What’s the difference between feeling unsafe and being unsafe? According to Gallup, about half of Americans see crime as being extremely or very serious. And there are a lot of very real threats out there to people’s safety, but there’s also a lot of fearful rhetoric that’s more unfounded. While immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens, and trans people are unlikely to commit mass shootings, fear of these groups is being weaponized against them. So how can we disentang...
Nov 19, 2025•23 min
Have you talked to a parent recently? Are they...okay? From textbook bans to health food trends, there’s a whole culture of fear and political propaganda that preys on new parents, convincing them that just buying this or just voting for that will keep their children safe. But how do you know if something is a moral panic or a legitimate concern? Brittany is joined by Karen Leick , author of Parents, Media and Panic through the Years, and Cynthia Wang , Clinical Professor of Management and Organ...
Nov 17, 2025•18 min
No disrespect, but...when President Trump threw a Great Gatsby-themed party for Halloween, it kind of missed the point of the book. And, it's not just Trump. A quick search online, and you'll see a lot of people increasingly misinterpreting other famous books. Are people just bad at reading? Are we just laying our own biases on top of classic texts? Or is something else going on? Andrew Limbong , host of NPR's Book of the Day, and writer-critic Princess Weekes join Brittany to dissect novel inte...
Nov 14, 2025•20 min
Have you picked up a couple weights recently? Started walking, or jogging, or doing pilates? So have a lot of other people. You see the fitness Instagram accounts and gym tips all over TikTok, but how does exercise culture fit into our broader culture? And how does more enthusiasm for exercise square with the focus on fitness in our politics? Brittany gets into it with Jonquilyn Hill , host of Vox ’s Explain it to Me podcast, and Shelly McKenzie, author of Getting Physical: the Rise of Fitness C...
Nov 12, 2025•21 min
The word "fascism" is being thrown around a lot right now. Does it capture our current cultural and political moment? Nearly 50% of Americans have associated President Trump with "fascism." Trump himself has used the word against his own opponents. Others have used the word to denounce skinny-tok as "body fascism." But why are Americans so willing to use the word? And is its ubiquity making it lose its meaning? In this episode, Brittany is joined by Nicholas Ensley Mitchell, a professor of educa...
Nov 10, 2025•21 min
Spanish artist and musical chameleon Rosalía released her latest album, Lux , today. The single, "Berghain," seems like a return to form. Operatic vocals, grand instrumentals, beautiful visuals -- the album is primed for critical praise. But for those who are hyperaware of Rosalia’s transformations -- from flamenco songstress to Afro-Caribbean queen -- they have other questions about this evolution. Brittany is joined by writer-critics Bilal Qureshi and Michelle Santiago Cortés to unpack Rosalía...
Nov 07, 2025•22 min
Does your phone feel like a blessing or a burden? Either way, there's probably a lot you can learn from new phone bans. Many K-12 students are going phone-free - but not by choice. In over half the country, there are now restrictions on cellphone possession and use in class. The goal is to increase student focus and enhance learning...but when you think about school shootings, phones have been a big part of parents' safety plans for their kids. So are phone bans the best solution? And what do th...
Nov 05, 2025•18 min
What does ‘socialism’ mean to a generation that grew up with COVID… not the Cold War? How have the compounding effects of college protests, financial insecurity, and student loan debt shaped a culture? This is… The ABCs of the Culture Wars. For the next few weeks, Brittany breaks down the history, subtext, and evolving meanings of the buzzwords you hear all over the news and social media. Today we're talking about the S-word: Socialism. And why the word has gained new meaning for a younger gener...
Nov 03, 2025•17 min
Is hunger in America a choice? This week, over 40 million people worried about losing their SNAP benefits due to the government shutdown. But with Thanksgiving just around the corner, who's hurt most by hunger? And why do some believe that if you’re hungry, it’s your fault? Brittany gets into it with Poonam Gupta , research associate at the Urban Institute, and Maggie Dickinson , associate professor at Queens College and author of Feeding the Crisis: Care and Abandonment and America's Food Safet...
Oct 31, 2025•22 min
For longtime fans of this show, here's a name you know: Sam Sanders . Before Brittany, Sam was the host of It's Been A Minute, and recently Brittany ran into Sam at an event. The two got to talking and came up with an an idea...what if Brittany came on Sam's new show, KCRW's The Sam Sanders Show ? And then...what if they brought all of you longtime IBAM fans the podcast multiverse event of the season to this feed?! That's how we got here. In this special bonus episode, Sam, Brittany, and Tre'vel...
Oct 30, 2025•47 min
What can we all learn from stories of men trying to find friends...and failing? Men in real life - and in the movies - are trying to figure out how to be friends. There's been a lot of talk alleging lonely men are the cause of cultural tensions, and Hollywood has caught on (despite a similar number of women saying they are lonely, too!). Several films this year depict how society leads men into fraught, messy friendships. So, what can we all learn from toxic (or good!) friendships between men? B...
Oct 29, 2025•20 min
Is it a bad thing to be a "capitalist?" Why is the word being used as a diss? And how do Americans' shifting attitudes towards it show up in your discourse and your favorite movies? This is… The ABCs of the Culture Wars. For the next few weeks, Brittany breaks down the history, subtext, and evolving meanings of the buzzwords you hear all over the news and social media. Today we're talking about the C-word: Capitalism. And why the word is increasingly divisive in politics and culture. Brittany is...
Oct 27, 2025•19 min
Why is there so much Nazism in the news? And when does a "joke" become hate speech? Politico broke a story last week featuring what it said were leaks from a Telegram group chat that included Young Republican National Federation leaders. These chats made headlines for reportedly racist and pro-Nazi messaging. But this is not the only story in the news about people in politics engaging with Nazi rhetoric. Is it happening more often? And is this kind of thing just a “joke”? Brittany is joined by O...
Oct 24, 2025•23 min
Do you want to know the secret to making deeper friendships? Throw a dinner party. You'll feel less lonely, take care of people you love, and find out what's really going on in your community. Dinner parties are sort of a lost art, and our notions of what makes a worthy dinner party are being warped by social media. We're here with tips on how to throw one without feeling self-conscious. Brittany is joined by two dinner party experts: architecture & design journalist Carly Olson and chef &am...
Oct 22, 2025•19 min
Do you ever feel like the internet just doesn't work as well as it used to? Or maybe you wish you could go back to the old internet? Where your search queries actually served you what you wanted, and your feeds weren't overrun by ads? Well, it's not just you - the internet IS getting worse, and platforms are getting harder to leave. But how did we get here? Journalist and tech activist Cory Doctorow joins Brittany to lay out why in his new book, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Wors...
Oct 20, 2025•21 min
Love it or hate it, your favorite pop star is a person and a product. How much are you willing to pay? Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Life of a Showgirl , smashed records for first week album sales. This was in part due to all the different limited-edition variants that went on sale; some for only 24 hours. Talk about pressuring your fans! Is this business strategy fan service, or fan exploitation? Where’s the line? Brittany sits down with Stephen Thompson , host for NPR Music and Pop Culture ...
Oct 17, 2025•20 min
Sometimes the harshest critic is the one in your head. What if instead you had faith in yourself, and what you're making? It's a familiar, paralyzing fear that not only keeps you from creating your best work, but can also make you question your own worth. Novelist Brandon Taylor knows this fear intimately. And in his new book, ' Minor Black Figures ,' his characters - maybe just like you - are tortured by harsh online criticism from random keyboard warriors, and their own inner saboteurs. In thi...
Oct 15, 2025•19 min
NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour asked Brittany to go to the movies and bring them her thoughts on The Rock's new movie, The Smashing Machine. She fulfilled the assignment and more. In this special bonus episode, Brittany, Pop Culture Happy Hour's Aisha Harris , Code Switch's Gene Demby , and NPR contributor Reanna Cruz get into The Rock's attempt at capital-A acting. Is Dwayne Johnson going to get an Oscar, or is the movie an all-around skip? You can listen to more episodes of NPR's Pop Culture Hap...
Oct 14, 2025•19 min
There's his trend on social media of using code words for different topics so you can trick the algorithm from categorizing your content in a certain way. What do you think? Is this a form of censorship? Or...are algorithm categorizations a way of protecting users from seeing too much violent or aggressive content? Well, whatever side of the debate you fall on, Code Switch 's B.A. Parker and Gene Demby are going to show you how this so-called ALGO-speak or algorithm-speak shapes your beliefs in ...
Oct 13, 2025•22 min
Does a college degree get you anything these days? Some people say no, but the reality is far more complicated. About 19 million people are going to college right now. But one recent poll from Gallup shows that the percentage of Americans who view college as very important is at an all time low, dropping from 75% in 2010 to 35% now. Those who say it's not very important increased from 4% to 24% in the same time period. This is a pretty dramatic change that goes beyond ballooning costs. Brittany ...
Oct 10, 2025•21 min
Black women’s unemployment rate is hovering at 6.7% — higher than the rate for white workers. Is it a sign the broader economy could sour? These economists say yes. Black women are the 'canary in the economic coal mine,' says Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman . She's the author of The Double Tax: How Women of Color are Overcharged and Underpaid . Brittany speaks to Anna and Ofranama Biu , chief economist and senior research director at the Maven Collaborative, about why Black women's unemployment is on t...
Oct 08, 2025•19 min
Hollywood isn't performing as well at home or abroad. Is it losing its cultural dominance to China's burgeoning film industry? ‘Survive until 2025’ was the mantra that got Hollywood through the past five years of lockdown, streaming wars, and franchise fatigue. And while summer films like Lilo & Stitch , Superman , and Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning made critical and box office impact… on the whole, it still doesn't compare to pre-2020 levels. And even more curious, the international bo...
Oct 06, 2025•18 min
Recreational ketamine use is on the rise. But why are some people using it to dissociate in the club? Ketamine – a dissociative anesthetic – is illegal without a prescription and can potentially be harmful. Yet, it has had a massive rise in recreational use over the past decade. One study found that use increased by 81.8% from 2015 to 2019 and rose another 40% from 2021 to 2022. What is driving the illicit drug's sudden popularity? And is it's dissociative properties indicative of our times? Bri...
Oct 03, 2025•19 min
At what age did you have a fully formed political perspective? Did tens of thousands of people listen to you? Well, teens today are more influential than ever. From Charlie Kirk to Greta Thunberg, teenagers and children have long had political influence. But what’s new is that teenagers are creating their own media ecosystem for teenagers, by teenagers. And they’re doing it through highly popular podcasts, like: MD Foodie Boyz or The LOL Podcast. Brittany, NPR’s Jordan-Marie Smith , and The Cut’...
Oct 01, 2025•23 min
AI is the future, but how is its infrastructure impacting your air, water, and utilities bills today? You asked, and Brittany delivered. Many of you wrote in asking about artificial intelligence’s environmental impact. Brittany and Evan Halper , a business and energy reporter for The Washington Post, answer your questions and so much more. Like, is AI causing your energy bills to go up? Are tech companies tricking communities into building data centers? And how do you ethically use AI when you k...
Sep 29, 2025•20 min
The Christian rapture didn't happen as predicted, but a lot of you still feel like we're living in end times. Why is that? Right now - from religion to climate change to doomsday prepping - there's a lot of talk about the end of the world. And, yeah, there was a lot of joking (and some believing) this week that the rapture would happen, but this all points to a broader feeling a lot of us have: that something has to change. But what? In this episode, Brittany is joined by culture writer Joshua R...
Sep 26, 2025•18 min
If more and more young people are dying of colorectal cancer, why aren't we talking about it? Is it because we're too ashamed of our bodies? Rates of colorectal cancer are rising, especially for people under 50. But it's hard to raise awareness for a cancer that a lot of us find hard to talk about. In a recent essay for The Cut, writer Laurie Abraham described her experience of colon cancer, which included a lot of embarrassment. Talking about your bowel movements is...not fun. Can you relate? T...
Sep 24, 2025•20 min
After Grok's MechaHitler gaffe this summer, and President Trump's executive order to, "strip AI models of ‘ideological agendas," Brittany wondered, " how much influence does AI already have on our minds?" This is AI + U . Each Monday this month, Brittany explores how we’re already seeing the impacts of AI. Artificial Intelligence has become a constant in ways we can and can't see… and for the next few weeks we're zeroing in on how AI affects our daily lives. In this episode, The Argument's Kelse...
Sep 22, 2025•19 min
Why is Trump sending the National Guard to cities when crime is already falling? Earlier this month, President Trump posted this: “I love the smell of deportations in the morning. Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR.” He seemed poised to send the National Guard to the city in an attempt to curb crime, after having deployed them in D.C. But this week, he turned his attention to Memphis, signing an order for deployment there and vowing to circle back to Chicago later. A...
Sep 19, 2025•20 min
There comes a time in every woman's life that we don't talk about enough: menopause. And reframing it may be the key to unlocking a more fulfilling life for women of all ages. In this episode, Brittany teams up with WNYC's Radiolab to answer your questions about the ubiquitous and unknown. Brittany, Radiolab senior correspondent Molly Webster , and contributing editor Heather Radke answer your questions: why don't we talk about menopause? Why should you start talking about it early in life? And ...
Sep 17, 2025•21 min
