She's America's sweetheart, but she just might be America's superhero as well.

The American cheerleader has become one of the nation's most cemented symbols of femininity, girlhood, and youthful power. But how does paying attention to the real life experiences of cheerleaders tell a different story about America's history of education, race, and gender? Brittany is joined by Dr. Natalie G. Adams, editor of The Cheer Reader, and contributor Dr. Amira Rose Davis to find out.

Interested in more conversations on sports and gender? Check out these episodes:

Would you let your kids play football?
The strange politics of Pilates

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We’re in an era where everyone can be a celebrity. And that’s okay! 

For the past ten years, Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber, hosts of the podcast Who? Weekly, have dissected the celebrity landscape. From the declining power of A-List celebrities to the rising power of influencers, the duo have investigated how fame and power have shifted over the last decade. They’ve asked the question: ‘Who gets to be famous?’ And discovered, ‘ well, nowadays, anyone.’ I Want to Be Famous: When Everybody and Nobody Is a Celebrity is their new book where they explore what they've learned about the ephemeral nature of fame, celebrity, and our collective obsession with reality television.

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Census data about race can be incredibly important – but we might lose it.

The Trump administration has proposed to stop asking people in the U.S. about their race and ethnicity in the upcoming 2030 census. But what's the point of getting rid of these questions? And what makes the narratives around our nation's demographics so fraught?

To get into it, Brittany is joined by Russell Contreras, senior race and justice reporter at Axios, and Hansi Lo Wang, a correspondent at NPR who covers voting rights and the census.

For more episodes about policy and culture, check out:
Bacteria is taking over the food pyramid
Is your city shaped by yuppie taste?
Don't get got by big MILK

(00:00) Understanding the Trump administration's census proposal
(02:58) Will the government stop collecting data on race?
(05:34) What we use race data for
(10:04) The proposal to stop counting some non-citizens in the census
(14:42) How shifting categories might change census data
(20:52) Who's afraid of America's changing demographics?

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Palestinians are challenging the narrative one story at a time.

Editor-in-Chief of The Key, Sara Yasin, wants us to rethink what she calls ‘it’s complicated' journalism. As more young people are exposed to the destruction in Gaza -- outside of traditional media outlets -- Sara wanted to provide a space where Palestinians can speak freely about what’s going on around them.

Enter: The Key, an online publication that focuses on “analysis, interviews, essays, reviews and reportage about Palestine.” Sara joins the show to get into The Key, what ‘fairness’ looks like for mainstream media in this moment, and how power informs framing. 

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Some of life's hardest lessons are learned in high school.

In Jocelyn Bioh's Broadway play, School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play, the ladies of Aburi Girls' Boarding School live these hard lessons through their friendships, feuds, and the upcoming Miss Ghana 1986 beauty pageant. But what does a play about teenagers in the 80s have to tell us about gossip, girlhood, and how it feels to not be chosen for reasons out of your control? Brittany is joined by playwright Jocelyn Bioh and director Whitney White to find out.

Want more conversations on theater and culture? Check out these episodes:
'Cats: The Jellicle Ball' gets 10s across the board
Has Broadway lost its way?
Tony nominee Jocelyn Bioh puts braiders centerstage
Cole Escola literally changes history in 'Oh, Mary!'

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Author Mary H.K. Choi is obsessed with her mom.

New York Times bestselling author, Mary H.K Choi, is known for her young adult novels Emergency Contact and Yolk. But her latest novel, Pool House, is for adults, and details the relationship between a Korean-American D-list actress in her 40s and her 20-year old daughter, who’s always lived in her mother’s shadow. Today’s chat is all about families – how they change, how they don’t, and why we keep on loving the ones who hurt us the most.

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There are deep roots behind the latest entry into public noise.

It’s a now-common scenario: you’re using public transit, or waiting at the airport, or dining in a restaurant, when you hear the tinny music and computerized voice-overs of someone scrolling TikTok – no headphones. This aggravated All Things Considered producer and writer Manuela López Restrepo enough to look into it. And what she found was a rich history of how public noise works in our culture: who is allowed to make (or avoid it), who gets punished – and the companies that seem to get off scot-free.

Manuela shares her reporting with Brittany and they dive deep into the politics and policy of noise.

For more episodes about culture and civic life, check out:
Is your neighborhood riddled with dog poop?
The safety and power of knowing your neighbors
Is your city shaped by yuppie taste?

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Social media has made it easy for everyone to give their opinion...so why do people hate critics?

To answer that question Brittany is joined by Lovia Gyarkye, culture editor at Hammer and Hope, a magazine dedicated to Black culture and politics. Lovia’s spent the bulk of her career researching, reflecting, and writing about the films, artists, and celebrities we’ve come to love. And in that process, she’s found ways to embrace curiosity and skepticism, two essential parts of being a critic.

Today on the show, Lovia defines what being a critic means for her, the ‘thinking’ problem so many of us face, and the power of giving something your sustained attention. 

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How do you know what's safe to eat?

You don't. And after a summer full of food recalls from lettuce to blueberries and even jalapeños, a regular trip to the grocery store can start to feel like a dangerous game. But how are the flaws in our food safety system creating issues beyond what we choose to grab in the produce aisle? To find out, Brittany is joined by Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.

Want more episodes on food, access, and power? Check these out:

The politics of hunger
Think the Medicaid cuts don't affect you? Think again.

You can read Eric's piece, "Should We Be Afraid of Our Food?" in the Atlantic.

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Who's afraid of a horny movie? 

According to Bobbi Miller, culture critic and host of Culture Kitsch, horny movies pique our carnal curiosities. Sometimes there's an overall horny show like Heated Rivalry or movie like Wicker.  Other times, you have elements of horniness present, in movies like Sinners, The Handmaiden, and In the Mood for Love. But it seems like on the whole, Hollywood is still shying away from horny-forward art, even though romance adaptations are exploding in popularity. So what’s going on here? And why it is hard to find these horny depictions onscreen?

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Recipes online seem to have all become… kind of the same. 

They're described in lots of words that end in y – creamy, jammy, lemony – and they tend to use lots of globally sourced pastes like miso, gochujang and harissa. The luscious photos and videos that accompany them border on erotic. But how did this become the norm? What has the internet done to our palates – and what do today's tastes say about us?

To find out, Brittany is joined by Ruby Tandoh, cookbook writer and the author of All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now.

(00:00) Why online recipes all seem the same
(01:59) What shapes our tastes?
(03:28) How food influencers capture your attention
(06:53) 'Twist culture': why there's miso in everything
(09:30) American food is inescapable
(13:03) The roots of 'silly little drink' culture
(16:58) How algorithms drive orthorexic food ideas
(19:20) The rise of ultra-processed 'healthy' foods
(24:47) The politics of cooking and performative homemaking

For more episodes about food culture and how we eat, check out:
It's healthy to eat your feelings. Here's why.
Is your city shaped by yuppie taste?
The heavy weight of diet culture

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