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From a botched execution in Tennessee to the commutation of over 500 people on death row in California, capital punishment is all over the headlines.

But where do American attitudes toward the death penalty come from? And what do those attitudes say about the kind of society we want to be? To find out, Brittany chats with Ngozi Ndulue, Associate Professor of Law & Director of the Post-Conviction Criminal Defense Clinic at University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, and Dr. Michael Trotti, History professor and coordinator of legal studies at Ithaca College, and author of The End of Public Execution: Race, Religion, and Punishment in the American South.

Looking for more conversations about law and culture? Check out these episodes:

Why is divorce financially harder on women?
Abortion access is limited. Is Hollywood to blame?

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Midlife isn’t just about body changes and sports cars.

For Allison Aubrey, journalist and host of Your Turn, there’s more to midlife is a new opportunity. In fact, what we’ve been told of midlife –the reinvention and crisis— isn’t reflective of the reality. In fact, midlife is more of pivot, rather than an 180 degree change. Brittany Luse chats with Allison Aubrey about what to expect and not expect in midlife, why curiosity is key, and what it means to share wisdom with younger generations.

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Is Wicker succeeding where rom-coms fall short?

When the Wicker trailer dropped, all thirst broke loose. The movie -- starring Olivia Colman as a spinster fisherwoman and Alexander Skarsgård as her husband made of wicker -- sparked a lot of chatter about what exactly is so swoon-worthy about a basket-woven beau. The movie highlights women's interest in stories about non-human romantic partners, while joining the canon of sexy, sometimes silly films about finding your footing in relationships. But it also asks deeper questions about what we expect from our partners -- and what the rest of the world expects from couples.

Brittany gets into all this with Rachel Handler, features writer at New York Magazine, and Aisha Harris, critic and host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour.

For more episodes on what’s going on in movies (and how they speak to what’s going on in culture), check out:
Why Gen Z is movie-maxxing
Women deserve revenge. Do they get to have it?
Inside the Michael Jackson legacy industrial complex

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What does it cost to be seen as a ‘godly woman’?

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies author Deesha Philyaw asks that and more in her latest novel, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman. 

The book is a satirical, Real Housewives-style romp following its protagonist, Scharisse Freeman, as she navigates the highs and lows of being a pastor’s wife --including all the plotting, backstabbing, and respectability politics that come with trying to be a beacon of Christian femininity.

But when a scandal unearths her past, she learns the hard way that being seen as a ‘good woman’ or ‘good wife’ is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Deesha joins the show to deconstruct how the rigidity of church life can bring out the worst in us, and why we should be more open to other paths to living a faithful life.

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In response to the rape allegations out of Cornell University, many parents are online questioning the lessons they are teaching their children.

But what about the fathers who are raising the next generation of boys? What conversations are they having with their sons about consent? To find out, Brittany is joined by Kathryn Jezer-Morton, writer for The Cut's Brooding column, and Jenny Grossman, senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College.

Want more conversations at the intersection of gender and culture? Tap into these episodes:

Where did all the 'masculine men' go?
Are we fueling violence against women?

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Denée Benton is having a very good year. 

She’s currently starring in season four of the hit television show ‘The Gilded Age’ while starring in the production of ‘School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play.’ But success has been a long time coming. Since her Broadway debut in 2016, Denee has been working in television, theater and movies, often simultaneously, for a decade. She joins host Brittany Luse in a discussion about how a Broadway performance can feel like a physical workout, what’s in store for her Gilded Age character Peggy, and her most “sacred” project to date.

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Why IQ still matters to people - even if it's biased.

President Trump and Silicon Valley tech bros are obsessed with IQ, but the history of intelligence testing is full of bunk race science and eugenics. With the rise of AI's "super intelligence," should we still be ranking human intelligence at all? In this crossover episode with our friends at Code Switch, we explore who gets labeled as smart with Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right and Angela Saini, author of Superior: The Return of Race Science.

(00:00) Why Trump and Silicon Valley are obsessed with IQ
(03:27) The tech right's IQ fetishism
(06:30) How 'The Bell Curve' justified inequality
(09:05) IQ's political consequences
(15:28) The BITCH test and valuing diverse intelligences
(22:23) The myth of biological race
(26:13) Does nurture matter more than nature for intelligence?
(32:27) Rejecting IQ hierarchies

For more episodes about the politics of intelligence, check out:
The price you pay for being smart
Books vs. Brain Rot: why it's so hard to read
You might be suffering from AI brain fry

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Divorce can be liberating. And expensive.

When author and science journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer separated from her ex-husband, her social media feed was inundated with posts about the freedom of divorce. But while divorce can be empowering… Melinda felt like that narrative overlooked a pretty significant part of the process: the financial burden.

And she’s not alone. After detailing her experience on her Substack, Now What, it caught the attention of editors at New York Magazine. Apparently their divorced friends were also having a hard time financially and they wanted someone to look into it. Melinda’s reporting was published in The Cut, titled: The Strong, Empowered, Secretly Broke Divorcee.

Melinda joins the show to walk Brittany through how financially punishing divorce can be for women and why we should all be a bit more critical of the laws that intend to treat all parties fairly when we still live in a deeply unequal society.

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How do you decide who to vote for?

Some people are turning to AI chatbots to craft bespoke voter guides, while others are leaning on the wisdom of their favorite Instagram or TikTok influencers to guide them to the polls. But what are the pitfalls of each of these approaches, and what does our reliance on them say about what we need to feel informed? To find out, Brittany is joined by Maham Javaid, NPR politics reporter, and Dr. Martin Riedl, assistant professor of journalism and media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Are you looking for more conversations on politics and culture? Check these out:

The DSA vs. establishment Democrats
How often do you think about the American Empire?

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Are we in an economic crisis? 

It’s a question that prompted Pulitzer Prize-winning data journalist and illustrator Mona Chalabi to pitch her first book, Ten Lives: How What We Have Shapes Who We Are.

It chronicles the economic lives of Americans -- from the mega wealthy to those living paycheck-to-paycheck -- over a six year period. She even digs into her own financial life. From the economic highs of inheritances and professional success to the lows of divorces and lawsuits, Mona chats with Brittany about how economic insecurity affects us all.

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