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It's Fat Bear Week - but our fascination with bears is timeless Oct 06, 2023

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Every year, the Katmai National Park in Alaska puts on a March Madness-style bracket of all the fattest bears in their park. It's a celebration of fatness, because a fat bear ahead of hibernation means a healthy bear come spring. This competition is popular — there were over a million votes tallied last year — and it speaks to a larger cultural obsession with bears. In honor of Fat Bear Week, Host Brittany Luse journeys through time to unpack what bears mean to us — and why they're family, friend and foe all at once. And later, an exploration of how the queer community emulates bearness — and what the symbol of the animal can mean to them.
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Jordan Peele presents a 'new' Black horror Oct 03, 2023

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This week, host Brittany Luse kicks off spooky season by sitting down with the current champion of Black horror, Jordan Peele. In his most recent project, he's taken his talents from the screen to the page as the editor of a new book of short stories, Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror. Then, Brittany is joined by Black horror scholar and author Tananarive Due, to discuss her contributions to the anthology and her upcoming novel, The Reformatory. Due walks Brittany through how she honors a horrific past while offering readers satisfying scares.
Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horroris out today.
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Hasan Minhaj and the limits of representation Sep 29, 2023

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A recent New Yorker piece on Hasan Minhaj found that some crucial bits of his stand-up act didn't stand up to fact-checking. Stretching the truth in comedy is par for the course, but how does that work for a figure like Minhaj, who'd previously doubled down on these stories in interviews and is known for his political satire shows? Brittany is joined by writer Imran Siddiquee and journalist Allana Akhtar to make sense of an entertainment industry that created the conditions for his fame.
Then, we explore what happens when you recast western fantasies through a Black lens? We start by looking at one of the most beloved Black fantasies of our time: The Wiz. It's Been a Minute producer, Corey Antonio Rose shares how the original Broadway production of The Wiz made the storyline from The Wizard of Oz hit different for post-civil rights America. Brittany is then joined by African American Studies professor Darieck Scott to discuss the difference between representation and RE-presentation in fantasy.
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How Bethann Hardison changed the face of fashion - and why that matters Sep 26, 2023

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Bethann Hardison is the fashion icon behind so many fashion icons: she worked as a modeling agent in the era of the supermodel – brokering the careers of stars like Kimora Lee Simmons and Tyson Beckford. And when models of color all but vanished from view at the turn of the millennium – she forced designers to bring them back. Host Brittany Luse sits down with Bethann to discuss the new documentary about Bethann's life, Invisible Beauty, and why fashion imagery, while fraught, is still powerful in our culture.
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The WNBA's coming out story; plus, the dangers of sports betting Sep 22, 2023

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This year, the WNBA had its most-watched regular season in 21 years, but what went into creating this new moment of visibility for the league? Host Brittany Luse is joined by Katie Barnes, author of Fair Play: How Sports Shape the Gender Debates to unpack the league's initial 'Barbie girl' image, the trailblazers who pushed the WNBA to become the first professional sports league to celebrate Pride, and what it means for an athlete to 'authentically' express themselves.
Then, we explore the growth of sports betting. Sports betting went from a somewhat shameful hobby to something that is fully mainstream - with billions of dollars in bets placed. Dr. Timothy Fong, an addiction specialist, joins Brittany to talk about the associated risks with the growth of sports betting.
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The year concert etiquette went to trash and why Sep 19, 2023

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Every couple of weeks there's a new story of a fan at a concert misbehaving. One fan threw ashes at Pink, another hit Drake with a cellphone, Miranda Lambert stopped her show when fans took selfies with flash photography. Extreme instances have landed performers in the hospital, but more often attendees have noticed the audience has gotten louder and more distracting than ever. Where is all of this coming from?
Brittany Luse is joined by YouTube commentator Tiffany Ferguson to breakdown how ticket sales, artist merch, and social media create a perfect storm for fans to act out.
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Is capitalism in its flop era? Sep 15, 2023

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In 2017, Today, Explained co-host Noel King says she started getting a vibe: young people were discussing and dissecting capitalism. She began noticing the word in pop culture and cultural reporting — but found her own tribe of economics reporters were missing from the conversation. Flash forward to 2023, and the word capitalism is all over politics and culture: it's on the stage at the Republican debates, it's on the picket lines and the language of union strikes from Hollywood to New York City, it's even in the new Indiana Jones movie. How did we get here — and has talking about capitalism made us more divided? Noel King joins host Brittany Luse to discuss her new multi-part series exploring how a new generation of Americans are coming to terms with capitalism.
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Rock and roll's pioneer is a queer, Southern Black man Sep 12, 2023

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When you think of rockstar royalty, a queer, Southern Black man normally doesn't come to mind. But director Lisa Cortés wants us all to reconsider that thought. Her documentary, Little Richard: I Am Everything, takes viewers through the life and legacy of one of the most influential men in music - Little Richard.
From the bawdy roots of his hit song, "Tutti Frutti," to teaching Mick Jagger how to work a crowd, Little Richard's impact spans generations. Host Brittany Luse and director Lisa Cortes talk about the documentary, Little Richard's struggles with own identity, and the queer influence on rock and roll.
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The Photo of the Year; plus, whose RICO is it anyway? Sep 08, 2023

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When former President Donald Trump's mugshot was released, pundits immediately searched for meaning. Was it defiant? Was it embarrassing? Turns out what we see in that image could change over time. Brittany Luse is joined by Vanessa Friedman, senior fashion critic for the New York Times, to talk about the cultural meaning of infamous mugshots and their resounding impact on us.
Then, we welcome Emory law professor emeritus Morgan Cloud to talk about the legal tool that's taking pop culture by storm: the RICO charge. We explore what the act was originally intended to do, and the role of the RICO reboot in several big pop culture cases today, from rapper Young Thug to fashion retailer SHEIN.
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20 years of pumpkin spice power Sep 05, 2023

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It's been 20 years since Starbucks debuted the first pumpkin spice latte in 2003. Since then, it's become a cultural phenomenon greater than itself: it's shorthand for fall, for basicness, for femininity, and even for white culture. Why did the PSL become so powerful — and how do food trends garner so much meaning? Host Brittany Luse chats with Suzy Badaracco, food trend forecaster and founder of Culinary Tides, to discuss the $500 million dollar industry, and how little miss pumpkin spice has held on to her cultural power.
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