It's Been a Minute

The AI revolution has come for our love lives. Millions around the world are now in relationships with chatbots who can text, sext and – for a fee – talk to you on the phone and have 'in-person' interactions via augmented reality. Host Brittany Luse tries the AI companion app Replika for herself – and discusses the experience with The Cut's Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz, who's spent the past year covering tech and dating. They talk about the surprising market that Replika has found and whether relationships with AI chatbots will become more common. Finally, they play a new game called 'Boyfriend... or Bot?'

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It's not just you – the constant texts, calls, emails and DMs from scammers are invading so many of our lives. And when the scams are successful, there's often no recourse at all. So how do we protect ourselves from these schemers?

Host Brittany Luse talks first to Laci Mosley, host of a podcast called 'Scam Goddess,' about how even a scam queen can become a victim. Then, Brittany chats with Susan Tompor, money columnist at the Detroit Free Press, about how these scams work, what's being done about them and why we all need to stop judging people who've fallen prey to scams.

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If you're more than a casual observer on the interwebs, you've probably heard the term, "chronically online" – someone who knows the ins and outs of viral trends, memes and memorable moments. But sometimes you can get too deep in the Matrix. That's why our new segment, Chronically Online, is here to find the balance.

To kick it off, host Brittany Luse chats with Buzzfeed News internet reporter Steffi Cao about her essay, "white women want their power back: on bbls and balletcore, and the entropy of aesthetic." After scrolling on Instagram Reels, Steffi noticed that the clean girl, coastal grandmother and – most importantly – the vanilla girl trends are all ushering in a very specific aesthetic. Brittany and Steffi talk beauty as soft power and the rebrand of white womanhood.

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It's basically spring - which means wedding season is starting to rev up. And no one does weddings quite like Jennifer Lopez - both on-screen and off. Host Brittany Luse is joined by New York Magazine features writer Rachel Handler to break down J.Lo's wedding planning movies (the Jennifer Lopez Wedding Industrial Complex Canon), how they add to J.Lo's brand, and what they say about our investment in the real-life wedding industrial complex.

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It's been three years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. And according to the CDC, out of all the American adults who have had COVID — and that's a lot of us — one in five went on to develop long COVID symptoms. While so many are struggling with this new disease, it can be hard for people to know what to do to take care of themselves. The Long COVID Survival Guide aims to give people struggling with long COVID practical solutions and emotional support to manage their illness.

In this conversation from November 2022, host Brittany Luse talks to Fiona Lowenstein, editor of the guide, and Karla Monterroso, one of the contributors, about the difficulty of getting diagnosed, navigating long COVID and creating long-term collective care.

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Even after Silicon Valley Bank crumbled and tech workers have been laid off in the thousands, Silicon Valley is still surrounded by a mythos of progress and futurity. Host Brittany Luse talks to author Malcolm Harris about his new book, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, to break down how that mythos was built, the dark underbelly underneath it, and why the tech industry is a microcosm of American capitalism.

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John Legend has permeated the culture for over two decades. His music has racked up billions of plays and he and his wife regularly make headlines when they bring us into some of their happiest and most vulnerable moments as a family. Today, we're looking back on his rise to fame, his most creative project, and what keeps him coming back to the ivory keys. Brittany also brings on the fun with an EGOT game of trivia.

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In nearly 100 years, the Oscar award for Best Director has only gone to three women. The film industry as a whole has been heavily dominated by men, but it wasn't always this way. Ahead of Academy Awards, Brittany chops it up with Maya Montañez Smukler, author of Liberating Hollywood: Women Directors and the Feminist Reform of 1970s American Cinema, to discuss the state of women directors and how the industry systematically shifted them out of the spotlight.

Then, we ask Chicago Tribune TV and film critic Nina Metz about the oversaturation of fictional, churlish billionaires on screen - and why there should be more depictions of the workers they exploit.

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In the six decades since Marilyn Monroe passed away, Hollywood has not let her go. Actresses have portrayed her in countless films and there have been more than 15 biopics dedicated to the late icon. Ahead of the Academy Awards, Ana de Armas has been getting Oscar buzz for playing Marilyn 'Blonde.' However, one critic finds this role, this film, and these stereotypes deeply problematic. Host Brittany Luse is joined by culture critic Angelica Jade Bastién to talk about Marilyn's misinterpreted legacy and why the Hollywood impersonations never shine as bright as the real star.

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What makes The Real Housewives peak culture – as in the #1 topic in the group chat – for so many people? Host Brittany Luse and producer Liam McBain descend into the depths of Bravocon – the Bravo convention – to find out. They talk to fans, a producer, and the Housewives themselves to understand how the franchise became a cultural juggernaut.

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