It's Been a Minute

Have you ever stayed in a relationship, because you felt like it would be too hard to find another partner? This episode is for you. Let this be a lesson for us all. Divorce is on the decline except for one key demographic: people over 50. So, in a world where many of us say it's harder to find friends or new relationships later in life, why are people 50 and up more likely to break up? Brittany i...

Are you hungry? Brittany has some irresistable recommendations. In this episode, Brittany steps out to find the best American recipes: peanut butter egg rolls and the juiciest fried green tomatoes. Along the way she uncovers the stories of these dishes - ones that could have only come from the Midwest and the South. This is... Food for Thought. And for the past few weeks, Brittany has been looking...

Not to be dramatic, but would you die for Hasan Piker? For some of you, Hasan Piker needs no introduction. He is one of the leading voices in progressive political content online, boasting a massive 2.9 million followers on Twitch alone. He's polarizing, charismatic, and (kind of) a bro. And his fans love him. Just take this Instagram comment for example: "Not to be dramatic, but I'd die for this...

Many people feel that finding a lifelong partner can require a good bit of luck...but can the same be said for lifelong healthcare? Brittany is joined by Maris Kreizman, author of I Want to Burn This Place Down: Essays , to understand the precarious relationship between finding love and finding consistent health insurance. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of persona...

What are you looking for when you're picking a place to eat? And how do you find it? Michelin stars or TikTok? You've heard them referenced on The Bear and maybe even looked out for them when deciding your next meal: Michelin stars. The prestigious one to three star rating system awarded to the best of the best in dining. But Americans are expected to spend 7% less on eating out this summer , and...

Whether it's the Coldplay kiss cam or screenshots of dating profiles, it feels like any one of our private lives could inadvertently go public any minute now. A Coldplay concert kiss cam video went viral when one couple featured jumped away from each other and hid their faces. The internet quickly identified the concertgoers, and it turned the couple's life upside-down. It makes you think though.....

For the first time, multiple Christian musicians are charting on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time — and staying there for weeks. Has the mainstream found God? Brittany talks with University of Michigan-Dearborn Professor Emerita Dr. Deborah Smith Pollard and Christianity Today reporter Kelsey Kramer McGinnis to understand the multi-billion dollar machine behind the Christian Contemporary Mus...

What comes to mind when you think of third spaces? A place to be in community that's not a bar or a club? Try a diner... For New York Times writer and author, Erik Piepenburg , diners were and still are institutions for the LGBTQ+ community. In his book, Dining Out: First Dates, Defiant Nights, and Last Call Disco Fries at America's Gay Restaurants , Erik goes on a culinary tour of America to unco...

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What's the difference between "good" work and "bad" work? And how do we talk about the rise in plastic surgery without dehumanizing people for their choices? Rates of plastic surgery are increasing, and minimally invasive procedures like filler and Botox are even more popular. It's also evident on social media that people (including plastic surgeons) are very comfortable speculating and commenting...

Data from Gallup and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that Americans are reading fewer books and spending less time reading than ever. There's been reporting on college kids struggling to finish longer texts. And earlier this year, in a viral post, one user lamented their loss of concentration for reading, which led to a larger online discourse about how to approach books again. Brittany revisi...

Anti-intellectualism is on the rise. And by "anti-intellectualism" we mean the backlash to scholars in fields like the humanities. According to two intellectuals, Dr. Ally Louks and Jason Stanley , the humanities help us better connect to other humans. According to a lot of online haters, they're worthless. In November 2024, Dr. Louks recently posted her Cambridge University dissertation online an...

Gen Z is having less sex than previous generations. But why? Well, let's be real. There are a lot of very legitimate reasons why young people are afraid of sex right now, many having to do with recent massive political and cultural changes. Brittany gets into why Gen Z-ers are having less sex with Tobias Hess, contributing writer at Paper magazine and writer of the Gen Zero Substack, and Carter Sh...

Before, during, and after Zohran Mamdani became the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, Republicans and Democrats were both leaning into decades old Islamophobic tropes to delegitimize his candidacy. Meanwhile, young progressives are reclaiming those tropes. Why is Islamophobia politically salient today, and why are both sides of the aisle using it to achieve their own political goals?...

What do Trump, JK Rowling, and some feminists have in common? Based on history, more thank you might think. In this episode, Brittany and KQED's Nastia Voynovskaya explore the roots of modern-day transphobia through the story of one music producer, Sandy Stone. Then Brittany is joined by journalist Imara Jones to get into how Trump and JK Rowling's rhetoric matches some of those early feminists. S...

Republicans have passed President Trump's One Big, Beautiful bill, but is it built on bad faith stereotypes? The legislation guts funding for Medicaid, and for a long time Republicans have been attacking the program as sort of welfare for moochers. Who exactly are these moochers? And could it be you? Brittany is joined by Joan Alker , Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Georgetown Center for...

This season of Love Island USA has the timeline on fire...but maybe not for the reasons y'all hoped. Is it mirroring our dating lives a little too close? To get into the season, Brittany chats with co-owner of Defector Media, Kelsey McKinney and co-host of Scamfluencers , Sarah Hagi , about the glimpses of romance amidst Love Island's largely unromantic current season, and how the show may be an u...

In our 'Your Body, Whose Choice' series, we've focused a lot on the present and the future of reproductive health in this country. And now we'd like to share a look at the past from our sister show, NPR's Embedded . Their new 3–part series, The Network , follows a Brazilian women who discovered a method to have safe abortions, regardless of the law. And, as abortion restrictions tighten in the Uni...

New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani pulled off an astonishing upset this week. In the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, he beat out the long-favored winner, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who conceded the race only hours after the polls closed. The two candidates were of the same party, but held very different positions within it: Cuomo is older, spent more than a decade as Governo...

There's one little statistic that seems to have gained a lot of attention recently: the birth rate. With pro-natalist ideas showing up in our culture and politics, Brittany wanted to know: why are people freaking out? Who's trying to solve the population equation, and how? Brittany is joined by Kelsey Piper , senior writer at Vox , and Gideon Lewis-Kraus , staff writer at The New Yorker , to get i...

Adriana Smith's pregnancy became an ethical and legal quandary. After being declared brain dead, a Georgia hospital kept her on life support without her family's consent because of the state's abortion laws. Now that the baby has been delivered and Smith taken off life support, Brittany wonders: how has the conservative effort to see fetuses as people overshadowed the lives of the mothers who birt...

Many millennials either are already in their 40s or are staring them down. Are they having a midlife crisis? As this generation enters midlife, their lives look really different from their parents' lives: Millennials are more educated and have a higher median net worth , but the generation is also more unequal than previous generations, has higher debt and has lower rates of homeownership and marr...

It's summer! Which means Brittany is going to be... 1) outside, 2) chilling, and 3) reading. So it's once again time for It's Been a Minute's annual summer books episode! Celebrated romance authors Bolu Babalola and Emily Henry return to the show to discuss their summer reading recommendations, ranging from spiteful and salacious to sweet and spicy. Books discussed in the episode: Sweet Heat by Bo...

In a country where birth control access is in jeopardy and women's medical needs have been historically overlooked , how do social media trends like #lutealphase and "cycle syncing" complicate the narrative? This is... Your Body, Whose Choice? And for the next few weeks, we're looking at the cultural, legal, and ideological frameworks shaping reproductive health in America...and what this means fo...

Protests have spread across the country after dozens of workers were swept up in an ICE raid in Los Angeles last week, but the support for the protesters is far from universal. In this bonus episode, Brittany is joined by NPR Immigration Correspondent Sergio Martínez-Beltrán and author of A Protest History of the United States, Gloria J. Browne-Marshall , to discuss what's happening on the ground,...