Songs about dads (and by dads and for dads)

Songs about dads (and by dads and for dads)

In May your "How We Heard It" hosts served an episode of songs about moms in honor of Mother's Day, so it's only fitting that for June they turn out an episode of songs about uncles. Kidding! Of course Father's Day brings about an episode of songs about dads - all kinds of dads. From supportive dads to deadbeat dads, from the doting fathers to the cold fathers and maybe a hot daddy here and there for those so inclined. For better or worse, our fathers often play an important role in who we become, even if they were no part of our lives at all, and performers from Bruce Springsteen to Tupac Shakur have had quite a bit to say (or sing or rap) about their own fathers. Meanwhile, other men have gone above and beyond to inspire, protect and provide for their children, fully embracing the part of "role model," and they get their props in songs, too. Then are all of those numerous tributes to departed dads, and they include some of the most touching songs in all of music. Following the lead of last month's episode about moms, this episode of "How We Heard It" also finds the hosts talking about what kind of fathers some of the biggest stars proved to be to their performer children (and if you didn't already know about John Lennon, prepare to be disappointed in him). And in a more whimsical turn, the show also features a little conjecture about what kind of fathers some of today's younger male stars might prove to be, and one host even offers a potential pair of "dream parents" of two of today's biggest stars. No matter what kind of father you had, or even what kind of father you are, someone has written a song that fits you better than a new tie.

Right or wrong, these movies make us laugh

Everyone likes to laugh, but not everyone agrees about what's funny. So if something tickles you, don't worry what anyone else thinks. That's the attitude the "How We Heard It" hosts had when they dove into this week's topic: goofy movies we can't resist. There are different kinds of intentionally funny movies, from slapstick to smart humor wrapped in absurd premises. Crude jokes, innuendo, outrageous sight gags and bizarre plot twists all find their way into these movies. Then there are the unintentionally funny movies, sometimes so bad or hokey that you groan more often than you giggle. But they're funny all the same, despite their intentions. Spotlighted in this episode are films from the 2020s going back to movies from before we were born, ranging from big budget cinematic adventures featuring A-list stars to those with shoestring budgets and a cast of nobodies. The hosts pass judgment on oldies like "Blazing Saddles," "Airplane!" and "Naked Gun" to not-quite-as-oldies like "Dumb and Dumber," "Death Becomes Her" and "Joe Dirt" to more recent film fare like "Splitsville," "Fackham Hall" and "Bodies Bodies Bodies." Of course, humor has changed through the years, so "How We Heard It" also takes a look at the films that haven't held up over time. Some of those old bits were classic, but some make you wonder why anyone ever thought they were funny in the first place.

We shoot the moon with these lunar songs

If you go looking for songs about the moon, they'll start falling out of the sky. Moon-themed songs are some of the oldest in recorded history as well as some of the most recent to hit the charts. They can be found connected to everything from organized religion to witchcraft, they come from all parts of the planet, and they show up in every genre of music. In honor of the 2026 blue moon, the hosts of "How We Heard It" embarked on a quest to find songs about the moon, and they were overwhelmed - not just by the sheer number of songs they found, but also by the extensive breadth of the songs. Earth's closest companion inspires all manner of emotions. And when you project your feelings on the moon, it reflects and enhances your mood. Are you feeling amorous? Lonely? Anxious? Content? Mysterious? Grounded? Gaze upon the moon and your feelings will intensify. In song, the moon can be blue, red, pink, silver and orange. It can be full, new, half ... or just a sliver. The phases of the moon can reflect the phases of life. Or the moon can just be an old goose. As the podcast's hosts discovered, the moon can be whatever you want it to be. And it seems like most artists have performed at least one song about the moon - from Frank Sinatra to Audrey Hepburn, from Elvis Presley to Creedence Clearwater Revival, from Van Morrison to Neil Young, and from Bjork to Bruno Mars. Just be careful with how hard you dig into moon-themed songs ... or you may end up seeing stars.

These music artists always give 100% ... more or less

For the 100th episode of their show "How We Heard It," the podcast team is giving you the music artists who give 100 percent. Musicians are like any other group of workers. Some are tireless - endlessly productive, relentlessly creative or both. Others fill the status quo, doing what might be expected, sometimes a little more and sometimes a little less. Still others are just plain lazy, pushing their work off on others, making excuses why they can't do more and invariably disappointing their supporters, time and time again. It's not about talent, it's about effort. This week "How We Heard It" is all about effort. While other artists might knock out a new album every few years, these artists are producing twice that output. Or while other artists are sticking to their established style (same themes, same sound), these super-producers are constantly exploring new ways to express themselves, tweaking and reinventing their art as they go and challenging their followers to keep up. The same goes for live shows: Some artists are constantly on tour, giving their all on stage night after night. Others rarely tour - and when they do, they just phone it in. Not surprisingly, effort and success don't exactly overlap. (Life is never fair, is it?) Some of the most ordinary artists generate the biggest sales, draw the most fans and win the most awards while some extraordinary artists struggle on the edge of obscurity. Yet every now and then, the brightest and hardest working artists will be among the most popular. Where do your favorites rank? "How We Heard It" takes a look at everyone from Bob Dylan and Elton John to Kenny Chesney and Adele to Taylor Swift and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Their conclusions might surprise you.

Here's how (and why) music changed so dramatically in the 1990s

There are noteworthy changes in every decade of modern music, but the seismic shifts and chaos of the 1990s were unparalleled. Whether it was the music of your youth, your kids' youth, your parents' youth or even your grandparents' youth, most everyone has noticed (either at the time or now, in retrospect) that the '90s were just different. It was the decade that saw Generation X hand over the music reins to millennials. MTV went from a driving force in music to more of a footnote, and music videos lost importance in the gap years between emphasis on cable channels and the advent of YouTube and streaming in the 2000s. Stylistically, hip-hop was a juggernaut, swinging from gangsta rap to a mainstream phenomenon that permeated into R&B, pop and even rock. Also, fueled by the momentum of Madonna in the 1980s, pop in the 1990s became dominated by women artists - with Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion taking turns at the top of the charts, and wholesome teen singers like Debbie Gibson and Tiffany, who ushered the genre into the '90s, had been replaced by decidedly less wholesome singers like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera by decade's end. Latin artists also became permanent fixtures in the mainstream, and thanks to Garth Brooks, country reinvented itself into yet another huge crossover genre, with "hat acts" ruling the roost in the mainstream. And in rock music, huge shifts came in waves. The "hair metal" bands that controlled rock in the late 1980s were all but wiped out by grunge in the early 1990s, flipping the genre's script from mindless, flashy formula pop-with-guitars to something far more introspective, anxious and angry. But grunge was at the forefront for only a few year, and soon enough all manner of "modern rock," "alt-rock" and "college rock" bands - from Weezer to Radiohead to Beck - brought freshness and ingenuity to the sonic landscape. Meanwhile, the 1990s saw the rise of traveling mega-festivals such as Lollapalooza to the Vans Warped Tour. And the Lilith Fair emphasized the unprecedented prominence of women in rock, who came in hard with gritty sounds and raw self-assuredness beyond the jangly pop-rock of 1980s bands like The Go-Go's and The Bangles. This week on "How We Heard It," your hosts - who were young men in the 1990s and at Ground Zero in the music business - shine a light on what was going on in the tumultuous 1990s and how everything seemed to forever change, across the board, in music.