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Who will win today's cage match? For the past two months Brittany has been hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places. Today, she ends her tour in her hometown. It's a homecoming of sorts. Beyoncé style. For the last episode in the series, Brittany lands in Detroit, Michigan, and debates with Tia Graham, co-host of WDET's CultureShift and Cary Junior II, producer for WDET's Created Equal. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Tuesday night, JD Vance and Tim Walz faced off in their first debate. Host Brittany Luse is joined by NPR's national race and identity correspondent Sandhya Dirks and political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben to discuss how the candidates display competing brands of white masculinity. Then, Fat Bear Week is back! The annual March Madness-style bracket of the fattest bears in Alaska's Katmai National Park is in full swing after a rocky start. In honor of Fat Bear Week, Brittany revisits a journey through time to unpack what bears mean to us — and why they're family, friend and foe all at once. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Who will win today's cage match? Welcome to The Smackdown! For the last few weeks Brittany has been hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places. This episode Brittany lands in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and debates with KOSU's Jacob Littlebear and Kuma Roberts, co-hosts of Focus: Black Oklahoma. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Following the false allegations against the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, the city received over 30 bomb threats, saw school closures and even the cancellation of a celebration for diversity in arts and culture. Host Brittany Luse talks to NPR Immigration correspondent Jasmine Garsd about what she's learned from her reporting in the region and how all this could tie into a larger Midwest identity crisis. Then, Brittany is joined by Danzy Senna, author of Colored Television, to talk about how she's seen biracial representation change over the last three decades, and what it means to be in the "Not Like Us" era. They dig into her latest novel and its perspective on racial profiteering. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Who will win today's cage match? Welcome to The Smackdown! For the next several weeks Brittany is hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places. This episode Brittany lands in Miami, Florida, and debates with WLRN reporter Wilkine Brutus and The Miami Herald's C. Isaiah Smalls II. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises. This discussion features excerpts from the NPR Music's Louder Than A Riot. Hear more from Sidney Madden's interview with Trina here. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

On Monday, the embattled rap mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs was arrested and charged with sex trafficking and racketeering. He's been denied bail twice, and is facing a sentence of 15 years to life in prison. Host Brittany Luse is joined by NPR Music editor Sidney Madden and legal affairs reporter Meghann Cuniff to understand what this indictment means for Combs and if this could be the beginning of a #MeToo movement in hip-hop. Then, Brittany is joined by Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection, to talk about a rising culture around rejection, his book and why online life can enable rejections to curdle inside us. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Who will win today's cage match? Welcome to The Smackdown! For the next several weeks Brittany is hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places. This episode Brittany lands in New Orleans, Louisiana, and debates with Gulf States Newsroom health equity reporter Drew Hawkins and writer & editor Ko Bragg. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Podcast and social media influencers have become important campaign stops for political hopefuls. But what kind of voters are the candidates courting? And what does the popularity of these interviews say about the growing political power of the influencer? Brittany is joined by Slate staff writer Luke Winkie for NBC News tech and culture reporter Kat Tenbarge to find out. But first, what can we learn about the political candidates through their clothes? After the presidential debate, Brittany sat down with Washington Post fashion writer Rachel Tashjian and New York Times chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman to talk about the fashion choices of the front runners and how power dressing has changed. They also play a Taylor Swift trivia game. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Who will win today's cage match? Welcome to The Smackdown! For the next several weeks Brittany is hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places. This episode Brittany lands in Birmingham, Alabama, and debates with Gulf States Newsroom sports & culture reporter Joseph King and AL.com culture reporter Cody Short. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

It's September, which means millions of young learners across the country are dusting off their backpacks and heading back to school. But a new study from Gallup and The Walton Family Foundation has shown that students are less engaged, and feel less challenged than last year, and about half of them have no plans to get a Bachelor's degree right after high school. Host Brittany Luse is joined by Karin Klein, education reporter and author of Rethinking College: A Guide to Thriving Without a Degree, and NPR Education Desk correspondent and Senior Editor Cory Turner to parse through what has next generation feeling despondent and if we need to rethink the purpose of high school. Then, Brittany is on the housing hunt, but she's found that even outside major urban areas, small cities across the country are rapidly gentrifying. Richard E. Ocejo, author of Sixty Miles Upriver: Gentrification and Race in a Small American City, joins Brittany to look at what happens when big city gentrifiers move to town and how some of them have rebranded gentrification. Want to be featured on IBAM? Record a voice memo responding to Brittany's question at the end of the episode and send it to ibam@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Who will win today's cage match? Welcome to The Smackdown! For the next several weeks Brittany is hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places. This episode Brittany lands in Concord, New Hampshire, the Granite State, and debates with New Hampshire Public Radio reporters Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, the hosts of the excellent podcast Civics 101. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

After Chappell Roan posted about how some fans have been making her feel unsafe, there's been speculation around whether the singer is really 'cut out to be a pop star.' But are the critiques fair? Brittany sits down with Kelsey McKinney, who wrote about the controversy for Defector, and Dr. Mel Stanfill, author of Fandom is Ugly. They discuss modern fandom, how Chappell Roan framed it as a conversation about gender and what people misunderstand about celebrity. Then, Brittany looks at the how charity is changing. Traditional charitable giving is down in the US and some non-profits have declared that we're in the middle of a "generosity crisis." At the same time, a new genre of online viral videos has emerged: feel-good 'charity' content. And nobody does it bigger than MrBeast. Brittany is joined by journalist Max Read to understand the MrBeast phenomenon and break down the generational divides these videos reveal. Want to be featured on IBAM? Record a voice memo responding to Brittany's question at the end of the episode and send it to ibam@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

It's been 21 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. In this episode from last year, we explore why the PSL became so powerful — and how food trends garner so much meaning. Host Brittany Luse chatted 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. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

As the dust settles on the DNC, host Brittany Luse takes a look at the challenges facing a group of progressive democrats commonly known as "The Squad." Incumbent Reps. Cori Bush in Missouri and Jamaal Bowman in New York lost their seats this summer to candidates whose campaigns received funding from pro-Israel PACs. Brittany is joined by POLITICO Congress reporter Sarah Ferris and Capital B News national politics reporter Brandon Tensley to understand how these PACs are impacting progressives in Congress. Then, Brittany talks to Colman Domingo about his new film, 'SING SING,' which follows the emotional lives of a group of incarcerated actors working together to stage an original musical. Colman stars alongside a cast of real-life formerly incarcerated actors, and connects with Brittany over experiencing new versions of masculinity and paving the way for a new kind of Hollywood star. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Who will win today's cage match? Welcome to The Smackdown! For the next several weeks Brittany is hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places. This episode Brittany lands in San Francisco, California, the Bay Area, and debates with KQED reporters Pendarvis Harshaw, host of Rightnowish, and Olivia Allen-Price, host of Bay Curious. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Who will win today's cage match? Welcome to The Smackdown! For the next several weeks Brittany is hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places. This episode Brittany lands in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, the Twin Cities, and debates with Minnesota Public Radio reporters Kyra Miles and Jacob Aloi. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Ever since Minnesota governor and Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz called Republicans "weird," we've seen other Democrats embrace this name-calling strategy and deploy it in interviews and in memes online. We've also seen Republicans lobbing the "weird" moniker right back at Democrats. To get into how "weird" this all is, Brittany chats with NPR culture reporter Andrew Limbong and NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben about this new political strategy and redefining "normalcy" in 2024. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Now that we're in the dog days of summer, host Brittany Luse wants to know - do we have a song of the summer this year? According to NPR Music reporter Sidney Madden and NPR Music host, writer and editor Stephen Thompson, there isn't one song - but many songs. "We are more disparate than ever, that's why it's hard to chart a single song right now," said Sidney. "It's more like choose your own adventure." So - we're choosing our own adventure today and discussing the many contenders for song of the summer - and hearing why each song tells us something a little different about our cultural moment. Want to be featured on IBAM? Record a voice memo responding to Brittany's question at the end of the episode and send it to ibam@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris entered the presidential race, things changed. Her campaign almost immediately started framing the election as: Harris, the former prosecutor - vs. Trump the felon. And that word - "felon" - is one that our friends over at NPR's Code Switch have been thinking a lot about since former President Trump was convicted of 34 counts back in May. In this episode, Code Switch co-hosts B.A. Parker and Gene Demby chop it up with the comedian Arif Shahid, who performs under the name Felonious Munk, to talk about what it means for him to carry this reference to his felony conviction so publicly. Then, Gene talks to Josie Duffy-Rice, a writer who focuses on the criminal justice system, to look at the ways "felon" sticks to people long after their sentences end. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

From the attempted assassination of former President Trump, to President Biden dropping out of the election, and VP Kamala Harris stepping up... The news these past few weeks has been buck wild. And the energy online is similarly unhinged. But what do most people get wrong when they try to interpret the latest explosion of political memes? And what do these posts actually say about how people are processing major events? And are there consequences to just posting through it? Host Brittany Luse is joined by Tatum Hunter, consumer tech reporter at The Washington Post, and Kyle Chayka, staff writer at The New Yorker, to discuss what meaning could possibly be gleaned from the meme madness. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy