Is Monoculture Back!? A Pop Culture Check-In w/ ‘Lemme Say This’
The Sam Sanders Show
KCRW & Sam Sanders
4.9 • 707 Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There’s no denying 2026 has been chaotic — but what about pop culture?
Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix (hosts of Lemme Say This) join Sam to break down the biggest moments of the year so far — and what they reveal about where culture is headed.
From reality TV dominating the conversation to debates about monoculture, celebrity overexposure, and what actually breaks through now, they unpack what’s working, what’s not, and why everything feels louder than ever.
Plus: Zendaya’s takeover, Timothée Chalamet discourse, Olympic breakout stars like Alysa Liu, and our enduring obsession with ‘Heated Rivalry.’
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The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey y'all, Sam Sanders here. |
| 0:07.0 | Thank you so much for listening to My Show with KCRW. |
| 0:10.7 | This episode, we're going to try to make sense of 2006 so far. |
| 0:16.9 | Not the politics of this year. |
| 0:18.5 | Do not worry. |
| 0:19.8 | We're going to be talking about the pop culture, what we loved, what we hated, what confused us to sort through the zeitgeist and all the pop culture highs and lows. |
| 0:30.3 | I am joined this episode by two culture critics I love. |
| 0:34.8 | I'm Peyton Dix and I'm Hunter Harris and, and we host a podcast, let me say this. |
| 0:38.8 | Yes. |
| 0:39.2 | Their show is all about their latest obsessions, and they are some of the best pop culture |
| 0:44.1 | whisperers and internet explainers I have ever come across. |
| 0:49.0 | They're also both a hoot. |
| 0:51.2 | I had Peyton and Hunter take stock of 2006 so far, then offer some pop culture |
| 0:56.3 | predictions for the rest of the year. We started by giving this year a pass-fail grade. |
| 1:03.5 | Here's our chat. Enjoy. |
| 1:08.6 | I could think of no two better guests to help me break down the year of pop culture so far. |
| 1:14.8 | We've been going back and forth on what we think are the biggest pop culture stories. |
| 1:20.3 | We didn't properly inhale, though. |
| 1:21.6 | We just kind of... |
| 1:22.3 | Yeah, yeah. |
| 1:22.8 | Yeah, very enough. |
| 1:24.1 | We are, what, four-ish months in. |
... |
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