Gen Z is afraid of sex. And for good reason.

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gen Z is having less sex than previous generations. But why? Well, let's be real. There are a lot of very legitimate reasons why young people are afraid of sex right now, many having to do with recent massive political and cultural changes.

Brittany gets into why Gen Z-ers are having less sex with Tobias Hess, contributing writer at Paper magazine and writer of the Gen Zero Substack, and Carter Sherman, reproductive health and justice reporter at The Guardian and author of The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation's Fight Over Its Future.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You have your job, but you also have a life, and you're not just one thing.
0:06.3	Neither is the Here and Now Anytime podcast.
0:09.2	Every weekday, we break down the biggest story of the day and something else, like a new trend everyone's talking about.
0:15.7	It's Here and Now Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBR.
0:31.4	Hello, hello. I'm Brittany loose, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR,
0:36.3	a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
0:46.1	A warning. This segment discusses sex and sexuality.
0:54.0	Okay, so I personally enjoy Sabrina Carpenter, but she got into some backlash recently.
0:54.7	What was that about?
1:02.9	Well, she put out a new album cover for her forthcoming album, Man's Best Friend, where she not so subtly looked like she was pretending to be a dog held by her own hair as a kind of leash by a man.
1:13.2	Yeah, it sparked a real wave of discourse,
1:16.8	and it felt incredibly silly to me
1:18.7	because it's almost like the whole internet was debating
1:20.9	a poster that said the word sex.
1:25.4	This week, we're connecting the dots between hot discourse, Sabrina Carpenter and the youths.
1:32.2	I know, I know.
1:33.7	How are all of these things connected?
1:35.7	Well, we're going to find out with Tobias Hess, contributing writer at Paper Magazine
1:39.5	and writer of the Gen Zero Substack, and Carter Sherman,
1:43.2	reproductive health and justice Reporter at The Guardian
1:45.4	and author of The Second Coming, Sex and the Next Generations Fight Over Its Future.
1:51.9	Carter, Tobias, welcome to its bit a minute.
	...

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