by Brittney Melton

November 16, 2025

Good morning. This week, Bad Bunny won album of the year at the 2025 Latin Grammys, the BBC apologized for a misleading edit of President Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021 speech, and the Texas A&M University System approved a new policy that could limit courses on race and gender ideology at its schools.

Why Gen Zers want to be content creators

by Manoush Zomorodi, host of NPR’s TED Radio Hour

Having spent three decades in public media — from the BBC to New York Public Radio to NPR — I entered our two-part series on the Creator Economy with equal parts skepticism and curiosity.

If the phrase “content creator” makes you think of YouTubers or TikTok influencers, you’re not wrong. But the label is broad: It includes everyone from an artist selling oil paintings to a yoga instructor making Instagram reels about downward dog. Still, when we talk about “creators” today, we usually mean people who earn a living by sharing their lives and ideas on social media. The business intelligence company Morning Consult surveyed 1,000 Gen Zers who use social media a couple years ago...and found that more than 50% of them would become influencers if given the opportunity. But why? That was the question I hoped to answer.

A cell phone attached to a ring light set up to record a woman who is holding an object. The woman can be seen on the phone screen, and a blurred version of her is seen past it.

Hananeko_Studio/Shutterstock

We focused on two people from different generations. In part one, I spoke to Yancey Strickler, Gen X entrepreneur and co-founder of Kickstarter, who has spent his career finding ways for creative people to get paid for their work. In part two, I spoke to Adam Aleksic, better known as “Etymology Nerd.” He is a 24-year-old linguist and Gen Z creator who’s built a following by explaining how words evolve.

Together, they represent the two main frontiers of the creator economy. Strickler is focused on structure. If creators keep building their livelihoods on platforms they don’t own, they’ll never be able to survive capitalism. His solution is to rethink ownership models by developing a new kind of legal framework called the Artist or “A” Corporation. It’s designed to help creators pool resources, share equity, and retain control over their work. As he told us, “That direct connection between a personality and an audience is going to be a hugely significant area of the economy.” The creator economy is expected to grow to $480 billion by 2027, according to a 2023 research report from Goldman Sachs.

Aleksic, by contrast, mastered the algorithmic dance, making short, clever videos that explore words like unalive or sus. All terms that you probably don’t know if you’re over 40. Many are meant to skirt social media moderation or just take off, thanks to the internet, because they’re funny or goofy. Sometimes, Aleksic says, he’s “working the algorithm”; other times, he’s following where it leads. “There’s sort of a deal with the devil that has to happen,” he told us. “You have to accept that as a creator.”

My producers also spoke to dozens of young people trying out “creating” as a profession, for reasons that ranged from being laid off to finding sudden online popularity to simply loving the work. Their stories pointed to a common truth: to make creativity sustainable, creators need both infrastructure and awareness. They need health insurance and have to be “very online.” Without stronger systems, creators burn out; without that literacy, they get lost in the feed.

By the end of these two episodes, I felt a mix of recognition and unease. I have a better understanding of why young people enter the creator economy, but I’m equally unsure what we're barreling towards — what it means for art, originality and what we value. As journalism shifts beneath our feet, the line between reporter and creator keeps blurring (see, for example, my Instagram and Substack) and maybe our survival depends on learning to navigate both worlds with integrity.

I hope you'll listen to part one of the series here. And, listen to part two here.

Check out more great reads from the NPR network you may have missed:

➡️ More women are serving on Ukraine’s front line, including fighter pilots, artillery commanders, and drone operators. NPR met with several women to understand why they chose to fight against Russia.
➡️ NPR visited three different communities across the U.S. to explore the effects of unaffordable home insurance and potential solutions for lowering prices. The prices have risen as insurers have increasingly restricted coverage in certain regions where climate change leads to severe hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. And, a look at why home insurance is pricey even in areas considered to be protected from these types of disasters.
➡️ The Trump administration is changing its homelessness policy by cutting long-term housing funding and shifting resources to transitional housing that mandates work and addiction treatment. Critics warn this overhaul could put 170,000 people at risk of losing their housing.
➡️ Two years ago, Colombia committed to halting new exploration for oil, gas, and coal, a crucial move toward achieving global climate goals. Here’s what has happened since then in the country, one of the region's largest oil producers.

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Quick question: Do you have a list of old books that you’ve always been meaning to get around to? You know — the sort of book that a friend recommended a hundred years ago, or maybe one that a teacher assigned (and you ignored), or a classic that everyone’s - allegedly - already read? Yep, us too.

Thankfully, we’ve just launched Books We’ve Loved, a brand-new, limited series from our Book of the Day podcast, with new episodes dropping on Saturdays throughout the fall. This is where we’ll be wrangling some of the most compelling lit nerds out there to make the case for picking up a book from the past.

We’re inviting a cast of literary luminaries – authors, critics, and familiar NPR voices – to argue why their book pick is worth your time. We’re asking our guests questions like — why can’t they get this book out of their head? How did this book shift a paradigm, shake the culture, or change their life? And, most importantly, why should you read it now?

Listen Now

Pod Club

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LA Johnson

Thanks for tuning in last week to the Throughline episode, “Prosecuting Genocide.” It discusses how “genocide" is a legal term that emerged from World War II, but wasn’t used in courts for decades afterwards. This episode covers the events of the Bosnian War in the 1990s and the efforts to construct a legal case to prove genocide.

Today, we’re listening to Code Switch. The episode “Tribal colleges are a unique resource — and they're under threat” takes a deep dive into what makes tribal colleges unique and what the spaces mean to students, faculty and staff who work there. Tribal colleges and universities offer a unique environment that allows students to earn degrees while being immersed in Indigenous traditions and learning techniques. However, since the start of President Trump’s second term, funding for these institutions has become uncertain, leaving administrators scrambling to make sure they can continue with business as usual. Listen to the episode or read the transcript here.

After listening, was there any unique way of teaching at the institution that you liked? If so, let us know what it was by clicking here. Your response could be featured in next week’s newsletter.

Love podcasts? For handpicked episode recommendations every week, check out Pod Club — a newsletter written FOR podcast fans BY podcast fans. Subscribe here!

In today’s episode of The Sunday Story from Up First: Trump promised his Gaza Peace Plan would bring an end to the war between Hamas and Israel. But will it succeed? Listen to a discussion on what factors make this agreement so fragile and what steps need to happen to keep it on track.

Name's the Same

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NPR

It's time for the Sunday Puzzle! This week, every answer is a well-known brand name that's also the proper name of something else. For example, if asked, “What brand name of an iced tea is also the name of a U.S. state?” the answer would be “Arizona.” Test your skills here. Check the page later to hear the answers, or catch them live on Weekend Edition at 8:41 a.m. ET.

This week's challenge comes from Dave Shukan, of San Marino, Calif. Take the name of a famous person in American politics (six letters in the first name and six letters in the last name). Hidden in this name, reading from left to right, but not in consecutive letters, is a four-letter name of a well-known place that's very dry. Remove these letters. The remaining eight letters, in order from left to right, will name another well-known, very dry place. What politician is this? Submit your answer here and you could win a chance to play next Sunday's on-air puzzle.

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This newsletter was edited by Obed Manuel and Majd Al-Waheidi.

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