The hills are alive with the sound of kids saying “chicken, banana,” a new AI tool called OpenClaw has an iron grasp on data, and backlash took center stage after Bad Bunny’s halftime show. But first:
Song of the Week –“The Great Divide” by Noah Kahan
The first single from Noah Kahan’s upcoming album is all about friendships and the distance that can grow between two people. Kahan is known for his melancholic, introspective, and relatable lyrics, but “The Great Divide” turns that up as he laments his “deep misunderstanding” of his former (presumably childhood) friend’s life and their struggles. The song also features a lot of religious language, but in the narrative of the song, it’s not positive, as religion seems to be a source of deep pain and shame for his friend. The lyrics (language) are raw and authentic, something teens continue to appreciate from artists.
And now for our three conversations..
1. Chicken… Banana?
What it is: A new iteration of Gen Alpha’s favorite kind of slang (the meaningless kind) has emerged from a Swedish YouTube channel.
Why it’s… something: If you have managed to make it through the last 12 months without hearing, “Chicken Banana,” consider yourself lucky. Crazy Music Channel, a Swedish production team, released “CHICKEN BANANA” in February 2025. A year later, it is still circulating, currently sitting at over 171 million views. What began as a viral dance has shifted into Gen Alpha slang. As much as it may read like AI slop, it was actually made by humans and its origin is sweeter than you’d expect. “With all the bad things happening all over the world, we wanted to do something funny that people could laugh at,” the CEO of the label associated with Crazy Music Channel told Vox (paywall). Like many new slang terms these days, the absence of meaning is the meaning.
Continue the conversation: What makes you laugh when you feel overwhelmed?
2. The Claw
What it is: OpenClaw (aka Moltbot and ClawdBot) is a new, free “agentic AI” assistant that lives on your computer.
Why it’s different: Unlike other AI tools, OpenClaw doesn’t just give you information. It makes decisions. If you ask it to book you a flight to San Francisco, it will actually do it. But to do this, it requires access to everything on your computer, including your passwords, your payment methods, your calendar, your account information, et cetera. The potential pro of OpenClaw is that it could serve as a fully functional AI assistant. The potential con is that its requirement of so much private information could create serious security risks for users, should the software get hacked.
Continue the conversation: When do you think it’s safe to offer up personal information? When do you think it’s not safe?
3. Bad Bunny’s Halftime
What it is: Bad Bunny’s performance at the Super Bowl halftime show was a Spanish-language only ode to his Puerto Rican heritage. Quite a few commentators were not happy with the content or context of his show.
Why it was predictable: Bad Bunny was announced as the performer at this year’s halftime show back in September 2025. Since then, the artist has been vocal in his criticism of US immigration policies—not a new position for the 31-year-old, who has previously advocated for Puerto Rican independence and refused to tour the US due to fears of ICE targeting. The looming question never seemed to be if this performance would be controversial—only what would be controversial about it. A week after the show, half of America seems certain Bad Bunny did something terrible, while the other half seems certain the show was as pure as the custom cream Zara suit he wore on stage. So what did this Bunny do that was so “bad”—and was it really any worse than other performers in recent memory?
Let’s translate this one further…
There’s no way to argue that what happens on the Super Bowl stage shouldn’t matter. Bad Bunny was Spotify’s most-streamed artist of 2025, and 128.2 million people watched him perform his greatest hits alongside Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin. His global influence on young people cannot be understated.
The show featured a message of love, family, and community ties. It spotlighted barbershops and broken power lines. There was laughter, dancing, and a wedding. There was a child holding a Grammy—evocative, we are to understand, of a new kind of American dream. Some of the lyrics of Bad Bunny’s raunchy catalog were edited for television. But some of those lyrics weren’t edited at all. And the songs that teens are listening to, as they climb the charts post-performance, likely won’t be, either.
In 2004, you may recall that the Super Bowl halftime show featured Janet Jackson, Kid Rock, Nelly, P. Diddy, and, of course, Justin Timberlake. And at the conclusion of a dance remix of Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” and Timberlake’s “Rock Your Body,” Timberlake grabbed and exposed Jackson’s bare breast on live TV.
Twenty-two years later, Diddy is in jail for sex trafficking, Justin Timberlake is trying to resuscitate his ailing pop career after a “ruined” world tour, Kid Rock is performing the same songs at a completely separate Super Bowl event, and Jackson never really regained her standing in the public eye.
Most Americans didn’t stop watching the halftime show—in fact, more watch it now than ever before. But they do watch it differently. In 2004, people were outraged because they saw something they didn’t expect. Now, people show up expecting to be outraged. And maybe that impulse is worth examining.
I can acknowledge that moments of this performance meant a great deal to millions of people—some of whom are reading this—who saw precious, beautiful aspects of their culture represented on screen. I can filter any response I might have through the call of James 1:19-20, being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. I can hold the tension that reckoning with culture across language lines can be complicated and confusing, and that sometimes, I’ll probably get it wrong. I can invite conversations with my kids, with my Latin American brothers and sisters, and with the people in my church, to show them I care about what they think. And if I do these things, with any luck, I can avoid denigrating my witness as a Christian before the conversation moves on. Because while the reactionary discourse moves at lightning speed, the hurt it can cause is permanent.
Watching this Super Bowl halftime show humbled some of my assumptions, challenged others, and reminded me what I love about this work. It also made me grateful that we publish the CT, translated into Spanish by a native speaker, every week. Email ask@axis.org to receive it!
For more context and nuance, check out our Roundtable podcast on Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In the meantime, here are three questions to help you continue the conversation with your teens:
- If you were in charge of booking the Super Bowl talent, who would you book?
- What makes a great concert or performance?
- Is all art political?
Parenting together,
Kate Watson and the Axis Team
In Other News…
- James Van Der Beek passed away this week after battling colorectal cancer. Best known for his role as Dawson Leery on Dawson’s Creek, he helped define late 90s teen drama, and his legacy continues through streaming nostalgia and even one of the internet’s earliest viral reaction GIFs.
- At a congressional hearing last week, self-driving car company Waymo admitted that sometimes its cars are being remote-controlled by workers based in the Philippines.
- An emerging star of the 2026 Winter Olympics is American figure skater Alysa Liu, who won gold and then promptly broke her medal.
- Cool guys have bangs now, according to GQ. Fellas are trading the long-popular long-on the-top, short-on-the sides haircut for softer, more lived-in fringe.
- This weekend, the long-awaited, R-rated adaptation of the gothic romance novel Wuthering Heights will hit 3,600 screens and is projected to hit $50 million on its opening weekend.
PS: Know someone who could use our conversation starters with their teens? Share the CT with a friend!