Today, Dazed has launched its inaugural podcast Logged On, a monthly series exploring all things internet culture, from memes to emerging trends, deep web conspiracy theories and beyond. Hosted by features editor Günseli Yalcinkaya, each episode will include leading voices from the frontlines of internet discourse, and give trusted insight into some of the terminally online topics facing young people today.

“I’ve spent the last three years deep in the internet trenches, accumulating way too much screen time exploring the ins and outs of micro and nano cultures online, from sigma males and Deleuzian catboys to techno-spirituality, psyops and beyond,” says Yalcinkaya. “There’s been run-ins with conspiracy theorists and digi-cults, reactionary trad-caths and AI futurists, simps and trolls and tricksters – all of which inform Logged On.”

For episode one, we’re joined by Shumon Basar, the co-author of two books, The Age Of Earthquakes and The Extreme Self, and the author of recent essays on ‘lorecore and endcore’, to discuss why everything suddenly feels so... mid. From fashion brands selling us band tees for a premium to Netflix viral docuseries and TikTok-boosted home interiors, today’s culture is algorithmically optimised for mass appeal, serving up platters of pre-packaged cool. 

Tune in to episode one The Mid below. You can also find it on Audible, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.