Axis Conversations

TikTok has a new US owner, which users worry is muddying the platform's approach to censorship; data shows that sad and angsty songs are ruling the streaming charts, and it's official: our algorithms are making us lonelier.
Emoji of the Week: 🙂
Axis Resource--> Check out A Parent's Guide to Emoji
In Other News:
Last week, Alex Honnold free-soloed Taipei 101 live on Netflix, with roughly 6.2 million people watching him climb a 1,667-foot skyscraper without a rope. The 2026 Oscar nominations dropped last week, with director Ryan Coogler's horror-thriller Sinners receiving a record-breaking 16 nominations. Speaking of awards season, after a long hiatus, Justin Bieber is slated to return to the Grammys stage this Sunday night. Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal on Monday to apologize for his antisemitic comments and psychotic behavior. Athleisure is out for 2026. Some Gen Z creators are leaning into vintage (meaning 90s and early 2000s) sportswear and putting their matching workout sets out to pasture.
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Jenna is a writer and content creator based in Orange County, California. She works at Axis as a content specialist. She is currently working on a Master's in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care at Talbot School of Theology. She also runs a Substack publication called "Jenna's Column" where she writes about faith from a Gen Z perspective. In her free time she loves to read (preferably at the beach) and hang out with her husband Parker and their cat, Dolly.
Check out our updated Parent's Guide to Teen Slang
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Check out the podcast now on our YouTube Channel!
Get your question on Ask Axis! Send in your questions to [email protected].
For more Axis resources, go to axis.org.

Three Big Conversations:
Nostalgia for 2016 hits social media. - 8:54
Some hopeful, if complicated, mental health statistics about college students. - 24:40
Teens would rather send a voice note than make a phone call. - 38:08
Slang of the Week - Ragebait - 1:48
In Other News: - 54:22
The Indiana Hoosiers won an electrifying College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday, punctuated by an iconic, fourth-down touchdown run from Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza. BookTok's beloved People We Meet on Vacation, an Emily Henry book-to-movie adaptation, has debuted at No.1 on the Netflix film chart with 17.2m views. A new trend on TikTok involves impersonating owls. "Bringing random items to school" is a TikTok trend where kids pull increasingly unhinged objects out of their backpacks purely for laughs. The tremendous success of a stationery store in Chicago is being hailed as indicative of the "return to analog" trend, as the popularity of journals, calligraphy, and sending snail mail letters surges.
Become a monthly donor today, join the Table.
Check out the podcast now on our YouTube Channel!
Get your question on Ask Axis! Send in your questions to [email protected].
For more Axis resources, go to axis.org.

Nostalgia for 2016 hits social media, some hopeful, if complicated, mental health statistics about college students, and teens would rather send a voice note than make a phone call.
Slang of the Week - Ragebait
In Other News:
The Indiana Hoosiers won an electrifying College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday, punctuated by an iconic, fourth-down touchdown run from Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza. BookTok's beloved People We Meet on Vacation, an Emily Henry book-to-movie adaptation, has debuted at No.1 on the Netflix film chart with 17.2m views. A new trend on TikTok involves impersonating owls. "Bringing random items to school" is a TikTok trend where kids pull increasingly unhinged objects out of their backpacks purely for laughs. The tremendous success of a stationery store in Chicago is being hailed as indicative of the "return to analog" trend, as the popularity of journals, calligraphy, and sending snail mail letters surges.
Become a monthly donor today, join the Table.
Check out the podcast now on our YouTube Channel!
Get your question on Ask Axis! Send in your questions to [email protected].
For more Axis resources, go to axis.org.

A question on "camp skits not aging well." Libby asks, "We generally have just substituted current pop culture references into old skits to bring them up to date. But it's so necessary right now to help kids engage with culture instead of vilifying it. A recent skit we were planning made it seem like the student was nailing Jesus to the cross by going to a party, hanging out with friends instead of staying home with Jesus—and we want our kids to socialize with real people more! But we are also finding way more extreme drug and alcohol content at parties for the kids who do socialize IRL. How to navigate?" - Libby
This podcast is entirely Q&A based! Send in your questions to [email protected].
Check out the podcast now on our YouTube Channel!
Become a monthly donor today, join the Table.
And for more resources, go to axis.org.