To mark 75 years on the air, Menghzen Markland and Karrah Toatley took to campus with a simple question: What’s your hottest take? 75 interviews later the responses are in. And they do not disappoint.
This originally aired as part of our Winter 2025 Special Broadcast: WNUR NEWS: Quarter Quell
[Intro music by Pankaj Joshi from Pixabay]
KARRAH TOATLEY: To celebrate WNUR’s 75 years in operation, we challenged ourselves to go around Northwestern’s campus to ask 75 students their hottest takes – and they did not hold back. Some you’ll agree with, some you’ll debate and some will leave you wondering how anyone could possibly believe that.
MENGZHEN MARKLAND: What’s your hot take?
JAISAL KALAPATAPU: Sarge[nt hall] is the best dining hall.
MARY STABINSKA: I think dorm living is infantilizing.
ANTHONY BARTOLOMI: I don’t think people should be in extracurriculars that are related to their fields.
DAVID MARTINE: Chemistry isn’t hard.
ARINA KHLUS: I am an international student and I don’t like the majority of international students at Northwestern.
TESSA DE JESUS: Mod’s one topping pizza isn’t as bad as everyone thinks it is. Like, if I’m going to Domino’s I’m getting one topping anyways. It’s not that big of a deal.
TAMYRHA DUNAC: I think bananas on pizza taste good.
SARAH BOCK: Pineapple is the best pizza topping.
JULIA POLSTER: Deep dish pizza [beep] sucks.
TOATLEY: What’s your hot take?
LOUISE SIMS: My hot take is that, I think if you take anything other than a night shower, you’re kind of a gross person.
MINTESINOT STURM: 9:30 bedtime is awesome and amazing and like a 5:30 wake up time is also awesome and amazing.
LIBBY NOOK: I think nightgowns are the best type of sleepwear
CREIGHTON SMITH-ALLAIRE: Uh, late at night a glass of warm milk with a little bit of honey and cinnamon hits.
TYLER GUINTO-BRODY: I like big glasses of milk.
HELEN DAVIS: So, I believe in putting milk in before cereal and I also believe in putting peas in pizza.
SASHA DURTA: I put my milk before my cereal. It makes it less soggy.
HENRY BLOCKSIDGE: Dipping oreos in water does the same thing as dipping them in milk.
MARKLAND: What’s your hot take?
ALLEN GURVITS: Paddy May’s mustache is better than the beard.
GURVITS: Everybody knows Paddy May.
BRYAN BAUMER: I think that the feels like temperature should be the temperature that’s displayed. Why the [bleep] are you catfishing me with double digits when it feels like negative one alright. Just say the temperature is negative one.
ANNIKA RAJ: My hot take is that I don’t like fizzy drinks and I think that carbonation tastes bad. And it hurts my mouth.
CONRAD BOOKER: I really do not like ice water. I just found it makes my mouth too cold and my stomach cold.
SOPHIA BUEN SANTOS: Water is the best liquid out there right now.
TY MOYER: 1% low fat milk is better to drink than water.
HENRY WINKELMAN: Tea is way better than coffee.
ROSE PETERS: I actually really enjoy drinking black coffee
PELUMI ADEYEMI: Matcha is just grass.
MARKLAND: Ok, so what’s your hot take?
CIARA MARTINEZ: I don’t think Helen Keller is real.
ZACH COOK: Even though tote bags may look cool, it’s a lot of pain. So just bring a backpack, don’t use a tote bag, It’s unnecessary.
CAMERON LARA: Maybe not a hottake, but In&Out does in fact have the best fast food burger.
TIMMY WOODWARD: Popeyes is better than Chick-Fil-A.
TOMI FAWEHINMI: I think that KFC has the best chicken sandwich.
KYLE VETTER: Doritos locos crunch tacos from Taco Bell actually taste like dog [bleep].
JOHN KOWALSKI: I think that all music is amazing.
GABBY KRAMER: My hot take is that I did not like the Brat album.
SEIDY PICHARDO: I don’t like Jordan Fisher.
VIRGINIA HUNT: I really don’t like Taylor Swift.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: I think Chappell Roan is not that good
SEJAL MEHTA: Rihanna over Beyonce.
ISHAN AIYER: Drake is better than Kendrick Lamar
RACHEL GARICH: Dreamworks is better than Disney.
SHAHMEER MIRZA: My hottest take is that Beauty and The Beast is the best live action Disney princess movie but Emma Watson is not the best live action Disney princess. It’s Haile Bailey as Ariel.
AVERILL CURDY: I hate movies
HENRY CARSON: The second and third matrix films are absolute fire and I’m sick of pretending they’re not. Everyone calls them trash, everyone says the first one is a masterpiece and the following are steaming piles of badness. I personally believe they are masterful accounts of the human experience and build expertly on the action and stakes of the first movie. And it should be regarded as one of the greatest trilogies of all time.
JACK SHADDEN: Interstellar is a good movie, but it’s not that good.
MILLIE ROSE TAUB: Percy Jackson is better than Harry Potter
IBRAHIM KHAN: I don’t think John Mulaney is funny.
PEDRO RODRIGUEZ: If a performance isn’t good you do not have to clap. Stay silent.
ELOISE NELSON: I think the trend of having stunt casting on Broadway is really stupid.
BROOKS LANSANA: Who’s Tommy is an overrated musical and when I went to go see it that plot made no sense.
ARJUN SHAH: Call Me By Your Name is a bad movie.
EVAN TROTTER-WRIGHT: I don’t think Timothée Chalamet is attractive even at all.
AVA HEREDIA: I don’t think all babies are cute babies.
TOATLEY: So what’s your hot take?
KRISHNA KUMAR: I think yellow is the worst color and we should ban it from use everywhere. No one should ever be allowed to use yellow ever again. It should be uh excised from you know vocabulary everywhere. Shouldn’t teach our children about yellow. Let’s leave yellow in the past.
ARIA NARASIMHAN: Orange is a top tier color
MIRANDA CAMPBELL: Ok my hottake is that watermelon is the worst fruit and tastes like nothing.
WOODWARD: Watermelons taste like nothing.
EMMA KUHLMAN: I think frozen yogurt is extremely overrated.
ETHAN PARK: Hotpot is overrated.
NAOMI BURNETT: Corn is not meant for consumption. Like humans aren’t made to eat corn.
RYAN SAMII: Ketchup is so disgusting and it makes everything worse.
CATE JESCHKE: My hot take is that white chocolate is not a real chocolate.
SETH BLACK-DIMOND: A hot dog is not a sandwich
DAISY COLEMAN: Fluoride taste really good
ELI BLANKS: Grapes and beans are both the same type of item, food item that I don’t like.
KATELYN LIU: I would trade green grapes for a lot of things
MARKLAND: What’s your hot take?
JUNI IRVING: Straight men need to be more chivalrous.
CAMRYN HELGELAND: Self diagnosis should not be treated as real diagnosis
SAYUKI LANE: February can be a good month.
SIMON OLSHAN-CANTIN: My hot take is that mulch actually smells kinda good
CATHERINE TANG: I think snapchat is an awful form of social media.
NATASHA DO VALLE: Gossip is just analyzing social situations, it’s not bad.
NITHYA MALEMPATI: Quarter sleeves and half sleeves on shirts are not ugly.
GRACIE HALL: Low rise pants suck and should not be socially accepted.
HARRY JUNG: I hate hot takes. I think people are so opinionated nowadays that I think people should be more neutral. And no opinion is sometimes good.
TOATLEY: If you’re keeping track, that’s 75 interviews and 75 hot takes!
MARKLAND: For WNUR News, I’m Mengzhen Markland
TOATLEY: And I’m Karrah Toatley
[Outro music by Pankaj Joshi from Pixabay]
