What's Trending with Victor Lewis (This Morning with Aaron Keck)

Trending today: a survey finding that fewer than half of Americans have read a single book in the last 12 months. (It’s even more dire for teenagers: just 14 percent read for pleasure last year, down from 27 percent two decades ago.) Avid reader Michael Koh fills in for Victor, while Aaron describes his two-year project of walking through the Davis Library stacks on campus – and describes the nerdiest book he’s read all year. (There’s a lot of competition.)

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Trending today: a man manages to board a flight at London’s Heathrow Airport without a ticket or a passport. Victor and Michael are incredulous as to how that could possibly happen, but Aaron kinda gets it. (Also, we learn why the TSA security rules seem to be slightly different every single time, and Victor’s impressions all turn into Jimmy Stewart.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, fro...

Trending today: Victor, Aaron, and Michael discuss the Xbox Bowl, featuring an appearance by Master Chief (but not much else). Also, Victor geeks out over Boeing planes, and Aaron becomes the auditory crossing guard.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past What’s Trending segments – and tune in to...

Trending today: Michael Koh joins Victor and Aaron to discuss a survey finding 17 percent of parents think their kids might be professional or Olympic athletes someday. (Victor scoffs, but Aaron gets it.) Also, Aaron is afraid of pole vaulting.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past What...

Trending today: an unnatural battle between wolves, deer, sea otters, and polluting humans on the ironically-named Pleasant Island in Alaska. (Also, Aaron is impressed by sea otters for the first time ever, and Victor tries to ruin your day.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past What...

Trending today: a survey finding that almost half of American adults use their smartphones in bed, even though we all know that’s not great for sleep. (Also, Victor doles out advice to all the women he’s ever met – plus one guy.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our...

Trending today: a study of movies finds a recent drop in lighting contrast, particularly in science fiction – primarily because lower-contrast shots are easier to touch up with CGI in post-production. (Also, Victor champions one of his favorite cultural investigative journalists.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past Wh...

Trending today is a massive tax break that Meta just got from the state of Louisiana to build a giant data center – but while Victor is upset about that, he and Aaron also take the time to discuss the increasingly dystopian names that tech companies are creating for themselves. (“Palantir,” seriously? Like, you all know what a palantir is, right?) Also, Aaron yet again calls for a revolution.

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Trending today: an investigative report that finds it’s incredibly easy and cheap to secure a real phone number for scamming purposes. (It costs about 5 bucks in Japan, and that’s way, way more than most other countries.) Also: Victor wonders why the best journalism always seems to hit at the end of the year, and Aaron gets his first-ever scam call.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, fro...

Trending today: filling in for Victor, Henry Taylor discusses the new multiplayer video game ARC Raiders – which features AI-driven bosses who are teaching themselves to fight in real time, plus the fun of interacting with real people who are sometimes helpful colleagues, sometimes murderous backstabbers, and sometimes just kinda weird.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything...

Trending today: filling in for Victor, Michael Koh breaks down the wackiest bowl game names of the year. (How about the Bush’s Boca Raton Bowl of Beans? The Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl? The StaffDNA Cure Bowl? Everybody’s got their favorites.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our pa...

Trending today: Victor and Aaron discuss Q104.3’s annual ranking of the top 1043 classic rock songs of all time. Specifically, the songs from the 2000s that made the list – and the ones that didn’t. (No Seven Nation Army? Come on, guys, you’re slipping here.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen ba...

Trending today: a man attempts to steal a Faberge egg by swallowing it, but biology (eventually) gets in the way. (Aaron wonders: does the whole ordeal make the egg less valuable, or more?) Michael Koh fills in for Victor.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past What...

Trending today: a raccoon goes on a bender in a Virginia liquor store, sparking widespread memes and some pretty fun pictures. Filling in for Victor, Michael Koh takes the opportunity to share details about other members of the animal kingdom who’ve been known to partake in spiritous beverages from time to time.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business v...

Trending today: IKEA’s master plan to stay in business in perpetuity – by purchasing its own forest, to ensure it will always have a supply of lumber even if the rest of us shlubs wreck all the other trees. (You’d think more companies would actually spend some time thinking about how to stay solvent for the long run, right?)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to...

Trending today: a company is purporting to offer a humanoid robot butler – but it’s not AI, it’s being operated remotely by a person. Which reminds Victor of the Mechanical Turk, an 18th-century scam that claimed to be a chess-playing automaton but was in fact just a dude in a box moving pieces from below. (Also, Aaron and Victor debate the extent to which 24-hour convenience is still a thing in the U.S.)

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Trending today: a massive study of neophobia (fear of new things) in birds, with some highly interesting findings. You can come up with easy explanations if you think about it: migratory birds tend to be more neophobic, for instance, perhaps as a way to keep them on track when they’re traveling long distances.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd busine...

Trending today: the 1907 voyage of USS Albatross, a research vessel that collected 80,000 different species of sea life – and whose work is still relevant today, because they preserved the specimens in rum rather than formaldehyde and that turned out to be a far better preservative. (Though Aaron wonders about the inevitable stories about the fish that got away.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crim...

Trending today: a big spike in “buy now, pay later” purchasing – which is sparking concerns as more and more Americans are missing payments, a sign that the industry is contributing to growing economic strain. (It’s not affecting Aaron, though: he never buys anything online in the first place, so he’s never heard of any of this.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to...

Trending today: a Penn State study on the potential effects of nuclear war on global corn production. Victor’s impressed by the model they used to reach their findings – but Aaron knows enough about academia to be more curious about the late-night conversation where the researchers came up with that idea in the first place.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd busin...

Trending today: the autograph-collection market is roiled by a massive forgery scandal, with four million fake items out there on the marketplace. Victor soapboxes on how autograph collecting is one of his pet peeves – but Aaron is stuck on the logistics of one man singlehandedly forging four million items. (Also, Aaron’s own fake autograph story.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to od...

We never actually get to today’s trend: Victor starts to set up a trending article by expressing his dislike of autograph collection (specifically, buying autographed items without having had the experience of interacting with the signer directly), but Aaron jumps in with a counterpoint related to modern abstract-expressionistic art. (It makes sense, trust me.) Also, Victor loses a friend.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news...

Trending today: a college student sues Everclear’s manufacturer after a party mishap that led to a serious injury. Victor’s a little offended, though Aaron points out that civil lawsuits tend to go after the folks with the deepest pockets – whether that’s conducive to justice or not. (Also, Aaron digresses into a fond memory about an old 1980s-era local commercial.)

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Trending today: Meta goes public about their efforts to push you into endless short-video scrolling – and not interacting with your actual friends. Great for short-term profits – but won’t that nudge us away from social media in the long run, since we only got on social media in the first place to interact with people we actually know? Aaron thinks that might be the future, but Victor’s not yet convinced. (Also, Victor drops a reference to the Shelley poem “Ozymandias,” because of course he does.)

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Trending today: Aaron gets criticized online, but he’s taking it as a huge compliment – triggering a deeper conversation about the importance, the role, the purpose, and the proper strategy for really good trash talk. (Victor is kind of an expert on the subject, but he’s not even tops in his own house.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business v...

Trending today: a new twist in stock trading, as investors are now trading bonds backed by music catalogs. Victor and Aaron are a little wigged out at the idea of treating art like any other commodity, but are they ready to embrace just how radical a critique that is? (Or the amount of work it’ll take to follow through?)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news...

Trending today: blue cheese? Beets? Liver? Anchovies? Licorice? A new poll asks Americans to rank their most hated food. (Fun result: there’s a big generational divide on blue cheese, with younger people liking it and older people strongly opposed. Aaron’s theory: maybe that has something to do with how old you are when you really like eating wings.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news t...

Trending today is the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit that’s tasked with standardizing emojis across all operating systems. (So an iPhone user can send smiley faces to an Android user, for instance.) They’ve just approved a new set of emojis – but will people use them for their stated purpose? (Also: Aaron sings the praises of emojis, and Victor alters his approach to personal communication – but not in the way you’d expect.)

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Trending today: a big drop in price for the Black Lotus, a notoriously rare and pricy Magic: The Gathering card. Aaron and Victor talk about the ever-changing market for collector’s items, from comic books to baseball cards – and along the way Victor drops some of his dad’s wisest bits of accrued wisdom.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business v...

Trending today: a study finding that ChatGPT is actually more effective and accurate when you treat it rudely. Surprising? Maybe not: Aaron says that revelation dovetails nicely with a commentary he recently saw – arguing that humans will deliberately program super-advanced AI to act cowardly and sycophantic (think C3PO) so we’ll feel better about ourselves when we interact with them. (Michael Koh fills in for Victor.)

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Trending today: Tom Brady clones his recently-deceased dog, which is just about the richest thing we’ve ever heard of anyone doing (though it’s no more expensive than an upscale car). Also, Aaron quotes Montaigne and Hitchcock, Michael brainstorms punny dog names, and Aaron reiterates his hottest take: he doesn’t believe adults exist.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd busines...

Trending today: the inventive marketing ploy that diamond-mining companies are using to compete with lab-grown diamonds – which are equal in quality, more socially and environmentally friendly, and (most importantly) way, way cheaper. Victor and Aaron mock the ad campaign, but advertising can be really persuasive even when it’s easily mockable – so Aaron also plugs an old documentary that was made for kids to teach them how to see through deceptive ad campaigns. (Also, Aaron may or may not hit Victor with a yo-mamma joke. Your call.)

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Today, Victor has the most Canadian trend ever: a study finding that maple trees in urban centers get much of their water from leaky underground pipes. Aaron takes this as cause for extreme optimism: even when human beings go out of their way to annihilate the landscape, nature will always triumph in the end. (Either that, or some shady folks are funding this study to try to convince people not to bother fixing their leaky pipes. One or the other.)

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Trending today is the increased use of robots to produce sculpture, which begs the age-old question: what is “art,” in the first place? Aaron thinks it still counts if artists are designing the piece and programming the machine to do what they want, but your mileage may vary. (Also, a reporter from Bloomberg claims wayyy too much artistic expertise.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wack...

Trending today: a news report that finds the tiny nation of Singapore owns about 5 percent of the land in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. (It’s forest land; they’re using it for timber harvesting.) Victor’s asking why the state of Michigan isn’t interested in harvesting those resources, but Aaron distracts him with fun facts about hard-to-pronounce cities in the U.P.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories...

Trending today: new data from Netflix finds that people tend to favor dubbed audio over subtitles, when it comes to anime shows. (Though is that evidence of a general preference, or is there something specific about anime or Netflix that leads us to prefer dubbing exclusively there? The debate will surely rage on.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business...

In honor of Halloween, Victor asks: which horror-movie villain do you think you personally could defeat or survive? Aaron’s answer is unorthodox but absolutely correct. Henry Taylor and Michael Koh join Victor and Aaron with their own answers – though in Michael’s case we demand a redo.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click...

Trending today: a deep-dive study into young-adult literature discovers that main characters’ average age is on the rise – but why? The study (and Victor) think it’s because YA readers are trending older, so they’re seeking protagonists who are closer to them in age – but Aaron wonders if it’s not just a consequence of there being so many sequels. (Also, Victor wonders: what is it that causes a book to be labeled “young adult” in the first place?)

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Trending today: an interesting study of animal characters in children’s literature – and how they’re portrayed gender-wise. Cats tend to be portrayed as female, dogs tend to be male – and good luck ever finding a female frog. (It’s not impossible – just very, very hard.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back t...

Trending today: Texas Tech football fans are being ordered to “discard their tortillas,” lest the team get penalized for an odd fan tradition. (But not too odd: as a longtime Red Wings fan, Aaron thinks the folks in Lubbock are amateurs.) Michael Koh fills in for Victor.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to...

Trending today: Victor discovers that today’s kids are keeping their tonsils and their wisdom teeth, as opposed to previous generations. (What other generational differences are there, when it comes to routine medical procedures? Aaron offers one: the chicken pox vaccine.) Also: Aaron thinks everyone is the same age, Victor refuses to say why he had his wisdom teeth removed, and Aaron recounts a hilariously bad experience in the doctor’s office.

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Trending today: Victor promises good news and bad news about heart health in America, but honestly the news is mostly all just good. Happy Friday! (Also: Victor knows more Simpsons trivia than Aaron thought, and Aaron calls Victor out for vaping.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our p...

Trending today: Victor gets excited about the prospect of efficient moisture farming – until Aaron points out that it’ll only lead to real-estate moguls buying up desert property for big-money development. (Why didn’t he realize that in the first place?) Also, Victor dissertates on the moral differences between Earth and Arrakis.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and e...

Trending today: Victor stumbles into online chatter about the Saturday Evening Post’s lack of long-term cultural impact, but he and Aaron aren’t convinced. Also: Victor and Aaron talk about serial stories in history, and Aaron demonstrates perfect recall on “Catch-22.”

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past W...

Trending today: Pabst Blue Ribbon has risen in popularity in the 21st century, but the company is still struggling. Victor’s waxing nostalgic after a recent trip to a PBR-themed bar in Charleston – and he and Aaron also look ahead to the future, as Pabst rolls out new varieties to try to regain market share. (Also, Aaron demonstrates how easy it is to get Victor distracted.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top...

Trending today: a company is bringing back Slice soda – but just the brand name, not the actual formula. (So hey, enjoy the nostalgia trip – just try not to think about the fact that you’re drinking something completely different from your childhood.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past...

Trending today: Victor is back and already complaining – this time, about long ad blocks in front of movies at the theaters. Victor’s feeling rebellious and thinking about just showing up to the movies half an hour late – but that’s only because he knows he’s got a reserved seat. Will theaters eliminate reserved seating to compel moviegoers to watch the ads? Victor says yes, Aaron says no.

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Trending today: Loyola superfan Sister Jean, who captured America’s hearts in 2018, has passed away at the age of 106. Aaron and Michael Koh (filling in for Victor) remember her legacy before transitioning into another critical sports question: who would be the wackiest choice to succeed Bill Belichick as UNC’s head football coach, whenever that day should come?

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky cri...

Trending today: the state of Hawaii prohibited libraries from using the words “banned” or “censorship” – during Banned Books Week. (Seriously, this actually happened.) Aaron and Michael Koh (filling in for Victor) are appalled, but try to have a little bit of fun with it – while encouraging people to read frequently-challenged books, and also encouraging people not to frequently challenge books in the first place.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories...

Trending today: Michael Koh (filling in for Victor) is excited about this weekend’s Woolly Worm Festival, a WNC tradition that’s back this year after getting canceled last year due to Hurricane Helene. Aaron’s completely unfamiliar with the concept, but he’s not too far behind: Michael’s never actually attended it either.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ve...

Trending today: memories of childhood-favorite grocery stores trigger a realization from Aaron about how little it takes to amuse kids. Michael Koh fills in for Victor, providing details about classic Vermont supermarkets – and learning about classic Carrboro video stores.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past What’s...

Trending today: the acting world is up in arms over AI-generated actress Tilly Norwood, but Aaron thinks she may serve a purpose: just like AI can be really good at generating easily-ignorable muzak for ambient noise, it might be fun if movies dropped the same AI character into various background bit roles. (Michael Koh fills in for Victor.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky...

Trending today: a website called Bring A Trailer where you can buy vintage vehicles of all types – including a working Soviet tank for $220,000. (Or a go-kart. Up to you, really.) Michael Koh fills in for Victor, while Aaron takes the opportunity to reminisce about the strange vehicles of his childhood.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything...

Filling in for Victor, Michael Koh asks Aaron: how would you cast a sitcom based on the inner workings of 97.9 The Hill? Aaron’s skeptical that such a show would actually work, funny as things are around here – but then again, most great sitcoms tend to take a few seasons to get going anyway. (The recent great ones, that is.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news t...

Trending today: police in California pull over a vehicle, but couldn’t write a ticket – because it was a self-driving car. Does this mean self-driving cars can just break whatever laws they want and drive however they like? (Michael Koh fills in again for Victor, who’s probably off living the self-driving car lifestyle somewhere.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd busines...

Trending today: sports commentator Paul Finebaum announces he’s running for Senate in Alabama, because hey, Alabama could do worse. Filling in for Victor, Michael Koh asks Aaron if he’s ever considered running for Congress, and the answer is yes – but luckily someone better came along. (But hey, North Carolina could also do worse.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd busines...

We start the month of October by talking Halloween, which has rapidly become America’s second-biggest holiday in the last few decades – though that’s weirdly coincided with the decline of some seminal Halloween traditions, including door-to-door trick-or-treating and the big annual party on Franklin Street. Filling in for Victor, Michael Koh grills Aaron on his favorite Halloween songs, candies and costumes – though Aaron’s not as big of a Halloween fan as other folks at the office. (Which isn’t saying much: we’ve got some real Halloween junkies around here.)

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Trending today: Victor stumps for more bike lanes – not a minority view, judging from a recent national poll. (So why is there always so much opposition whenever a community proposes adding more bike lanes? Aaron thinks it’s our natural inertia: we generally like things the way they are and we don’t want the hassle of dealing with construction. But who knows, really.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending s...

Trending today: Chuck E. Cheese’s effort to launch a boutique adult-themed arcade leads Aaron to a critical insight: there are no such things as “adults.” Also, Victor and Aaron discuss the difference between irony and nostalgia, and Victor explains why he thinks people are attracted to Chuck E. Cheese in the first place.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business v...

Trending today: Victor is surprised by a poll showing that half of American children live within 10 miles of a grandparent – but Aaron lived really close to all his grandparents, so he’s not shocked at all. (And now Victor is jealous of Aaron’s childhood, which he should be.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Cl...

Trending today: the rapid decline of coupon use, as American shoppers focus more on loyalty programs and in-store sales. (Americans are also less willing to devote a lot of time to shopping, which reduces the amount of time they’re willing to spend on bargain-hunting.) Also, Aaron remembers a notoriously penny-pinching professor, who cared a lot about saving money – and far less about saving time.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trendi...

Trending today: an effort to use wave pools to standardize the sport of surfing, which turns Victor into a cranky purist even though he’s never surfed. Also: we discuss the difference between surfing as a culture and surfing as a sport, and Aaron invents a rivalry with a surfing legend. (He coulda been a contender.)

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Trending today: the nation of Denmark embraces metal detecting, urging hobbyists to search for historic artifacts. Also, Aaron questions if there’s any such thing as “professional metal detecting” – and if so, whether there’s any difference between that and “mining.” 

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past What’s Tren...

Trending today: a story about Chick-Fil-A becoming America’s third-most lucrative fast-food chain sets Victor off on a rant against fast-food chains in general. (Also, Aaron tries to get Victor to become a corporate shill. It only takes the right amount of money!)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all...

Trending today: an 80-year-old thrillseeker drives his car down the Spanish Steps in Rome – triggering a conversation between Victor and Aaron about which popular movie stunt they’d love to try in real life. Also, Aaron tries to convince Victor (correctly) that you can do parkour in Chapel Hill.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. ...

Trending today: a growing shortage of lithium, which is forcing us to switch to sodium-based batteries even though they may not be as good. Also, Aaron makes Victor look up information online in real time. (Is lithium a solid, or a liquid? What is a “micro-mobility scooter?” Inquiring minds want to know.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and...

Trending today: a study about how long you spend watching ads on various forms of media gets Victor and Aaron talking about a new term: “linear television,” which refers to the sort of TV viewing where you turn on a channel and watch whatever happens to be on, rather than getting to pick and choose from a menu. (You know, the way all TV used to be.)

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Trending today: filling in for Victor, Michael Koh gets excited about news of a third “Mamma Mia” movie – but what will the plot be? Also, Aaron and Michael discuss whether they’re familiar enough with any bands to really know their deep cuts – and what the plot of a Beatles-themed jukebox musical might be.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventu...

Trending today: a voter in the AP football poll gets dragged after elevating Florida in her rankings after the Gators took a bad loss. Filling in for Victor, Michael Koh wonders why the AP poll even matters at all anymore in the first place, though Aaron has a couple ideas. (Come to think of it, how much should college football in general even matter? Michael offers a very specific and usable answer.)

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Trending today: a planned light show on New York City bridges that cost over $100 million – and amounted to nothing. Victor’s deeply curious about what went on behind the scenes, while Aaron offers a history lesson – and laments not investing in the right companies ten years ago.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to l...

Trending today: a silly question on Reddit leads to a discussion about public opinion on the Indiana Jones series – which Aaron slightly disagrees with, leading him to question whether he’s lost his ability to keep his finger on the pulse of the American zeitgeist. (Conclusion: no, Aaron’s right, it’s the rest of you who are wrong.) Also, we discuss the incredible achievement of the MCU, and question how to survive a nuclear bomb. Michael Koh fills in for Victor.

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Trending today: the rise of Labubu toys, which are now outpacing Hello Kitty – but for how long? Victor and Aaron talk about retail trends, social fads, media foibles, best practices for companies that want to remain successful – and the extent to which nothing ever lasts forever, even if it seems like it will. (Also, Victor says the word “Labubu” way, way more than he ever has before.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top...

Trending today: Victor revisits an earlier Trends segment on the spiking popularity of Nerds Gummy Clusters – which is now on the rise among young athletes looking for a quick carb hit. (Aaron wonders, though: hasn’t Snickers already been working that angle for decades?)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back t...

Trending today: Aaron and Victor discuss who, at 97.9 The Hill, has a radio voice that’s most distinct from their real-life voice. Also: Aaron discusses the difference between reading the news and reading sports, and Victor begs local businesses to ask for his monster-truck announcer impression.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to lis...

Trending today: a very esoteric joke in a subtweet sends Victor and Aaron on a discussion about how much knowledge you need to get even the most basic pun. Also, an island in Washington attracts damaged boats, and Aaron tells a very clever joke about Salvador Dali. (Trust me, it’s hilarious.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures a...

Trending today: a push to build lighter roofs (to save money on A/C bills) runs aground against roofing company lobbyists. Which sends Aaron off on a bit of a rant: is it really that hard for lawmakers to ignore interest-group lobbyists, when the common good is so clear? (Also, Victor mocks Aaron’s roofing knowledge, but Aaron’s not sure why he should even be expected to know that in the first place.)

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Trending today: Victor discusses a pair of think-pieces on Vietnam, which is demographically set up to succeed – for the next two decades. (That’s a consequence of a conscious government policy to control the national population, which has created a situation where Vietnam has lots of working-age folks and not as many kids or non-working seniors – though of course that’ll change in 20 years if trends don’t shift.)

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Trending today: in honor of the start of college football season, 97.9 The Hill sports reporter Michael Koh joins Aaron to run down the weirdest names in college football this year. (Also, Aaron does a very poor impression of an ancient Irish radio show.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to a...

Trending today: the re-emergence of elderflower liqueur after its initial heyday around the late 2000s and early 2010s. Victor and Aaron discuss the swinging pendulum of liquor-consumption trends – and why this particular type of liqueur is making a comeback now. (The Hugo spritz is becoming a thing, as it turns out.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everyt...

Trending today: the I-Robo2, a cooking robot produced by a Japanese company called TechMagic. It may be coming to America as restaurants try to cut labor costs, but Victor and Aaron have doubts about whether it’ll actually catch on as anything more than a gimmick. (How can you even tell when ‘the next big thing’ will actually catch on? Most ‘next big things’ fizzle and die.) Also, Aaron praises Victor’s shirt, and Victor and Aaron spar over the art of bartending.

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Trending today: Victor and Aaron get on separate soapboxes in response to a report about the decline of computer science programs. Victor urges the tech industry to stop trying to replace entry-level positions with AI, because you need those entry-level positions to help elevate folks to the higher-level jobs that AI can’t easily replace – and Aaron urges new college students to major in the humanities (and urges universities to keep supporting humanities programs!), because that’s where you learn the broad skills that enable you to be most adaptable, and thus most able to succeed, in an eve...

Trending today: a long-dead satellite returns to life just long enough to send a briefly exciting radio signal. Also, Victor shares his favorite joke, Aaron does his best satellite impression, and Victor and Aaron discuss the everyday mundanity of science.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past...

Trending today: Victor gripes about white-tailed deer, with whom he’s at war over an apple tree in his back yard. (Aaron, of course, sides with the deer, because he’s a good person and also kind of a troll.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our past What...

Trending today: Auburn University claims a whole bunch of historical national football titles, because nothing’s stopping them. (Hey, nothing’s stopping us either! Who’s up for celebrating UNC’s national title in – I dunno, 1996? Seriously, we can do this with any year we want.) Michael Koh joins Aaron and Victor.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and every...

Trending today: geothermal startups that are drilling deep into the ground, putting water into the holes, and letting the earth’s pressure generate heat and energy. Also: Victor admits to having a problem with screw-top jars, and Aaron hones his as-yet-undeveloped engineering mind.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all...

Trending today: a new survey shows (unsurprisingly) that most Americans think they’re above average at most things. (With some exceptions: most people don’t believe they’re very good dancers – or very good runners, interestingly enough.) Also, Aaron has an insight about reality TV, and Duke students live up to the stereotype.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business venture...

Trending today: new scientific research and some exciting findings at Hell’s Canyon, the deepest canyon in the U.S. Also, Victor complains about why every really deep thing has to be named after Hell, and Aaron discusses the scourge of creationism at the Grand Canyon.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to lis...

Trending today: a push by the city of Mumbai to ban wood-fired ovens, which generate a surprising amount of pollution-causing particulate matter. (Aaron and Victor attempt to discuss the pros and cons, but honestly, we know very little about urban policy in Mumbai, so take this whole conversation with a grain of salt.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business...

Trending today: the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a new museum in Los Angeles that’s taken George Lucas 15-plus years to bring to fruition – and counting, with cost overruns and personnel switches even with the opening date finally getting closer. (Also, Aaron reveals that he has a copy of the Holy Grail: the original theatrical version of the Star Wars trilogy, on a high-quality DVD.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top...

Trending today: the rapid decline of Starbucks’ popularity in Seattle – which confuses Aaron, who figured that would have already happened years ago. Starbucks’ popularity is also on the wane in other big U.S. cities, but not all: it’s actually becoming more popular in Austin, of all places.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click...

Trending today: the rise of BEOS, or “brain electrical oscillation signature” – which is increasingly being used by courts in India as a high-tech lie-detector test, even though there’s virtually no evidence that it’s anything more than phony pseudo-science. (Also, Victor tests out a Howard Dean impression, but Aaron’s not yet impressed.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business venture...

Trending today: Victor, Aaron, and special guest Michael Koh consider which individual athletes outpace their teams in Instagram followers. (Though in the end, it’s all just an excuse to rag on the Tampa Bay Rays. As well it should be.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. Click here to listen back to all our pas...

Trending today: a massive national study finds that even now, school principals default to mothers over fathers when choosing which parents to contact about their kids. (This is even the case when the parents explicitly say ‘call Dad first.’) It’s a fascinating study about persistent and pervasive gender norms – but Aaron’s more interested in the logistics of the research, which involved sending 80,000 fictitious emails to principals nationwide.

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Trending today: a once-popular restaurant in a South Korea gas station that lost its mojo when it started employing robots to make their food. (Look, y’all, automation makes sense for basic stuff, but when the whole appeal is based on the atmosphere and the special little tweaks, the robot sous-chef probably isn’t going to be your best bet.) Also, Aaron objects to the one job the restaurant set aside for humans.

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Trending today: a study that takes a deep dive into the posture of Barbie dolls – and finds that Barbies with ‘jobs’ are more likely to be made with flat feet. (Victor’s fascinated by the social implication, but Aaron’s more interested in how much that must complicate the manufacturing process.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in...

Trending today: Aaron follows up on our recent discussion about unfunny comedies with a theory about why they’re so prevalent, courtesy of comedy writer Jesse David Fox – who argues that social media is forcing (or freeing) comedians to explore other goals besides mere laughter, just as photography forced (freed) artists to explore new approaches to art in the 19th century. (Also, Aaron comes real close to making Victor swear on the air.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lew...

Trending today: a recap of the MLB All-Star Game, including great defense in the Home Run Derby and a final ‘swing-off’ to determine the winner – and speculation about how other sports may or may not be able to replicate this week’s baseball success. (Michael Koh fills in for Victor.)

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in be...

Trending today: a not-very-popular New Jersey diner turns out to be a shell company for fraudulent stock trading. Also, Victor puts a strange amount of faith in the ethics of billionaires, and Aaron comes up with the best pun he’s going to come up with all year.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Internet for the day’s top trending stories, from weird news to wacky crimes to odd business ventures and everything in between. C...

Trending today: a study that takes a deep dive into how often the main character dies in a movie: about 15 percent of the time overall, as it turns out. (But less frequently these days than, say, the 1970s, when directors were going all in on pessimistic grittiness.) Victor and Aaron take their own deep dive into the study – including a sidebar debate about who counts as the ‘main’ character in a movie in the first place.

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Trending today: Victor and Aaron discuss TV comedies, inspired by an article that takes a deep dive into the history of laugh tracks – and how frequently they’re used today. (TV people and even scholars often say laugh tracks make viewers more likely to laugh along – so why have we never had laugh tracks on movies?) Also, we debate which shows count as ‘comedies,’ not always an easy thing to define.

Want to know what folks are talking about on social media? Every weekday on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck,” Victor Lewis scours the Inter...