There are all other songwriters, and then there is Carole King. Nobody’s ever had an epic career quite like the Brooklyn girl who spent the Sixties writing classic hits for other artists—then spent the Seventies writing her own.

With her 1971 solo classic Tapestry, she set the standards that all young singer-songwriters still aspire to reach. She’s always gone her own way as a performer, a composer, and an environmental activist. When Taylor Swift inducted King into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023, she simply called her “the greatest songwriter of all time.”

On this week’s special episode, hosts Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield are joined by the queen herself: Carole King. She tells the story of how she got started in songwriting, how she fell in love with making music, and how her artistry changed over the years as her life did. Our hosts also discuss the legend that is Carole King, why they idolize her, and how she changed all the rules of pop music with Tapestry and “It’s Too Late.”

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Daddy Yankee’s original plan was to become a baseball player. However when a stray bullet hit him at age 17, he pivoted to focusing on his other passion: music. The Puerto Rican star ended up becoming an integral part of the creation and explosion of reggaeton, a Spanish-language genre that fuses dancehall and soca with hip-hop.

It was his 2004 breakout hit “Gasolina” and album Barrio Fino that helped bring reggaeton worldwide, breaking the seal for it to become the most popular genre of music in the world and for Daddy Yankee to become its most influential artist. “Gasolina” was just the start for Daddy Yankee, who has gone on to create many more decades of innovative, fresh and extremely popular music for every club and block party around the world. On this week’s episode hosts Rob Sheffield and Brittany Spanos discuss the success of “Gasolina” and are joined by their Rolling Stone colleague, Julyssa Lopez, who wrote a 2022 cover story on Daddy Yankee. Together they dive into Daddy Yankee's career and the evolution of reggaeton, highlighting its rise to global dominance.

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The Kinks were heading into uncharted territory in the Sixties. The London rockers blew up in the early days of the British invasion, topping the charts with violently rowdy bangers like “You Really Got Me.” But Ray Davies began to explore a new kind of introspective songwriting, telling stories of everyday heartbreak. “Waterloo Sunset” is his artistic triumph: the delicate 1967 ballad of a lonely man by a train station, watching lovers from his window.

This one-time cult favorite has become The Kinks’ most beloved classic, setting a standard that all kinds of songwriters aspire to reach. On this week’s episode hosts Rob Sheffield and Brittany Spanos are joined by their Rolling Stone colleague Kory Grow, to explore the mystery of how such a quiet song has just kept growing more beloved and influential over the years.

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