Happy 2026, Reader,

I have plenty of thoughts about goals and resolutions and fresh starts (the good, the bad, the eye-roll inducing), but what’s been on my mind lately is… MTV.

I saw a rumor a few days ago that MTV had shut down, which turns out not to be true. But if you’re anything like me, your first reaction might’ve been, Wait—was MTV even still a thing? I honestly thought it disappeared years ago, right alongside the version of music television my generation grew up with.

Because that MTV—the one that played actual music, all day, every day—has been gone long enough that it feels reasonable to assume the channel went with it.

And yet, MTV has never really been far from my mind—partly because music was such a big part of my childhood, and partly because of the very first video I ever saw on it.

It was “Hungry Like the Wolf,” playing at my dad’s boss’s house. I remember sitting on the floor in front of the television, and having this feeling like something had cracked open.

What I didn’t know then is that years later, that boss’s son would become my friend—someone who would later end up working at MTV, and later still, quietly helping me make my own podcast happen.

Which feels exactly right. Music has always had a way of looping things back around.

There was a time in my life when music wasn’t just something I liked. It was something I lived inside. It came from the radio, from magazines, from TV, from friends’ bedrooms. From 1983 to the mid-to-late 90s, I don’t remember silence at all. Music was the backdrop to everything.

And while we weren't making videos of our own back then, we were most definitely making mixtapes.

Cassette tapes were their own kind of intimacy. You had to plan them. You had to wait by the radio. Until there were dual cassette recorders, you had to hit record at exactly the right moment and hope the DJ didn’t talk over the intro. Song order mattered. Handwriting mattered. They were time-consuming and imperfect and deeply personal.

You couldn’t half-ass a mixtape. You had to mean it.

Some people never lost their connection to music. They stayed tuned in. They kept discovering new genres, new artists, new ways to listen. But somewhere along the way, my connection to it faded into the background, and I found myself simply forgetting to turn it on.

Part of that erosion was practical. I partnered up with someone who loves music—and slowly found myself listening to what he liked more than what I liked. Then came kids. And with them, Disney soundtracks. Star Wars parodies. Songs they loved. Songs they hated. And very little room for Stevie Nicks.

A lot of it happened in the car.

When you’re always driving someone else, everyone has a say in the radio. And sometimes it’s just easier to listen to Grace VanderWaal on repeat than to fight for your right to Eminem.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about this because I just got a new-to-me car. But more than that—and this part is a little bittersweet—my youngest is about to get her driver’s license.

Which means...the Car. Is. Mine.

All mine.

The chapstick? Right where I left it. The random cups? Nowhere in sight. And the music? Holy moly. It’s back in my hands.

To be clear, my kids have excellent taste. I owe my daughter for Chappell Roan, Noah Kahan, and Hozier, and my son was listening to Ray Charles and Devo when he was a toddler. But for the first time in years, I’m building a playlist that isn’t negotiated. One that holds past and present. Teenage angst and adult joy. Songs that remind me who I was once upon a time—and ones that help me remember who I still am today.

It’s not quite the same as a mixtape, but with your help, it might still feel like an epic gift—no cassette or wrapping paper required.

All I need is a few song ideas. Because while I'm remembering songs I've loved, there's no replacement for a song recommendation from friends.

If you’re up for it, hit reply and send me any or all of the following:

• 🎶 A song that will pull you onto the dance floor at a wedding
• 😭 A song that makes you cry every single time
• 🚗 The song you listened to when you first got your own license
• 🔥 A song that's your personal “battle cry”
• ✨ One current favorite you can’t stop playing

Or none of the above. Totally fine.

I’ll be over here, pretending my mom car is an Audi convertible.

XO,
Danielle