It's Been a Minute

In 1966, the federal government commissioned a massive survey aimed at solving educational inequality. Instead, the explosive Coleman Report unleashed a 60-year debate over race, resources, and what education in America is actually for. This is the story of how the report came together… and the policy whirlwind that followed. Guests: Victoria Cain, Associate Professor of History, Northeastern Univ...

Are we living in a Baddies Revolution? We just might be. Over the past few years, the Zeus Network franchise Baddies has steadily grown in virality, capturing dozens of young people on camera as they party, promote clubs, and most of all, fight each other. But where do shows like Joseline's Cabaret and Baddies USA sit in the long history of Reality TV, and what can they tell us about what young pe...

The summer of 2026 turned into the summer of predictive markets. Polymarket and Kalshi, two of the largest betting platforms in the US, expanded their marketing to reach users everywhere. And they seem to be actively pursuing women customers — highlighting bets on who'd win Love Island USA to who'd attend the Taylor Swift Travis Kelce wedding. To discuss this phenomenon, we’re talking with Nancy W...

Is this a new era for American Muslims? American Muslims are building their own cultural institutions – New York Magazine and The Guardian have reported on flourishing ecosystems of cafes, magazines, dance nights, meetups and readings for Muslims and/or people with heritage from the SWANA region. And on a political level, Muslims like Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar and New York Mayor Zohran M...

The genre made for lovers doesn't seem to respect the very fanbase it’s engineered to woo. When Mankaprr Conteh interviewed R&B artist Isaia Huron, she imagined a thoughtful if not a bit complicated conversation about the difficult woman at the center of his latest album, Mr. Lovebomb . What she got was something else entirely. Huron went on to tell Mankaprr that he has no empathy for women and th...

Is the fantasy of football worth the potential price? That's what football athletes, fans and doctors are asking after a new study published in late August revealed that from a sample of athletes who played at least one NFL game in their careers and who died between 2016 and 2021, a minimum of around 25% -- that's one in every four of those players --  had a brain condition called CTE upon their d...

Has the era of optimization finally reached a fever pitch? Veneers, perfect minimalist home decor, and even eye whitening drops are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the many ways we can ‘optimize’ our lives. But at what cost? And how did we even get to this point? To understand this trend we’re talking with Bloomberg Business Week Senior Writer Amanda Mull , who wrote The Optimization...

"Be vulnerable." "We love your authenticity." "Bring your full self to work." Sound familiar? In this episode from our friends at Code Switch, B.A. Parker chats with Jodi-Ann Burey, author of Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work, about why you should absolutely NOT do those things at work — especially if you're a Black woman. For more episodes on how we work, check out: Who reall...

You are what you wear… or are you? In her new podcast, Philosophy Club , host Avery Trufelman -- who also hosts the fashion podcast Articles of Interest -- tries to answer that question and more by getting back to basics. Each week, she and her co-host, Derek Guy -- fashion critic who many know as "The Menswear Guy" -- read philosophers, theorists, and writers who have built the foundation for our...

Has there been a decline in "masculine" men? Some women on Tiktok seem to believe so. The phrase, "Who's gonna be the boys?" has been used online to refer to all the mundane things men are doing that could be described as feminine: wearing earrings, having a skin care routine, and even eating a banana, to name a few. But what does this online question about the alleged absence of masculine men say...

Carla Lalli’s latest cookbook wants you to eat your feelings. After the end of her decades-long marriage, Lalli -- the former Bon Appétit editor whose cooking videos and cookbooks made her one of the internet's favorite chefs -- knew she had to do one thing: write about it. What emerged is Food is a Feeling , a collection of stories and recipes processing this moment in her life. From figuring out...

Does everyone need their own lawnmower? For a lot of people, living with your spouse and kids in a standalone house with a white picket fence is, more or less, the American dream. But people aren’t as likely to get married and have kids as they used to – and buying a house is more unattainable than ever. But even for those who don't share this particular American dream, alternatives -- like living...

What would it look like to have all of your needs met? That’s the question filmmaker Shatara Michelle Ford’s asks in their film, Dreams in Nightmares . As three Black queer friends take to the road to search for the fourth member of their group, they navigate the ups and downs of love, identity, and what it means to truly feel seen. Shatara joins the show to break down how Dreams in Nightmares wen...

Would you go back to college? What if it looked less like four years of textbooks and cram sessions, and more like five days of non-stop streaming and content creation? That's the vision that Twitch megastreamer Kai Cenat had for his second annual Streamer University, where budding content creators descended on a liberal arts campus to learn how to be the best streamers they can be. But what does...

  How do you convince people to read more novels?  You could ask author Jason Reynolds for a start. The acclaimed author of young adult novels, Look Both Ways , Long Way Down , and Ghost joins host Brittany Luse to discuss the lessons in empathy, friendship and hope that novels can inspire in all readers. He says, “In one book, everybody can change. In 300 pages, every character that you've met ha...

Microdramas are taking over the internet. But are they art – or products? The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband. Break Me, Princess. Married the Mafioso I Saved. These are all titles of microdramas that are taking the internet by storm. In case you haven’t heard, microdramas are often campy shows with short, minute-long episodes. The first few episodes get posted to social media for free, but...

Sepideh Moafi wants you to get raw with your emotions. Season 2 of HBO Max’s original series, The Pitt, brings a new doctor into the fold: Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi. An Iranian-Iraqi attending physician, she brings empathy and discipline into the chaotic ER that viewers have come to love. While she ruffled some feathers at first, her commitment to her fellow doctors and patients has made her a fan favo...

It seems like no one on Broadway is happy. Actors are buckling under the weight of the eight-show week, producers aren't making their money back, and audiences are getting tired of paying astronomical ticket prices to see celebrities on stage. Is Broadway in danger of taking its final bow? To find out, Brittany is joined by Broadway sensitivity specialist Ann James , and entertainment lawyer and b...

The cultural supremacy of the influencer seems to be waning.  For nearly a decade, they’ve become a fount of cultural commerce, affecting how to live, what to buy, and who to follow for advice. But a backlash – against everything from expensive shopping hauls to the very persona that built an influencer's brand – is leaving many questioning their cultural relevance. So what’s going on with influen...

Have some people forgotten how to behave at music festivals? Summer is peak music festival season, and that means many of us are braving huge crowds and sweltering heat to see a bunch of artists we love in one place. But is there a decline in social decorum in these concert settings? From using phones to being in the front row to navigating crowds, our friends at Pop Culture Happy Hour are sharing...

Welcome to the age of ‘Broke TV.’ It seems like the days of prestige TV shows about the wealthy elite have been replaced by the vocal majority: the downwardly mobile. New Yorker TV critic, Inkoo Kang , noticed that her favorite shows so far this year all focused - in some respect - on the people whose lives have been financially squeezed beyond recognition by the very elite we used to enjoy watchi...

Do you have what it takes to be "High-T?" Service members are about to find out, as Defense secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the military will be screening men for low testosterone, a hormone found in both women and men that supports bone mass development, red blood cell production, energy levels, and more. It's an important marker of overall health in men, but will it push the United States...

What does it mean to be ‘working class’?  It’s a term that we hear often (especially around election time), but more specifically, who are we actually talking about? According to labor economist Kathryn Anne Edwards , host of the Optimist Economy podcast ( @optimist_economy ), the working class is a group of people who have the least amount of pay, benefits, and protections in the labor market. In...

You might be more influenced by yuppie taste than you’d think. Back in the eighties – when pop music drowned in synths, the volume of everyone's hair was set to loud, and neon was in vogue – a new age dawned: the era of the yuppie. “Yuppie” comes from the acronym “YUP” – which stands for young, urban professional. Think Patrick Bateman from American Psycho or even Miranda Hobbes from Sex and the C...

How has literature changed your life? For poet and lawyer, Reginald Dwaye Betts , books meant freedom. After getting sentenced to 9 years in adult prison at 16, Dwayne felt a sense of hope and possibility whenever he was reading.  Upon his release he founded Freedom Reads , an organization that builds libraries within prisons across the country to provide a physical space where those incarcerated...