Why Everyone Is Suddenly Obsessed With 2016

January 21, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

The Format: Casual group chat among friends reminiscing about 2016, blending personal anecdotes, cultural analysis, and nostalgia-driven banter.
The Key Players:
- Taylor Lorenz (Host): Tech journalist focused on internet culture; kicks off with her 2016 election coverage via Snapchat.
- Kat Tenbarge: Freelance journalist and Spitfire News author; shares campaign trail stories and Ohio connections.
- Matt Bernstein: Podcaster and content creator; recounts high school life as an out gay teen and early influencer encounters.
The Vibe: Fun and nostalgic with sharp humor, turning reflective and bittersweet—evoking "rose-colored glasses" on a chaotic year amid laughs about bad fashion and viral memes.

🗝️ Key Themes & Topics

The trio dissects 2016's internet, pop culture, and politics through personal lenses, explaining its viral nostalgia amid today's crises. Main topics: tech/apps evolution, influencer aesthetics, monoculture memes, and the pre-Trump vibe shift.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **🎙️ Introduction: Kat Tenbarge & Matt Bernstein**
2 (01:45) **Personal 2016 Experiences**
3 (05:13) **Snapchat Era & App Culture**
4 (07:48) **Memes & Vine Stars**
5 (08:40) **Influencer Culture & LA Idealization**
6 (14:01) **Pop Culture Peaks: Kardashians & Music**
7 (18:10) **Makeup & Beauty Trends**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Matt Bernstein, Kat Tenbarge and I dig into what the 2016 nostalgia is really about.

Why is everyone suddenly obsessed with 2016? Hyper-saturated Instagram photos are back. The Snapchat puppy filter is everywhere again. Nostalgic edits are flooding TikTok. From the "King Kylie" era to Harambe, it feels like we’re collectively regressing.

Support my independent journalism:

🙏 Patreon:⁠⁠ https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz⁠⁠🗞️ Substack:⁠⁠ https://www.usermag.co⁠⁠

But was 2016 really “the last good year”? I wanted to understand why this particular moment looms so large in our cultural memory, so I called up my friends Matt Bernstein and Kat Tenbarge to discuss.

Kat is an incredible journalist and the author of Spitfire News, and Matt is an iconic podcast host and content creator. We re-examined the defining moments of 2016, talk about the old days of YouTube, why boomers don't get the nostalgia, and why 2016 has become such a powerful focal point.

We unpack what this fixation on 2016 reveals about today's internet, culture, and politics nearly a decade later.

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In this video, we cover:

The revival of 2016 aesthetics on TikTok.
Why people romanticize the pre-Trump/early-Trump era.
The impact of 2016 internet humor on today's culture.
The rise of the content creator industry.
Why it's all Gen Z and Millennials who are getting nostalgic while older generations don't seem to care.