Today on The Stacks, we are joined by Emmy-nominated TV writer, former co-host of What Now? with Trevor Noah, and creator of the Pop Syllabus newsletter and podcast, Christiana Mbakwe Medina. We talk about how Christiana became a comedy writer and culture critic, the intersections of wealth and access in celebrity culture, and what we can get out of taking pop culture seriously.

The Stacks Book Club pick for January is Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Girls Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert. We will discuss the book on Wednesday, January 28th, with Christiana Mbakwe Medina returning as our guest.

You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2026/1/7/ep-406-christiana-mbakwe-medina

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For the last Stacks Book Club episode of the year, we're diving into Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger with Joel Anderson, senior staff writer at The Ringer and co-host of sports & media podcast The Press Box. This book follows the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers, one of the best high-school football teams in Texas history. We discuss whether this book could exist as is today, how we feel about high school athletes getting special academic treatment, and why Joel wants to untether grades from extracurricular activities.

There are spoilers in this episode.

Be sure to listen to the end of today’s episode to find out what our January book club pick will be.

You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2025/12/31/ep-405-friday-night-lights

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It’s finally the episode we’ve all been waiting for: The Stacks' Best Books of 2025! Traci talks with two longtime friends of the show, Greta Johnsen, host of Happy to Be Here, and MJ Franklin, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, to share our top 10 books of the year. We discuss the overall year in books, why we struggled to create this list, and all the books we’re looking forward to reading in 2026.

The Stacks Book Club pick for December is Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger. We will discuss the book on Wednesday, December 31st, with Joel Anderson.

You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2025/12/24/ep-404-best-books-of-2025

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We're at the end of 2025 and this year we're looking back, not at the best of the year, but at the worst, most hatable moments. To break it all down, Traci teamed up with friend of the pod, Nora McInerny, for a crossover bonus episode between The Stacks and Nora's show, Thanks for Asking. From Taylor Swift to AI slop and so much more, get ready for a whole lot of hot takes and disgruntled energy.

This episode is a collaboration with Nora’s podcast Thanks for Asking.

You can find links to everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks Website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/unabridged/2025/12/19/tsu-54-nora-mcinerny

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Today on The Stacks, we are joined by National Book Award finalist Alejandro Varela to talk about his newest novel, Middle Spoon. Humorously exploring unconventional relationships and complexities of polyamory, this novel follows Alejandro’s unnamed narrator, a married man navigating heartbreak after his boyfriend abruptly dumps him. We discuss why he wanted to write about heartbreak, how he brought more of himself to this book, and why it was important to him to depict OCD correctly.

The Stacks Book Club pick for December is Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger. We will discuss the book on Wednesday, December 31st, with Joel Anderson as our guest.

You can find links to everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks Website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2025/12/17/ep-403-alejandro-varela

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Today on The Stacks, we’re joined by James Beard Award-winning chef, TV host, and author Samin Nosrat to discuss her newest book, Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love. In this cookbook, Samin shares over 125 of her favorite go-to recipes, including ricotta custard pancakes, saffron-burnished roast chicken, nostalgia-inducing yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and everything in between. We discuss her return to writing after the success of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, how she balances technique with improvisation in the kitchen, and the friction between her identities as a writer and a chef.

The Stacks Book Club pick for December is Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger. We will discuss the book on Wednesday, December 31st, with Joel Anderson.

You can find links to everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks Website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2025/12/10/ep-402-samin-nosrat

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Today on The Stacks, we’re joined by Joel Anderson, senior staff writer at The Ringer and co-host of sports & media podcast The Press Box. We discuss his transition from athlete to sports journalist, how his relationship with his audience has changed alongside public perceptions of the media, whether we’re freaking out enough about the state of media, and why he loves books on place.

The Stacks Book Club pick for December is Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger. We will discuss the book on Wednesday, December 31st, with Joel Anderson returning as our guest.

You can find links to everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks Website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2025/12/3/ep-400-joel-anderson

Connect with Joel: Instagram | Twitter | Bluesky

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It is The Stacks Book Club day, and Page Break founder Mikey Friedman is back to discuss National Book Award-winner Justin Torres's debut novel, We the Animals. Set in rural upstate New York in the 1980s, this coming-of-age novel traces the experiences of three mixed-race brothers bustling through boyhood while navigating the violence and chaos within their household. In our conversation, we chat about what sets this book apart from other coming-of-age stories, how this functions as a sensory novel, and the ways the book explores shame and desire without judgment.

There are spoilers in this episode.

Make sure you listen to the end of the episode to hear what our January book club pick will be!

You can find links to everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks Website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/unabridged/2025/11/26/ep-400-we-the-animals

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