Boxy apartment buildings. Industrial-chic coffee shops. Fast-casual salads. Are cities everywhere becoming indistinguishable? Audie and Ari dissect the trend with help from travel guru Rick Steves, who has ideas for how to keep the places we visit and call home vibrant and real.

About the show: Welcome to Audie Cornish and Ari Shapiro’s Engagement Party, where the hot takes are the smart takes. After years of working side by side, Audie and Ari have made it official with their pop culture video podcast. Party hopping between what you’re watching, reading and scrolling, these longtime friends unpack what matters in our endless feeds.

0:00 Why are cities everywhere starting to look so much alike?
4:35 The rise of the “non-place”
7:01 Cities that retain their distinct culture thrill us (see New Orleans)
9:19 A well-traveled expert weighs in: Rick Steves
11:45 The role of Airbnb in flattening cities’ culture
15:20 How to get away from tourism mosh pits
18:46 Culture shock is a good thing; embrace it
23:59 How to keep our hometowns from getting homogenized
27:51 Take or Tea: Rick on weed vacations and Parisian Tex-Mex
36:10 Touch Grass: Mazatlán vs. Managua

Subscribe to the Engagement Party newsletter here: https://cnn.it/3W3t0wn. The weekly send lets you catch up on the latest trends, obsessions and culture online.

#podcast #travel #ricksteves

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VOTE 2026: The midterm elections. There is a seismic shift in the political landscape across the country as Democrats win both the House and Senate in a series of stunning victories.
00:00:03 Open
00:01:11 Momentous Midterms
00:04:22 Texas Earthquake
00:05:24 Context and Analysis
00:07:14 Powerhouse Roundtable
00:12:34 Goodbye

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Protesters interrupted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee as the Pentagon asks for more money to fund the war in Iran.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party emerged as the largest in Tuesday’s election but fell short of a majority, leaving no clear path to form a government. ABC News’ Britt Clennett reports that negotiations could take weeks as rival parties weigh potential alliances.

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Five years after revealing she was diagnosed with MS, actress Christina Applegate announced that she was misdiagnosed.

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