Poppers, the FDA, & a crackdown decades in the making

It's Been a Minute

NPR

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

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Poppers, a party substance long popular with gay men, were thrust into the national spotlight last week when one producer, Double Scorpio, claimed that they halted operations due to a search and seizure by the FDA. There's been no official statement from the FDA saying this raid took place, but the suggestion of a raid — against producers of a substance disproportionately popular with the queer community — certainly raised some eyebrows.

Brittany is joined by Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR's health policy correspondent, and Alex Abad-Santos, Senior Correspondent at Vox. Together they talk about the FDA's concerns about poppers — even before our current administration — and the conspiracy theory that's giving some gay men flashbacks to the 1980s.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	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.
0:19.3	This week, we are connecting the dots between gas stations, RFK Jr. and Charlie XCX.
0:27.7	I know, I know. How are all of these things connected? Well, we are going to find out with NPR's health policy correspondent, Selena Simmons-Duffin, and Vox Senior Culture Correspondent, Alex, Alex,
0:38.1	Abad Santos.
0:39.2	Selena, Alex, welcome to it's been a minute.
0:41.7	Hi.
0:42.5	Thanks for having me.
0:44.1	It's good to have you, Selena, for the first time, it's good to have you back, Alex.
0:48.0	Yes.
0:48.5	Can't wait to talk about what we're going to talk about.
0:50.6	Yes.
0:50.9	Well, first of all, I got to ask you all just a little icebreaker. So do either of you identify as a 365 party girl?
0:58.9	Ooh.
0:59.4	Mm-mm.
1:00.0	No.
1:00.7	Oh, Selena says no?
1:01.9	No, I've got a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old at home.
1:05.2	So I can't even remember the last time I did a thing that was fun.
1:09.0	Okay.
1:09.6	That's fair.
1:10.1	Oh, that sounds sad. No, I mean, but yes. That's where I'm coming from.
1:14.0	I'm like 12. All like, it's like once a month.
	...

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