The Volley: New years traditions, and are books back?

The Volley fires through the headlines and the hypotheticals, starting with how different cultures ring in the New Year—from eating 12 grapes in Spain to jumping seven waves in Brazil and hanging onions over the door in Greece. Chris and Lady La ask how you celebrate and whether any superstition is worth trying once.

The conversation then turns to Barnes & Noble’s surprising comeback, as the bookstore chain plans dozens of new locations and signals a renewed appetite for physical books in a digital-first world. What’s driving the return to tactile reading—and is nostalgia doing more work than technology?

Next, the crew tackles a very specific problem out of Massachusetts, where residents say living near a new Dunkin’ factory means their homes now smell like donuts around the clock. Is that a dream scenario or an absolute nightmare?

The segment wraps with a bigger question: are generative AI chatbots just the latest “brain rot” panic, or is this fundamentally different for teens growing up with digital companions that talk back, remember, and claim emotional closeness?