It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders

By NPR

Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality Spirituality

What's It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders about?

A talk show with a heart. Each week, Sam interviews people in the culture who deserve your attention. Plus weekly wraps of the news with other journalists. Join Sam as he makes sense of the world through conversation.

4.8

7,786 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

The 'Thin Blue Line' In Min...

04.16.2021

What's it like to cover the Derek Chauvin trial against the backdrop of continued police violence? Guest host Ari Shapiro talks to Minnesota activist and journalist O'nika Nicole Craven. Then, he talks to Maurice Chammah, staff writer at The Marshall ...

It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders episodes:

04.16.2021 The 'Thin Blue Line' In Minnesota, Plus 'Tell Them, I Am' What's it like to cover the Derek Chauvin trial against the backdrop of continued police violence? Guest host Ari Shapiro talks to Minnesota activist and journalist O'nika Nicole Craven. Then, he talks to Maurice Chammah, staff writer at The Marshall ...
04.13.2021 Bowen Yang's Rules of Culture Bowen Yang often plays delightfully weird characters on SNL. But recently he appeared as himself on the show to address the uptick of Asian American violence in the U.S. Sam revisits his conversation from last fall with the comedian, who ...
04.09.2021 What's The Strategy? Corporate Activism And Anti-Trans Bills Corporations have spoken out against the new restrictive voting law in Georgia, but to what end? Sam talks to Slate writer Dahlia Lithwick about whether that tactic actually effects change—and whether it's just a performance. Plus, Sam talks to author ...
04.06.2021 The Human Cost of Family Separation It's been a few years now since President Trump adopted (and then later reversed) his administration's zero-tolerance policy that separated parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border. But what's happened to those families since? And what is President Biden doing ...
04.02.2021 Is 'Diversity And Inclusion' Far From Its Roots? And What's An NFT? Sam talks to Kim Tran, an anti-racist author and consultant, about her article in Harper's Bazaar on how the diversity, equity and inclusion industry has strayed from its movement roots. Plus, what's an NFT? And why are people buying them? ...
03.30.2021 Hanif Abdurraqib's Rabbit Holes into Great Black Performance Hanif Abdurraqib's latest book is A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance. In it, Abdurraqib researches the impact of Black performers on American culture throughout the past several hundred years, touching on everything from minstrel shows ...
03.26.2021 Gun Violence Never Went Away, Plus The Overlooked Talent Of Asian Actors It might have seemed like mass shootings were down last year, but 2020 was actually one of the deadliest years for gun violence in decades. Sam talks to Abené Clayton, reporter for The Guardian, about why some shootings get more ...
03.23.2021 The Fight To Transform Criminal Justice There are few paths to freedom for people serving life sentences in prison on federal drug charges. Guest host Ayesha Rascoe talks with Brittany K. Barnett, lawyer, entrepreneur and author of A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, ...
03.19.2021 A History Of Anti-Asian Racism, Plus 'Married At First Sight' In the wake of Tuesday's mass shooting in Atlanta, guest host Ayesha Rascoe talks to critical race theorist and professor Jennifer Ho about the history behind anti-Asian racism and what it means to be an Asian woman in America. Then, ...
03.16.2021 Can't Let It Go A special episode from our friends at NPR's Planet Money: A show all about the things we're obsessed with. Sam joins Planet Money co-host Karen Duffin to dig into obsessions including the Beyoncé of economics, an actual musician, Lubalin, finding ...
03.12.2021 Our Pandemic Year We take stock of a year that challenged us emotionally, culturally and politically. Sam talks to Hira Deol, a former contestant on Big Brother Canada, about what it was like to learn about the pandemic while sequestered away from the ...
03.09.2021 Sohla El-Waylly on Race, Food and 'Bon Appétit' Sohla El-Waylly called out her previous employer, Bon Appétit, during the magazine's racial reckoning last summer and resigned. The chef and food star is now a columnist at Food52 and star of the YouTube series Off-Script with Sohla. She and ...
03.08.2021 Pop Culture Happy Hour: L'Amour For 'Lupin' Sam joins the Pop Culture Happy Hour team to talk about the French Netflix series Lupin with culture writer Bedatri D. Choudhury and co-hosts Aisha Harris and Glen Weldon. They discuss the twisty caper's exciting (if implausible) plot, dissect its ...
03.05.2021 Voting Rights Under Threat, Plus Do We Still Need Sports? A new case before the U.S. Supreme Court could jeopardize the power of the Voting Rights Act. Sam talks to Mark Joseph Stern, staff writer for Slate, about what's at stake and how so much of the current debate goes ...
03.02.2021 Author Torrey Peters On Seeing Through A Trans Lens Torrey Peters' new book Detransition, Baby, is about navigating identity, commitment, parenthood and divorce. The three main characters, a pregnant cis woman, her partner who is a detransitioned man, and his ex, a trans woman, are all considering how they ...
02.26.2021 A Weird Awards Season, Plus "Anything for Selena" What's an awards season when many theaters are still closed and it's harder to track which movies and shows deserve buzz? Louis Virtel and Ira Madison III, co-hosts of Keep It chat with Sam about who's being selected and who's ...
02.23.2021 Octavia Butler: Visionary Fiction‬ A special episode from our friends at NPR's history podcast Throughline: Octavia Butler's alternate realities and 'speculative fiction' reveal striking, and often devastating parallels to the world we live in today. She was a deep observer of the human condition, ...
02.19.2021 Your Vaccine Questions, Answered Will the vaccine make me sick? Can I see grandma if she's vaccinated but I'm not? And what's the deal with double masking? Listeners had questions about the coronavirus and vaccines, Sam and NPR Short Wave host Maddie Sofia have ...
02.16.2021 The (Not So?) Wonderful World of Disney Sam talks to filmmaker and activist Abigail Disney, daughter of Roy E. Disney, about her views on inequality in the U.S., corporate greed and why, despite her last name, she's become one of the more vocal and prominent critics of ...
02.12.2021 The Union Fight At Amazon, Plus 'Your Korean Dad' An Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, has become ground zero in a battle that could change Amazon as we know it. Sam chats with a worker about his experience, and labor reporter and organizer Kim Kelly talks about what ...
02.09.2021 Desus And Mero On Politics, Fame And Life In The Pandemic Desus Nice and The Kid Mero went from calling up "anyone in their phone book" in the early days of their podcast Bodega Boys, to booking big names in politics like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Barack Obama on Desus & ...
02.08.2021 Presenting 'Snap Judgment': Money Truck What would you do if a truck full of money flung its doors open right in front of you? Our friends at the Snap Judgment podcast tell six stories that will make you question your own conscience. You can follow ...
02.05.2021 The Lasting Power Of Whitney Houston's National Anthem Why does Whitney Houston's 1991 Super Bowl national anthem still resonate 30 years later? Sam chats with author and Black Girl Songbook host Danyel Smith about that moment of Black history and what it says about race, patriotism and pop ...
02.02.2021 Presenting 'Fresh Air': Angela Bassett On Drama, Music And 'Soul' Sam sits in the Fresh Air host chair to chat with actor Angela Bassett. She talks about her most recent film, Disney and Pixar's Soul, what drew her to acting as a young person growing up in Florida, whether Hollywood ...
01.29.2021 Immigration Under Biden, Plus Preet Bharara 'Doing Justice' What does immigration look like under President Biden? Sam talks to Caitlin Dickerson, staff writer at The Atlantic, about the likelihood Biden can push through policies that other administrations from both parties tried and failed to do. Plus, Sam chats ...
01.26.2021 The Future Of Fashion Hello, sweatpants. With scaled-down Fashion Weeks, department stores hurting, and more and more people opting for loungewear rather than workplace attire... where does that leave the fashion business in 2021? Sam talks to Robin Givhan, senior critic-at-large at The Washington ...
01.22.2021 Lessons from 9/11 for Today's Extremism; Plus 'Crazy Stories About Racism' How will the response to far-right extremism compare to the response after 9/11? Sam talks to Hannah Allam, NPR national security correspondent, about the security and civil liberties debate over taking a "war on terror" mindset to today's far-right threat. ...
01.19.2021 After Trump, What's Next For Fox News? What will happen to Fox News after President Trump leaves office? Fox News is facing Trump's anger for not being sufficiently "loyal," and it's seeing new competition as viewers head to conservative networks like Newsmax and One America News Network. ...
01.15.2021 What's Next For Social Media After Trump? Plus The Lie Of 'Laziness' A lot of the pro-Trump extremism behind the attack on the Capitol flourished online. Sam talks to Bobby Allyn and Shannon Bond, who both cover tech for NPR, about social platforms and the actions they've taken since the siege, the ...
01.12.2021 We've Had Insurrections Before History has a way of repeating itself. Last week's storming of the U.S. Capitol has parallels to an incident dating back to 1874, when a paramilitary force of ex-Confederates seized control of the Louisiana state house. Their goal? To depose ...
01.08.2021 The Capitol, Mobbed With the pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol this week, at the same time that Congress was set to certify the presidential election results, 2021 is off to a rocky start. Sam checks in with NPR congressional correspondent Susan Davis ...
01.05.2021 Why 'Better Things' Pamela Adlon Is Everyone's Mother Sam revisits his conversation from 2020 with actress Pamela Adlon. Adlon is the writer, star, director and co-creator of the acclaimed comedy-drama Better Things on FX. The series follows Adlon's character, Sam, as a divorced actress, raising three kids in ...
01.01.2021 Claudia Rankine On The Uneasy Conversations Between 'Just Us' After a year that offered many moments of reflection—from the coronavirus pandemic, to protests for racial justice, to the long election season—acclaimed poet Claudia Rankine's latest book offers a framework to process it all. That book is called Just Us: ...
12.29.2020 Presenting 'Fresh Air': Aaron Sorkin on 'The Trial of the Chicago 7' Sam sits in the Fresh Air host chair to talk with writer and director Aaron Sorkin. His latest film The Trial of the Chicago 7 covers the events at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago when several prominent anti-war ...
12.25.2020 The Best — And Worst — Of Christmas Culture Sam shares holiday recommendations with Audie Cornish, co-host of All Things Considered and Consider This, and Bob Mondello, NPR's film critic. They discuss not only their holiday favorites, but also the holiday things they hate. And yes, they'll discuss Love ...
12.22.2020 The Best Things That Happened to You This year has been hard for pretty much everyone, but that still hasn't stopped people from getting married, having babies, starting new jobs, and telling us all about those milestones and celebrations in voice memos on our show. So in ...
12.18.2020 The Year in Celebrity Culture with 'Who? Weekly' Without movies or TV shows to shoot or music to record, celebrities were restless in 2020 and eager to connect with a public that, at least for a while, couldn't care less about them. Sam wraps up the year in ...
12.15.2020 'I Can't Wait To Hate Tour Again': Phoebe Bridgers On Her Breakout Year Songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has had a big year, but it's also been bittersweet. With four Grammy nominations for work on her acclaimed 2020 album Punisher, Bridgers, like most touring musicians, has been stuck at home. She talks to Sam about ...
12.11.2020 The Internet Culture Of Quarantine, Plus Selena's Legacy Coronavirus has transformed pop culture and placed its creation in the hands of anyone who has social media. Sam chats with E. Alex Jung, a writer at New York Magazine, about pop culture's shift this year to the internet. Then, ...
12.08.2020 Pod Fatigue: How Coronavirus Lockdown Has Tested Friendships Are you sick of the friends and family you've been stuck with? Sam teams up with Anna Sale, host of the WNYC podcast Death, Sex & Money, to explore how our pandemic 'pods' are being tested by the coronavirus. In ...
12.04.2020 Life in the Time of Coronavirus "What has this pandemic been like for you?" When we put that question to people, the answers we got depended a lot on where they were in life — if they were in school, if they had a job, if ...
12.01.2020 Cathy Park Hong's Asian American Reckoning Cathy Park Hong talks with Sam about her book Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. She discusses how watching comedian Richard Pryor influenced her to write honestly about Asian American identity, and how her Korean parents' experience of immigration has ...
11.27.2020 James McBride On Hope, Community And 'A Place Of Miracles' For the holiday, Sam revisits his conversation with award-winning author James McBride. McBride's latest book Deacon King Kong tells the story of how one man's decision brings together the different racial communities of 1960s Brooklyn to solve a larger issue. ...
11.24.2020 Presenting Life Kit: How To Have Better Conversations With the holidays coming, we're all trying to figure out how to celebrate with loved ones from a distance. When all we have to connect this year are phone calls and video chats, how do we make the most out ...
11.20.2020 Georgia's Senate Runoffs, Plus W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu Talk Politics Georgia's Senate runoffs have become national races as control of the Senate depends on who wins. Sam asks Tia Mitchell, Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, if Georgia voters are looking at the runoffs the way the rest of the ...
11.17.2020 Why Donald Trump Is The Houdini Of Bad Business What's next for President Trump once he leaves the White House? And what's next for his business? And what's he being investigated for again? And by whom? We take a step back and break it all down with Andrea Bernstein, ...
11.16.2020 Louder Than A Riot: 'The Badder, The Better: Bobby Shmurda (Pt 1)' The rapper Bobby Shmurda had a big viral hit in 2014, and it looked like he was going to be a star. But just months later, Bobby and his friends were arrested and charged in connection with a murder and ...
11.13.2020 Biden's Coronavirus Response, Plus Comedian Matt Rogers What could a new president mean for the coronavirus pandemic? Sam talks to Ed Yong, staff writer at The Atlantic, about President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus task force and how much the federal government can do to change the course of ...
11.10.2020 White Supremacy And Its Online Reach Talia Lavin went undercover in white supremacist online communities, creating fake personas that would gain her access to the dark reaches of the internet normally off-limits to her, a Jewish woman. That research laid the groundwork for her book, Culture ...
11.06.2020 What's Next For Biden And Democrats? Joe Biden appears to be inching closer to a victory, but there wasn't a blowout for Democrats this election. Sam talks to New York Times national political reporter Astead Herndon about what we know, what we thought we knew, and ...

Older episodes