It's Been A Minute With Sam Sanders

The MET Gala 2026 was eclipsed by its own sponsors, making the event feel out of touch and out of fashion.Beyoncé made her first MET Gala appearance in ten years. Rihanna showed up (very late). And there were many incredible fashion moments: from Emma Chamberlain to Nicole Kidman to Lena Dunham. But the whole affair was overshadowed by the sponsorship of Jeff and Lauren Sánchez Bezos. Plus, other tech billionaires, Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin, made their MET Gala debuts. All calling into question...what is this event (and art) really for?To get into it, NPR Music's Anamaria Sayre is joined by culture critic Marjon Carlos and culture writer Shelton Boyd-Griffith. Together they rate the best and worst of fashion's biggest night and explain why the MET Gala feels like it's in decline.Support Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our

The MET Gala 2026 is already off to a controversial start, and no one has even shown up yet.That's because Anna Wintour has been buddying up with a certain billionaire, Jeff Bezos, and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos. The couple are the lead sponsors of this year's gala. To be clear, the wealthiest people have always been involved with fashion's biggest night, but this year some folks feels its more in the spotlight - at a time when many Americans feel like life is getting more and more unaffordable. Brittany is joined by culture critic Marjon Carlos and culture writer Shelton Boyd-Griffith to lay out the stakes of this year's MET Gala - from the billionaires to the best dressed.Support Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Pr

The Jackson family and estate have joined forces to give us another biopic of Michael Jackson's life. Michael doesn't tell us anything new about the King of Pop, but it has had the biggest opening weekend of a music biopic ever. From Whitney Houston to Freddie Mercury, why do these posthumous biopics always seem to fall flat, and what do decades of Jackson family drama say about how we reckon with the complicated figures in pop culture and our own lives? Brittany talks with Aisha Harris, critic and co-host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, to find out.Want more deep dives on the legacies of pop culture icons? Check out these episodes:Jesse Jackson & the end of the civil rights superheroMarilyn Monroe was more than just 'Blonde'Support Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and

The slur disappeared but is once again popular to use on and offline. What's up with that?Over the past few years, the R-word - a term for disabled people that otherwise left the cultural lexicon - has been popping up more and more. It is the rare slur that goes out of vogue and makes a resurgence, particularly among young men. It's return may also have larger implications that affect policy, culture, and how we treat each other.Disability advocate Imani Barbarin joins the show to break down how ableism can take root in casual conversation, and why words matter.Support Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Is the American fashion industry making a conservative turn?Despite her modeling past, fashion-obsessed First Lady Melania Trump has not graced the cover of Vogue during President Trump’s tenure. And that’s not necessarily surprising– Anna Wintour, the global editorial director of American Vogue, is a longtime advocate for the Democrats.But there’s definitely been a shift. That’s why it’s been so curious to see Trump associate Lauren Sánchez Bezos on the digital cover of Vogue. And it was definitely peculiar to see longevity-obsessed venture capitalist Bryan Johnson and looksmaxxing influencer Clavicular walking the runway. Is the American fashion industry making a conservative turn? Or is this just business as usual?To answer this question, Brittany is joined by Pulitzer Prize winning critic, Robin Givhan. From fashionable First Ladies to President Trump’s favorite shoes - Robin gets into how fashion, politics, and our desire for relatability collide in the court of public opinion. Want more about fashion? C

Is polyamory about more than just how many partners you have?According to a YouGov survey from 2023, on a scale of zero being completely monogamous and six being completely non-monogamous, one third of Americans put their answer somewhere above zero. And there are a lot of different types of non-monogamy, but one of those types – polyamory – has been in the discourse as of late. The polyamory that writer Lindy West describes in her new book, Adult Braces, has spawned a thousand takes: her path to polyamory was admittedly kind of dicey, and it spawned discussion about what polyamory means. Polyamory can stand in for a set of political beliefs, class associations and other signifiers that have nothing to do with how many partners one has. But why does a choice about relationship structures feel so weighty, and why can't anyone be normal about it?To discuss, Brittany is joined by Christopher M. Gleason, lecturer of American history at Georgia State University and the author of American Poly, a book about the his

Do you feel poor every time you turn on Bravo television?You're not alone - the beautiful homes of the rich and famous showcased on reality TV shows from Keeping Up with the Kardashians to the Real Housewives of Atlanta are meant to be something of a fantasy for audiences everywhere. But what are the housing realities behind the glitz and glamour? And how are your favorite reality TV stars shaping your own ideas of home and stability? To find out, Brittany is joined by Jack Balderrama Morley, author of Dream Facades: The Cruel Architecture of Reality TV, and Liam Dillon, staff writer at Politico who covers housing in California.Want more about cultural deep dives into Reality TV?Check out these episodes:Is this the end of reality TV?The molten center of 'The Real Housewives' multiverseSupport Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our

Are men ashamed of their porn habits?The majority of men consume porn, and most use it for masturbation, but two thirds of men under 25 think porn should be harder to access, according to research from the Survey Center on American Life. There's a broader discussion now among some men about the role of porn and masturbation in their lives – and manosphere figures like Andrew Tate and Hamza Ahmed are urging their listeners to stop watching it. Some men are cutting it out entirely: they congregate on Reddit pages like r/pornfree or use porn addiction alleviation apps like Quittr and Fortify. But what do men think watching porn says about them? And is this just “purity culture for boys”? Brittany is joined by Rebecca Jennings, features writer at New York Magazine who wrote a piece about anti-porn men, and Scott Burnett, assistant professor of African Studies and Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies at Penn State University, who has published research about men's anti-masturbation trends. For more episodes about

The internet was built off women's labor. Will it ever pay them back?From the creation of Google Images to the overlooked - or criminalized - digital labor of sex workers, the internet has been built on the intellect, image, and likeness of women. So where does that leave us in a rapidly changing digital environment where algorithms, AI, and even beauty filters distort our reality?To answer these questions, Brittany is joined by artist and UCLA professor Mindy Seu. Her books, Cyberfeminism Index and A Sexual History of the Internet, uncover the desire at the foundation of the internet's inception and how the exploitation of marginalized creators has consequences for us all.Support Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy

Pilates is great. Why are people being weird about it?Pilates is an exercise that has been around for a long time – around a hundred years – but it’s just now coming into vogue in a big way. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association report from 2025, Pilates is the fastest growing form of individual exercise in the United States: participation jumped by nearly 40% since 2019. And it’s gotten pretty big on social media.But there's something interesting happening with that social media content – sometimes, it seems less about the actual exercise and way more about what doing Pilates says about who you are as a woman. And of course, anyone can do Pilates, but on social media, there is a strong emphasis on it being for "girls" (and being for specific kinds of girls). So why is some questionable baggage getting attached to Pilates? And why can't we be normal about exercise in general?Brittany is joined by Madeline Leung Coleman, features writer at New York Magazine, who wrote a piece about why Pilat

Across the country, Evangelicals are facing a moral dilemma -- is supporting government actions in line with their religious beliefs?The answer shows a rift in Evangelical communities, as government officials like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth use scripture to justify war and deportation. To parse through these questions of God and country, Brittany is joined by NPR Religion correspondent Jason DeRose, and Reverend Dr. Gabriel Salguero, president and founder of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition and pastor of the Gathering Place in Orlando, Florida.(00:00) The Evangelical Dilemma: do the Trump Administration's actions line up with the Bible?(06:29) How the Trump Administration uses the Bible for political messaging. Is it Christian, though?(15:29) What is the line between church and state? And who decides?(20:06) The Evangelical belief that American Christians are under siegeFor more on belief and politics, check out these episodes:The not-so-secret lives of Mo

When you can bet on anything, everything changes. Unlike sports betting, prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi give users the freedom to bet on anything that comes to mind. Will Lady Gaga sing at the Super Bowl? What words will Trump say in his next speech? Or worse… the assassination of a world leader.Those bets - which are illegal - is what has prediction markets in hot water and lawmakers hustling to put guardrails on the industry. It’s also what today’s guest predicted in our 2026 predictions episode at the top of the year. NPR’s Bobby Allyn returns to the show to unpack the wild west of prediction markets and what the unfettered access to this market could do to us as a culture. Want more? Check out these IBAM episodes:2026 Predictions: Beyoncé retires, AI busts, Democrats lift weightsGet rich or die trying: how sports betting is changing our love of the gameSupport Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR

What makes someone a star nowadays? And why does every generation of humans crave to celebrate them?For decades, Hollywood has promoted a carefully curated ideal of aspirational talent, beauty, and intrigue. But in 2026, it feels like that power is in the hands of the one thing that alleges to know us best: the algorithm. Now computer programs hold more power in shaping who is famous and what we all are fed as aspirational ideals: from who is a star to what our bodies should look like. Enter the algorithm body.In this episode, host Brittany Luse is joined by Christiana Mbakwe Medina, screenwriter and host of the Pop Syllabus podcast. They get into the evolving nature of fame and why Christina thinks the thin body ideal is out and the sculpted body ideal is in.Want more about tech, beauty, and cultural cache? Check out these IBAM episodes:The morbid lifelessness of modern beautyPeptides & the pursuit of the "perfect" bodySupport Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicke

Is AI in the workplace lightening your load...or frying your brain?Researchers at Boston Consulting Group and the University of California, Riverside coined the term "AI brain fry" to describe “mental fatigue that results from excessive use of, interaction with, and/or oversight of AI tools beyond one's cognitive capacity.” In other words, doing too much with A.I.There's something kind of comically tragic about the idea that these tools that were meant to lighten our loads seem to be doing the opposite for some. But beyond the psychic damage, there's a lot in this brain fry idea that points to how we work with AI: for example, with all the managing it needs, is turning us all into bosses? And is this really the future of work?Brittany is joined by John Herrman, tech columnist for New York Magazine, to get into the ins and outs of AI brain fry.(00:00) Who gets "AI brain fry"(05:34) The strange incentives behind more AI-powered output(09:30) Is working with AI simulating management?(12:42) How AI chat tools cha

With everything going on in the world, it makes sense that some of us want to check out. But at what cost?In this episode, host Brittany Luse is dissecting our current obsession with numbing ourselves to the moment and tuning out. This so-called “numb girl” attitude and aesthetic is defined by detachment, irony, and a world weary cynicism. Think the "Gen Z pout," "expressionless Botox chic,” a deadpan voice, or selfies with a vacant gaze. Of course, It appears effortless and nonchalant, but it’s highly curated and self-aware — it’s the perfect mask for avoiding humiliation in a world that is always there to judge you. But is avoiding the pain of the world good for us?Brittany is joined by writer Rayne Fisher-Quann aka Internet Princess and freelance cultural critic Sophie Lou Wilson to get into why all the cool girls are dissociating and what we lose when we numb ourselves to the world around us.(0:00) News fatigue, detachment, & irony are cooler than ever(5:02) Gucci runways to political nihilism: numbne

Have you seen ADHD content pop up in your feeds? Are you getting a lot of it? In the past few years, there's been a surge in the number of adults diagnosed with ADHD, and at the same time more and more people online are going viral with "signs" that you might have it too. Whether with our doctors or friends, we're all talking a lot more about adult ADHD. Is this a perfect storm of online content leading to more diagnoses? Or is there more to the story?Brittany is joined by culture journalist Kelli Maria Korducki, who wrote about this for The Guardian, and Manvir Singh, assistant professor of anthropology at UC Davis, to get into it.This episode originally aired on April 25, 2025.Support Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship

After dominating television screens for decades, has reality TV gone into decline?Secret Lives of Mormon Wives cast member Taylor Frankie Paul has been a controversial figure for some time now, but the latest allegations surrounding the star - and the subsequent cancellation of her season of The Bachelorette - have caused viewers to ask: how far is too far for reality TV? With ratings on the decline and networks desperate to keep audiences coming back, reality TV has taken some drastic turns to remain relevant.To get into all this Rebecca Jennings, features writer for New York Magazine, joins the show to unpack the drama surrounding Taylor Frankie Paul and the state of reality TV at large.(0:00) Who's being exploited more on reality TV?(03:36) Unpacking Taylor Frankie Paul's controversial reality TV journey(09:27) ABC's risky bet on Taylor Frankie Paul as 'The Bachelorette'(18:29) Navigating the line between 'messy' and 'dark' on reality TV(21:25) How reality TV fandom has changed(25:37) Finding unexpected va

Do you and your loved ones see eye-to-eye... about AI?There’s been a lot of discourse about age gaps and wage gaps – but there’s a new kind of gap rocking relationships: AI gaps. For example, when a couple isn't on the same page about when and how to use it, or even how AI becomes an unwelcome third wheel in a relationship. And this is big for some couples – but this also can be an issue in some friendships and family dynamics, too. So what does AI usage say about what people value? And are conflicts around AI becoming proxies for deeper issues in relationships?Brittany chats with Jenny Singer, a freelance culture writer who wrote about this for The Washington Post, and Heather Kelly, a freelance reporter who focuses on how technology affects daily life.(00:00) Can using AI be an ick?(03:35) When AI becomes an unwelcome third in your relationship(07:41) Why Americans are pessimistic about AI - but might use it anyway(13:08) What AI usage might say about our values(18:06) Strategies for bridging the AI divide

We have officially wrapped Quarter 1 of 2026. That means it's time to gather the pop culture C-suite and take stock of the best and worst of culture this year...so far.Host Brittany Luse is your Pop Culture CEO, and she's joined by esteemed members of the C-suite, Joan Summers and Matthew Lawson, co-hosts of the Eating for Free podcast, to recap the last three months in an official Pop Culture Quarterly Review. What have been the major cultural achievements and setbacks so far this year? And in the Pop Culture Boardroom, who will emerge as the MVP?Want more bird's eye views of pop culture? Check out these episodes.The Best & Worst Moments of 20252026 Predictions: Beyoncé retires, AI busts, Democrats lift weightsSupport Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and

Does 2026 belong to "Wasians?"Actor Hudson Williams (Heated Rivalry) and Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu recently became household names very quickly. And people are talking about the rising stars beyond just their talents: they’re talking about Liu’s and Williams’ race. Both are half-Asian, half-white, also known as “Wasian” – and some have dubbed this past season “Wasian winter.” But why are Wasians a topic of conversation now, and what does this discussion say about how attitudes around some mixed race identities have changed?Brittany is joined by Mika Ellison, intern for It’s Been a Minute and Life Kit, to get into the geopolitical and cultural forces around the “Wasian fixation.”For more on Heated Rivalry, check out: What's so hot about Heated Rivalry?For more on identity and the internet, check out: Think you have ADHD? Here's why so many of us are saying yes.Support Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod