Hi there, I'm Chloe Veltman. Welcome to our Book of the Day podcast. Pop Culture Happy Hour host, Aisha Harris, has built a career on examining how culture shapes people's lives in her new essay collection from Harper Collins titled wannabe. The author and critic share some of the many ways in which culture has shaped her own

life growing up in 1990s America. In a lively conversation with another NPR Aisha, Aisha Rusco,

Harris talks about her childhood passion for sex in the city and the challenges of critiquing

art produced by black creators as a black critic.

Let's go to Aisha Rasko.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods. NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

What makes you you? For some, it's the culture you consume. The books you read, the movies and TV you watch, the music you just can't get enough of.

Aisha Harris definitely counts herself in that group. And yeah, she's the other Aisha at NPR, the very talented host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. She's written a new book called Wannaby, Reckonings with

the Pop Culture That Shapes Me, and we just had to talk to her about it because we had to have

an attack of the Aisha's at NPR. So welcome Aisha Harris. Yes, I'm ready to conquer the world

with my fellow Aisha.

Yes, exactly, exactly. We have to start with your first essay, and this is not just because we share a name, but the first essay of the book is about your name. You write that you took a lot

of pride in the idea that your name came from a Stevie Wonder song,

isn't she lovely? But then you learn that's not quite the case.

Well, you know, it's funny because I don't know if you've experienced this as well as a fellow Aisha,

but growing up and being a millennial who grew up in the 90s, there's a different song that a lot of people would recognize more so than the Isn't She Lovely song.

And that song is called Aisha by Another Bad Creation.

And that song was a top ten hit to me. And people like to sing it to me when they meet me sometimes as a way of like... And you didn't like this. I did not like this. Because I, you know, there were a lot of things going on there. I thought it was a lesser song. It wasn't as prestigious or like notable as a Stevie Wonder song. I mean, I still think that. But I also kind of wanted to unpack in that essay how it wasn't just about that, but it was also about some like deep-seated, uncomfortable feelings I had about being black and how that song kind of felt like

a song that I didn't want to have my name attached to because it felt, you know, I used the word

...