Baby names tell a story - about a family's unique history, about a specific moment in time, and even about politics. A survey tracking the top 500 names in states that went red or blue in the 2020 election recently went viral, highlighting popular names like Oakleigh and Stetson in red states, and Santino and Liana in blue states. Brittany is joined by Neda Ulaby, NPR Culture Correspondent, and Naftali Bendavid, Senior National Political Correspondent for the Washington Post to reflect on what popular baby names in red and blue states say about our current political moment.Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content. Join NPR+ today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

At the beginning of the year, Brittany spoke to ELLE Fashion Features Director and author, Véronique Hyland, about the growing trend of underconsumption content online. No-Buy January, buying secondhand, and mending old clothes seemed to be taking hold amongst some of the most popular influencers - even though the guiding principle of underconsumption is something we've been doing for a long time. Then, Trump started implementing tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada - and now even the European Union. That made Brittany think: how would fast fashion be affected by this? And would underconsumption move from a hashtag to a lifestyle? To find out, The Indicator's Wailin Wong joins the show to break down how tariffs will affect Americans who love to shop... when the prices drop.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

America is a deeply spiritual nation. Over 70% of us say that we feel spiritual in some way. But – at the same time – we're getting less religious. So for people who are spiritual-but-not-religious – what's replacing organized religion? What do they believe – and where does that show up in their day-to-day lives? In Brittany's series called Losing My Religion, It's Been a Minute is going to find out. In her final episode of the series, Brittany is investigating so-called manifestation. It's this popular belied that if you want something badly enough, it'll come to you. You might know this idea by other names, like The Law of Attraction, or The Secret. Manifestation spiked in 2020, according to Google Trends, and it's still riding that wave online. Brittany calls on with Tara Isabella Burton, an author and journalist, and New York Magazine's Rebecca Jennings to get to the bottom of this trend: the appeal of manifestation, its symbiotic relationship with the internet, and why it might make us less aware of our humanity.Want to get to know Brittany? Follow her at @bmluse on socials.Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content. Join NPR+ today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's hard out there for single women who date men. You've maybe heard friends complaining about the dating pool, or perhaps you yourself are navigating its murky waters. According to economics reporter Rachel Wolfe at The Wall Street Journal, American women are giving up on marriage, with only 34% of single women looking for romance, versus 54% of single men.Brittany is joined by Rachel, alongside Minda Honey, author of her memoir, The Heartbreak Years. Together they talk about the key reasons why women are less and less interested in the prospect of dating, let alone getting married.Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content. Join NPR+ today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

There are a lot of big subjects that our culture has trouble talking about: wealth, death, addiction, religion. But one of the toughest has to be sexual assault and rape. For how common sexual violence is – it affects over half of women and almost one in three men – it can be extremely painful and even stigmatizing to discuss. But in Jamie Hood's new book Trauma Plot, which contextualizes rape in her own life and in our culture, Jamie looks for new ways to speak the "unspeakable." It tells her story in experimental fragments and finds a unique way to discuss one of the most common violences we face. Brittany sits down with Jamie to discuss Trauma Plot, the contours of rape narratives in our culture, and how we can move beyond them to tell stories about sexual violence in new ways.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

America is a deeply spiritual nation. Over 70% of us say that we feel spiritual in some way. But – at the same time – we're getting less religious. So for people who are spiritual-but-not-religious – what's replacing organized religion? What do they believe – and where does that show up in their day-to-day lives? In our new series called Losing My Religion, It's Been a Minute is going to find out. This week, we're getting into psychedelics. That's an umbrella that includes the drugs LSD, magic mushrooms, peyote, and often ketamine and MDMA too, among others. And some of these drugs have a history of spiritual practice spanning millennia. But there's a new group that's really taking on the psychedelic mantle: tech bros and CEOS. Brittany is joined by Maxim Tvorun-Dunn, PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo, and Emma Goldberg, business reporter at the New York Times, to discuss what it means that these drugs are getting championed – and sometimes financially backed – by the tech elite, and how might that affect our culture's relationship to psychedelics as spiritual tools.Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content. Join NPR+ today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Poppers, a party substance long popular with gay men, were thrust into the national spotlight last week when one producer, Double Scorpio, claimed that they halted operations due to a search and seizure by the FDA. There's been no official statement from the FDA saying this raid took place, but the suggestion of a raid — against producers of a substance disproportionately popular with the queer community — certainly raised some eyebrows. Brittany is joined by Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR's health policy correspondent, and Alex Abad-Santos, Senior Correspondent at Vox. Together they talk about the FDA's concerns about poppers — even before our current administration — and the conspiracy theory that's giving some gay men flashbacks to the 1980s.Support public media. Join NPR Plus today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

After the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in higher education, there was legitimate worry that Black and Hispanic students would be overlooked or otherwise shut out of college admissions. But the enrollment numbers are showing something different. In some cases, even without the aid of race-based decision making, Black and Hispanic enrollment either stayed the same or increased. What does the data tell about the decisions admissions offices are making when thinking about demographics of their student body? And what does that process mean for future culture clashes about diversity and inclusion? NPR's Elissa Nadworny and labor economist Zach Bleemer join the show to get into the enigmatic world of college admissions and why higher education is still pushing for diversity in an anti-DEI minefield.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

America is a deeply spiritual nation. Over 70% of us say that we feel spiritual in some way. But – at the same time – we're getting less religious. So for people who are spiritual-but-not-religious – what's replacing organized religion? What do they believe – and where does that show up in their day-to-day lives? In our new series called Losing My Religion, It's Been a Minute is going to find out. This week, we're getting into wellness. It's a global industry worth 6 trillion dollars that's starting to encompass all kinds of things – including spirituality: from the spirituality of wellness practices like yoga and reiki, to treating wellness itself like a religion. Brittany is joined by Alyssa Bereznak, wellness editor for the LA Times, and Rina Raphael, author of the book The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the False Promise of Self-Care, to get into what people get out of a wellness-based spiritualism.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Last weekend, former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by federal immigration authorities. The move was an escalation in the Trump administration's crackdown on dissent, and it has people wondering: isn't this against the constitution?Brittany is joined by Chenjerai Kumanyika, a journalism professor at NYU, and Rick Perlstein, a historian of conservatism. Together, they talk about America's love/hate relationship with the First Amendment, and what ICE's arrest of a lawful permanent resident could mean for America's culture of protest.Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content. Join NPR+ today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy