when pop music drowned in synths, the volume of everyone's hair was set to loud, and neon was in vogue – a new age dawned: the era of the yuppie. “Yuppie” comes from the acronym “YUP” – which stands for young, urban professional. Think Patrick Bateman from American Psycho or even Miranda Hobbes from Sex and the City. Nowadays, cities are full of young urban professionals, but this wasn't always the case. In his new book, Yuppies: the Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers and Gourmands Who Conquered New York, author Dylan Gottlieb argues that New York City was the first city to reorganize itself to cater to yuppies. And it's not just cities that have changed. Yuppies have transformed our country's economy, politics, and culture, too.Brittany is joined by Dylan, assistant professor of history at Bentley University, to break down how yuppies catapulted us into our current moment.For more episodes on the history that explains our culture today, check out:How often do you think about the American Empire?Americans want a royal family. Now they have twoWere Americans actually healthier in the past?Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseSupport public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

Transcript BRITTANY LUSE, HOST: Let me set the scene for you. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Microdramas are taking over the internet. But are they art – or products?The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband. Break Me, Princess. Married the Mafioso I Saved. These are all titles of microdramas that are taking the internet by storm. In case you haven’t heard, microdramas are often campy shows with short, minute-long episodes. The first few episodes get posted to social media for free, but viewers must go to another site where they can pay to watch the whole thing. And a lot of people do. It's an industry that started in China and is already worth several billions of dollars – so Hollywood is getting in on it. Issa Rae’s microdrama called Screen Time got nearly 75 million views in its first week, and now, Peacock, Fox, and Disney are producing their own. But this microdrama boom raises a few questions: who are these stories for, and what makes them so popular? And is the microdrama a new art form – or is it solely a product?Brittany is joined by Chang Che, a freelance writer who wrote about microdramas for The New Yorker, and Xochitl Gonzalez, author and contributor at The Atlantic, who wrote about them there.For more episodes on what we’re watching and why, check out:People are struggling financially. Even on TV.Abortion access is limited. Is Hollywood to blame?Why Gen Z is movie-maxxingSupport public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

Transcript (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) BRITTANY LUSE, HOST: What is the wildest premise for a microdrama that you've come across?

The communal living fantasy doesn't have to stay a fantasy. Getty Images/klyaksun/Photol Illustration by NPR hide caption Does everyone need their own lawnmower?