I'm a Certified NPR Fan Girl

According to Spotify Wrapped, anyway!

On Tuesday, December 1, after another year of mounting anticipation, Spotify released its 2021 edition of Wrapped. Wrapped is “a viral marketing campaign that allows users to view a compilation of data about their activity on the platform and share it on social media,” as described in the Spotify Wrapped Wikipedia page. Over the past several years, Wrapped has become a cultural touchstone, not merely evidenced by the fact that it has its own Wikipedia page but by the outpouring of social media shares and the news coverage it receives.

Wrapped makes waves in cultural discourse because it can be revelatory for listeners and their friends and followers. For me, Wrapped reaffirmed what I know about myself: I’m a certified NPR Fan Girl. My top podcasts of the year were all NPR productions — Fresh Air, Up First, 1A, All Songs Considered, and Pop Culture Happy Hour. I was acknowledged for my NPR fandom on Twitter when a tweet about my Wrapped stats went “viral” (it received 234 likes as of this writing) within the NPR Twittersphere. I wouldn’t have had such a memorable digital moment where I felt relevant and seen by some of the journalists and NPR personas I admire most had Spotify not aggregated and neatly packaged my data.

While we love Wrapped for (usually) feeding our idealized self-perceptions and the personal brands we want to convey online, journalism has forced me to contend with an aspect of the campaign that I’ve willfully compartmentalized. Rachel Metz of CNN Business points out that [Wrapped] is “an effort to package surveillance as cute and fun,” and a successful one at that. Reporting for Vox, Kelly Pau highlights that while collecting data on the music we love feels innocuous, Spotify’s algorithms are the basis for a broader artificially intelligent ecosystem that perpetuates bias and racism, having the most damaging consequences on already marginalized groups.

Knowing myself, I will most likely disseminate the results of my 2022 Wrapped to my modest social media following as if I’m announcing breaking news to the world, but with pause. Should the knowledge I’ve gleaned from this year’s reporting on Wrapped drive me to listen to NPR podcasts online or on the NPR One app, lowering NPR’s ranking in the algorithmic output, at least I’ll know in my heart that I am forever and always an NPR Fan Girl.

---

Moving On from Wrapped: The Best of the Rest

Ayesha Rascoe on NPR

NPR White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe has stepped further into the spotlight the past few weeks, guest-hosting It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders and Weekend Edition Sunday. Here are some of my favorite recent Rascoe reporting and conversations for you to learn from, ponder, and enjoy.

• What people miss in the conversation about banned books (31 minutes) on It’s Been a Minute with Sanders. In discussion with NPR senior books editor Barrie Hardymon and The Stacks podcast host Traci Thomas, Rascoe & co talk about the importance of allowing kids to discover books on their own, even if the topics or themes aren’t considered age-appropriate by some adults. They also suggest banned book must-reads and reconsider the banned books list altogether, recommending titles that may or may not have already graced said lists.

• Communities of color face disproportionate exposure to pollution (6 minutes) on Weekend Edition Sunday. Rascoe speaks with EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan about his recent trip to the Gulf South and the Biden administration’s broader approach to environmental justice in a segment from Sunday’s weekly news show.

• Paul Thomas Anderson turns to youthful merriment for the latest movie, ‘Licorice Pizza’ (8 minutes) on Weekend Edition Sunday. Rascoe interviews the director of one of the most anticipated coming-of-age films of the year in a conversation that may be as joyous as the movie purports itself to be.

The Washington Post Magazine

The November 30 issue of The Washington Post Magazine was titled “The Lost Local News Issue.” An interactive publication comprised of stories spanning the United States and the consequences of the disappearance of local news, this edition of the magazine gets at the crux of what NPR Fan Girl seeks to raise awareness around. Digitally engaging and captivatingly written, I strongly encourage you to read at least one article from “The Lost Local News Issue” and share it far and wide (and support your local news outlets and stations!).