We’ve got such a fun one for you today—we’re chatting with Nora Princiotti about her new book Hit Girls: Britney, Taylor, Beyonce, and the Women Who Built Pop’s Shiniest Decade, which comes out on June 17. This book is being billed—rightfully so—as “the ultimate love letter to pop music,” and in this book Nora takes us on a deep dive into how female pop stars broke through the music industry in the 2000s and changed the game forever. Nora covers so many women in this book—Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry—and that’s just for starters. She talks about how these women redefined the role of the pop star, not only within the music industry, but within culture, more broadly. Nora writes that “the aughts were a harrowing but magical time in music for women,” and she tells us all about why in today’s episode. Nora is a staff writer at The Ringer, where she covers culture—everything from Taylor Swift to the NFL. Speaking of the NFL, Nora was previously a reporter for The Boston Globe, where she covered the New England Patriots dynasty. Nora currently co-hosts the Every Single Album podcast, which just hosted Miley Cyrus—so covering female artists is a specialty of hers. She writes in Hit Girls that, “though the aughts were over, they certainly left a mark.” We’re going to dig into what that mark is right now.

Hit Girls: Britney, Taylor, Beyonce, and the Women Who Built Pop’s Shiniest Decade by Nora Princiotti