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It's Been a Minute

Pop culture has a "bean soup problem."

It's Been a Minute

NPR

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

4.68.8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Online discourse has become a fun part of enjoying and dissecting big pop culture events. But after seeing all the commentary around Ryan Coogler's Sinners - one of the biggest cultural juggernauts of the year - Brittany has one question: are we in a media literacy crisis?

Difference of opinion is one thing, but it feels like some viewers are missing important clues or misreading the film entirely - and it doesn't stop with Sinners.

To help work through this, Pop Culture Happy Hour's Aisha Harris and Code Switch's B.A. Parker join the show to figure out what this could mean for the way we engage with the world at large.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

When Malcolm Gladwell presented NPR's ThruLine podcast with a Peabody Award, he praised it for its historical and moral clarity.

0:10.0

On ThruLine, we take you back in time to the origins of what's in the news, like presidential power, aging, and evangelicalism.

0:18.0

Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR.

0:26.2

Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

0:42.8

Thank you. and why it doesn't happen by accident. Like almost every other person in the country,

0:46.1

I flocked to see Ryan Cougler's sinners when it hit theaters in April.

0:51.3

And while I enjoyed the film,

0:53.3

part of the fun was seeing all the excitement online.

0:56.8

So when I was finally able to scroll through all the spoiler-heavy commentary, I was shocked

1:02.9

to see some of the wildest takes I've seen on a movie in a while. For example, there's a

1:09.2

Chinese character in the film named Grace, played by Li Jun Li.

1:13.2

And for those who haven't seen it, this is a light spoiler, but she's responsible for a pretty

1:17.9

big moment in the film. But what I, and also the director of the film, Ryan Coogler, felt was a rash

1:24.3

decision made by a mother in distress. Some viewers thought was a representation of a lack of POC solidarity from Asian folks in black communities.

1:33.7

Even stranger, some audience members thought Annie, played by actress Wumi Mosaku, was one of the main characters, Smoke's mother.

1:42.1

Now, for those who don't know, Annie is the estranged wife of smoke,

1:46.6

one of the two Smokstack twins

1:48.1

played by Michael B. Jordan.

1:49.8

Just wild stuff.

1:51.6

But this isn't the first time

1:52.8

the audience has been out of step

1:54.5

with the content itself.

...

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