The Millennial Internet, from Buzzfeed Quizzes to Filming ICE
The Sam Sanders Show
KCRW & Sam Sanders
4.9 • 707 Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today we’re sharing Sam’s episode from The Assignment with Audie Cornish.
This year marks a milestone for Millennials: the youngest of the cohort finally turns 30. So what comes next for the first generation of true digital natives now that they have achieved “unc” status? Audie talks with Sam Sanders about the generation that watched media transform from Buzzfeed quizzes into AI slop. They also discuss Millennial activism taking over the generation’s Instagram feed as ICE protests continue in Minneapolis.
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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. |
| 0:01.3 | Thank you so much for checking out my show. |
| 0:03.9 | We got a very special episode for you today. |
| 0:06.6 | My friend and former colleague, CNN anchor Audie Cornish, |
| 0:10.6 | she called me up recently to talk on her show, which is called The Assignment. |
| 0:15.5 | It's a good podcast. |
| 0:16.4 | Go check it out. |
| 0:17.8 | In this chat, we covered a lot. |
| 0:19.3 | We talked about politics and the internet, and we even |
| 0:23.2 | discussed millennials because, I'm not sure if you've noticed, millennials are maybe cool again. |
| 0:30.2 | For a while, the youth said that we were very cringe, but now it seems the internet admires how |
| 0:35.9 | earnest we were, are, how we danced in real life |
| 0:40.4 | at actual nightclubs, all the things. |
| 0:44.5 | And it seems everyone right now is posting photos online looking back at a prime year |
| 0:49.7 | in peak millennial culture. |
| 0:52.5 | I'm talking about 2016. |
| 0:54.1 | You have definitely seen it. |
| 0:55.6 | Your friends are posting photos online of them from a decade ago looking, I don't know, different. |
| 1:02.9 | Why are they doing this and what has changed in internet culture since then? |
| 1:08.3 | Audie and I talked this out, and we ended up discussing a whole lot more. |
| 1:13.0 | Protest and justice and surveillance, etc. I will not give any more away. I will just say, |
| 1:20.7 | Adi is one of the smartest people I know, and this conversation with her kind of soothed my soul. |
... |
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