After I've lied and told the whole world, I'm okay and I'm happy, it's a lie.

I thought I just maybe I said that enough, maybe I might become happy because I've been

in denial.

I've been in shock.

I am traumatized.

Welcome to the New York Times pop cast, your ongoing circus of music, music, and criticism.

I am your host, John Caramonico.

We're going to get right into it.

No music this week because of seriousness of the subject matter.

There have been developments in the last week or so in the Britney Spears conservatorship

case.

There was emotional testimony in a recent hearing from Britney that leaked online about

20 minutes of her explaining her frustrations with the circumstances of her conservatorship

and asking essentially to be released from it without further evaluation.

And around online, just prior to that, our team, which is Joe Cuscarelli, who you know,

Samantha Stark and Liz Day, who made Framing Britney Spears, the Hulu documentary about

the conservatorship, had done some additional reporting on Jamie Spears, Britney's father,

and some of the issues that were presenting themselves in documents that had not previously

been made public about Britney's concerns with the conservatorship dating back as far

as 2014.

And this week's episode, Joe is here.

We're going to talk a little bit about what the last two or three weeks have been like

...