It's Been a Minute

How do you bring the African Diaspora to the Grammys? Esperanza Spalding and Milton Nascimento's contrasting tones make a perfect team on Milton + esperanza, a collection of covers, duets, and original songs that have earned the pair a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Today, Brittany and Esperanza get into the years-long intergenerational friendship behind the music, and the Brazilian...

What good is a Humanities degree? 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. Dr. Louks recently posted her Cambridge University PhD thesis online and was piled on by a loud group of right-wing anti-intellectuals. Brittany, Dr. Louks, and Jason Stanley, a professor...

President Trump is no stranger to buddying up with the ultra rich, and that was on full display at his inauguration . Tech CEOs billionaires like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos were lined up at the proceeding. But beyond the optics, what policies are these CEOs and the new president working on together? Brittany is joined by NPR's tech correspondent Bobby Allyn and The Atlantic's Ashle...

Donald Trump has been re-sworn in as President of the United States. And for this re-ascendency, he owes a thank you to Latino voters, especially Latino evangelicals. They turned out for him in double digits in the last election. So what is it about Latinos, evangelicalism, and Trump's brand of Republicanism that helped tip the White House back in his favor? President and founder of the Public Rel...

Is beef tallow a good skincare moisturizer? According to Pew Research Center , 79% of New Year's resolutions are about one thing: health. It's Been a Minute is kicking off 2025 with a little series called "new year, new me." We're getting into some of the big questions and cultural confusion around our health and wellness. For our final installment, we're getting into a new skincare trend: using b...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta will end their third-party fact checking program , loosen their hate speech restrictions, and move some of the company to Texas. What's all of that signal about what we will see on social platforms in the coming months and years? Brittany Luse is joined by NPR reporter Huo Jingnan and Washington Post tech reporter Naomi Nix to break down Meta's tangled...

Bad Bunny's new album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS , has struck a chord with fans worldwide. He's always expressed a deep love for Puerto Rico, but his latest work takes it to new heights. In his fusion of old and new genres, he speaks to the shared experiences of the Puerto Rican diaspora and looks to their collective past as a way forward. Writer Carina del Valle Schorske and La Brega podcast host, Ala...

Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter-themed NFL halftime show performance showcased Black Americana, and drew in millions of viewers, but it left some viewers asking: Is she America's greatest propagandist? And which version of America is she promoting? Brittany Luse is joined by music and Black feminism scholar Daphne A. Brooks and mass communication historian Nick Cull , to unpack what is and isn't propagand...

How much protein do you really need to consume? According to Pew Research Center , 79% of New Year's resolutions are about one thing: health. It's Been a Minute is kicking off 2025 with a little series called "new year, new me." We're getting into some of the big questions and cultural confusion around our health and wellness. Today – we're getting into the macronutrient du jour: protein. High pro...

Five years ago progressive Democrats seemed to be on the rise. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had just ousted a moderate Democrat, and Senator Bernie Sanders looked like he could win the party's nomination. Now, two members of the progressive group known as "The Squad" have lost their re-election bids. This week, Brittany sits down with one of them, former congressional representative, Cori Bush of Miss...

Why is sobriety more popular than ever? According to Pew – 79% of New Year's resolutions are about one thing: health. It's Been a Minute is kicking off 2025 with a little series called "new year, new me." We're getting into some of the big questions and cultural confusion around our health and wellness. This week – many Americans are starting out the year by cutting out alcohol and going "dry." Bu...

Brittany has some predictions for the big trends to watch for in 2025. First, social media is OUT. Not that people will stop using social platforms, but rather, Brittany thinks what they mean to us will continue shifting. Second, politicizing food is IN. Brittany thinks food will increasingly become a marker of political identity. You are what you eat? No, what you eat is a sign of what you believ...

Happy New Year! Pop champagne, kiss a loved one, and turn on the rom-com that made New Year's Eve a backdrop of your fall inspo Pinterest board: When Harry Met Sally. But don't stop there. Ilana Kaplan , author of Nora Ephron at the Movies , joins the show to put a spotlight on the woman that helped usher in the golden era of rom-coms and influenced the return of rom-coms. Support public media and...

From HBO's Industry to FX's The Bear, 2024 was full of TV characters working out their "daddy issues" the tough way...by committing patricide. This week Brittany is joined by Vulture's TV critic Roxana Hadadi and The New Yorker's Inkoo Kang to compare and contrast a new generation of daddy killers. Why do we enjoy seeing screen dads offed? And what does that say about our own anxieties about patri...

To close out 2024, Brittany and friends are running through the best and worst pop culture moments of the past 365 days. Along with NPR's Weekend Edition host Ayesha Rascoe and Code Switch co-host B.A. Parker , the three declare winners and losers in the following categories: WORD OF THE YEAR "Crash Out" "Cutesy" "Hawk Tuah" THE LOUDEST GASP HEARD AROUND THE WORLD Katt Williams on Club Shay Shay K...

PEOPLE Magazine has done it again. Last month they revealed this year's "Sexiest Man Alive"...John Krasinski. And, Brittany and the hosts of the Who Weekly podcast, Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber , are not satisfied. The three of them get into the disconnect between who Hollywood thinks is hot versus who the internet is thirsting after. All with the mission of answering: what makes someone sexy in...

From the drones over New Jersey , to the surveillance cameras that captured Luigi Mangione , to even TikTok - our movements, our likeness, even our shopping habits can be tracked. But how did we get to this point? Host Brittany Luse sits down with NPR Cybersecurity Correspondent Jenna McLaughlin and the Brennan Center for Justice's Faiza Patel to get into just how much of our daily lives are up fo...

It's the holiday season. The time of year when many of us go back home to see our families. But this year, a lot of people aren't going home, and maybe haven't been back in a long time. 27% of Americans are estranged from at least one family member, and the term "no contact" is increasingly being used to describe estrangement between adult children and their parents. But is estrangement happening...

Luigi Mangione is alleged to have shot and killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and even before he was identified, the reaction to the shooter was far different than other instances of gun violence. Today on It's Been A Minute, guest host Gene Demby talks with The Guardian's Abené Clayton about why Mangione is being praised by some, and why his alleged actions won't do much to fix the heal...

It's cuffing season: the time of year where the weather cools down and folks look for a warm body to cuddle up with. But we're getting into some of the less warm and fuzzy aspects of dating. For the next couple of weeks, we're kicking off cuffing season with some of the big questions about dating in our culture right now. This week – so you got 'The Ick?' That feeling of disgust when someone your...

When TikTok user, Slim Kim, posted a video expressing how much she loves 'being skinny,' she set off a wave of internet discourse. What's the line between loving your body and dog-whistling fatphobia? This week, host Brittany Luse is joined by authors Emma Specter and Kate Manne to find out: what's so wrong with loving being skinny? Then, Brittany goes on a field trip to the Anime NYC convention....

It's cuffing season: the time of year where the weather cools down and folks look for a warm body to cuddle up with. But we're getting into some of the less warm and fuzzy aspects of dating. This week – a lot of us have seen how explosive breakup stories have been on social media. From Reesa Teesa's "Who TF did I marry..." to Spritely's breakup song , these posts have been drawing gasps and gainin...

It's cuffing season: the time of year where the weather cools down and folks look for a warm body to cuddle up with. But we're getting into some of the less warm and fuzzy aspects of dating. For the next few weeks, we're kicking off cuffing season with some of the big questions about dating in our culture right now. This week – the song "Looking for a Man in Finance" went super viral on TikTok thi...

Our culture loves to celebrate adoption stories - and a lot of state governments put millions into promoting it. But adoptees and birth parents are opening up online about "coming out of the fog" - a term for becoming more openly critical of adoption, or facing the grief within their adoption stories. November is National Adoption Month, and Brittany Luse takes a closer look at how adoption functi...

Are UFOs real? Maybe, but that's not the point. From Congressional hearings on UFOs to the claims of RFK Jr., conspiracies have gone from fringe to mainstream political talking points. Authors Kelly Weill and Mike Rothschild join the show to explain why. Then, PEOPLE Magazine released this year's Sexiest Man Alive... and it was certainly a choice! But it got Brittany thinking: what makes someone s...