TIME and TODAY cover Dr. Raven Baxter's first listen of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours

TIME and TODAY.com covered Dr. Raven Baxter in early April 2024 after her posts about hearing Fleetwood Mac for the first time went viral on X. TIME ran its story on April 3, and TODAY.com published an interview with her on April 4.

Late on April 2, in a hotel in Nebraska, Baxter heard "Go Your Own Way" playing in the background. She looked up the song and posted at 11:49 p.m. Eastern. "Looked it up it's two band members breaking up I am in TEARS! YOU CAN GO YOUR OWN WAY," she wrote. "watched the live performance. he can't even look at her."

She kept posting as she worked through the 1977 album. "Wait is this WHOLE album two people in the band breaking up and fighting?!?!" she asked 20 minutes later. TODAY reported nearly 14.3 million views on the first post. As of October 2026, the post shows more than 15.3 million views and 94,000 likes.

The album already had a second life online. In October 2020, Rumours re-entered the Billboard 200 top 10 at No. 7, 43 years after release, after a viral TikTok set to "Dreams." Stevie Nicks was on a 2024 US tour when the posts spread. TIME noted that Rolling Stone ranks Rumours No. 7 among its 500 greatest albums.

TIME's Moises Mendez called it "a truly wholesome moment online." He described Baxter as a molecular biologist and reported that Fleetwood Mac trended on X the next day as users suggested songs for her.

TODAY's Alex Portée interviewed her. Baxter told TODAY that the story drew her in. "The more I learned, the messier it became. Everybody in the band was heartbroken at some point," she said.

Her main point was about reading emotion in performance. "Even if you had the sound off, you could tell by their body language, how they're playing their instruments, that they've been through some stuff," she said. She found it inspiring that "their passion for music or your passion for something can kind of override any type of adversities that might be going on for you personally."

She named Nicks as a model. "I like the representation. She seems like she works really hard. And her talent is amazing," Baxter said.

Longtime fans answered her posts with stories and listening advice. They sent her to the band's 1997 live performance of "Silver Springs." "I watched it, and it changed my life," she said. "I was very grateful that people didn't laugh at me for not knowing this ridiculously successful band," she told TODAY. "I'm someone who loves community. That's one of my core values, and I love being embraced by the older generations."

TIME was founded in 1923 by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden as the first weekly news magazine in the US. TODAY premiered on NBC on January 14, 1952, and is credited as the first program of its kind. TODAY.com is its digital newsroom.

TODAY introduced Baxter as a molecular biologist, science communicator and podcaster known for science rap music. Her University at Buffalo Ph.D., conferred in 2022, examined how science is communicated through hip-hop.

The TIME story and the TODAY.com interview are online, along with her original post on X.