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Is this a new era for American Muslims?

American Muslims are building their own cultural institutions – New York Magazine and The Guardian have reported on flourishing ecosystems of cafes, magazines, dance nights, meetups and readings for Muslims and/or people with heritage from the SWANA region. And on a political level, Muslims like Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani have become prominent faces of the left. On the one hand, this swell of Muslims coming up in politics and building cultural institutions is not surprising – there are over 4 million Muslims in America. On the other hand, this shift is pretty significant given how deeply Islamophobia and racism are rooted in our culture. So what's changed for American Muslims in recent years, and what’s stayed the same? What does it mean that Muslims are accruing a little more political and cultural capital now, and that non-Muslims are noticing?

To get deeper into it, Brittany is joined by Dr. Donna Auston, cultural anthropologist, and Dr. Tazeen Ali, scholar of Islam in America and associate professor of religion and politics at Washington University in St. Louis.

(00:00) Is this a new era for American Muslims?
(02:19) From family joints to Instagrammable coffee shops
(11:11) The Muslim faces of the progressive movement
(14:51) Systemic Islamophobia in America
(20:35) How race shapes Muslim communities
(27:04) Shifting views on Gaza amidst persistent Islamophobia

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The genre made for lovers doesn't seem to respect the very fanbase it’s engineered to woo.

When Mankaprr Conteh interviewed R&B artist Isaia Huron, she imagined a thoughtful if not a bit complicated conversation about the difficult woman at the center of his latest album, Mr. Lovebomb. What she got was something else entirely.

Huron went on to tell Mankaprr that he has no empathy for women and that it's problematic that women believe they deserve everything. This conversation was later turned into Mankaprr’s piece for Hammer & Hope magazine: “Is This What R&B Sounds Like When You Don’t Respect Women?” Huron’s casual misogyny in a genre like R&B raised more questions than answers.

Today on the show, journalist and 2026–2027 Knight-Wallace Arts Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan Mankaprr Conteh, joins Brittany to break down Huron’s surprising comments, ‘vibes based chauvinism,’ and the state of R&B today.

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Is the fantasy of football worth the potential price?

That's what football athletes, fans and doctors are asking after a new study published in late August revealed that from a sample of athletes who played at least one NFL game in their careers and who died between 2016 and 2021, a minimum of around 25% -- that's one in every four of those players --  had a brain condition called CTE upon their death. But what do these findings really mean for one of the world's most lucrative sports leagues, and how might our cultural ideas about football be creating blind spots for us when we consider the risks of the game? To find out Brittany is joined by Gene Demby, co-host of NPR’s Code Switch, and LZ Granderson, host of the LZ Granderson Show podcast, and op-ed columnist at the LA Times.

Want more episodes at the intersection of labor, entertainment, and pop culture? Check these out:

Has Broadway lost its way?
People are struggling financially. Even on TV.

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If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 9-8-8, or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

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Has the era of optimization finally reached a fever pitch?

Veneers, perfect minimalist home decor, and even eye whitening drops are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the many ways we can ‘optimize’ our lives. But at what cost? And how did we even get to this point?

To understand this trend we’re talking with Bloomberg Business Week Senior Writer Amanda Mull, who wrote The Optimization Backlash Has Begun, to understand how optimization has become the name of the game online and why it’s starting to wear thin.

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"Be vulnerable." "We love your authenticity." "Bring your full self to work." Sound familiar? In this episode from our friends at Code Switch, B.A. Parker chats with Jodi-Ann Burey, author of Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work, about why you should absolutely NOT do those things at work — especially if you're a Black woman.

For more episodes on how we work, check out:
Who really counts as ‘working class’?
You might be suffering from AI brain fry
How the grindset broke your brain

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