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.

All right, everybody, this week you and I are connecting the dots between public education, Ronald Reagan, and the W.W.E.

I know. I know. How are all of these things connected? Well, we are going to find out with NPR's education correspondent, Corey Turner,

and best-selling author, Josephine Reesman. Corey, Josie, welcome to it's been a minute. Oh, it's

great to be here. Perfect. Thanks for having me, Brittany. Yes. Okay, so which one of these battles

do you think you are more likely to win?

A congressional confirmation hearing or a WWE wrestling showdown.

I myself personally, the showdown, I think I would win.

I think I have big face energy.

To use some wrestling terminology, I think I have big face energy.

I don't know you that well, but you have

great baby face energy. The crowd is behind you. Yeah, I wouldn't want to do either. I just,

I'm just going to bow out of both. All right. I'll accept the coppa. I'll accept the coppa.

Thank you. Luckily, this isn't a battle at all.

It's just a good old conversation about what could happen to our nation's education system

if former W.W.E. CEO and co-founder, Linda McMahon, is confirmed as the Secretary of Education.

And to start, I want you to remember this, that for every time President Trump does something

unprecedented, he's also doing something that's been done over and over and over again

in American politics. Because just like fashion, our politics are always getting

recycled. And right now, what's getting rehashed is a nearly half-century-old debate over the U.S.

Department of Education. Now, for those of you who don't know, the Department of Education,

was established under President Jimmy Carter in 1979.

...