Growing up I never understood pop-culture.
While most of my friends listened to music with their parents on the drive to and from school, I’d listen to talk radio on NJ 101.5.
Podcast consumption was very natural for me because I had been subconsciously trained to listen to talk radio as a child.
In order to understand the popular culture, I needed to actually consume the information everyone else was consuming. As someone who didn’t, I felt like an outsider for most of my life. To some extent, it’s carried on into adulthood.
When people make references to certain TV shows, movies, or entertainers I simply don’t know what they’re talking about. I turned these socially awkward moments into opportunities to learn.
Underlying the reference someone made is a moment in time when the person first consumed that piece of content. Inquiring about that time inevitably leads to a story of how it made them feel.
It’s true. We tend to remember the things that made us feel something. The content we consume is no different. The content lives in the feelings we associate with it. Whether it’s a song, sport’s moment, or a movie, they all share the same property.
What’s a feeling you associate to a piece of content?
