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This podcast is supported by washington.org.

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Washington, D.C. offers visitors so much to

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explore. Just ask Daya, who shared her

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experiences from a recent visit. What

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was your favorite food all weekend? The Ethiopian

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food at Sihe. And the

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first place you would visit again? The bookstore,

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Little District Books. What did

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you appreciate the most? Really, just like

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the genuine kindness of everyone that I encountered

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this weekend. Why should people visit D.C.?

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Well, D.C. is a place with such a

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thriving culture. Washington,

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D.C. has something for everybody. Plan your

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next trip at washington.org. Welcome

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to Popcast Deluxe, your can't-ban-the-snowman of weekly

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cultural review. I'm John Karamonica, a critic

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at The New York Times. I'm Joe

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Coscarelli, I'm a reporter at The New

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York Times. Joe, every

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week I look at the Billboard Hot 100

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when it comes out. I

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do this a lot, and I would

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say many times this year, I

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have been like, what? Every

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week, Benson Boone just keeps persisting.

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Teddy Swims. No,

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I think this year, perhaps

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more than any year, certainly

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in recent memory, and perhaps for quite a long

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time, the Hot 100 feels

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absolutely lawless. It's totally up

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for grabs. You

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look over on the album charts, and you're just

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like, it's Taylor, it's Torture Poets Department, it's like,

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you know, calm. Billie Eilish, Morgan

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Waller. I know, I

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understand that. But the stratification

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between the album charts and the singles

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charts feels really, really wide. And

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you think it's the year of Taylor and

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all those people you just mentioned, and

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in fact, it is the year of

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Shaboosie. In fact, it is the

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year of Sabrina Carpenter. It

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is the year of Tommy Richman, Benson

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Boone, Teddy Swims. It's

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the decade of Benson Boone and Teddy Swims.

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You know how they say some years-