It's Been a Minute

Desus Nice and The Kid Mero went from calling up "anyone in their phone book" in the early days of their podcast Bodega Boys , to booking big names in politics like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Barack Obama on Desus & Mero , their late-night show airing on Showtime. Covering a mix of pop culture, politics, headlines and internet hijinks, Desus and Mero talk to Sam about keeping their sho...

What would you do if a truck full of money flung its doors open right in front of you? Our friends at the Snap Judgment podcast tell six stories that will make you question your own conscience. You can follow 'It's Been a Minute' on Twitter @NPRItsBeenAMin and email us at samsanders@npr.org . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to m...

Why does Whitney Houston's 1991 Super Bowl national anthem still resonate 30 years later? Sam chats with author and Black Girl Songbook host Danyel Smith about that moment of Black history and what it says about race, patriotism and pop culture. You can follow 'It's Been a Minute' on Twitter @NPRItsBeenAMin and email us at samsanders@npr.org . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collecti...

Sam sits in the Fresh Air host chair to chat with actor Angela Bassett . She talks about her most recent film, Disney and Pixar's Soul , what drew her to acting as a young person growing up in Florida, whether Hollywood has changed for Black creatives and which of her past roles define her as a performer. You can follow 'It's Been a Minute' on Twitter @NPRItsBeenAMin and email us at samsanders@npr...

What does immigration look like under President Biden? Sam talks to Caitlin Dickerson , staff writer at The Atlantic , about the likelihood Biden can push through policies that other administrations from both parties tried and failed to do. Plus, Sam chats with former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara about his new podcast, Doing Justice , and how the nation's ideas about rules and law have changed...

Hello, sweatpants. With scaled-down Fashion Weeks, department stores hurting, and more and more people opting for loungewear rather than workplace attire... where does that leave the fashion business in 2021? Sam talks to Robin Givhan , senior critic-at-large at The Washington Post, about how the very harsh reality of the pandemic has shifted an industry largely built on fantasy. You can follow us...

How will the response to far-right extremism compare to the response after 9/11? Sam talks to Hannah Allam , NPR national security correspondent, about the security and civil liberties debate over taking a "war on terror" mindset to today's far-right threat. Also, Sam chats with sisters Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar, co-authors of the book You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey, about their in...

What will happen to Fox News after President Trump leaves office? Fox News is facing Trump's anger for not being sufficiently "loyal," and it's seeing new competition as viewers head to conservative networks like Newsmax and One America News Network. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik and Sam discuss how the feuds of cable news fuel our politics and how the whole news industry adapts to life...

A lot of the pro-Trump extremism behind the attack on the Capitol flourished online. Sam talks to Bobby Allyn and Shannon Bond , who both cover tech for NPR, about social platforms and the actions they've taken since the siege, the implications for free speech and whether the internet could fundamentally change. Also, Sam talks to Devon Price , author of the book Laziness Does Not Exist , about th...

History has a way of repeating itself. Last week's storming of the U.S. Capitol has parallels to an incident dating back to 1874, when a paramilitary force of ex-Confederates seized control of the Louisiana state house. Their goal? To depose a governor who won the election and replace him with his opponent. Sam revisits this history with Jamelle Bouie , columnist at The New York Times. They explor...

With the pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol this week, at the same time that Congress was set to certify the presidential election results, 2021 is off to a rocky start. Sam checks in with NPR congressional correspondent Susan Davis and NPR White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe on the Capitol breach and the week in politics. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and us...

Sam revisits his conversation from 2020 with actress Pamela Adlon. Adlon is the writer, star, director and co-creator of the acclaimed comedy-drama Better Things on FX. The series follows Adlon's character, Sam, as a divorced actress, raising three kids in Los Angeles - all things that mirror Adlon's real life. Sam talks to Adlon about her career, seeing your parents as real-life people, and the a...

After a year that offered many moments of reflection—from the coronavirus pandemic, to protests for racial justice, to the long election season—acclaimed poet Claudia Rankine 's latest book offers a framework to process it all. That book is called Just Us: An American Conversation , and in this episode, we revisit her chat with NPR's Audie Cornish. In the book, Rankine has conversations about race...

Sam sits in the Fresh Air host chair to talk with writer and director Aaron Sorkin. His latest film The Trial of the Chicago 7 covers the events at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago when several prominent anti-war activists were accused of conspiring to start a riot. Wanna show your love for 'It's Been a Minute'? Support your local NPR station: donate.npr.org/sam See pcm.adswizz.c...

Sam shares holiday recommendations with Audie Cornish , co-host of All Things Considered and Consider This , and Bob Mondello , NPR's film critic. They discuss not only their holiday favorites, but also the holiday things they hate. And yes, they'll discuss Love Actually. Wanna show your love for 'It's Been a Minute'? Support your local NPR station: donate.npr.org/sam See pcm.adswizz.com for infor...

This year has been hard for pretty much everyone, but that still hasn't stopped people from getting married, having babies, starting new jobs, and telling us all about those milestones and celebrations in voice memos on our show. So in the spirit of the season, we picked a few of our favorite 'Best Things' from 2020 and called up the people who sent them: a listener who found the courage to make a...

Without movies or TV shows to shoot or music to record, celebrities were restless in 2020 and eager to connect with a public that, at least for a while, couldn't care less about them. Sam wraps up the year in celebrity culture with Lindsey Weber and Bobby Finger , co-hosts of the podcast Who? Weekly , and breaks down how a pandemic changed our relationship with the rich and the famous. Stuck in qu...

Songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has had a big year, but it's also been bittersweet. With four Grammy nominations for work on her acclaimed 2020 album Punisher , Bridgers, like most touring musicians, has been stuck at home. She talks to Sam about her love/hate relationship with touring, how she aims for the universal in the specificity of her lyrics, and her hopes for music—and everyone—in 2021... or w...

Coronavirus has transformed pop culture and placed its creation in the hands of anyone who has social media. Sam chats with E. Alex Jung , a writer at New York Magazine, about pop culture's shift this year to the internet . Then, Sam talks to Alex Zaragoza , senior staff writer for culture at Vice, about her beef with the new Netflix series Selena: The Series and the exploitation of Selena. Wanna...

Are you sick of the friends and family you've been stuck with? Sam teams up with Anna Sale , host of the WNYC podcast Death, Sex & Money , to explore how our pandemic 'pods' are being tested by the coronavirus. In this episode, Sam digs into friendships under strain. Then, head on over to the Death, Sex & Money podcast feed for Anna's look at how two people stuck apart during the pandemic have fal...

"What has this pandemic been like for you?" When we put that question to people, the answers we got depended a lot on where they were in life — if they were in school, if they had a job, if they had lost a loved one, if they were vulnerable to the virus. So in this special episode of It's Been a Minute , we'll hear from people of all ages, from all over the country — and world — about how their li...

Cathy Park Hong talks with Sam about her book Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning . She discusses how watching comedian Richard Pryor influenced her to write honestly about Asian American identity, and how her Korean parents' experience of immigration has made their understanding of race different from her own. Hong is known globally for her award-winning poetry. She also serves as poetry...

For the holiday, Sam revisits his conversation with award-winning author James McBride. McBride's latest book Deacon King Kong tells the story of how one man's decision brings together the different racial communities of 1960s Brooklyn to solve a larger issue. Sam chats with McBride as he shares his thoughts on the hope he has for communities, the parallels he sees to the world we're living in tod...

With the holidays coming, we're all trying to figure out how to celebrate with loved ones from a distance. When all we have to connect this year are phone calls and video chats, how do we make the most out of our conversations? In this episode from NPR's Life Kit Sam gets advice from the owner of a hair salon, whose job has taught her to be a good conversationalist. Then, Sam talks to journalist a...

Georgia's Senate runoffs have become national races as control of the Senate depends on who wins. Sam asks Tia Mitchell , Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, if Georgia voters are looking at the runoffs the way the rest of the country is. Then, Sam chats with comedians W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu , hosts of the podcast " Politically Re-Active ", about how the Left i...