NPR’s Aisha Harris on ‘The Pop Culture That Shapes’ Her

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Aisha Harris has long been an observer of pop culture. Today she serves as critic and co-host of NPR’s hit podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, but in the 1990s she was growing up in suburban Connecticut, watching The Powerpuff Girls, and listening to her parents play (and often sing) Stevie Wonder. In her new book “Wannabe,” Harris takes a close look at the pop culture that has shaped who she is today. We talk to her about the book, her thoughts on modern fandom, the evolution of the Black Best Friend trope, and why every show or movie of yesteryear is being remade today. Guests: Aisha Harris, host of Pop Culture Happy Hour, NPR Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:30.2	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:46.8	How do we make a self?
0:48.9	There are the obvious things, where we were born, the color of our skin,
0:52.7	our inheritances of status and culture.
0:55.6	But as Aisha Harris' new book, Wannaby, Reckonings with the pop culture that shapes me,
1:00.2	demonstrates, the culture that we pour into ourselves helps us understand ourselves and process
1:06.5	the world. This is a fun, funny book that maps Harris' very particular world, but it's one that I
1:12.0	recognize too, from Stevie Wonder to Clueless to Richard Linklater's before sunset with some
1:16.9	spice girls and bell hooks thrown in. You may also know Harris as a delightful, insightful host of
1:22.3	NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. She joins us after this news.
1:37.6	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. We're joined this morning by Aisha Harris,
1:46.2	critic and host of MPR's podcast, Pop Culture Happy Hour. She's got a new book out to wannabe, Reckonings with the pop culture that shapes me. It's kind of a coming of age story of sorts, told through a series
1:52.3	of essays on pop culture that deal with blackness and representation, love and marriage,
1:57.6	The Little Mermaid, and the IP that never ends. Thanks so much for joining us,
2:01.8	Aisha. Thank you so much for having me. And also happy Pub Day. This is the day the book is coming
	...

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