Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud

Sterling Point is a new drama from Amazon Prime about a group of teenagers spending a summer in cottage country. Culture critics CT Jones and Jackson Weaver join guest host Amil Niazi to talk about the hype around the show, why Muskoka is essential to the story and what creator Megan Park gets right about writing teenagers.

Plus, the Canadian Museum of History has just implemented MUSEO, an AI-powered chatbot built on in-house data for guests to ask questions to. Ottawa Citizen journalist Michael McBean explored the museum with the chatbot and gives his review of the experience.

A sign declaring “no influencers” in a Nantucket store recently unlocked a lot of strong feelings online around influencer fatigue. Internet culture reporters Madison Malone Kircher and Kat Tenbarge join guest host Amil Niazi to talk about the reaction, and whether the age of the influencer is over.

Plus, there’s been a pretty gross trend emerging at some of the biggest concerts over the past few years: fans wearing diapers, and often using them, to ensure they remain at the barricade and as close to their idols as possible. Music journalist Megan LaPierre talks about this nasty epidemic and if concert culture has really gone down the toilet.

The crime drama Furious follows two women: a serial killer targeting powerful men from her past and the FBI agent tasked with tracking her down. TV critics Roxana Hadadi and Alison Herman join Commotion guest host Amil Niazi to discuss why this show about female rage has turned into such a hit.

Plus, when a trove of art popped up at Value Village in Penticton, B.C., people quickly discovered it had been donated by the Penticton Art Gallery. It was all art that had been donated to the gallery for fundraising purposes. Art critic and curator Charlene K. Lau talks about the backlash to the gallery's decision to drop it off at Value Village where it says it would get "maximum exposure."

Commotion guest host Amil Niazi is joined by music critic Pablo The Don, and culture critics Scaachi Koul and Syrus Marcus Ware to discuss ‘Petal,’ the brand new album from Ariana Grande, along with the polarizing debate around Ariana’s body and health, and where a celebrity’s right to privacy sits within that conversation.

We've known for a while now that reading for pleasure has been on the decline. But in her essay for The Atlantic, Rose Horowitch argues that we are entering into an age of post-literacy, with enormous implications for life as we know it. Rose Horowitch joins Commotion guest host Amil Niazi to explain what she now understands about why reading matters as much as it does – and what happens when we stop.

Plus, ever since the pandemic, an emerging genre of multiplayer video games has taken off: Friendslop. These are games made by small independent studios working on smaller budgets, and they focus on cooperation and socialization rather than combat. Today on Commotion, digital journalist Jonathan Ore talks with guest host Amil Niazi about Big Walk, a game that seems to be taking the genre in a different direction.