The Sam Sanders Show The Millennial Internet, from Buzzfeed Quizzes to Filming ICE
Feb 1, 2026
Audie Cornish, journalist and host of The Assignment who previously anchored at CNN and reported for NPR. They trace millennials from BuzzFeed quizzes to algorithm-driven feeds. They talk about how platform design changed attention and activism. They discuss phone video’s role in police accountability and why some organizing moves offline.
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Millennials Professionalized Virality
- Millennials covered politics and pop culture as the first generation to treat virality as a professional beat.
- Sam ran a weekly "Meme of the Week" column during the 2016 campaign illustrating that virality became journalistic currency.
Earnest Millennials Versus Jaded Gen Z
- Millennials are seen as earnest while Gen Z is seen as jaded, a generational posture shift shaped by differing online experiences.
- Sam frames this as a lifecycle: younger generations start earnest then grow cynical as platforms and realities harden.
College Facebook Had Personal Addresses Visible
- Sam recalls that in college he and friends left personal addresses on Facebook, showing how permissive early platforms were.
- Audie and Sam use this to contrast the simpler, more social early internet with today's surveillance-era platforms.