Hey listeners, happy Advent and happy Hanukkah. Today we're bringing you a special episode where I'm the one in the hot seat. We talk a lot on this show about the big ideas driving today's politics, tech, religion, and more. But recently, I got a chance to talk about another favorite subject of mine, pop culture. Between Taylor Swift's

allegedly reactionary new album and the entire discourse around Sidney Sweeney, one question

keeps popping up. Is it possible for a celebrity to be a conservative? My colleagues recently invited

me on Popcast to ask me that question. Popcast is the New York Times show focused on music and pop culture criticism. And I think we had a pretty fascinating conversation about how Trump-era politics fits into those worlds right now. I hope you enjoy.

Welcome to the New York Times Popcast. You are interrupting my pardon weekly cultural review.

I'm John Caramonica and I'm the critic. I'm Joe Cuscarelli and I'm the reporter. It's a special episode today. Big theme conversation, big ideas, no knock on our other guests.

But we had a big thought. You and I were texting a couple weeks ago.

Sidney Sweeney, the memes, the discourse, sending tweets back and forth.

Can a celebrity be conservative? This is something that we talk about and we allude to a lot on

this show. And I think we determined that it was time for a real episode on the topic. This is something that we talk about and we allude to a lot on this show. And I think we determined that it was time for a real episode on the topic.

This is something that I think has threaded through a lot of our thoughts and coverage for the last couple of years.

This has been a moment in which pop culture is changing a lot.

The center of what I think the American mainstream is, has moved

in alignment with the current presidential administration. And there was basically one person

we wanted to chat with about this. Literally just one. And he happened to reside

professionally in the same building as us.

Ross Southett is here on Popcast. Ross is the host of interesting times with Ross Douthit.

Ross is a opinion columnist at the New York Times. You guys needed us needed to know if a celebrity

could be a conservative. And here we are. And here I am. That's our show.

That's our show.

That's it. That's a show. It's great. Yeah. We're over. This is a crossover episode. It's multiple senses. Like a Marvel team up kind of does. Yes. Flintstones meet the Jetsons. That's my go-to. I'm the Flintstone. I was going to say that's a pretty late, pretty laid in comparison.

Yeah.

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