How Is This Better?
Akilah Hughes examines the empty promises made by politicians and tech entrepreneurs, asking whether their grand claims actually improve people's lives. She takes a critical look at figures like Donald Trump and Silicon Valley 'tech bros' who present themselves as problem-solvers. The show challenges the hype and seeks honest answers about what would genuinely make the world better.
Episodes
Inside Hollywood's Not-So-Secret Hideout
Hollywood used to feel like a place where anything could happen. Akilah Hughes talks to Stinson Carter about the strange magic of 2000s Hollywood, the Chateau Marmont, Entourage, and whether the Hollywood dream still exists.
Check out Stinson's piece for Esquire, "Bartending at the Edge of Fame."
And subscribe to How Is This Better? wherever you get your podcasts.
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How Love Island Exposed the American Literacy Crisis
Face it: Americans have a literacy problem. Host Akilah Hughes is joined by Oliver Speaks, author of the memoir Unread and literacy advocate, and Lauren Coffey, a journalist with EdSurge, to get to the bottom of why no one wants to read anymore.
If you're inspired to pick up a book, start with Oliver's! You can find it here.
Remember to subscribe to How Is This Better? wherever you get your po
Does Shaming AI Users Actually Work?
It seems like everyone is talking about AI. Because they are.Across both sides of the aisle, whether you support it or you loathe it, AI is one of the most talked-about hot-button issues of 2026. It's everywhere — in our phones, on our computers, at our jobs, and even in our backyards thanks to data centers and flock surveillance cameras. Hell, even the Taco Bell drive-thru isn't safe anymore. Und
We Stopped Talking About Gun Control – The Shootings Never Stopped
When students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School launched March For Our Lives after the Parkland shooting, they helped spark one of the largest youth-led movements in American history.
But nearly a decade later, gun violence remains the leading cause of death for American children and teens—and the issue no longer commands the same national attention it once did.
This week, Akilah Hughes
Erasing Jackie Robinson (REPLAY)
Today, we are sharing an episode we first-aired a year ago (nearly to the day). Back then, Trump and his administration would not stop saying "DEI" as if it were a slur. Their efforts to white-wash history have not gone away, so we wanted to share this episode again, today, on Juneteenth.
Guests:
Roy Wood, Jr., actor and comedian
Kali Holloway, columnist, The Nation
Jeremy Taché, Mi
The Real Reason UFC at the White House Matters
A UFC fight on the White House lawn sounds like satire. But it's real.
Before Ryan Broderick and Grant Irving of Panic World travel to Washington to attend the event, Akilah Hughes talks with them about what they expect to find there, who they're hoping to talk to, and what this bizarre spectacle might reveal about American politics.
Ryan and Grant will be reporting from the event itself, but fi
How Wrestling Ruined Politics Forever (BONUS)
Long before Donald Trump entered politics, he understood professional wrestling.
In this bonus conversation from How Is This Better?, Akilah Hughes sits down with writer and former WWE writer Dave Schilling to unpack how wrestling became a blueprint for modern political culture. From Trump’s relationship with Vince McMahon to the rise of political "heels," they explore why voters connect more wit
Voting Rights Were Gutted. I Went to Alabama to See What We Can Do About It.
Akilah Hughes travels to Selma and Montgomery, Alabama for “All Roads Lead to the South,” a national day of action responding to the Supreme Court’s latest attack on the Voting Rights Act.
Along the way, she speaks with Bernice King, Justin Pearson, and Janai Nelson about the fight over racial gerrymandering, the future of democracy in the South, and why organizers say this moment demands action
School’s Out. Campus Political Wars Are Just Beginning
Young voters — especially young men — are drifting to the right. At least, that’s the narrative dominating politics right now.
But according to Elise Joshi, the head of More Perfect University, the bigger story might actually be something deeper: a generation that feels increasingly disillusioned with the economy, institutions, and the promise that hard work still leads to stability.
This week o
Erika Kirk's Rise to Power
After Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Erika Kirk tried to turn grief into political momentum. Instead, the internet turned the entire thing into a meme.
Akilah Hughes talks with journalist Kat Tenbarge about Erika Kirk’s chaotic rise inside Turning Point USA, the backlash to her grief tour, and her feud with Candace Owens.
This episode explores internet culture, conservative media, gender politic
How the Met Gala Lost the Plot
What happens when fashion’s biggest night starts to look like a billionaire branding exercise?
This week, we examine the growing influence of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos on the Met Gala—and what it says about power, philanthropy, and who gets to shape culture in America.
With Rebecca Sananes and Meredith Lynch, Akilah unpacks the contradictions at the center of the event: a fundraiser de
RFK, Beef Tallow, and the Collapse of American Healthcare
The American healthcare system is sick.
This week, Akilah talks with Abdul El-Sayed—physician, public health expert, and U.S. Senate candidate—about the structural problems at the heart of American healthcare, from medical debt to for-profit insurance.
They also unpack the growing gap between real public health expertise and the rise of political figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mehmet Oz
Class Solidarity Could Change Everything
Why have Democrats recently struggled to connect with working-class and rural voters – and what would it take to change that?
Akilah Hughes talks with journalist John Russell about class politics in America, the rise of Trump, and the missed opportunities that reshaped the political landscape.
Drawing on his reporting in Appalachia and across the country, Russell explains how economic frustratio
How Mormons Captured Pop Culture
Mormonism is having a pop culture glow-up. But did it happen by accident?
In this episode, Akilah Hughes digs into the rise of Mormon influencers, the explosion of “MomTok,” and the broader cultural moment putting LDS aesthetics front and center. With reporting from New York Magazine’s Bridget Read, we explore how Mormon women helped shape modern influencer culture, and why that’s now paying off
The Oscars, Brain Rot, and The Death Of Prestige
As younger generations continue to turn towards the internet for their content, what fate awaits for Hollywood?
Last Sunday, celebrities and renowned members of the Academy gathered together to celebrate the Oscars. The awards show is considered one of the touchstones of modern-day media culture, but how much impact does it really have? And what messages are the films we’re praising really sendin
The First AI War
AI-generated war footage is spreading across the internet faster than the truth.
As conflict escalates in Iran, social media platforms like X, Instagram, and TikTok are being flooded with AI-generated missile strikes, fake battlefield footage, and fabricated videos of captured soldiers. Some posts rack up millions of views before anyone can confirm whether they’re real.
In this episode of How Is
What 4 Generations of Veterans Think of Trump’s War in Iran
Are we at war or not? According to Trump, he's scoring a 15 out of 10 "on the war front," and Department of War Secretary, Pete Hegseth, says the fighting in Iran has "just begun." Yet House Speaker Mike Johnson insists "we're not at war."
Instead of debating the political spin, Akilah wanted to sit down with the people who've been asked to fight American battles. On this episode of How Is This
Is ICE More Like the Gestapo or Slave Patrols? Yes.
People keep comparing ICE to the Gestapo. But is that the right historical analogy?
We we talk with public historian Ashley Baron aka @ashleytheebarroness who went viral making the argument that the comparison overlooks a home-grown analogy. We also speak with Claire Aubin who is a Nazi-era historian and host of the podcast, This Guy Sucked, to break down what the Gestapo actually was — and why t
Rotisserie Chicken Killed the Housing Market (Apparently)
Homeownership used to be a starter pack for adulthood. Now it feels like a luxury good. This week, Akilah asks a question most of us have yelled at Zillow at least once: when did buying a house become a fantasy?
Business Insider's James Rodriguez joins to help explain how we got here and why the future might be… single-family homes you can never actually own.
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Bad Bunny, The Super Bowl, and the American Denial of Puerto Rico
Your conservative uncle is wrong about Bad Bunny. So are Trump, all of MAGA, and the angry drunk guys who watch the NFL. They're mad because Bad Bunny will be performing the half time show at the Superbowl this Sunday, and he'll be singing in Spanish - you know, the language the songs are written in - and believe that that makes him fundamentally un-american.
Unfortunately, this is not a unique
The Wrestling-ification of Politics (Unedited Bonus with Josie Riesman)
This is our last unedited bonus before we're back with a brand new episode next week! This week, we bring you the entirety of my conversation with Josephine Riesman who authored Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America. We talked about the parallels between wrestling and modern politics and had a blast doing it. Please enjoy and stay tuned for a new episode next week.
Learn more abou
There's No DEI in Baseball (Roy Wood Jr. Extended Conversation)
Is it DEI to honor one of the greatest baseball players of all time? Our president seems to think so. Comedian Roy Wood Jr. weighs in on Trump's crusade to end diversity initiatives and tarnish Jackie Robinson's legacy.
Before we get back to new content, we thought we'd release some of our favorite conversations from 2025 in all their unedited glory.
For the full, edited episode featuring more
Adam Mockler on Masculinity and the Right-Wing Pipeline (BONUS)
Remember that conversation we had last year? The one with Adam Mockler, about the nightmare that is modern masculinity? Well, we have more where that came from.
Before we get back to new content, we thought we'd release some of our favorite conversations from 2025 in all their unedited glory. To watch the original cut down version of this video, you can click here: https://tinyurl.com/32e7xvnj
A Surprising Grade for 2025
As we all know, 2025 was the best year that any of us have ever had. Nothing went wrong, no evil was done, and things were generally really, really chill.
In reality, Akilah is joined this week by Ryan Broderick, host of COURIER’s Panic World, in order to review all of the political and pop culture chaos that went down over the past twelve months. Together they’ll try to answer the fateful quest
Black Women Are Doubled Taxed in America. There's Data.
In a second-term Trump economy obsessed with the word “meritocracy,” Black women are being pushed out of the workforce at alarming rates — while the least qualified men fail upward. Akilah Hughes sits down with economist and author Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman to unpack her book, The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid.
You can find Anna and her book at www.annagifty.com
Can Boycotts Fight Fascism?
You may have heard a lot about boycotting this year, especially when talking about Target or Amazon. Organized actions like these have been happening year-round, but are reaching peak intensity now that we’re well within the holiday season. One such boycott, called We Ain’t Buying It, aimed to draw attention to how giant retailers are using our money against our own interests: funding candidates l
Space is Over
What happens when a president decides America is done with space?
This week on How Is This Better?, Akilah Hughes digs into the Trump administration’s unprecedented plans to slash NASA’s budget.
Akilah sits down with Casey Dreier of the Planetary Society to unpack how America went from bipartisan support for space exploration to a full-blown dismantling of the country’s most beloved science agen
These Cheap Vertical Videos May End Hollywood (As We Know It)
Hollywood (as we once knew it) may have collapsed, but a new form of “storytelling” is thriving in the rubble. This week on How Is This Better? Akilah Hughes investigates the rise of clipping—the 30–90 second chunks of movies and TV that Gen Z and Gen Alpha increasingly treat as the entire art form. With The Ankler's newsroom coordinator, Matthew Frank, we dig into how studios, independent clipper
The Plot to Force Evangelical Christianity on Everyone
The First Amendment established the separation of church and state in America — but is that principle truly being upheld today? A powerful contingent on the right is working to erase that line entirely, pushing policies that fuse religion and government to advance a Christian nationalist agenda — from efforts to mandate the Ten Commandments in classrooms to reshaping laws around their ideology.
T
How to Run for Office When You’re Not Rich (with Kat Abughazaleh and Zohran Mamdani)
What does it really take to run for office when you don’t have a billionaire on speed dial? Akilah Hughes talks with Kat Abughazaleh, the journalist-turned-candidate trying to fund and operate her congressional campaign than what is typical in 2025.
Akilah also catches up with New York City mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, days before the election.
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Money in Politics: It Wasn't Always Like This.
In 2010, the Supreme Court of the United unleashed chaos with their decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In that ruling, they declared that corporations are people and money is speech. Fifteen years later, billionaires and dark money groups dominate campaign spending, leaving ordinary voters wondering if their $20 donations matter.
Featuring Tiffany Muller, president of End
Conversion Therapy and The Consequences of Legalizing Harm
This week on How Is This Better? – Akilah Hughes talks with civil rights attorney and conversion therapy survivor Ryan Kendall, as the Supreme Court takes up Chiles v. Salazar—a case that could reopen the door to "conversion therapy" for LGBTQ+ minors.
Ryan shares his story of surviving so-called “therapy” as a teenager in Colorado Springs, what it cost him, and why the Court’s decision could leg
The AI Existential Crisis of our Own Making
From companions, to lovers, to suicide note co-authors, people are relying on AI more than ever to help them navigate life’s ups and downs. So far, AI’s digital connection, or rather disconnection, to our humanity is having…mixed results. Our guest this week is Parker Molloy who writes the newsletter The Present Age.
Follow How Is This Better? wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube
Trump’s Media Takeover Is Happening.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting just announced it will shut down after Congress –under pressure from Trump – eliminated $1.1 billion in funding through 2027. It’s a devastating blow to the future of public media. But this isn’t just about budget cuts—it’s about fear, control, and silencing dissent.
Akilah Hughes breaks down the chilling wave of corporate capitulation to Trump, including C
How to Fight Back Against Alligator Alcatraz and Inhumane Immigration Policy
Akilah Hughes breaks down the immigration policies of Trump's second term, from mass deportations to family separations and the rollback of birthright citizenship.
Joined by guests Justino Mora, the discussion highlights the damage ICE has caused so far and the future of US immigration.
GUEST
Justino Mora, Immigrant Rights Activist
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction
01:13 - The Reality o
The Manosphere and the Alpha Male Content Trap
Akila Hughes explores the dangerous online pipelines that lure men seeking advice into radical ideologies.
Joined by guests Denny Carter, Adam Mockler, and EJ Dickson, the episode delves into the manipulative tactics used by figures like Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan to push hyper-masculine agendas.
The discussion highlights the detrimental effects of these ideologies on mental health, relationshi
Trad Wives, MAHA, and the Women’s Wellness Pipeline
A new flavor of conservative content is targeting women online—and it’s going viral. This week, Akilah Hughes explores the rise of the "tradwife" aesthetic, the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement, and how a wellness pipeline is pulling women to the political right.
We talk to experts and journalists who’ve tracked this trend firsthand, from TikTok to Turning Point USA’s wellness-themed wo
Politics is Wrestling
In this episode, Akilah Hughes steps into the ring with "The Progressive Liberal"—yes, that’s his real wrestling persona—alongside author Josie Riesman and journalist and former WWE writer, Dave Schilling, to explore why politics today feels more like WWE than C-SPAN,
We dive into the personas, the crowd work, the heels and the faces (iykyk)—and how both wrestling and politics rely on performance
Erasing Jackie Robinson
Baseball legend Jackie Robinson broke barriers on the field, but his legacy off the field is under attack.
In this episode, Akilah Hughes explores how the Trump administration is trying to rewrite history in its crusade against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Guests Roy Wood Jr., Jeremy Taché, and The Nation’s Kali Holloway unpack why it’s important to defend history and what DEI effor
Don’t Blame Canada: Trump Blew It With Our Besties
America’s relationship with Canada has always been close — like cousins who share a border, celebrities and culture, and a love for maple syrup. But lately, that closeness has taken a weird turn.
In this episode, we explore how Donald Trump has soured the relationship with our once closest ally – referring to Canada as the “51st state.”
Host Akilah Hughes talks with Noor Azrieh, host and produce
The Evolution of Mark Zuckerberg
Once a hoodie-wearing coder preaching openness and connection, Mark Zuckerberg is now a gold chain wearing, jiu jitsu obsessed metaverse warlord who is vibing with Trump-adjacent influencers. What happened?
Host Akilah Hughes digs into Zuckerberg’s transformation — from the early Facebook years through his big metaverse bet and into his (chicken nugget eating?) macho phase. Ryan Broderick, host o
Will I Ever Get to Yosemite?
On February 14th, 2025 Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) sent a letter to 1000 probationary National Parks staff – firing them – only to reinstate them weeks later. Pretty INefficient…
But that wasn’t just a distraction. It wasn’t just a fumble. It was the opening salvo for a plan, laid out in Project 2025, to dismantle protections for National Parks.
It’s al
Introducing: How Is This Better? with Akilah Hughes
Donald Trump has been campaigning to “make America great again” for a decade. Tech bro oligarchs swear they’re “making the world a better place.” But here we are – in 2025 – with planes falling from the damn sky, senseless trade wars driving higher prices and economic instability, and so-called “social” media and AI making everyone more isolated and lonelier than ever. It’s time to ask: How is thi
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