Mhairie speaks with Dr. Lauren Cagle, professor of rhetoric at the University of Kentucky, about the history of memes, their impact on culture, and particularly on prevalence of memes in the 2024 US Presidential election. They discuss the field of rhetoric more broadly, define the term “meme,” and investigate the generational differences in social media use and online communication as it relates to the consumption of political information.

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This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

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The Memeification of Culture (and this election) with Dr. Lauren Cagle