Category: podcasts (page 1 of 1)

Brittany Luse, podcast host of NPR's It's Been A Minute
Brittany Luse, podcast host of NPR's It's Been A Minute
August 11, 2025 / 0 Comments

The Podcast that is Keeping Me Sane Online

“It’s the phones,” Brittany Luse lamented on a recent episode of It’s Been A Minute. She wasn’t wrong. Lately, I’ve been losing hours to the endless loop: Threads, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, LinkedIn—rinse, repeat, regret. That conversation with her guests pushed me to act. I hid the worst offenders behind Face ID so I’d have to want them to open. Now, if I switch away mid-scroll, I have to go through the process again. It’s only been a few days, but I’m already feeling a sense of relief from the digital noise, with more time for things I enjoy.

This isn’t the first time Brittany Luse has helped me navigate my life online. I used to be pretty savvy about digital culture, ahead of the curve on the viral thing friends dropped in the group chat. But since quitting TikTok back in January (when it looked like it might vanish from the U.S.), I’m often late. TikTok had become my first-stop newswire for internet nonsense. Leaving it showed me just how addictive it was, and how much I’d relied on it to feel “in the know.”

These days, I’m less interested in being first to a meme or scandal. I want to understand what’s happening, decide whether it matters, and think about it without rotting my brain. It’s Been A Minute has become my best shortcut, at a time when, despite the cultural capital we’ve placed on hot takes, real understanding is more valuable than being the first to know and react.

Take the Coldplay Kiss Cam. The clip gave me the ick, and Luse’s conversation with Kate Wagner mirrored the exact dinner-table debate we’d just had at home. Or when my For You feeds started to flood with references and clips to the business of Christian music, Luse’s timely episode grounded me in the basics of a pop culture space I barely knew.

I look forward to listening to her recent shows on Hasan Piker and Jubilee, as they cover topics I have only a passing interest in, but want thoughtful frameworks for understanding.

I wouldn’t call myself a “podcast person.” If your show is over 30 minutes, rambles without purpose, or isn’t hosted by journalists, I’m out. But for this moment in my digital life—where I want less noise and more clarity—the format works. I still prefer audio over the pivot to video, and Luse’s twenty-minute doses feel like the right size to get informed and move on.

It’s Been A Minute isn’t alone—The Journal explained Labubus, and On the Media poured cold water on AI hype—but Luse has been the most consistent lately at picking stories I wouldn’t bother untangling myself, and helping me think about them in ways that stick.

If you want to give less of your attention to the churn of online life without feeling completely lost, give a minute to my current favorite podcast.

April 9, 2016 / 2 Comments

Podcast Episodes I Liked This Week: NPR One Edition

“There’s only so much truth you can keep in your bowl.” – Busdriver, Worlds to Run (feat. Milo and Anderson .Paak)

I consumed almost all my podcasts this week via NPR One (the app rather the website). I’ve been looking for a better podcast listening experience. I’m a relatively long-time user of Pocketcasts, and they do the best job of the different tools I’ve tried, but there were a few things that were frustrating to me, and it feels silly that there isn’t a purely lovely tool for listening considering how long this kind of audio storytelling has been around now.

NPR is heavily pushing the NPR One app, sort of. There’s been a lot of industry discussion about it. Also, in the corner of Twitter I play in:

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The thing, though, that got me to download and sample the app was the opportunity to hear Pop Culture Happy Hour a day early if you’re listening via NPR One.

(if you care about the drama, Linda Holmes, host of PCHH, wrote quite a bit about it and her experience using the app for an extended period)

Then a funny thing happened, I enjoyed using the app. There are little things, like hearing radio news pieces mixed in with my podcasts which I don’t get in other experiences. There are big things, like the Explore section which is well curated and has some algorithmic logic that is getting good rather quickly at understanding what I like to listen to and suggesting them. And then astounding things, like suggesting podcasts from my local station that I didn’t even know existed.

So, here we go:

Pope Francis On Love, Marriage and Divorce, and the Art of the Car Chase

I talk about KCRW Press Play a lot. It’s my local news show. Madeleine Brand is my primary sherpa for figuring out what’s going on in Los Angeles and how we fit in the rest of the world. The April 8th, 2016 episode features seven minutes with Zoey Tur, the broadcast journalist that invented the car chase to talk about the particularly epic one we had this week.

Episode 63: Radio Free

There are sixty-three episodes of The Organist—a collaboration between KCRW and The Believer—and I had never heard of it before. How is this possible?! This episode is written by Buzzfeed Emerging Writers Fellow Niela Orr talking about LA Art-Rapper Busdriver’s new podcast and putting it in the context of the tradition of black activist radio. One of the best produced and best sounding podcasts I’ve heard in a long while.

The Years That Changed The Internet: 2010, 2005, 1999

I’m not sure I’m all in on Buzzfeed’s Internet Explorer.  It spends an awful lot of time in areas of the web I actively try to avoid and it’s hosts are engaging but not necessarily charming and, I like charm. This mini-series, though, does an excellent job of reminiscing about these individual years in surprising ways. They also pushed me to think about what I was doing on the internet (besides working) in those years.

In 2010, I was blogging much more frequently than I do now and IMing with my long-distance fiancé, Tiffany.

In 2005, I was a B or C grade blog star, editing LAist, and talking about identity blogging at SXSW.

In 1999, I ran an electronic pro-wrestling federation (hosted on Tripod) in which I would book and write shows and generate results using a text-based wrestling simulator that somebody far nerdier than I had created and shared for free online. As Katie Notopolous notes in the episode, wrestling was enormously popular at this time.

Race, class and why we don’t always believe each other

We Live Here is a podcast from St. Louis Public Radio. NPR One threw this in the mix while I was listening this morning cleaning the kitchen. The question: why don’t we (the collective, societal, we) believe poor people and black people when they highlight systemic issues? The answer is well told, leads to more questions, and has me clamoring to hear everything else in this series. Also, there’s a good dig at Vox thrown in there off-handedly.

Solidarity And Revolt Aboard The Slave Ship Creole

I talked about Tripod last week. I’ll probably talk about them every week. This episode, though? I want it to be made into a movie. Also, if you ever want to understand how deep into slavery America was, consider that illegal/pirate slave traders from other countries would raise the US Flag in the 1800s to protect themselves from the British Navy who were aggressively seeking to end the trade after it was abolished in the early part of the 19th Century. It’s so deep. Plus, there’s an Aaliyah song clip from her best album which is impossible to find on your favorite streaming services.

Jimmy Fallon Will Never Make Fun of You

I doubt I could listen to every episode of Alec Baldwin’s Here’s the Thing but Jimmy Fallon is such a good guest in this one—also an NPR One suggestion—that I will probably stick around for other episodes that the app recommends.

If you decide to try NPR One, let me know what you think. Also, how are you consuming podcasts beyond NPR One?

April 2, 2016 / 0 Comments

Podcast Episodes I Liked This Week: Racist Food Edition

The one thing I find I have trouble sharing to my circle these days are podcast episodes. Episodes are hard to share from within most apps. The context in which I am usually listening isn’t conducive to sharing.

Hey! I have a woefully underutilized blog.

Here are some podcast episodes I rather enjoyed this week:

Is This Food Racist?

I haven’t been listening to Dan Pashman’s podcast as religiously as I had been. One of the last episodes I listened to sparked the current series that’s being discussed on this episode of On The Media. It’s a great convo but what I most like is that it validates my suspiciousness of Rick Bayless. It also got me to revisit The Sporkful.

Pappy

I love bourbon. I love true crime. I love Phoebe Judge’s voice. This episode of Criminal so relevant to my interests.

Crimble Bramble

Sampler Show is such a great concept: a podcast about podcasts. This edition examines a space of the podcast world I’m never in, comedy. More than that, I always enjoy hearing Reply All’s Alex and PJ banter as friends and colleagues. I don’t think I’ll be trying any of the shows mentioned but I was entertained.

Small Batch: The Real Housewives of the Potomac

This is the one series of The Real Housewives Tiffany isn’t watching (I don’t think) but this brief Pop Culture Happy Hour conversation kinda makes me wanna binge watch some weekend soon. It also features Sampler Show’s host Brittany Luse so, you know, synergy.

Sighting The Sites Of The New Orleans Slave Trade

I’m obsessed with Tripod. It is fascinating and infuriating and is the kind of history storytelling I wish we got in our education system. The reminder that one million people were bought and sold all over New Orleans—my second favorite city in the country—and that we rarely reckon or remind ourselves of this fact is the core of this episode. I will not forget the next time I walk by or into the Omni Hotel. And I just might sneak into the hotel pool. For the ancestors.

Your turn. What podcast episodes did you love this week?

January 30, 2015 / 2 Comments

Unforgivable Blackness 2015 Edition: Ava DuVernay and Marshawn Lynch

“I don’t know if these industry mofos overlook us cause they might be afraid. They don’t know if we get the spot like that, you might not get your spotlight back for a couple decades.” – Black Milk, Losing Out (Let’s Talk)

Rembert Browne’s entertaining “Rembert Explains” podcast’s latest episode featured Mychal Denzel Smith discussing the thru-line between director Ava DuVernay’s approach to her work and the criticism of that work and the NFL’s Marshawn Lynch who has become famous not only for his spectacular play on the field but for his refusal to follow the rules of the league which he deems absurd.

This refusal to play “the game” is what rankles people. On a recent @Midnight, Chris Hardwick ranted because he was so annoyed with Lynch’s unwillingness to eat shit. We all have things we don’t want to do at our jobs, he harangued. Suck it up and take it. We all have to do that.

Except, maybe you don’t.

DuVernay sees no value in exerting energy towards gaining acceptance into the Hollywood establishment. In fact, she thinks it’s futile. In this episode of KCRW’s The Business (the other podcast I listened to today), DuVernay essentially breaks down her whole mission statement. Why knock on doors that the person on the other side has no interest or incentive in opening for you? Build your own house. Open your own door. I was struck as I have been every time she’s spoken about Selma over the last few months with how certain, confident, and driven she is. Ava takes no shorts.

It reminded me of the now decade old Ken Burns documentary about boxer Jack Johnson: Unforgivable Blackness. This idea of being unwilling to modulate who you are to succeed in the great American experiment and still succeed anyway because you are just that damn good? Yes.

Let’s keep doing this. And to hell with just being unforgivable. Don’t apologize.

Those made uncomfortable by it are undeserving of an apology, anyway.

Their discomfort is the world’s progress.

#beastmode
#changetheworld

Let’s go.