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 Bolu Babalola
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Lush by Rochelle Dowden-Lord
Casanova LLC by Julia Whalen
The Wickedest by Caleb Femi
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Matriarch by Tina Knowles

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

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 for the near and far future of our families, our personal agency, and our planet.

Today, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor Kate Clancy and reporter Lindsay Gellman join the show to clear up the misinformation around menstruation and how the search for guidance can lead to murky waters.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

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, and how Americans understand and misunderstand the concept of protest.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

You may have heard that super viral song on TikTok called "Looking for a man in finance," and yeah, it's fun. But does it speak to people's broader desires to find someone who's more than comfortable financially?

Host Brittany Luse is joined by Wailin Wong, co-host of NPR's The Indicator, and Reema Khrais, host of Marketplace's This Is Uncomfortable. They discuss what people are really looking for from a man in finance... and whether dating up in class is even possible.

This episode originally published November 29th, 2024.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

So you got 'The Ick?' That feeling of disgust when your date does something that you just can't look past. You think it's about them, but is 'The Ick' actually about you?

Brittany is joined by B.A. Parker, co-host of NPR's Code Switch, Corey Antonio Rose, a producer for It's Been A Minute, and Josh Rottman, associate professor of psychology and a disgust expert. They discuss what 'The Ick' is and what it's really about.

This episode originally published December 10th, 2024.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

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 gaining traction. But is it harmless fun, or an invasion of privacy? When do your personal stories belong on social media and when do they not?

To find out, Brittany is joined by Molly McPherson, crisis PR expert, and Rebecca Jennings, senior correspondent at Vox. They get into what people actually get out of breakup posting - and discuss their theories of poster's etiquette.

This episode originally published December 3rd, 2024.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Is it just us, or are the Pride month vibes a little off this year?

Between targeted censorship, legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ health care, and a financial pullout from many corporations, queer people and their allies are celebrating with heavier hearts this year. But perhaps it's a moment to reconsider what "pride" is really for?

This week, Brittany is joined by culture journalist Tre'vell Anderson, and author and organizer Raquel Willis to parse through the contradictions of Pride 2025.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

You may have heard that the U.S. gained 59 new residents last month from South Africa - and that more came this past weekend. They're all white Afrikaners: a white minority group descended from European colonists. Trump has given some of these white Afrikaners refugee status because he claims a "white genocide" is happening against them in South Africa. This claim is untrue. So where is it coming from?

And why might this claim be politically expedient for the Trump administration? And what parallels can we see between some of the white Afrikaners and the American right? Brittany sits down with South African journalist Kate Bartlett and Sean Jacobs, professor of international affairs at the New School to get into it.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

The stereotype is that Canadians are kind, but they by and large do not take kindly to President Trump's idea of making Canada our 51st state. As of April, two-thirds of Canadians considered the U.S. to be "unfriendly" or an "enemy," and 61% say they have started boycotting American companies. However, Canadian dislike and distrust of the U.S. is not new. Canadian views of the U.S. have trended down for decades, from a high of 81% of Canadians holding favorable views of the U.S. under Clinton in the '90's, to hovering in the 50-60% range in the aughts, to only 24% favorable as of March. Meanwhile, 87% of Americans view Canada favorably. There's a huge mismatch there.

So what's behind these decades of resentment? How does culture play into it? And what does it mean for our politics that our nations have fundamentally different ideas about our relationship to one another? Brittany discusses with Scaachi Koul, senior writer at Slate, and Jon Parmenter, associate professor of history at Cornell.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

After 8 trips to the Super Bowl, 73 year-old former NFL coach Bill Belichick is ready to start a new phase in his career: mentor, college football coach, and now doting boyfriend to 24-year-old Jordon Hudson. But as Hudson also takes an increasingly important role in Belichick's professional life, people are speculating about the motivations behind their union. Why do we care?

Brittany is joined by arts and entertainment reporter Shar Jossell and Vox senior correspondent Alex Abad-Santos to explore the public's reaction to this very public relationship, as well as the question of whether it's okay to marry or partner for reasons other than love.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

A newly available kind of genetic testing, called polygenic embryo screening, promises to screen for conditions that can include cancer, obesity, autism, bipolar disorder, even celiac disease. These conditions are informed by many genetic variants and environmental factors - so companies like Orchid and Heliospect assign risk scores to each embryo for a given condition. These tests are expensive, only available through IVF, and some researchers question how these risk scores are calculated. But what would it mean culturally if more people tried to screen out some of these conditions? And how does this connect to societal ideas about whose lives are meaningful?

Brittany gets into it with Vardit Ravitsky, senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and president of the Hastings Center, a non-partisan bioethics research center, and Katie Hasson, associate director of the Center for Genetics and Society, a nonprofit public affairs organization that advocates for responsible use of genetic technology.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy