'Algorithm Bodies' & the human need to worship celebrities
It's Been a Minute
NPR
4.7 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2026
⏱️ 39 minutes
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Summary
For decades, Hollywood has promoted a carefully curated ideal of aspirational talent, beauty, and intrigue. But in 2026, it feels like that power is in the hands of the one thing that alleges to know us best: the algorithm. Now computer programs hold more power in shaping who is famous and what we all are fed as aspirational ideals: from who is a star to what our bodies should look like. Enter the algorithm body.
In this episode, host Brittany Luse is joined by Christiana Mbakwe Medina, screenwriter and host of the Pop Syllabus podcast. They get into the evolving nature of fame and why Christina thinks the thin body ideal is out and the sculpted body ideal is in.
Want more about tech, beauty, and cultural cache? Check out these IBAM episodes:
The morbid lifelessness of modern beauty
Peptides & the pursuit of the "perfect" body
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So Daniel DeLuis, to me, he's a star. |
| 0:02.7 | He's famous, but he's not a celebrity. No, he doesn't play into it. He doesn't play into it. I don't know anything about him. I think Kim Kardashian, I think she's famous. I think she's a celebrity. I don't think she's a star. I don't. I just don't. I mean, I don't disagree with you. Yeah. |
| 0:22.3 | Timothy Shalameen, I don't disagree with you. |
| 0:22.3 | Timothy Shalemaine, I think he's famous for acting. I think he's a celebrity. I don't think he's a star. |
| 0:29.0 | I don't feel it. And so it's just been the most helpful rubric for, I think, digesting celebrity or like pop culture right now because there are so many people who, and I think this is a real boomer thing, they're like, who are these people? Why do the kids care about Alex Earle? And I'm like, well, because she's a star. Do you know what I mean? Like, you may not like, but she actually is a star. That's why people want to see her do her makeup and get drunk. And millions of people are following this on TikTok. |
| 0:59.0 | Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR. |
| 1:04.1 | A show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. |
| 1:20.4 | I don't know about you, but I am constantly having conversations with people about what it means to be a star in today's crowded media landscape. |
| 1:24.3 | It's a question that has both Hollywood and audiences stumped. The film industry is having |
| 1:29.3 | trouble capitalizing on newer stars, even those with household name status, and even bona fide |
| 1:35.3 | a-listers aren't selling at the box office the way they used to. But what even makes someone a star? |
| 1:41.4 | Is it talent? Using generative AI to deage you, TikTok follower count? |
| 1:46.2 | Or maybe it's what our guest today theorizes, a body built for the algorithm. Screenwriter and |
| 1:52.5 | host of the pop syllabus podcast, Christiana and Backway Medina, joins me to unpack how the |
| 1:57.6 | taxonomy of what makes a star has changed. And what the advent of social media |
| 2:02.4 | and AI means for Hollywood as we know it, for better or worse. Christiana, welcome to it's |
| 2:08.8 | been a minute. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to have you. I'm so excited to have you. |
| 2:13.0 | There are so many of like your pop culture theories that I have just been blown away by. |
| 2:21.9 | And I'm so glad that we get to give some of the bit deeper examination today. |
| 2:23.3 | So I'm very thrilled that you're on the show. |
| 2:33.0 | I want to start, though, by bringing in a conversation that I've seen unfolding across social media the past couple weeks, but also kind of the past few years. |
| 2:38.4 | Who defines modern day movie stardom to you? |
... |
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