Brittany Luse

More women than ever are choosing to raise their children by their self. Is it time to hit reset on what we mean by "family" in America?America has some deeply held prejudices toward single moms, but some studies show that 40% of babies in the U.S. are born to unmarried women. In this episode Brittany looks into the joy and challenges these women face - from freedom and agency to affordability and loneliness.Brittany is joined by Pallavi Gogoi, NPR's Chief Business Editor, and Danielle Elliot, writer and a single mother. You can read Pallavi's reporting here.(0:00) Hitting reset on the definition of "family" and "single mom"(5:42) The power & agency of being a single mom(7:30) Does your child need a present father? (15:11) The struggles of being a single parent(18:29) Tips for raising a kid by yourselfSupport Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany Luse on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.

Is location tracking building relationships? Or ruining them?Four in ten U.S. adults share their locations with at least one person. But while it’s convenient – is it a violation of privacy? And who really needs to know where you are? We're getting into how location sharing became a norm, the pros and cons, and how to turn it off without making things weird.Brittany breaks it all down with Gina Cherelus, New York Times styles reporter and writer of their Third Wheel dating column, and Tatum Hunter, internet culture reporter at The Washington Post.(0:00) Who shares their location and why?(3:21) Sharing with your friends vs. your boyfriend(5:27) How location sharing became a social norm(9:30) What are the benefits of sharing your location?(14:21) What do companies get from knowing your location?(15:40) Why it can be damaging to share location with people(17:20) The awkwardness of stopping sharing location(19:29) How location sharing is redefining "privacy"Support Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Bri

It's an incredibly painful thing to do, so why are some kids cutting their parents out of their lives?27% of Americans are estranged from at least one family member, and the term "no contact" is increasingly being used to describe estrangement between adult children and their parents. But is estrangement happening more often, or are we just more open to talking about it? And is our culture around family shifting? Brittany sits down with journalist Kui Mwai and Whitney Goodman, licensed marriage and family therapist and the host of the Calling Home podcast, to find out.This episode originally aired on December 17, 2024.Follow Brittany Luse on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.

Can you afford to pay two rents?Families across the country are asking that same question when it comes to childcare, as the yearly costs for daycare are becoming comparable to a year's rent in many places. How did childcare become so expensive, and how might everyone benefit if the government provided more support to parents? Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Jessica Calarco, and Senior Fellow at the Think Tank Capita Elliot Haspel are here to help Brittany find out. Follow Brittany Luse on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.

Can you afford to pay two rents?Families across the country are asking that same question when it comes to childcare, as the yearly costs for daycare are becoming comparable to a year's rent in many places. How did childcare become so expensive, and how might everyone benefit if the government provided more support to parents? Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Jessica Calarco, and Senior Fellow at the Think Tank Capita Elliot Haspel are here to help Brittany find out. Follow Brittany Luse on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.

When the dream of buying a home seems unattainable, is it time to find a new dream? Or is there another option on the table?Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, or the FHFA, said the administration is “working on” a plan to introduce 50 year mortgage terms for homebuyers. But some Americans have already been working on their own plans towards homeownership… and it’s not the ‘nuclear family’ route. Brittany is joined by NPR chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley and NPR producer & author of The Other Significant Others: Reimaging Life with Friendship at the Center, Rhaina Cohen to get into the cult of homeownership in America. Together they search for a new outlook of what ‘adulthood’ looks like.(0:00) Will Millennials and Gen-Zers be able to buy homes?(7:56) Why Trump's mortgage policy probably won't work(10:53) The fundamental reasons housing is so expensive(12:37) Want to buy a home? Consider these options.(20:13) Responding to your commentsFollow Brittany Lu

When the dream of buying a home seems unattainable, is it time to find a new dream? Or is there another option on the table?Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, or the FHFA, said the administration is “working on” a plan to introduce 50 year mortgage terms for homebuyers. But some Americans have already been working on their own plans towards homeownership… and it’s not the ‘nuclear family’ route. Brittany is joined by NPR chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley and NPR producer & author of The Other Significant Others: Reimaging Life with Friendship at the Center, Rhaina Cohen to get into the cult of homeownership in America. Together they search for a new outlook of what ‘adulthood’ looks like.(0:00) Will Millennials and Gen-Zers be able to buy homes?(7:56) Why Trump's mortgage policy probably won't work(10:53) The fundamental reasons housing is so expensive(12:37) Want to buy a home? Consider these options.(20:13) Responding to your commentsFollow Brittany Lu

Government data indicates that Americans aren't throwing dinner parties as much as they used to, but there are good reasons to host them — and ways to ease the pressures of hosting.

What’s the difference between feeling unsafe and being unsafe?According to Gallup, about half of Americans see crime as being extremely or very serious. And there are a lot of very real threats out there to people’s safety, but there’s also a lot of fearful rhetoric that’s more unfounded. While immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens, and trans people are unlikely to commit mass shootings, fear of these groups is being weaponized against them. So how can we disentangle being unsafe and feeling unsafe – and better protect ourselves and each other? Brittany gets into it with Nicole Lewis, engagement editor at The Marshall Project, and Lex McMenamin, writer and editor.Follow Brittany Luse on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.

No disrespect, but...when President Trump threw a Great Gatsby-themed party for Halloween, it kind of missed the point of the book. And, it's not just Trump. A quick search online, and you'll see a lot of people increasingly misinterpreting other famous books. Are people just bad at reading? Are we just laying our own biases on top of classic texts? Or is something else going on?Andrew Limbong, host of NPR's Book of the Day, and writer-critic Princess Weekes join Brittany to dissect novel interpretations of literary fiction. They look at what these re-interpretations say about our current moment: from what we want from a book to how books lose meaning online.(0:00) Why 'The Great Gatsby' gets misread(6:07) How 'Lord of the Rings' became a Christian Nationalist text(12:46) Literary Interpretation vs. Media Literacy(16:34) The rise of BookTok(19:28) The consequence of missing the point of a bookFollow Brittany Luse on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod