The Last Mixed Tape

Stella Lefty is having a moment. But what happens when the people making music don’t all start from the same place?
Stella Lefty’s rise to fame with Boston has become a lightning rod for arguments about nepotism, authenticity and the modern music industry. Her billionaire father has made her an obvious target for the “nepo baby” label, while controversy surrounding Boston and its similarity to Noah Kahan’s Stick Season has only added fuel to the conversation.
But the real question is bigger than Stella.
What does it actually mean to earn success when we don’t all begin with the same opportunities?
In this episode of The Last Mixed Tape, we look at the class ceiling in music, the inherited advantages that come with wealth, and why “starting from zero” is often a myth. We also look at the gendered suspicion surrounding accusations of “nepo baby” and “industry plant”, and why successful young women can find themselves treated as fraudulent simply for becoming successful.
Music has a nepo baby problem. But it’s because society has a class problem.

Dolly Parton didn’t just become a country music legend she changed what a woman could be in music. From Locust Ridge to Nashville, Jolene to I Will Always Love You, CMAT to Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter, this is the story of how Dolly built a legacy that reaches far beyond country music.
She didn’t make the next woman into Dolly, she made it easier for her to be herself.

Fontaines D.C. have spent five albums trying to find somewhere else to go. From Dublin, to Ireland, to romance, fantasy and now something much harder to define, escape has been one of the central tensions running through their music.

With “Marianne”, their first new music since 2024's Romance, Fontaines D.C. offer our first glimpse into their forthcoming fifth album, Dopamine Chamber.

In this episode, Stephen explores what “Marianne” tells us about Fontaines' evolving sound and their fascination with escapism, while examining the song's Ripley-inspired music video and the controversy surrounding its original AI Artist credits.

Dopamine Chamber is released October 16th, 2026 via XL Recordings.

Six years after Punisher gave the isolation of 2020 an apocalyptic soundtrack, Phoebe Bridgers returns with Lost Weekend an album about what it feels like to live through a world that increasingly feels impossible to change.
The Trump era. Late-stage capitalism. Internet alienation. Institutional indifference. Grief. Love. Fame. Lost Weekend brings these enormous forces down to the scale of an individual life, asking what happens when catastrophe stops being an event and becomes the environment we live inside.
But this isn’t a protest album.
Through dissociation, distorted voices, memories of her father, intimate relationships and moments of unexpected warmth, Bridgers explores what remains when the larger systems around us feel beyond our control.
If Punisher asked what happens when the world feels like it’s ending, Lost Weekend asks what happens when you have to keep living through it.
How do we remain human after it?
The Last Mixed Tape is a music and culture video essay exploring the ideas, stories and politics behind the music that shapes our lives.

Was David Bowie a fascist?
In 1976, David Bowie became the Thin White Duke: an elegant, unsettling persona born during a period of cocaine addiction, paranoia and psychological collapse.
Bowie praised Hitler, spoke approvingly of fascism and was photographed appearing to give a Nazi salute. But was the Duke an expression of genuine political belief or a dangerous piece of performance art that began to escape its creator?
We trace the Duke through Bowie’s controversial interviews, the post-war artistic fascination with fascist imagery, Situationism and punk, and finally Station to Station the album where Bowie and his creation seem to wrestle for control.
The Last Mixed Tape explores music, culture, politics and the stories hiding underneath the songs.