On this week’s Popcast, Mr. Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, the pop music reporter for The New York Times, discuss the Nicki Minaj conflagration. Then they speak with Janeé Bolden, the senior content director for pop culture at iOneDigital and the former managing editor of Bossip, about how the stan armies for Ms. Minaj, Beyoncé, Rihanna and others operate. Finally, they are joined by Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber, the hosts of the Who? Weekly podcast, and Caryn Ganz, The Times’s pop music editor, to talk about micro-stan armies that support C- and D-list celebrities.

Plus: we learn the names of the secret (or not-yet-existent) fan armies of various Times staffers!

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Email your questions, thoughts and ideas about what’s happening in pop music to popcast@nytimes.com.