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Ranking the best and worst of 2024: Moo Deng, Drake & Crashing Out

By Brittany Luse,
Ayesha Rascoe, B.A. Parker, Corey Antonio Rose, Barton Girdwood, Liam McBain, Jasmine Romero, Veralyn Williams
Published December 27, 2024 at 12:57 PM EST
NPR's best and worst pop culture moments of 2024
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NPR's best and worst pop culture moments of 2024

To close out 2024, Brittany and friends are running through the best and worst pop culture moments of the past 365 days.

Whether you had the brat summer of your dreams, or spent the year following every jaw-dropping twists in this year's election season, it's time to wind down and reflect on the highs and lows of the year. On this episode of It's Been A Minute, Brittany Luse invites NPR's Weekend Edition host Ayesha Rascoe and Code Switch co-host B.A. Parker to name winners and losers in this year's categories.

This year's awards categories and nominees are:

WORD OF THE YEAR
"Crash Out"
"Cutesy"
"Hawk Tuah"

THE LOUDEST GASP HEARD AROUND THE WORLD
Katt Williams on Club Shay Shay
Kendrick Lamar & Drake's Rap Beef
The response to the Trump assassination attempt

VILLAIN OF THE YEAR
Life
Willful Ignorance
Dr. Rachel Gunn (AKA Raygun)

BIGGEST FLOP OF THE YEAR
Tesla's CybertrucksDrake
Megalopolis

THE "WHO'S THIS DIVA?" AWARD
The extra special award for the diva you did not know before 2024 but whose name lives rent free in your head now.

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Copyright 2024 NPR

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Brittany Luse
Brittany Luse is an award-winning journalist, on-air host, and cultural critic. She is the host of It's Been a Minute and For Colored Nerds. Previously Luse hosted The Nod and Sampler podcasts, and co-hosted and executive produced The Nod with Brittany and Eric, a daily streaming show. She's written for Vulture and Harper's Bazaar, among others, and edited for the podcasts Planet Money and Not Past It. Luse and her work have been profiled by publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, and Teen Vogue.
Ayesha Rascoe
Ayesha Rascoe is the host of "Weekend Edition Sunday" and the Saturday episodes of "Up First." As host of the morning news magazine, she interviews news makers, entertainers, politicians and more about the stories that everyone is talking about or that everyone should be talking about.
See stories by Ayesha Rascoe
B.A. Parker
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
Corey Antonio Rose
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
Barton Girdwood
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
Liam McBain
Liam McBain (he/him) is an assistant producer on It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders. He's interested in stories at the margins of culture.
Jasmine Romero
Veralyn Williams
Veralyn Williams (she/her) is a Peabody and Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist who has been asking hard questions about our world since she picked up her first microphone in 2004. Now she brings her skills (and ears) to her role as executive producer of programming at NPR.