Gen Z Wishes It Were 1997

The Brian Lehrer Show | Aug 26, 2025

Nostalgia for the late '90s and early 2000s is roaringly popular among Gen Z right now. Listeners call in with stories of life before the internet and what it is about that era that younger listeners wish for today, and we hear from Clay Routledge, social psychologist, director of the Human Flourishing Lab at Archbridge Institute and author of Past Forward: How Nostalgia Can Help You Live a More Meaningful Life (Sounds True, 2023).

=>"Why Gen Z Is Resurrecting the 1990s" (NYT Opinion, 8/24/25)

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