How Is This Better?

What happens when AI starts to feel like something you can talk to... confide in even?

Akilah Hughes talks to tech and culture podcaster Bridget Todd about the surprisingly common phenomenon of AI intimacy, and why laughing at people with AI boyfriends might mean we're missing the bigger story. 

Check out Bridget's new audiobook, Love at First Prompt: AI and the Future of Intimacy and her amazing podcast, There Are No Girls on the Internet

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After you watch/listen to this, check out this video from Aidin Robbins.

Original description:

Last year, Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) sent a letter to 1000 probationary National Parks staff – firing them – only to reinstate them weeks later. Pretty INefficient…  

But that wasn’t just a distraction. It wasn’t just a fumble. It was the opening salvo for a plan, laid out in Project 2025, to dismantle protections for National Parks. 

It’s all got Akilah Hughes wondering – if she wants to cross going to Yosemite off her bucket list…is it now or never?

Guests:

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Ariana Grande has asked everyone to stop talking about her body. But now everyone is just talking about… how we shouldn’t talk about her body. Perhaps we’re missing the larger discussion. Have GLP-1s reinforced a beauty standard we thought we had overcome with the body positivity movement? 

Akilah examines.

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Hollywood used to feel like a place where anything could happen. Akilah Hughes talks to Stinson Carter about the strange magic of 2000s Hollywood, the Chateau Marmont, Entourage, and whether the Hollywood dream still exists.

Check out Stinson's piece for Esquire, "Bartending at the Edge of Fame."

And subscribe to How Is This Better? wherever you get your podcasts.

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Face it: Americans have a literacy problem. Host Akilah Hughes is joined by Oliver Speaks, author of the memoir Unread and literacy advocate, and Lauren Coffey, a journalist with EdSurge, to get to the bottom of why no one wants to read anymore.

If you're inspired to pick up a book, start with Oliver's! You can find it here.

Remember to subscribe to How Is This Better? wherever you get your podcasts.

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It seems like everyone is talking about AI. Because they are.
Across both sides of the aisle, whether you support it or you loathe it, AI is one of the most talked-about hot-button issues of 2026. It's everywhere — in our phones, on our computers, at our jobs, and even in our backyards thanks to data centers and flock surveillance cameras. Hell, even the Taco Bell drive-thru isn't safe anymore. Understandably, a lot of folks want AI gone, but are they actually convincing anyone to put down Chat GPT?
Our guest Dr. Fatima is an Astrophysicist-turned-creator who made a video about "how to anti-AI better". According to her, shame isn't the most effective method to get people to turn on our new robot overlords. The question is: what is?

Sponsors
This episode is brought to you by Mint Mobile. To get your new wireless plan for only $15 a month, go to https://www.mintmobile.com/courier/ — that's it, there's no catch.

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When students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School launched March For Our Lives after the Parkland shooting, they helped spark one of the largest youth-led movements in American history.

But nearly a decade later, gun violence remains the leading cause of death for American children and teens—and the issue no longer commands the same national attention it once did.

This week, Akilah Hughes talks with March For Our Lives Executive Director and Parkland survivor Jaclyn Corin about what comes after the marches, how activism has changed since 2018, and why the organization is shifting its focus toward culture, media, and the battle for attention itself.

Support March for Our Lives: https://marchforourlives.org/

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Today, we are sharing an episode we first-aired a year ago (nearly to the day). Back then, Trump and his administration would not stop saying "DEI" as if it were a slur. Their efforts to white-wash history have not gone away, so we wanted to share this episode again, today, on Juneteenth.

Guests:

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A UFC fight on the White House lawn sounds like satire. But it's real.

Before Ryan Broderick and Grant Irving of Panic World travel to Washington to attend the event, Akilah Hughes talks with them about what they expect to find there, who they're hoping to talk to, and what this bizarre spectacle might reveal about American politics.

Ryan and Grant will be reporting from the event itself, but first, they're helping us understand what this moment says about the country before the first punch is thrown.

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Long before Donald Trump entered politics, he understood professional wrestling.

In this bonus conversation from How Is This Better?, Akilah Hughes sits down with writer and former WWE writer Dave Schilling to unpack how wrestling became a blueprint for modern political culture. From Trump’s relationship with Vince McMahon to the rise of political "heels," they explore why voters connect more with characters than policies, why Democrats struggle to create compelling narratives, and what professional wrestling can teach us about charisma, authenticity, and power.

Drawing on his experience inside WWE's writers room, Dave explains how stars are built, how audiences become emotionally invested in underdogs, and why today's politicians often resemble wrestlers more than public servants.

If politics feels more like entertainment than ever before, this conversation might explain why.

Moments from this conversation, and others, appeared in our episode Politics is Wrestling.

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