Hi, I'm Willa Paskin, the host of Decoder Ring, Slate's podcast about cracking cultural mysteries.

And this year, we're back with more new episodes, like many more new episodes.

We'll be diving down a new rabbit hole every two weeks all year long.

We're starting with a question that's hiding in plain sight.

Why do so many coffee shops look the same?

No one had told these cafes to look the same.

There was no parent company, like a Starbucks, to be like, you have to look like this.

And we're also heading back to the early 1990s to ask if you can sell a soda by celebrating that it's just okay.

Right next to the Coke, there's this gray product, and it just says okay on it.

And I was like, what, what is this?

This is crazy.

And it had this really funky, like, fruity soda, Dr. Pepper.

Like, it tasted wild.

You can hear these episodes and more on decodering.

Now in your feed every two weeks.

Make sure to follow us so you never miss an episode.