Anti-intellectualism is on the rise. And by "anti-intellectualism" we mean the backlash to scholars in fields like the humanities.According to two intellectuals, Dr. Ally Louks and Jason Stanley, the humanities help us better connect to other humans. According to a lot of online haters, they're worthless. In November 2024, Dr. Louks recently posted her Cambridge University dissertation online and was piled on by a loud group of right-wing anti-intellectuals. Today, Brittany revisits her convo with Dr. Louks, and Jason Stanley, a professor of Philosophy at Yale University. They investigate the backlash to Dr. Louks, higher education at large, and why "anti-intellectualism" is prevalent in Republican politics. For more, read Jason Stanley's book Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. This episode originally published January 27, 2025.Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus. Join NPR+ today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Gen Z is having less sex than previous generations. But why? Well, let's be real. There are a lot of very legitimate reasons why young people are afraid of sex right now, many having to do with recent massive political and cultural changes.Brittany gets into why Gen Z-ers are having less sex with Tobias Hess, contributing writer at Paper magazine and writer of the Gen Zero Substack, and Carter Sherman, reproductive health and justice reporter at The Guardian and author of The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation's Fight Over Its Future.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Before, during, and after Zohran Mamdani became the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, Republicans and Democrats were both leaning into decades old Islamophobic tropes to delegitimize his candidacy. Meanwhile, young progressives are reclaiming those tropes.Why is Islamophobia politically salient today, and why are both sides of the aisle using it to achieve their own political goals? To answer this, Brittany is joined by Tazeen Ali, a professor of religion and politics at Washington University, and Nathan Lean, professor of religion at North Carolina State University.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

What do Trump, JK Rowling, and some feminists have in common? Based on history, more than you might think.In this episode, Brittany and KQED's Nastia Voynovskaya explore the roots of modern-day transphobia through the story of one music producer, Sandy Stone. Then Brittany is joined by journalist Imara Jones to get into how Trump and JK Rowling's rhetoric matches some of those early feminists.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Republicans have passed President Trump's One Big, Beautiful bill, but is it built on bad faith stereotypes? The legislation guts funding for Medicaid, and for a long time Republicans have been attacking the program as sort of welfare for moochers. Who exactly are these moochers? And could it be you?Brittany is joined by Joan Alker, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, and Jamila Michener, professor and author of Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism and Unequal Politics to understand how stereotypes about who deserves health insurance affect us all.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This season of Love Island USA has the timeline on fire...but maybe not for the reasons y'all hoped. Is it mirroring our dating lives a little too close?To get into the season, Brittany chats with co-owner of Defector Media, Kelsey McKinney and co-host of Scamfluencers, Sarah Hagi, about the glimpses of romance amidst Love Island's largely unromantic current season, and how the show may be an unfortunate reflection of current dating woes.This episode contains mentions of suicide. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In our 'Your Body, Whose Choice' series, we've focused a lot on the present and the future of reproductive health in this country. And now we'd like to share a look at the past from our sister show, NPR's Embedded. Their new 3–part series, The Network, follows a Brazilian women who discovered a method to have safe abortions, regardless of the law. And, as abortion restrictions tighten in the United States, American women have taken note.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani pulled off an astonishing upset this week. In the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, he beat out the long-favored winner, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who conceded the race only hours after the polls closed. The two candidates were of the same party, but held very different positions within it: Cuomo is older, spent more than a decade as Governor and positioned himself as a law-and-order centrist. Mamdani is younger, newer to politics and a total progressive. This is a primary race in just one city, but it's been making national news and could shake up the Democratic party's strategy post-Trump re-election. Brittany sits down with Christian Paz, senior politics reporter at Vox, and Max Rivlin-Nadler, reporter and co-publisher at Hell Gate, a local news site for New York City. They discuss what this race says about where progressive energy is coming from - and why the Democrats might be having a Tea Party moment.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

There's one little statistic that seems to have gained a lot of attention recently: the birth rate. With pro-natalist ideas showing up in our culture and politics, Brittany wanted to know: why are people freaking out? Who's trying to solve the population equation, and how? Brittany is joined by Kelsey Piper, senior writer at Vox, and Gideon Lewis-Kraus, staff writer at The New Yorker, to get into how the birth rate touches every part of our culture - and why we might need to rethink our approach to this stat.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Adriana Smith's pregnancy became an ethical and legal quandary. After being declared brain dead, a Georgia hospital kept her on life support without her family's consent because of the state's abortion laws. Now that the baby has been delivered and Smith taken off life support, Brittany wonders: how has the conservative effort to see fetuses as people overshadowed the lives of the mothers who birth them?This is... Your Body, Whose Choice?And for the next few weeks, we're looking at the cultural, legal, and ideological frameworks shaping reproductive health in America...and what this means for the near and far future of our families, our personal agency, and our planet. Today, UC Berkley law professor Khiara Bridges joins the show to break down everything you need to know about this case and what its implications for the rights of mothers across the country.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy