It's September, which means millions of young learners across the country are dusting off their backpacks and heading back to school. But a new study from Gallup and The Walton Family Foundation has shown that students are less engaged, and feel less challenged than last year, and about half of them have no plans to get a Bachelor's degree right after high school. Host Brittany Luse is joined by Karin Klein, education reporter and author of Rethinking College: A Guide to Thriving Without a Degree, and NPR Education Desk correspondent and Senior Editor Cory Turner to parse through what has next generation feeling despondent and if we need to rethink the purpose of high school.

Then, Brittany is on the housing hunt, but she's found that even outside major urban areas, small cities across the country are rapidly gentrifying. Richard E. Ocejo, author of Sixty Miles Upriver: Gentrification and Race in a Small American City, joins Brittany to look at what happens when big city gentrifiers move to town and how some of them have rebranded gentrification.

Want to be featured on IBAM? Record a voice memo responding to Brittany's question at the end of the episode and send it to [email protected].

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Who will win today's cage match?

Welcome to The Smackdown! For the next several weeks Brittany is hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places.

This episode Brittany lands in Concord, New Hampshire, the Granite State, and debates with New Hampshire Public Radio reporters Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, the hosts of the excellent podcast Civics 101. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises.

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After Chappell Roan posted about how some fans have been making her feel unsafe, there's been speculation around whether the singer is really 'cut out to be a pop star.' But are the critiques fair? Brittany sits down with Kelsey McKinney, who wrote about the controversy for Defector, and Dr. Mel Stanfill, author of Fandom is Ugly. They discuss modern fandom, how Chappell Roan framed it as a conversation about gender and what people misunderstand about celebrity.

Then, Brittany looks at the how charity is changing. Traditional charitable giving is down in the US and some non-profits have declared that we're in the middle of a "generosity crisis." At the same time, a new genre of online viral videos has emerged: feel-good 'charity' content. And nobody does it bigger than MrBeast. Brittany is joined by journalist Max Read to understand the MrBeast phenomenon and break down the generational divides these videos reveal.

Want to be featured on IBAM? Record a voice memo responding to Brittany's question at the end of the episode and send it to [email protected].

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It's been 21 years since Starbucks debuted the first pumpkin spice latte in 2003. Since then, it's become a cultural phenomenon greater than itself: it's shorthand for fall, for basicness, for femininity, and even for white culture. In this episode from last year, we explore why the PSL became so powerful — and how food trends garner so much meaning.

Host Brittany Luse chatted with Suzy Badaracco, food trend forecaster and founder of Culinary Tides, to discuss the $500 million dollar industry, and how little miss pumpkin spice has held on to her cultural power.

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As the dust settles on the DNC, host Brittany Luse takes a look at the challenges facing a group of progressive democrats commonly known as "The Squad." Incumbent Reps. Cori Bush in Missouri and Jamaal Bowman in New York lost their seats this summer to candidates whose campaigns received funding from pro-Israel PACs. Brittany is joined by POLITICO Congress reporter Sarah Ferris and Capital B News national politics reporter Brandon Tensley to understand how these PACs are impacting progressives in Congress.

Then, Brittany talks to Colman Domingo about his new film, 'SING SING,' which follows the emotional lives of a group of incarcerated actors working together to stage an original musical. Colman stars alongside a cast of real-life formerly incarcerated actors, and connects with Brittany over experiencing new versions of masculinity and paving the way for a new kind of Hollywood star.

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Who will win today's cage match?

Welcome to The Smackdown! For the next several weeks Brittany is hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places.

This episode Brittany lands in San Francisco, California, the Bay Area, and debates with KQED reporters Pendarvis Harshaw, host of Rightnowish, and Olivia Allen-Price, host of Bay Curious. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises.

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Who will win today's cage match?

Welcome to The Smackdown! For the next several weeks Brittany is hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places.

This episode Brittany lands in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, the Twin Cities, and debates with Minnesota Public Radio reporters Kyra Miles and Jacob Aloi. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises.

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Ever since Minnesota governor and Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz called Republicans "weird," we've seen other Democrats embrace this name-calling strategy and deploy it in interviews and in memes online. We've also seen Republicans lobbing the "weird" moniker right back at Democrats. To get into how "weird" this all is, Brittany chats with NPR culture reporter Andrew Limbong and NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben about this new political strategy and redefining "normalcy" in 2024.

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Now that we're in the dog days of summer, host Brittany Luse wants to know - do we have a song of the summer this year? According to NPR Music reporter Sidney Madden and NPR Music host, writer and editor Stephen Thompson, there isn't one song - but many songs.

"We are more disparate than ever, that's why it's hard to chart a single song right now," said Sidney. "It's more like choose your own adventure."

So - we're choosing our own adventure today and discussing the many contenders for song of the summer - and hearing why each song tells us something a little different about our cultural moment.


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Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris entered the presidential race, things changed. Her campaign almost immediately started framing the election as: Harris, the former prosecutor - vs. Trump the felon. And that word - "felon" - is one that our friends over at NPR's Code Switch have been thinking a lot about since former President Trump was convicted of 34 counts back in May. In this episode, Code Switch co-hosts B.A. Parker and Gene Demby chop it up with the comedian Arif Shahid, who performs under the name Felonious Munk, to talk about what it means for him to carry this reference to his felony conviction so publicly. Then, Gene talks to Josie Duffy-Rice, a writer who focuses on the criminal justice system, to look at the ways "felon" sticks to people long after their sentences end.


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