Podcasts by Pop Culture Happy Hour
Get obsessed with us. Five days a week, Pop Culture Happy Hour serves you recommendations and commentary on the buzziest movies, TV, music, books, videogames and more. Join arts journalists Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon, Stephen Thompson, and Aisha Harris - plus a rotating cast of guest pop culture aficionados. The Happy Hour team leaves room at the table for exploring a range of reactions and opinions on every bit of the pop universe. From lowbrow to highbrow to the stuff in between, they take it all with a shot of cheer.
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Taylor Swift's Eras Tour from 2023-12-13T08:00
Taylor Swift has had a very big year. Her career-spanning Eras Tour is on pace to become the biggest and most lucrative concert tour in history, and the subsequent concert film set box office recor...
Listen2023 Pop Culture Favorites from 2023-12-12T08:00
As we come to the end of 2023 we find ourselves in the familiar position of wrapping up the year. From the sublime to the slightly ridiculous we're talking about our favorite TV, movies, memes, and...
ListenDiddy, Hip-Hop, and #MeToo from 2023-12-11T08:00
Last month, a civil lawsuit was filed against rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs by his ex-girlfriend and former protégé Cassie Ventura. She alleged to have suffered years of emotional and physical abuse...
ListenPoor Things And What's Making Us Happy from 2023-12-08T08:00
In the wild and wonderful new film Poor Things, Emma Stone plays a woman brought back to life from the brink of death. She's a clean slate, unconcerned with the bonds a repressive society ...
ListenLeave The World Behind from 2023-12-07T08:00
What would the end of the world actually look like? That's the creeping fear behind the new Netflix movie Leave The World Behind. The movie stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke and Mahershala ...
ListenRenaissance: A Film By Beyoncé from 2023-12-06T08:00
Beyoncé's album Renaissance drew on generations' worth of Black and queer dance music — and the subsequent tour packed stadiums with an epic, lavish spectacle. Now, with the new concert fi...
ListenBest Christmas Gift I Ever Received from 2023-12-05T08:00
What's the best Christmas gift you ever received? You probably didn't have to think about it; you knew it in your bones. Today, we're talking about the actual, tangible gift you found waiting for y...
ListenColin From Accounts from 2023-12-04T08:00
The fun new Australian series Colin From Accounts is part raunchy comedy, part romantic comedy, part friendship story, and part very cute dog. It begins with a chance encounter between two...
ListenMay December And What's Making Us Happy from 2023-12-01T08:00
In the campy film May December Julianne Moore stars as a tabloid fixture who was at the center of a scandal after she sexually abused a minor she later married. Charles Melton (Riverda...
ListenSongs For When Your Flight Is Delayed from 2023-11-30T08:00
If you travel by plane with any regularity, you've been there: stuck in an airport because your flight is delayed. So we thought it best to give your most stressful travel moments a soundtrack. Tod...
Listen2023 Books We Love: Staff Picks from 2023-11-29T08:00
NPR's Books We Love is a roundup of favorite books of the year, sorted and tagged to help you find exactly what you're looking f...
ListenOur Flag Means Death from 2022-04-21T00:15:58
The hilarious HBO Max comedy series Our Flag Means Death follows the misadventures of Stede Bonnet, a posh aristocrat who decides to give up his pampered life and become a swashbuckling pi...
ListenMoon Knight from 2022-04-19T00:10:30
In Marvel's Moon Knight, Oscar Isaac plays Steven, a mild-mannered Londoner who works in a museum gift shop. He also plays Marc, a mercenary who can turn into the mysterious Moon Knight. T...
ListenThe Great Pottery Throw Down from 2022-04-18T00:10:31
The Great Pottery Throw Down is one of the gentlest, kindest, and warmest competitive reality shows you will ever see (even when things literally explode). The fifth season aired in the U....
ListenPachinko And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-04-15T00:10:28
Pachinko is a deeply intimate, yet hugely expansive multi-generational historical saga on Apple TV+. Adapted from Min Jin Lee's 2017 novel, the series features several intersecting charact...
ListenJerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel from 2022-04-14T00:10:44
To comedy fans, Jerrod Carmichael is known as a stand-up comic with an acerbic brand of observational humor, and he's starred in his own family sitcom, The Carmichael Show. Now his recent ...
ListenA Cameo Quiz from 2022-04-12T00:15:26
Cameo is an online service where you can pay a celebrity to record a personalized video message. Maybe it's for your birthday, maybe it's for someone's anniversary — or maybe you're just bored. The...
ListenBooks We Love: The States We're In from 2022-04-11T00:10:50
The latest edition of NPR's Books We Love project rounded up hundreds of books to try to give you just the read you're looking for. Today, we're talking about some of the books we loved in 2021 abo...
ListenAmbulance And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-04-08T00:15:30
Ambulance is Michael Bay's latest action movie, and if you think you know exactly what you're going to get — you'd be correct. It's more than two hours of pure, unrelenting adrenaline feat...
ListenBetter Things from 2022-04-06T00:10:10
On the FX series Better Things, Pamela Adlon plays Sam Fox, a working actor in L.A. and a single mother to her three children. Sam and her family deal with many familiar pangs of life, lik...
ListenStarstruck Is Your Next Weekend Binge from 2022-04-05T00:10:25
It might sound like fun to date a glamorous movie star, but in reality, it would probably get very messy. That's the premise of HBO Max's Starstruck, created by and starring New Zealand co...
Listen2022 Grammys Recap from 2022-04-04T08:33:43
Last night's Grammys featured wins for Olivia Rodrigo, Silk Sonic, Jon Batiste, and more. Plus we got a lavish stage show with performances from BTS, Lady Gaga, and many others.
ListenEverything Everywhere All At Once And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-04-01T00:10:57
Everything Everywhere All At Once is the kind of movie that lives up to its title. It's a zany and profound sci-fi action comedy set in multiple dimensions, bursting with ideas about the p...
ListenThe Lost City from 2022-03-31T00:15:37
In the new film The Lost City Sandra Bullock plays a romance novelist who is kidnapped by a duplicitous billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe) looking for the real-life lost treasure referenced in...
ListenHuman Resources from 2022-03-29T00:15:16
The Netflix animated series Human Resources is a spinoff of the filthy and funny Big Mouth. The series takes place in an office where the creatures that embody human emotions work...
Listen2022 Oscars Recap from 2022-03-28T07:57:48
The 2022 Oscars included a best picture win for CODA, plus awards for Jessica Chastain, Dune, Encanto, and Jane Campion. But the proceedings were overshadowed when Will S...
Listen2022 Oscars Preview And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-03-25T00:15:20
The 2022 Oscars are finally upon us. There are always two big questions as we approach the Oscars: Who will win, and who should win. Today, we're offering up a guide to this year's nominations to t...
ListenDeep Water from 2022-03-24T00:15:14
The new Hulu thriller Deep Water is about unhappily married couple Vic and Melinda, played by Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. Melinda is involved with other men, and when those other men sta...
Listen2022 Oscars Guide: Documentary Feature from 2022-03-23T00:10:57
History and music, economics and journalism, freedom and family are all prominent in this year's impressive crop of Oscar nominees for documentary feature. They tackle issues including mass incarce...
ListenOscars Best Picture Winners, Ranked from 2022-03-22T00:10:39
In honor of this year's Oscars, we polled listeners to ask a simple question: What's the best best picture winner of all time? Today, we run through our listeners' ranking of the Top 10, a...
ListenBooks We Love: Love Stories from 2022-03-21T00:10:40
The latest edition of NPR's Books We Love project rounded up hundreds of book recommendations from critics, writers and NPR journalists to try to give you just the read you're looking for. Today, w...
ListenMaster And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-03-18T00:10:20
The new film Master is a thriller set at a predominantly white liberal arts college, where a history of systemic racism still haunts the campus in the present day. The film stars Regina Ha...
ListenThe Adam Project from 2022-03-17T00:10:46
In Netflix's The Adam Project, Ryan Reynolds is a pilot from the future who goes back in time to the present day, where he enlists the aid of his 12-year-old self (Walker Scobell) to save ...
Listen2022 Oscars Guide: International Features from 2022-03-16T00:10:39
Films from Italy, Norway, Denmark, Japan, and – for the first time in Oscars history – Bhutan are vying for this year's Academy Award for international feature. While they share several common them...
ListenThe Dropout from 2022-03-14T00:10:39
Hulu's The Dropout moves the needle on the Theranos story. The series stars Amanda Seyfried as Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, and shows how the tech wunderkind and her company went fro...
ListenTurning Red And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-03-11T00:15:38
Pixar is back with another movie aiming to hit you in all the feels: Turning Red. It's about a charismatic 13-year-old girl named Meilin (Rosalie Chiang) who discovers that whenever she ge...
ListenAfter Yang from 2022-03-10T00:10:42
In the new sci-fi film After Yang, a family suffers a loss when their human-like android Yang (Justin H. Min) suddenly breaks down. It stars Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith as the par...
ListenThe Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air from 2022-03-08T00:10:32
Few shows had quite the same reach and impact in the 1990s as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The NBC series catapulted Will Smith into movie stardom, and it remains infinitely memeable — fro...
ListenKanye West from 2022-03-07T00:10:15
Kanye West is a successful rapper and producer who has won 22 Grammys. But West has also been a public lightning rod for his outbursts at awards shows, his outspoken support of Donald Trump, his ac...
ListenThe Batman And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-03-04T00:10:27
The new film The Batman slaps both a definite article, and an emo haircut, on the Caped Crusader. This time, it's Robert Pattinson who is cleaning up the streets of Gotham. He's facing off...
ListenA Madea Homecoming from 2022-03-03T00:10:37
Tyler Perry's character Madea has occupied a unique and polarizing space within Black American culture for more than two decades. A gun-toting elderly lady who curses and often finds herself at odd...
Listen2022 Oscars Guide: Original Songs from 2022-03-02T00:10:29
This year's Academy Award nominees for original song are a mix of old and new. Songs by Beyoncé, Billie Eilish and Lin-Manuel Miranda are squaring off against tunes by boomer mainstays Van Morriso...
ListenBooks We Love: Ladies First from 2022-03-01T00:10:28
The latest edition of NPR's Books We Love project rounded up hundreds of books to try to give you just the read you're looking for. Today, we're going to talk about some of the books we loved in 20...
ListenThe Gilded Age And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-02-25T00:10:41
With HBO's The Gilded Age, Julian Fellowes airlifts Downton Abbey's soapy plots, its baubles and ball gowns, its sneering servants and quippy old ladies out of Yorkshire and plops...
ListenLove Is Blind from 2022-02-21T00:10:43
In Netflix's dating show Love Is Blind, couples sit in separate cells that they call pods, where they can hear each other but not see each other. And once they've had a conversation or two...
ListenTexas Chainsaw Massacre And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-02-18T03:01:21
In Netflix's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, online influencers descend on the mostly abandoned town of Harlow, Texas, only to be slaughtered by the man known as Leatherface. Directed by David Bl...
ListenWe Need To Talk About Cosby from 2022-02-17T00:15:05
The new Showtime docuseries We Need to Talk About Cosby seeks to better understand Bill Cosby, a man full of contradictions and complexities. Director W. Kamau Bell traces Cosby's remarkab...
ListenInventing Anna from 2022-02-16T00:15:34
In our current era of headline-making scammers, Anna Delvey is one of the splashiest. A few years ago, she posed as an heiress and conned several wealthy people out of their money before ultimately...
ListenSomebody Somewhere from 2022-02-15T00:10:04
The funny, tender-hearted HBO series Somebody Somewhere is a semi-autobiographical story starring comedian and cabaret performer Bridget Everett. She plays a woman who long ago gave up on ...
Listen2022 Super Bowl from 2022-02-14T07:52:48
The 2022 Super Bowl resulted in Los Angeles Rams coming from behind to win over the Cincinnati Bengals. There was also the halftime show, which showcased some of the biggest stars in the history of...
ListenMarry Me And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-02-11T00:15:54
In the romantic comedy Marry Me, Jennifer Lopez plays as a pop star who is set to marry a singer played Maluma. The wedding is supposed to take place on stage as part of an elaborate publi...
ListenPeacemaker from 2022-02-10T00:10:03
The HBO Max series Peacemaker stars John Cena as a shiny-helmeted super soldier who loves peace so much he's willing, even eager, to slaughter folks to get it. It's a direct spinoff of the...
ListenMogul Mowgli from 2022-02-08T00:10:43
In the film Mogul Mowgli, Riz Ahmed stars as Zed, an on-the-rise rapper whose biggest gig yet is threatened by the sudden onset of an illness. He's also forced to confront his own insecuri...
ListenDrive My Car from 2022-02-07T00:10:28
The moody, introspective film Drive My Car is one of the best-reviewed films of the last year. It's about a widowed theater director who grows closer to the young woman hired to drive him ...
ListenFirst Pop Culture Crushes And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-02-04T00:10:26
If you've ever posted a celebrity's picture inside a locker, used a photo of them as your lock screen, or followed every moment of someone's career, you know all about pop culture crushes. There ar...
ListenJanet Jackson from 2022-02-03T00:15:18
Janet Jackson. is a four-part TV documentary from Lifetime and A&E that shows how the pop star became one of the biggest and most influential artists of the last four decades. With new int...
ListenThe Golden Girls from 2022-02-01T00:14:44
The sitcom The Golden Girls followed the adventures of four women who were living together in Miami. The women were Dorothy (Bea Arthur), Sophia (Estelle Getty), Rose (Betty White), and Bl...
Listen2022 Sundance: Best Movies from 2022-01-31T00:10:43
When it comes to the Sundance Film Festival, you never really know what you're going to get. Each year brings a chance to stumble upon surprises and delights from filmmakers both well-known and eme...
ListenWordle And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-01-28T00:15:42
The daily online word game Wordle has absolutely exploded in popularity in recent weeks. It's a game that gives you six chances to guess a five-letter word, giving you clues along the way about whi...
ListenThe Book Of Boba Fett from 2022-01-25T00:10:04
In the new Disney+ series The Book of Boba Fett, Temuera Morrison brings new layers to the mysterious bounty hunter from the original Star Wars films. The story vacillates between...
Listen2021 Best Books For Music Lovers from 2022-01-24T00:10:41
If you're looking to discover a new book, NPR has a marvelous mechanism to help you out: It's called Books We Love, and it's a sortable guide to hundreds of great books from 2021, as handpicked and...
ListenAbbott Elementary And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-01-21T00:10:01
The fantastic new ABC series Abbott Elementary is a sitcom set at a severely underfunded Philadelphia public school. Quinta Brunson is the creator and very funny star of the mockumentary-s...
ListenAnd Just Like That... from 2022-01-20T00:10:01
And Just Like That... the ladies of Sex and the City are back. (Well, most of them anyway.) The HBO Max series finds Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon reprisin...
ListenGreat 2021 Music Documentaries from 2022-01-19T00:10:07
Today we're recommending some of the great music documentaries we missed in 2021: The Velvet Underground, Framing Britney Spears, Controlling Britney Spears, and Tina...
ListenThe Tragedy Of Macbeth And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-01-14T00:15:17
The Tragedy of Macbeth adapts Shakespeare's familiar tale of blood and betrayal, dreamlike daggers and stubborn stains. But its stars Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand are significan...
ListenThe Weeknd's Dawn FM from 2022-01-13T00:15:29
The Weeknd's album After Hours was one of the biggest hits of 2020, and now the elusive artist is back. He's had a decade of massive highlights from "Blinding Lights" to last year's Super ...
ListenStation Eleven from 2022-01-12T00:10:40
The HBO Max miniseries Station Eleven begins with a highly contagious and deadly virus wiping out 99 percent of humanity. That might not sound like comfort viewing, but hear us out. The sh...
ListenC'mon C'mon from 2022-01-11T00:15:16
In the movie C'mon C'mon, Joaquin Phoenix plays an audio journalist who, after visiting his sister (played by Gaby Hoffmann), takes his young nephew (played by Woody Norman) on the road as...
ListenRemembering Sidney Poitier from 2022-01-10T00:10:15
Hollywood legend Sidney Poitier died last week at age of 94. He was a man of many firsts, including the first Black performer to win the best actor Oscar for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field. ...
ListenGreat 2021 Movies You May Have Missed And What's Making Us Happy from 2022-01-07T00:15:30
We cover a lot of movies here on Pop Culture Happy Hour, but we can't come close to hitting every great film. Today, we're inviting some of our favorite film critics to share the movies th...
ListenYellowjackets from 2022-01-06T00:10:07
The Showtime drama Yellowjackets is a series in two halves: In the first part, a plane crashes in 1996, and a high school girls' soccer team is stranded in the Canadian wilderness. The oth...
ListenThe Lost Daughter from 2022-01-05T00:10:08
In the Netflix film The Lost Daughter, Olivia Coleman plays Leda, a professor on a working holiday in Greece who becomes fascinated by a young mother played by Dakota Johnson. This leads L...
ListenRemembering Betty White from 2022-01-03T09:14:22
Actress and icon Betty White died Friday at the age of 99. Her career as a comic actress – on TV, on radio, in movies, and more – lasted more than 80 years. She was probably best known for her work...
ListenOur 2022 Pop Culture Resolutions And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-12-30T00:10:05
It's the end of 2021, and the cusp of a new year — which means we're looking back, and we're looking ahead. It's time to see how we did sticking to our pop culture resolutions we made a ye...
ListenOur 2022 Pop Culture Predictions from 2021-12-29T00:10:31
If there's one thing we can tell you about 2021, it's that we didn't see it coming. And we might not see 2022 coming either, but we're going to try — by making some pop culture predictions for next...
ListenDon't Look Up from 2021-12-28T00:10:32
The new Netflix film Don't Look Up has a crazy Academy Awards pedigree. Writer-director Adam McKay won an Oscar for The Big Short and the Oscar-studded cast includes Leonardo DiCa...
ListenThe Matrix Resurrections And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-12-22T00:10:04
When The Matrix opened in 1999, it thrilled audiences with its strangely cerebral mix of stylized violence, existential crisis, and tight, black leather. The new movie The Matrix: Resu...
ListenNightmare Alley from 2021-12-20T00:10:04
Nightmare Alley is a stylish neo-noir that's as seedy as its title sounds. The film is directed by Guillermo del Toro and is inspired by the book and 1947 movie adaptation of the same name...
ListenSpider-Man: No Way Home And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-12-17T00:12:52
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, we spend time with some familiar characters. The film stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker and Zendaya as MJ, and, this time, also brings in Doctor Strange (Benedi...
Listen2021 Pop Culture Favorites from 2021-12-16T00:01:08
It's tradition here at Pop Culture Happy Hour to look back on some of our favorite things from the last 12 months of television, movies and music. Today, we're revisiting the pop culture t...
ListenSpotify Wrapped from 2021-12-15T00:01:56
Spotify Wrapped has become both an annual end-of-year event, and a viral sensation. In 2019 the service starting pairing its year-end listening data with eye-catching and extremely shareable graphi...
ListenIt's A Wonderful Life from 2021-12-13T00:01:45
For many, It's A Wonderful Life is the quintessential Christmas movie. George Bailey's story is filled with life lessons, the importance of community, and a little kid playing carols on th...
ListenThe Beatles: Get Back from 2021-12-09T00:01:53
The Beatles: Get Back captures the tumultuous process of writing and recording some of their best-known songs. Directed by Peter Jackson, the mammoth three-part docuseries shows the day-to...
ListenTick Tick Boom from 2021-12-02T00:01:33
The Netflix movie tick, tick...BOOM! is the story of composer Jonathan Larson and the musical he wrote a few years before he wrote Rent. The film marks the directorial debut of Li...
ListenAdele's 30 from 2021-12-01T00:01:54
Adele is one of the most successful artists of her generation. Her last two records combined sold more than 25 million copies and both won Album Of The Year at the Grammys. Now, the U.K. pop star h...
ListenHouse Of Gucci And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-11-24T00:06:38
Ridley Scott's House of Gucci is a whole lot of movie. Adam Driver plays the wealthy Mauritzio Gucci, and Lady Gaga plays his wife Patrizia. Al Pacino and Jared Leto play Mauritzio's uncle...
ListenKing Richard from 2021-11-23T00:01:57
King Richard is a sports movie about the early days of superstar tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams. But, as its title suggests, the film focuses on their demanding and ambitious f...
ListenCowboy Bebop from 2021-11-22T00:01:01
The new Netflix series Cowboy Bebop is a live-action remake of the wildly popular Japanese anime about bounty hunters in a neo-noir future. Stylish and satirical, violent and cynical, the ...
ListenGhostbusters: Afterlife And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-11-19T00:01
Ghostbusters: Afterlife reconnects with the original timeline of the Ghostbusters films from the 80s while introducing a bunch of new characters. Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, and F...
ListenRemembering Petra Mayer from 2021-11-17T18:18:52
There's no good way to share terrible news. Pop Culture Happy Hour panelist and NPR Books editor Petra Mayer died suddenly on Saturday of what is believed to be a pulmonary embolism. We ta...
ListenSilk Sonic from 2021-11-17T00:01:52
Silk Sonic is a new musical showcase for two familiar faces: Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak. Their soulful collaborations started trickling out this past March, when the duo released the single "Lea...
ListenBelow Deck from 2021-11-16T00:01:17
If you've always wondered what it would be like to see the world while making espresso martinis for the super-rich, you might already be watching the Below Deck franchise. For the past eig...
ListenRed Notice And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-11-12T00:01:18
What has a wisecracking Ryan Reynolds, a glamorous Gal Gadot, a muscled Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and a very convoluted story about priceless eggs? It's the new Netflix action comedy Red Notice...
ListenThe Harder They Fall from 2021-11-09T00:01:21
Netflix's The Harder They Fall is the latest modern take on the movie western, with nods to real-life Black cowboys and cowgirls. In it, an outlaw and his gang seek revenge for a horrific ...
ListenArmy Of Thieves from 2021-11-04T00:03:52
So do you have a slow Saturday afternoon, and need something to watch while folding laundry? Perhaps check out Netflix's heist movie Army of Thieves. It's also a prequel to Zack Snyder's <...
ListenJudge Judy from 2021-11-02T00:01:35
Judy Sheindlin has been one of the highest-paid people in TV for years, churning out episode after episode of Judge Judy. But after years of syndication, Sheindlin has shut down the CBS sh...
ListenFilm Noir: A Guide from 2021-11-01T00:01:17
Your calendar might say it's November, but among movie buffs, this month is also known as Noirvember. It's a time to settle in and enjoy an old movie that features a washed up detective, a...
ListenFoundation from 2021-10-27T00:01:17
Foundation is set in the far future, when humanity has expanded into a vast galactic empire. A mathematician comes forward to announce that he's crunched the numbers — and found that the e...
ListenThe French Dispatch from 2021-10-26T00:01:45
Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch is a love letter to classic French cinema and The New Yorker magazine. Like all of his films, it's highly stylized — this one adopts the format ...
ListenThe Things That Scared Us As Kids from 2021-10-25T00:01
A lot of us are about to have the experience of opening our front doors to find witches, goblins, ghosts, and those guards from Squid Game standing on our porches. Why? Because it's almost...
ListenThree Songs For Cleaning Your Bathroom from 2021-10-21T00:01:07
NPR Music has song recommendations for every occasion, from major life events to tidying up the house. As we enter the fall season, it doe...
ListenAuteurs And Film Franchises from 2021-10-20T00:01:43
This fall, a number of auteurs are directing major blockbusters: Cary Joji Fukunaga took on the James Bond movie No Time To Die; Chloe Zhao joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Ete...
ListenSquid Game from 2021-10-14T00:01:25
The Korean drama Squid Game is a worldwide sensation. According to Netflix, it's topped their rankings in more than 90 countries. Written and directed by the filmmaker Hwang Dong-Hyuk, it'...
ListenY: The Last Man from 2021-10-12T00:01:03
The FX on Hulu drama Y: The Last Man is the latest in a long line of post-apocalyptic narratives of TV, but this one comes with a novel twist: A mysterious event wipes out every mammal on ...
ListenSoul Train from 2021-10-11T00:01:05
When Soul Train was first nationally syndicated in October of 1971, there was nothing else like it on TV. It became an iconic Black music and dance show — a party every weekend that anyone...
ListenVenom: Let There Be Carnage from 2021-10-07T00:01:08
Venom: Let There Be Carnage is not your standard superhero action flick. With more human-on-goo romance and symbiote-on-symbiote violence, the sequel to 2018's Venom already posted the big...
ListenThe Guilty from 2021-10-06T00:01:53
Director Antoine Fuqua is no stranger to compromised cops — he famously put Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke through their paces in Training Day. Now, he's back with The Guilty, ...
ListenBeyoncé's Homecoming from 2021-10-05T00:01:05
Two years ago, Beyoncé unleashed two major projects called Homecoming. On Netflix, a documentary captured the process of putting on headlining appearances at the Coachella Music Festival. ...
ListenThe Many Saints Of Newark And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-10-01T00:01:08
If you've been waiting for more of Tony Sopranos's universe, you're in luck. The Many Saints Of Newark isn't a sequel but a prequel to the influential HBO series The Sopranos. Co-...
ListenThe Sopranos from 2021-09-30T00:01:22
The Sopranos changed television. The HBO series was centered on mobster Tony Soprano — a deeply flawed male antihero played by James Gandolfini. But the thing that really set The Sopra...
ListenDear Evan Hansen And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-09-24T00:00:26
The stage musical Dear Evan Hansen debuted on Broadway five years ago. It won six Tony Awards, including one for its star, Ben Platt. It's now a movie, and Platt, who's now 27, is back to ...
ListenLil Nas X's Montero from 2021-09-23T00:01:13
In just two short years, Lil Nas X has proven he's much more than "Old Town Road." He's taken a successful novelty song and parlayed it into a budding and influential music career. He's come out as...
ListenEverybody's Talking About Jamie from 2021-09-22T00:01:09
Everybody's Talking About Jamie is a coming-out story with some familiar contours, but it doesn't have your typical splashy musical pedigree. Adapted from a successful West End production,...
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ListenThree Great Fiction Audiobooks from 2021-09-21T00:01
Curling up with a good book is a pleasure with which we're all familiar. But when you find just the right narrator to bring characters to life, a novel can be even better. The right voice, or the r...
ListenTIFF Film Guide And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-09-17T00:01:15
The Toronto International Film Festival traditionally helps launch awards season. This year has been a little different, with pandemic restrictions leading to a hybrid remote and in-person festival...
ListenKacey Musgraves' Star-Crossed from 2021-09-15T00:01:19
Kacey Musgraves's 2018 album Golden Hour was a huge breakthrough. It's a soft but spangly celebration full of love songs that helped cement Musgraves as both a country star and a pop star....
ListenBrooklyn Nine-Nine from 2021-09-13T00:01:07
This week, the police comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine will end its eight-season run. Starring Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher, among many other gifted comic actors, the show has enjoyed a devote...
ListenDrake's Certified Lover Boy from 2021-09-07T00:01:45
On Friday, Drake dropped his long-awaited sixth album: Certified Lover Boy. The album contains 21 songs in 86 minutes, and it's generated conversation around everything from its many guest...
ListenHigh School Required Reading from 2021-09-02T00:01:40
Heading back to school is always a stressful but exciting time of year, whether you're doing it at home or in a classroom full of people. And we are always up to talk about books. Summer reading li...
ListenHappy Endings from 2021-08-30T00:01:47
The early-2010s sitcom Happy Endings was a show about six best friends in Chicago. Created by David Caspe, the series was sharp, hijinks-filled and altogether fun. The show aired on ABC fo...
ListenCandyman And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-08-27T00:01:37
Legend has it that if you say "Candyman" in front of a mirror five times, you'll summon the spirit of a terrifying killer with a hook for a hand, who's constantly surrounded by a swarm of bees. Tha...
ListenAaliyah: Essentials from 2021-08-25T00:01:44
It's been 20 years since the untimely passing of Aaliyah in a plane crash when she was just 22. In that time, her influence has been felt everywhere in music and pop culture, even though the bulk o...
ListenReservation Dogs from 2021-08-23T00:01:06
The new series Reservation Dogs follows four Indigenous teenagers who live in Oklahoma, but are scheming and saving to get to California. It's a loose and dry-witted comedy that has notes ...
ListenLorde And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-08-20T00:01:01
Lorde became a pop superstar at 16 with her hit single "Royals" — winning two Grammy Awards and following up with her second album, Melodrama. The New Zealand singer's third album Sola...
ListenCover Songs from 2021-08-17T00:01:05
Great songs often come around more than once. They're re-interpreted, reimagined, reconsidered. In fact, sometimes cover versions bring out new qualities even in songs we think we know well. Today ...
ListenThree Great Nonfiction Audiobooks from 2021-08-11T00:01:32
Sometimes you want someone to tell you a story. Sometimes, you want it to be a true story. Today, we're bringing you three nonfiction audiobook recommendations, from memoirs to deep histories of sp...
ListenThe Suicide Squad And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-08-06T00:01:34
The Suicide Squad is about a team of super-villains do black-ops missions for the government in exchange for lighter sentences. It brings back several characters, including Margot Robbie's Harley Q...
ListenBillie Eilish's Happier Than Ever from 2021-08-04T00:01:40
Billie Eilish's first album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, was a sensation in 2019 — it swept the major categories at the Grammys and established the singer as a huge pop star....
ListenWhat's Making Us Happy: 1971 Edition from 2021-08-03T00:01:22
Back in 1971, Richard Nixon was president, the Beatles were newly broken up. But also, a new network called National Public Radio broadcast for the first time. In honor of the anniversary of NPR's ...
ListenJungle Cruise And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-07-30T00:01:44
What do you get when you take one part The African Queen, one part Raiders of the Lost Ark, two parts Pirates of the Caribbean, a pinch of the Fast and Furious series, and every Disney movie trope ...
ListenOur Summer Stories from 2021-07-26T00:01:23
We're having a summer of carefully and safely going out into the world again. And what happens when you go out into the world is that more things tend to happen to you. The good and the bad, the am...
ListenOld And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-07-23T00:01:14
The psychological horror thriller Old comes with the kind of twist we've come to expect from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan. That twist is right there in the title: A bunch of tourists...
ListenKevin Can F**k Himself from 2021-07-21T00:01:19
What would life as a sitcom wife really be like? That's the premise of the AMC series Kevin Can F**k Himself. Annie Murphy plays a woman who exists in a sitcom when she's with her husband,...
ListenBoy Bands: A Guide from 2021-07-19T00:01:11
Boy bands have been a staple of pop music for generations. They've won over millions of fans and provided gateways to fandom and pop-cultural obsession. From New Edition and New Kids On The Block i...
ListenSpace Jam: A New Legacy And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-07-16T00:01:55
Twenty-five years ago, the movie Space Jam paired Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan. Now, Space Jam: A New Legacy brings together Bugs Bunny and LeBron James. It's now in theaters and...
ListenBlindspotting from 2021-07-15T00:01:48
In 2018, Blindspotting was one of the buzziest movies to come out of the Sundance Film Festival. Now, it's has been spun off into a series on Starz, offering a fresh and more expansive tak...
ListenBlack Widow and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-07-09T00:01:47
When Scarlett Johansson started playing Natasha Romanoff, she was the only female Avenger. And despite multiple appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Widow never got her own movie. Th...
Listen2021 Songs Of Summer from 2021-07-08T00:01:21
Every summer gets its own unique soundtrack — a fresh batch of hit songs, all vying for an unofficial title: Song Of The Summer. Often these songs are on the wind, everywhere, dominating not just t...
ListenStarstruck from 2021-07-07T00:01:38
It might sound like fun to date a glamorous movie star, but in reality, it would probably get very messy. That's the premise of HBO Max's Starstruck, created by and starring New Zealand co...
ListenRomance Books: A Starter Guide from 2021-06-23T00:01:53
You have to love a love story: the meeting, the flirting, the falling, the struggling, and ultimately, the happily ever after. Maybe you're an experienced romance reader, or maybe you're just getti...
ListenRomance Books: A Starter Guide from 2021-06-23T00:01:53
You have to love a love story: the meeting, the flirting, the falling, the struggling, and ultimately, the happily ever after. Maybe you're an experienced romance reader, or maybe you're just getti...
ListenWe Are Lady Parts from 2021-06-22T00:01:33
The Peacock series We Are Lady Parts is a bold, bracing and very funny comedy series about an up-and-coming London punk band called Lady Parts, and the young, awkward and extremely anxious...
ListenTuca and Bertie from 2021-06-21T00:01:01
The animated series Tuca & Bertie stars two best friends in the classic odd couple tradition: Tiffany Haddish voices free-spirited Tuca and Ali Wong plays anxious Bertie. That setup may so...
ListenLuca And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-06-18T00:01:30
Luca, the latest movie from Disney and Pixar, whisks us across the globe and into a fictional coastal Italian town in the 1950s. There, the titular young hero and his new friend Alberto ge...
ListenTop 10 'Friends' Supporting Characters, Ranked from 2021-06-17T00:01:31
It's good to be a star. In the world of the comedy Friends, that meant being Rachel or Ross, Monica or Chandler, Phoebe or Joey. But it takes more than just stars to make a hit.
Listen'Friends' Main Characters, Ranked from 2021-06-16T00:01
The recent Friends reunion on HBO Max set off a new wave of nostalgia. So we put the most important question to you: Who's the best friend? Who's the worst friend? Thousands of you voted, ...
ListenThree Great Songs For Your Next Road Trip from 2021-06-15T00:01:32
If you're thinking about taking a road trip, you're gonna need road-trip music. You might need a pick-me-up, or a distraction, or something for when you need a break from podcasts. So if you're hea...
ListenSweet Tooth from 2021-06-14T00:01:22
The Netflix series Sweet Tooth is a strange mix. It's a dystopian tale of societal collapse in the wake of a deadly virus and the rise of human-animal hybrids. It's also a warm, humane, lu...
ListenIn The Heights And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-06-11T00:01:41
Before Hamilton made him a household name, Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the music and lyrics for the musical In The Heights. The Broadway production won four Tony Awards, including Best Musica...
ListenThe Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It from 2021-06-10T00:01:02
The 2013 horror film The Conjuring made more than $300 million and spawned a blockbuster cinematic universe. The main Conjuring movies center on the heavily fictionalized...
ListenKeeping Up With The Kardashians from 2021-06-09T00:01
After 20 seasons, multiple marriages, babies and scandals, Keeping Up With the Kardashians is finally coming to a close. The E! reality series is leaving behind quite a legacy (or wreckage...
ListenBo Burnham: Inside from 2021-06-07T00:01:47
Bo Burnham's new Netflix special Inside is not stand-up comedy. It's one-man isolation theater, shot in one enclosed space and bursting with musical performances and video sendups of genres from sa...
ListenSummer Guide And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-06-04T00:01
Movie theaters are opening, and new TV shows and music are on the horizon. We've got you covered on what's coming this summer to entertain you.
ListenA Quiet Place Part II from 2021-06-01T00:01:26
A Quiet Place told the story of a world overrun by monsters who kill anything that make...
ListenComedian Patti Harrison from 2021-05-31T00:01:20
Patti Harrison is known for bringing her absurd, caustic, yet charming comedy to supporting roles on shows like Search Party, Broad City and Shrill. But now she's in a st...
ListenCruella And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-05-28T00:01:36
One of the biggest, baddest and certainly most stylish of Disney villains is getting an origin story. In the new film Cruella, Emma Stone plays young Estella, an orphan on the streets of L...
ListenBTS And More: A Guide To K-Pop from 2021-05-27T00:01:46
Last year, the South Korean pop group BTS topped the U.S. charts with the blockbuster earworm "Dynamite." Now, they've got a new hit, called "Butter." But the story of K-pop extends well beyond BTS...
ListenMaster Of None from 2021-05-25T00:01:01
The Netflix show Master Of None has finally returned following a four-year hiatus. This time around the focus is on Lena Waithe's character Denise and her partner (played by Naomi Ackie) a...
ListenOlivia Rodrigo from 2021-05-24T00:01:28
When this year began, Olivia Rodrigo hadn't even released a single as a recording artist. But by mid-January, she was setting streaming records and sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100. "Drivers Lice...
ListenOlivia Rodrigo from 2021-05-24T00:01:28
When this year began, Olivia Rodrigo hadn't even released a single as a recording artist. But by mid-January, she was setting streaming records and sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100. "Drivers Lice...
ListenArmy Of The Dead And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-05-21T00:01:44
Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead is a zombie heist film that follows a team of mercenaries led by Dave Bautista. This rag-tag bunch faces wave after wave of zombies in an abandoned, cordoned...
ListenMare Of Easttown from 2021-05-20T00:01:07
In the HBO series Mare of Easttown, Kate Winslet plays a detective in a small town just outside of Philadelphia. Her character Mare is conducting a murder investigation, and there's a miss...
ListenThe Woman In The Window from 2021-05-18T00:01:53
In Netflix's adaptation of The Woman In The Window, Amy Adams plays a psychologist named Anna, who is agoraphobic and entirely confined to her house. A family moves in across the street an...
ListenThe Underground Railroad from 2021-05-17T00:01:37
The new Amazon series The Underground Railroad is the latest project from Barry Jenkins, who directed Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk. It's the story of Cora, a ...
ListenThose Who Wish Me Dead And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-05-14T00:01:30
The new movie Those Who Wish Me Dead is a lot of things at once. It's the story of a smokejumper, played by Angelina Jolie, who battles terrifying forest fires. It's the story of a young k...
ListenThree Favorite Nintendo Switch Games from 2021-05-12T00:01:08
Sometimes, we dive deep into a new piece of pop culture to grapple with its themes, its relevance and its meaning. But sometimes, you just want us to recommend stuff to watch, read or play. Today, ...
ListenSelena: The Series from 2021-05-10T00:01:08
Selena Quintanilla was known as the "Queen Of Tejano Music," a major Latin star who was crossing over into the mainstream U.S. pop world when she was shot and killed in 1995. She was 23 years old. ...
ListenThe Mitchells Vs. The Machines And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-05-07T00:01:12
In the new animated film The Mitchells Vs. The Machines, a family road trip turns into a wild adventure and a battle against an actual robot uprising. And while some of the themes are fami...
ListenRutherford Falls from 2021-05-06T00:01:21
The Peacock sitcom Rutherford Falls, which follows a conflict over a historical statue in a small town, is notable for a few reasons, besides its timely topic. It's the latest project from...
ListenTCM On HBO Max Guide from 2021-05-05T00:01:49
The 2021 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival is taking place in your local living room. Beginning this Thursday, a special lineup of curated programming will be airing on TCM and streaming on HBO M...
ListenStar Wars And Other Merchandise from 2021-05-04T00:01:36
Today is May the 4th, also known as Star Wars Day. The first Star Wars film spawned many sequels, TV series, videogames and a multi-billion dollar merchandise industry. S...
ListenShadow and Bone from 2021-05-03T00:01:36
Shadow and Bone is the latest Netflix fantasy series based on a successful set of novels. There's a lot to take in — at least six main characters, people who can wield wind and shadow and ...
ListenWithout Remorse, Michael B. Jordan, And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-04-30T00:01:58
Michael B. Jordan has played a range of characters, from sympathetic figures like Wallace on The Wire, to an underdog in Creed and a swaggering antagonist in Black Panther Listen
Law And Order: Organized Crime from 2021-04-29T00:01:52
If you want an example of the TV cop whose supposed integrity is maintained in spite of procedural, ethical, and moral lapses, consider Elliot Stabler. For 12 seasons of Law & Order: Special Vi...
ListenMortal Kombat from 2021-04-27T00:01:59
The Mortal Kombat franchise began in 1992 with an arcade fighting game featuring grisly pixelated deaths. It spawned many sequels and spinoffs, comics, television shows and films. The late...
Listen2021 Oscars Recap from 2021-04-26T06:53
We are wrapping up this year's Oscars. It was a big night for Nomadland, which took best picture, best actress for Frances McDormand, and a historic best director win for Chloé Zhao. But there were...
Listen2021 Oscars Preview And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-04-23T00:01
There are always two big questions as we approach the Oscars: Who will win, and who should win. We're diving into both, so you can win your Oscar pool and see some fine movies at the same time.
Listen2021 Oscars Guide: Original Songs from 2021-04-22T00:01
What do Will Ferrell and Leslie Odom, Jr. have in common? They both play a part in the Academy Awards' Best Original Song category. This year's five nominated songs are stacked with star power and ...
Listen2021 Oscars Guide: Animated Features from 2021-04-21T00:01
Wolves, aliens and the afterlife all show up in this year's Oscar-nominated animated features. From stop-motion to hand-drawn art, these five films exhibit and celebrate different styles of animati...
Listen2021 Oscars Guide: Documentary Features from 2021-04-20T00:01
Corruption, loneliness, family, activism, and the adventures that take place in the ocean. The Oscar-nominated documentary features are about all these things, but not just these things. These film...
Listen2021 Oscars Guide: International Features from 2021-04-19T00:01
This year's Oscar nominees for best international feature film tackle a variety of issues, from school bullying to mass slaughter, from government corruption to alcohol abuse — one nominee even gra...
ListenLegally Blonde And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-04-16T00:01:58
Twenty years ago, Legally Blonde opened in theaters, and now it's available on Netflix. Reese Witherspoon plays a first-year law student named Elle Woods. She heads to Harvard Law School t...
ListenMade For Love from 2021-04-15T00:01:42
The HBO Max series Made For Love follows Hazel (played by Cristin Milioti), whose husband wants to get inside her head — literally. He's a tech genius who's already made both of them reclu...
ListenThree Songs For Staring Out The Window from 2021-04-14T00:01:31
NPR Music has song recommendations for every occasion, from major life events to moments when all you want to do is stare blankly into the middle distance. Right now, so many of us feel stuck in a ...
ListenQueen Sugar from 2021-04-13T00:01:49
Queen Sugar is a sprawling melodrama following the Bordelons, a tight-knit, multi-generational black family in rural Louisiana. Created by Ava DuVernay, the series has been politically top...
ListenViola Davis: Essentials from 2021-04-12T00:01:35
Viola Davis' name is rarely far from awards season chatter, and this year is no different — the highly decorated performer received her fourth Oscar nomination for her role in Ma Rainey's Black...
ListenThe Great Pottery Throw Down, What's Making Us Happy, And Remembering DMX from 2021-04-09T00:01:03
The Great Pottery Throw Down is one of the gentlest, kindest and warmest competitive reality shows you will ever see (even when things literally explode). The UK series is now streaming on...
ListenFrances McDormand: Essentials from 2021-04-07T00:01:42
Over the course of her long, varied and distinguished career, actor Frances McDormand has won two Oscars - and her performance in Nomadland this year could win her a third. Pop Culture Hap...
ListenChadwick Boseman: Essentials from 2021-04-06T00:01:30
Chadwick Boseman is nominated for an Oscar this year for his performance in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. It's his final onscreen role — Listen
The Father from 2021-04-05T00:01:13
In The Father, Anthony Hopkins plays a character whose fierce independence is complicated by his worsening dementia. Olivia Colman plays his daughter Anne, who keeps trying to hire carers ...
ListenTop 10 Muppets And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-04-02T00:01
When we asked our listeners to tell us which Muppets were their favorites, we knew you'd all come through. More than 6,000 people cast over 18,000 votes, and those votes have been tallied. This is ...
ListenOur Favorite Muppets from 2021-04-01T00:01:29
When The Muppet Show arrived on Disney Plus in February, it got us talking: who are our favorite Muppets? And which Muppet do we most identify with? Today, we're discussing all things Mupp...
ListenGodzilla Vs. Kong from 2021-03-31T00:01:17
Godzilla Vs. Kong is a collision of two classic film franchises. As the sequel to 2017's Kong: Skull Island and 2019's Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, the film's excessiv...
ListenThe Falcon And The Winter Soldier from 2021-03-30T00:01:02
As the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues its march across Disney Plus, it needs a buddy show, specifically The Falcon And The Winter Soldier. Both old allies of Captain America, the two ...
ListenBeverly Cleary: Essentials from 2021-03-27T18:11:29
Legendary children's author Beverly Cleary died last week at the age of 104. Cleary wrote more than 40 books over about 50 years. Her characters, like Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins, entertained k...
ListenSound of Metal and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-03-26T00:01
Sound Of Metal tells the story of a heavy-metal drummer, played by Riz Ahmed, who experiences sudden hearing loss that changes every facet of his life. The film is nominated for six Academ...
ListenKing Of The Hill from 2021-03-25T00:01:02
If you're looking for the next show to binge, we've got a great suggestion for you. The animated sitcom King Of The Hill ran on FOX from 1997 to 2010, and all 13 seasons are now streaming ...
ListenAudience Questions: What Should I Watch? from 2021-03-24T00:01:13
For a year, many of us have found ourselves planted at home, with a lot more time on our hands for movies and television. Maybe you've already finished the umpteenth binge-watch of your favorite sh...
Listen2020 Best Books: Book Club Ideas from 2021-03-23T00:01:24
Every year, NPR brings together some of the best books of the year in a searchable, explorable guide called the Book Concierge. Today, All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro gives us his recommenda...
ListenFavorite Concert Films from 2021-03-22T00:01:55
It's been more than a year since live concerts were a safe way to experience music. We miss the roar of a blissed-out crowd and experiencing art at the moment of its creation. Therefore, it feels l...
ListenJustice League And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-03-19T00:00:12
The 2017 film Justice League had a famously rocky road to the big screen and premiered to polarized reactions. Following an extended online campaign by Zack Snyder's hardcore fanbase, the ...
ListenRaya And The Last Dragon from 2021-03-18T00:00:31
Raya And The Last Dragon is an animated Disney movie without musical numbers, without romantic intrigue and with a largely Asian cast. It's about the pursuit of peace, the need for trust a...
ListenSteven Yeun: Essentials from 2021-03-17T00:01:13
Steven Yeun's filmography reveals a remarkably varied career. From his breakout role as Glenn Rhee in The Walking Dead to his work with directors like Bong Joon-ho and Boots Riley, Yeun ca...
ListenOscar Nominations 2021 from 2021-03-15T17:33:59
The Oscar nominations are out, and in the lead is Mank. The David Fincher-directed film about the writing of Citizen Kane picked up the most nominations with 10, while other films...
Listen2021 Grammys Recap from 2021-03-15T06:12
After a six week delay due to COVID-19, we did finally have a Grammys ceremony, hosted by Trevor Noah, with loads of socially distanced performances and big wins for Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Megan Th...
ListenRuPaul's Drag Race And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-03-12T00:01:33
RuPaul's Drag Race began in 2009 as a raggedy spoof of reality competition shows, with hilariously low-rent production values on Logo. After 13 seasons and a move to VH1, it has transforme...
ListenAntiques Roadshow from 2021-03-11T00:01:57
For over twenty years, PBS has ensured that one of the hottest places in American television is your attic. And if you want to know what all that old stuff is worth, you can take yourself right to ...
ListenGinny And Georgia from 2021-03-10T00:01:20
Netflix's Ginny & Georgia follows a young single mom, her teenage daughter, and their efforts to create a life for themselves in the suburbs of Massachusetts. It's got high school standbys...
ListenDelroy Lindo: Essentials from 2021-03-09T00:01:16
Delroy Lindo is one of those performers you probably recognize as "that dude." Even if he's only on screen for a few scenes, he tends to stand out. He gave one of last year's most critically acclai...
ListenThe WandaVision Finale from 2021-03-08T00:01:56
After nine episodes, several battles, big reveals and a lot of different hairstyles, WandaVision has come to an end on Disney Plus. What happened to Wanda, what happened to Vision, and is ...
ListenComing 2 America And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-03-05T00:01:47
Coming To America was a huge hit when it was released in 1988, eventually grossing well over $100 million at the box office. It captured Eddie Murphy at the peak of his career, helped cata...
ListenRegina King: Essentials from 2021-03-04T00:01:47
Very few actors will ever put together a run like Regina King. Among other things, she's won four Emmys in the last 10 years - all for different roles. She won an Oscar for her role in If Beale...
ListenThree Great Documentaries from 2021-03-03T00:01
If you dig into the archives of any streaming service, you're gonna find loads of documentaries — tales of true crime, plucky dreamers, obsessive eccentrics, or just about any other subject you cou...
ListenThe United States v. Billie Holiday from 2021-03-02T00:01:31
The United States v. Billie Holiday is the latest dramatization of the singer's tumultuous personal life. Directed by Lee Daniels and starring Andra Day, it focuses on the government surve...
Listen2021 Golden Globes Recap from 2021-03-01T07:03:34
This year's Golden Globes ceremony took place under a cloud, following fresh reporting on accusations that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is too small, too secretive, and not remotely dive...
ListenMinari And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-02-26T00:01:13
Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, Minari follows a Korean-American family who moves to Arkansas in the 1980s to follow their father's dream of becoming a farmer. The grind of trying...
ListenCinderella from 2021-02-25T00:01:25
There are many versions of Cinderella, but few are as beloved as Disney's production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, starring Brandy as the titular character and Whitney Hou...
ListenI Care A Lot from 2021-02-24T00:01:31
In the new Netflix comedy-thriller I Care A Lot, Rosamund Pike plays a slick grifter named Marla who tricks her way into becoming the legal guardian of elderly people, then drains their ba...
Listen2020 Best Books: Nonfiction from 2021-02-23T00:01:19
Every year, NPR brings together some of the best books of the year in a searchable, explorable guide called the Book Concierge. Today, we're talking about some of the best nonfiction picks that sho...
ListenIt's A Sin from 2021-02-22T00:01:36
It's A Sin chronicles the AIDS epidemic as experienced by a group of friends in London in the early 1980s. They come from different backgrounds, and deal with the dawning realization that ...
ListenNomadland and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-02-19T00:01:35
The new film Nomadland is about a woman named Fern who's lost her husband, her home and her entire community: a company town that collapsed when the company did. She's played by Frances Mc...
ListenTo All The Boys: Always And Forever from 2021-02-18T00:01:21
In 2018, To All The Boys I've Loved Before was a breakout hit for Netflix. Based on Jenny Han's novel, it followed Lara Jean Covey through the adventure of falling in love with one Peter K...
ListenShark Tank from 2021-02-17T00:01:23
On Shark Tank, a group of wealthy investors like Mark Cuban and "Queen of QVC" Lori Greiner listen to pitches from people who have invented something. Might be an app, might be a toy, migh...
ListenDesus And Mero On Politics, Fame And Life In The Pandemic from 2021-02-15T00:01:29
A special bonus episode from NPR's It's Been A Minute With Sam Sanders. Desus Nice and The Kid Mero went from calling up "anyone in their phone book" in the early days of their podcast
Judas And The Black Messiah And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-02-12T00:01:31
Fred Hampton, the charismatic chairman of the Black Panther Party's Illinois chapter, was just 21 years old when he was killed during a police raid in 1969. In Judas And The Black Messiah,...
Listen2020 Best Books: For Music Lovers from 2021-02-11T00:01:33
Every year, NPR brings together some of the best books in a searchable, explorable guide called the Book Concierge. It can help you find exactly the read you're looking for. Today we're talking abo...
ListenSuperstore from 2021-02-10T00:01:20
For six seasons, the NBC comedy Superstore has told the story of a fictional big-box store in St. Louis. Until the last handful of episodes, the show starred America Ferrera, and found hum...
ListenDesus&Mero Writer Josh Gondelman On Making A Late Night Talk Show During COVID-19 from 2021-02-09T00:01:27
Television production changed practically overnight when COVID-19 began to spread in the United States in March 2020. One corner of TV that's carried on is the late-night talk show. There have been...
Listen2021 Super Bowl from 2021-02-08T04:44:12
It has been a truly bizarre NFL season, as the pandemic threatened players' health and compelled teams to play in empty or near-empty stadiums all season long. But it all ended in familiar fashion:...
ListenMalcolm&Marie And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-02-05T00:01:52
After production of HBO's Euphoria was shut down in March 2020, creator Sam Levinson turned to the show's star Zendaya and filmed Malcolm & Marie. The sleek Netflix feature follow...
Listen2021 Sundance: Best Movies from 2021-02-04T00:01:52
One of the most anticipated moments of any year in movies is the Sundance Film Festival. This is not a year for gathering in crowds, so the Sundance Film Festival in 2021 went virtual. More than 70...
ListenBling Empire from 2021-02-03T00:01:49
Reality television has long had a fascination with some factions of the extremely rich. Bling Empire shifts the focus a little bit, to a group of Asian-Americans in and around Los Angeles....
ListenOur Favorite Cicely Tyson Performances from 2021-02-02T00:01:36
The actress Cicely Tyson died last week at the age of 96. Over a career that spanned seven decades, she brought grace, grit and gravitas to any role she played. She'd just released a memoir, Ju...
ListenDerek DelGaudio's In&Of Itself from 2021-02-01T00:01:07
The off-Broadway show In & Of Itself, performed by Derek DelGaudio, was a one-man show, a magic act and a piece of interactive theater. The show is now available on Hulu and it showcases a...
ListenCelebrating Women in Music With Turning the Tables from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
NPR Music's ambitious Turning the Tables series re-imagines the popular music canon by putting women and non-binary musicians at the center. All Songs Considered recently had a great conversation a...
ListenPop Culture Serotonin and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Not every day can be Friday, not every bit of weather can be sunny and not every plate can have cookies on it. That's why we love our pop culture serotonin — the stuff we watch, read and listen to ...
ListenTo All The Boys I've Loved Before from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Netflix young adult romance To All The Boys I've Loved Before tells the story of a high school pair who may or may not — but come on, they will — end up together. You've probably seen it on...
ListenFall TV Preview and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
It's almost the end of the summer, which means it's time for Pop Culture Happy Hour's fall TV preview. We're telling you what new shows we're excited about, and which ones we think are built to la...
ListenBlack Panther from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Ryan Coogler's Marvel film, set largely in the richly imagined Afro-futurist utopia of Wakanda, is by turns intimate, immediate and — most importantly — original. Guest: Code Switch's Gene Demby. ...
ListenBlacKkKlansman and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
BlacKkKlansman tells the story Ron Stallworth — a black police detective who infiltrated the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. On today's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we dive into the most t...
Listen2018 MTV VMAs from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Last night the VMAs honored some top songs and artists including Camila Cabello, Jennifer Lopez, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj. The show also recognized Aretha Franklin—sort of. And trotted out Aer...
ListenCrazy Rich Asians and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This week, we talk about the charming romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, which has been lauded as groundbreaking for its all Asian and Asian-American cast. Guests: NPR's Mallory Yu and Code Switch'...
ListenRemembering Aretha Franklin from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The "Queen of Soul" died today at age 76. She was a gifted pop singer, gospel singer, R&B singer, and even opera singer. We talk with All Things Considered's Audie Cornish about the unforg...
ListenBlockers and Game Night: Playing Catch-Up On Comedies We Missed from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Most of this summer's blockbusters are already out. That makes it a great time to catch up on a couple of surprisingly well-reviewed comedies. In this episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour, we talk abo...
ListenPop Culture Punching Bags and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Every once in a while, we decide to defend the seemingly indefensible pieces of pop culture that everyone loves to hate. Today, we put on our boxing gloves to defend the honor of some of pop cultu...
ListenSorry to Bother You from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The indie movie Sorry to Bother You is a summer hit. Lakeith Stanfield stars as Cassius Green, a telemarketer whose world spirals into chaos. Code Switch's Gene Demby and Shereen Meraji ha...
ListenEighth Grade and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This week, we're talking about Bo Burnam's breakout festival hit Eighth Grade. Kayla Day, played by Elsie Fisher, is a middle-schooler who gives pep talks on YouTube and yearns for friends...
ListenBreath Of The Wild from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Video game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild drops you into a world of sweeping vistas and challenging weapons, and it gives you a vast area to explore. It's an adventure and a chall...
ListenMission: Impossible - Fallout and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We're taking to the streets, the skies, the water and the glitzy high-class nightclubs to talk about Mission: Impossible - Fallout on this episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour. Guest: Chris Klimek.
ListenMamma Mia! Here We Go Again from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Under the blue skies of summer, what could be more welcome than ABBA songs? That's right, eight years after a big cast whooped it up in the film adaptation of the jukebox musical Mamma Mia!, there'...
ListenSkyscraper and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Dwayne Johnson, AKA The Rock, has fought all kinds of things in the movies. Earthquakes, criminals, zoo animals. And now, he's up against a building. On today's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we're defyin...
ListenHannah Gadsby's Netflix Special 'Nanette' With Kumail Nanjiani from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Hannah Gadsby's Netflix special arrived in late June and has become a genuine phenomenon. It's an hour that starts as standup and morphs into something else entirely. Guest: Comedian, actor, and Os...
ListenSharp Objects and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Before Gillian Flynn wrote Gone Girl, she wrote Sharp Objects. Now, HBO has produced an adaptation starring Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson, and Chris Messina. Guest: NPR Weekend Edition books editor,...
ListenAnt-Man And The Wasp, Plus What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The sequel to 2015's Ant-Man is just as light and inconsequential, but a forgettable villain and an over-complicated plot means it has to work harder — and it shows. Guest: writer Chris Kl...
ListenThe Mister Rogers Documentary 'Won't You Be My Neighbor' from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Using archival footage and new interviews, Morgan Neville's film explores what how Rogers' unusual children's show came to be and what his legacy is for tens of millions of kids who are now tens of...
ListenCooking Shows from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The panel chats about some of their favorite cooking shows including Top Chef, Chopped and Chef's Table. Guests: Weekend Edition editor Barrie Hardymon and Code Switch's Kat Chow. (This segment ori...
ListenJurassic World, Jurassic Park and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom takes a bizarre but not unwelcome left turn. How does it compare to 2015's mediocre but hugely successful revival and the original 1993 film? Guest: Chris Kl...
ListenThe Great Big Stand-Up Roundup from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
You can find new stand-up specials just about every week. In fact, you can find so many that it's hard to keep track of them all. So we spent this episode recommending eight standout specials. Gues...
ListenIncredibles 2 and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The action of this animated sequel, which picks up where The Incredibles ended 14 years ago, is fresh and inventive, but the laughs aren't. Guest: NPR Code Switch host Gene Demby.
ListenThree Great Horror Movies For Scaredy Cats from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We are deep into the Halloween season, and many of us are cooped up at home with our streaming services, scrolling through movie after movie full of monsters, murderers, jump scares, and rivers of ...
ListenThe Tony Awards and Remembering Anthony Bourdain from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Tony Awards paid off for The Band's Visit, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the Angels in America revival and a scrappy theater kid named Bruce Springsteen. Also we...
ListenOcean's 8 and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Ocean's 8 great cast and some clever commentary about women and Hollywood make it a whole lot of fun. Guest: Bim Adewunmi, senior culture writer at Buzzfeed and co-host of the Thirst Aid Kit podcast.
ListenThe Paddington Movies from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
At last, we take a deep, overdue dive into the sweet, tangy jars of emotional marmalade that are the Paddington films. Guests: writer Chris Klimek and librarian Margaret Willison.
ListenLaw & Order and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We talk about one of the most durable franchises in television history. Guests: Librarian Margaret H. Willison and Sarah D. Bunting, the East Coast Editor of Previously.TV
Listen'Cobra Kai' Is A Surprisingly Good 'Karate Kid' Reboot from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso are still at it in Cobra Kai, a surprisingly interesting look at what happens later to people who peak — or crash — in high school. Guests: All Things Co...
ListenSolo: A Star Wars Story and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The odds of successfully telling the origin story of the Star Wars trilogy's lovable rogue are approximately 3,720 to 1. After a sluggish start, Solo: A Star Wars Story beats thos...
ListenThe Royal Wedding from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Normally, royal weddings are like the Oscars: a lot of pomp, but no real surprises. But when Prince Harry married Meghan Markle, the audience sat up and took notice. Guests: Weekend Edition Editor ...
ListenDeadpool 2 and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Ryan Reynolds once again assumes the role of a deadly mercenary who makes many references to various pop culture properties while disemboweling folk a lot. Guests: Writer Chris Klimek and Daisy Ros...
ListenThe Half-Hour Drama Flourishes With 'Vida' from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The new Starz half-hour drama tells the story of two young women who learn a lot about their mother when they go home to deal with the consequences of her death. Guest: Daisy Rosario of NPR Member ...
ListenTully and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman, the film stars Charlize Theron in an often brutal look at the emotional and physical tolls of parenthood. Guest: Weekend Edition Edito...
ListenKilling Eve from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
BBC America's cat-and-mouse spy show is a classic genre piece executed very well. We talk about its tension and its great lead performance from Sandra Oh on this week's episode. Guest: Code Switch'...
ListenA Quiet Place and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The shush-iest film to become a hit in quite some time gets some overdue attention from the panel on this episode. Guest: Writer Meryl Williams.
ListenLeaving 'Hamilton' And 'Failing Up' With Leslie Odom Jr. from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Broadway's original Aaron Burr sits down with host Linda Holmes to talk about his new book, how it feels to hear ugly things about your career, and what he wants to do now that he couldn't before.
ListenAvengers: Infinity War and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Avengers try to keep a space-tyrant from performing cosmic genocide. The film doubles down on character interactions both familiar and unfamiliar. Guest: Code Switch co-host Gene Demby.
ListenSummer Movie Preview and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The panel predicsts the hits and flops, tell you what they're looking forward to, and help you spend that ticket money wisely. Guest: Aisha Harris, host of Slate's Represent podcast.
ListenPop Culture Dichotomies from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Star Trek vs. Star Wars? The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones? Gale vs. Peeta? Batman vs. Superman? The gang breaks down their favorite pop culture dichotomies. Guest: NPR Books editor Petra Mayer. (...
ListenAntiques Roadshow and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
To talk about the PBS institution that celebrates used stuff and how much it may or may not be worth. Guest: Jesse Thorn, host of NPR's Bullseye and the head honcho of the Maximum Fun podcast network.
ListenRoseanne and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The panel chats about the Roseanne revival and how the show's politics intersects with the politics of Roseanne Barr. Plus, what's making us happy this week. Guest: Hanna Rosin, Co-Host of Invisibi...
ListenLove, Simon from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The panel chats about Love, Simon; the first big American studio film to give a gay teenager the kind of story that John Hughes gave straight kids in the 1980s. Guest: Dave Holmes, Editor at Large...
ListenReady Player One and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Spielberg returns to his cinema-as-thrill-ride roots in this adaptation of Ernest Cline's YA novel. Guest: The Verge's Tasha Robinson.
ListenIsle of Dogs from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The panel chats about the new Wes Anderson film Isle of Dogs, a stop-motion-animated film about loyal dogs exiled to a lonely island. Guest: Film critic Chris Klimek.
ListenSXSW 2018 Wrap from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The panels shares some of their favorite new music discoveries from this year's SXSW Music Festival. Guests: NPR Music's Rodney Carmichael and music writer Katie Presley.
ListenHigh Maintenance from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The panel High Maintenance, HBO's anthology series about a marijuana dealer and his clients in New York City. Guests: Weekend Edition editor Barrie Hardymon and All Things Considered host Audie Cor...
ListenTalk Show Talk and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The panel chats about some of their favorite talk show guests and what makes an ideal host-guest dynamic. Guest: Comedian Guy Branum, the host and creator of TruTV's Talk Show the Game Show.
ListenGiancarlo Esposito On 'Breaking Bad', 'Do The Right Thing' And Facing The Police from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Giancarlo Esposito has appeared in dozens of TV shows and movies — from several of Spike Lee's early films, to his role as Gus Fring on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. In this interview from Bul...
ListenFamily Friendly Crowd Pleasers: Three Things To Stream Your Whole Family Can Enjoy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When you're staying in, it can be hard to keep everybody happy. But never fear, we're here to help. We've got a few recommendations to keep everybody in the family happy and stave off cabin fever.
ListenOur 2020 Pop Culture Resolutions and Predictions from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
It's New Year's Day, so it's time to make some resolutions for 2020. We'll talk about what we want to change, how we hope to improve our lives, and what we plan to do. We'll also check in on last y...
ListenThe Mandalorian, Baby Yoda, and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Mandalorian is the highest profile and most expensive original series to debut on the Disney+ streaming service. Set in the Star Wars universe soon after the fall of the Galactic Empir...
ListenThe Irishman And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The movies and the mob have made a winning combination for decades. The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Departed — and that's on top of television projects like The Sopran...
ListenKnives Out from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Whodunit? Was it Jamie Lee Curtis? Chris Evans? Michael Shannon? Don Johnson? Toni Collette? This is the question at the center of the marvelous new comedy Knives Out. The film is directed and writ...
ListenDoctor Sleep from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Stephen King's novel the shining was about a haunted hotel and a boy named Danny Torrance with psychic powers. In 2013, Stephen King wrote a sequel. In that book Danny Torrance is all grown up, bu...
ListenHow To Survive The Election Year from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We know — you're tired. The next presidential election is still just over a year away, but it feels like the last one never ended. And if that's how you feel, imagine what it's like for folks who c...
ListenOur 2019 Fall Book Preview from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Summer is turning to fall where we are, and that means it's time for a couch, a blanket, and a book. Fiction and nonfiction, essays and memoirs, we've got some ideas for things you can read this fa...
ListenNetflix's Unbelievable from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Netflix series Unbelievable brings together a group of actresses including Kaitlyn Dever, Toni Collette, Merritt Wever, Dale Dickey and Danielle MacDonald. It's based on a true story a...
ListenWe Spoil Avengers: Endgame from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When Avengers: Endgame came out in late April, it got good reviews and it did huge business. As with everything we talk about, we didn't want to spoil it for you, so some of its biggest development...
ListenTidying Up With Marie Kondo from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
If you've noticed your friends have been a little more "tidy" than usual, or your thrift store a bit better stocked, it might be because of Netflix. The streaming series Tidying Up With Marie Kondo...
ListenRoma and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Alfonso Cuarón directed the award-winning film Gravity in 2013, and won an Oscar for it. Now he's back with a movie that's equally ambitious, and much more personal. Roma is inspired by A...
ListenIf Beale Street Could Talk from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
After winning an Oscar in 2017 for Moonlight, director Barry Jenkins is back with If Beale Street Could Talk. This time, he adapts a James Baldwin novel for the screen.
ListenBlack Mirror: Bandersnatch and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The sci-fi series Black Mirror has always been about changing technology and its usually dark implications for the future. Its latest episode, Bandersnatch, is itself the result of new technology d...
ListenOur Pop Culture Resolutions and Predictions from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Today, we look back on our 2018 resolutions to see how we fared, and make some new ones for the year to come. We also make our fearless pop culture predictions for the next 12 months, and see how l...
ListenOur 15 Favorite Things Of 2018 from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
It's the end of the year, and that makes it the perfect time to talk about the things we loved the most in 2018. From Black Panther, to Crazy Rich Asians, to the viral moments you might have missed...
ListenThe Favourite and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Favourite, set in the early 1700s, tells the story of Britain's Queen Anne and two women who are jostling for her favor. Rachel Weisz plays the Queen's close adviser Sarah, and Emma Stone play...
ListenSam Sanders Chats With Guy Branum from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Comedian Guy Branum joins NPR's Sam Sanders to talk about his new book My Life As A Goddess and the many challenges presented by a mostly white, hetero-normative comedy scene.
ListenHallmark Holiday Movies from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What's warm and fuzzy, emotionally manipulative, and desperate for attention almost every hour of every day? Linda's dog, sure. But also the Hallmark Channel's endless supply of holiday movies and ...
ListenOur Favorite Christmas Songs from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
You can't have an abundance of Christmas songs without also having an abundance of opinions about Christmas songs — songs we love, songs we hate, songs we love when they're sung by one person, but ...
ListenRalph Breaks The Internet and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Wreck It Ralph was a hit when it came out in 2012. Ralph Breaks the Internet picks up where that film left off, and is even more ambitious than its predecessor. This time, Ralph t...
ListenWidows and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Widows is not your average heist movie — director Steve McQueen and co-screenwriter Gillian Fylnn have created something far more interesting. The film also has a star-studded cast that includes Vi...
ListenHomecoming from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In the Amazon thriller Homecoming, Julia Roberts plays a caseworker at a facility that helps soldiers re-adjust to civilian life. Or at least that's what she thinks it does. But calls from a myster...
Listen'Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj' and 'Busy Tonight' from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
There are a bunch of new shows to pay attention to this season, and today we're talking about two of our favorite talk entries — Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj and Busy Tonight.
ListenThe Haunting of Hill House from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House tells what is, in many ways, an old-fashioned ghost story. Moving between the past and the present, the series traces the effects of trauma on a family...
ListenBeautiful Boy and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Beautiful Boy is a story of addiction starring two Oscar-nominated actors. Timothée Chalamet plays Nic Sheff, who's addicted to crystal meth. Steve Carell plays David Sheff, his journalist father w...
Listen'First Man' and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
First Man tells the story of Neil Armstrong's life in the decade leading up to his walk on the moon. Ryan Gosling stars as Armstrong, and it's directed by Damien Chazelle. It's the second time they...
ListenThe Hate U Give from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Hate U Give finds teenager Starr Carter caught between two worlds — her mostly black neighborhood and a white prep school. When her friend Khalil is killed by a police officer, she's forced to ...
ListenA Star Is Born and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Lady Gaga stars opposite Bradley Cooper in the latest retelling of A Star Is Born. It's also Cooper's directing debut, with a cast that includes Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, and Dave Chappelle. W...
ListenA Simple Favor from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What has Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, menswear looks, mysteries, and YouTube's most cheerful mom? It's the stylish, mischievous, and sometimes darkly funny thriller A Simple Favor.
ListenLupin And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-29T00:01:56
Lupin is a smart and twisty French series that's new to Netflix. It's about a young Parisian man named Assane, played by Omar Sy, who molds his life on classic French tales about a fiction...
ListenAll Creatures Great And Small from 2021-01-28T00:01:07
The writer and veterinarian James Herriot wrote a series of beloved books about his adventures as a vet in Yorkshire beginning in the 1930s. They were adapted with great success into a series calle...
ListenAlmost Famous from 2021-01-27T00:01:45
The film Almost Famous recently turned 20. Writer and director Cameron Crowe looks at the ecosystem surrounding a rising rock band in the early '70s. Starring Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, B...
ListenSearch Party from 2021-01-26T00:01:06
In the dark comedy Search Party, four narcissistic millennials become amateur sleuths following the disappearance of a former classmate. Alia Shawkat plays Dory, the ringleader whose growi...
Listen2020 Best Books About Families from 2021-01-25T00:01:10
Every year, NPR brings together some of the best books of the year in a searchable, explorable guide called the Book Concierge. Today, we're highlighting three great 2020 books about families from ...
ListenWandaVision and What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-22T00:01:31
Disney Plus has big plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first show to arrive from its slate of Phase Four projects is WandaVision. Wanda's got magic powers, Vision's a synthet...
ListenLocked Down from 2021-01-21T00:01:01
In Locked Down — a movie to be filmed and released during the pandemic — Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anne Hathaway play a couple sheltering in London together. The film takes them on an adventure...
ListenPromising Young Woman from 2021-01-19T00:01:41
Promising Young Woman is a revenge thriller, and a dark comedy, and a few other things, too. It stars Carey Mulligan as a woman who spends her evenings in bars being picked up by men who m...
ListenOne Night In Miami And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-15T00:01:52
Regina King has won an Oscar and a collection of Emmys as an actor. Now, she's making her debut as a feature film director with One Night In Miami. The film imagines what might have happen...
Listen2020 Best Books About America from 2021-01-14T00:01:25
Every year, NPR brings together some of the best books of the year in a searchable, explorable guide called the Book Concierge. Today, we're highlighting books about the United States from this yea...
ListenBring It On from 2021-01-12T00:01:42
The cheerleading film Bring It On recently turned 20. It spawned direct-to-video sequels and a Broadway musical. And with an all-star cast of Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, and Gabrielle Uni...
ListenSylvie's Love from 2021-01-11T00:01:14
Sylvie's Love follows a relationship that blossoms in the late 1950s between a spirited young woman who loves television and a gifted saxophone player. Written and directed by Eugene Ashe,...
ListenGreat 2020 Movies You May Have Missed And What's Making Us Happy from 2021-01-08T00:01:33
We spent a lot of time watching movies in 2020. Plenty of our favorites ended up on this show, but with release schedules scrambled and publicity scattered, there are still things that manage to sl...
ListenBridgerton from 2021-01-06T00:01:43
What if you took Gossip Girl and set it in Regency-era London, where members of the aristocracy plot to find love, sex and spouses? You'd have Bridgerton. Created by Chris Van Dusen, B...
ListenCard Sharks from 2021-01-05T00:01:08
The game show Card Sharks has lived many lives: It's been on NBC, on CBS, in syndication, and now it's on ABC, in prime time, hosted by Joel McHale. The game seems simple — you're guessing...
Listen2020 Best Books: Love Stories from 2021-01-04T00:01:04
Every year, NPR brings together some of the best books of the year in a searchable, explorable guide called the Book Concierge. Today we're talking about some of the love stories that show up in th...
ListenOur 2021 Pop Culture Resolutions And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-12-31T00:01
It's the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, as much as it seemed like we might never get here. That means we're looking back, and we're looking ahead. What did we resolve to do in 2020, did we ...
ListenOur 2021 Pop Culture Predictions from 2020-12-30T00:01
To say we could not have predicted the course of 2020 is a ridiculous understatement. But nevertheless, we press on. We'll check in on last year's predictions, while turning our eyes to the future ...
ListenWonder Woman 1984 And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-12-24T00:01:34
Wonder Woman 1984 arrives as one of the biggest films yet to stream at home at the same time it hits theaters. Like its successful predecessor, 2017's Wonder Woman, it's directed ...
ListenThe Midnight Sky from 2020-12-23T00:01:51
The new George Clooney movie The Midnight Sky takes place in two very lonely, post-apocalyptic settings: the Arctic, and outer space. Clooney plays a scientist at an Arctic research statio...
Listen2020 Pop Culture Favorites from 2020-12-21T00:01
At the end of the year, we like to look back on some of our favorite things from the last 12 months of pop culture. We revisit some of the TV, film and music that helped us make it through.
ListenMa Rainey's Black Bottom And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-12-18T00:01:14
The excellent new film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a story about art. It's a story about anger, and it's a story about respect. Directed by George C. Wolfe and adapted from August Wilson's...
ListenThe Flight Attendant from 2020-12-16T00:00:30
A woman wakes up after a night of partying and realizes something is very, very wrong. That's the premise of the HBO Max series The Flight Attendant. It's a taut, darkly funny thriller sta...
ListenTaylor Swift's Evermore from 2020-12-15T00:01:37
On Friday, Dec. 11, just four and a half months after she released the heavily Grammy-nominated Folklore, Taylor Swift released her ninth album, Evermore. Swift describes...
Listen2020 Best Books: Realistic Fiction from 2020-12-14T00:01:06
Every year, NPR brings together some of the best books in a searchable, explorable guide called the Book Concierge. It can help you find exactly the read you're looking for. Today we're talking abo...
ListenThe Prom and What's Making Us Happy from 2020-12-11T00:00:58
Based on a sudsy, splashy 2018 Broadway musical, The Prom has been adapted for Netflix with big stars like Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Keegan Michael-Key and James Corden. But will the theater-pe...
ListenSaved By The Bell from 2020-12-09T00:00:21
Peacock has made a reboot of Saved By The Bell, which aired Saturday mornings from 1989 to 1993. With a mix of the old cast — including Mario Lopez as Slater and Elizabeth Berkley as Jessie — and n...
ListenMariah Carey from 2020-12-08T00:01:28
In 1990, a young woman with a big voice and equally big hair stepped onto the pop scene with her self-titled debut album, Mariah Carey. Thirty years later, she's as omnipresent as ever, th...
ListenScott Pilgrim Vs. The World from 2020-12-07T00:01
The 2010 film Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World starred Michael Cera as a directionless and not terribly bright 22-year-old in Toronto. Despite an amazing cast and director Edgar Wright's kineti...
ListenMank And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-12-04T00:01:43
Starring Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried, Mank captures the artistic process behind the conception and writing of Orson Welles' first movie, Citizen Kane. Director David Fincher's black-and-white o...
Listen2020 Christmas Movies and TV: Happiest Season, Hallmark, And More from 2020-12-03T00:01:34
Everybody from basic cable to streaming services have started to roll out their holiday fare. We're going to survey the tinsel-strewn landscape to bring you the brutal truth about some of this year...
Listen2020 Best Books: Fantasy And Sci-Fi from 2020-12-01T00:01:24
Every year, NPR brings together some of the best books in a searchable, explorable guide called the Book Concierge. It can help you find exactly the read you're looking for. Today we're talking abo...
ListenThe Mandalorian: Baby Yoda And More from 2020-11-30T00:01:29
It was a little over a year ago that the first episode of The Mandalorian debuted on Disney Plus. Can you remember a world before Baby Yoda was a thing? Now that season two is underway, we...
ListenThe Conspiracy Against Hip-Hop from 2020-11-27T00:01:08
A special bonus feed drop from the new NPR podcast Louder Than A Riot. Hosts Rodney Carmichael and Sidney Madden have been working on a deep-diving exploration of the relationship between hip-hop ...
ListenThe Emperor's New Groove and What's Making Us Happy from 2020-11-25T00:01:07
The Emperor's New Groove came out 20 years ago, during a time when Disney's animation department was going through an identity crisis. The plot is simple: David Spade is a bratty emperor. Eartha Ki...
ListenHillbilly Elegy from 2020-11-24T00:01:40
The book Hillbilly Elegy was a phenomenon in 2016. Writer J.D. Vance wrote about growing up in Ohio and Kentucky, and about his family's struggles with addiction, abuse and poverty. He tried to bot...
ListenMegan Thee Stallion from 2020-11-23T00:01:24
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion has had a massive year. Her song with Cardi B, "WAP," topped the Billboard Hot 100 — as did, of course, her remix of "Savage" with Beyoncé. On Friday, Megan Thee Stallion...
ListenAnimaniacs And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-11-20T00:01:14
Because everything in Hollywood must be revived these days, the Animaniacs are back after being locked in that Warner studio water tower for more than 20 years. Led by the fictional siblings Yakko,...
ListenThe West Wing from 2020-11-19T00:01:09
The West Wing chronicles the inner workings of a fictional presidential administration. The president is Democrat Jed Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, and his staff includes heavy hitters ...
ListenThe LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special from 2020-11-18T00:01:33
The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special brings back computer animated, extruded-plastic versions of Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewie, Rose, Lando and the droids. The only actors voicing their original ch...
ListenSupermarket Sweep from 2020-11-17T00:01:42
The game show Supermarket Sweep has run in the '60s, the '90s and the aughts. This fall, it's been revived for a fourth iteration — this time in primetime on ABC. While the previous two ve...
ListenTed Lasso And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-11-13T00:01:31
Ted Lasso knows football, but not, you know, football. He is an American football coach who finds himself in the U.K. coaching soccer in the Premier League. Jason Sudeikis originated the character ...
ListenHGTV And Home Makeover Shows from 2020-11-11T00:01:21
Whether you live in a big house or a tiny apartment, on a beach or in a bustling city, television is full of opportunities for you to ruminate on your living space. And nowhere is that impulse more...
ListenRemembering Jeopardy! Host Alex Trebek from 2020-11-08T18:04
The game show host Alex Trebek died Sunday following a battle with pancreatic cancer. Trebek hosted Jeopardy! for 36 years — his last episode airs on Christmas Day. Trebek hosted a number...
Listen2020 Comedy Special Recommendations And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-11-06T00:01:28
Comedy specials come in many forms. Stand-up, sketch, improv — and there are times when they really come in handy. But there are also so many of them circulating right now that it can be tough to f...
ListenThe Vow And Seduced: Two NXIVM Docuseries from 2020-11-05T00:01:44
NXIVM gained mainstream attention when several high-ranking members were charged with crimes, including racketeering, forced labor conspiracy and sex trafficking. The group called itself a self-hel...
ListenThe Queen's Gambit from 2020-11-04T00:01:46
The new Netflix series The Queen's Gambit finds its story in the equally intense if less obviously bruising world of competitive chess. Based on a 1983 novel, it stars Anya Taylor-Joy as a...
Listen2020 Election Day Distractions from 2020-11-03T00:01:36
Election Day is stressful. It's full of news that might or might not mean anything. The stakes are high, and the consequences are serious. And whatever you do from that point forward, first, you ha...
ListenRemembering Sean Connery from 2020-11-02T14:59:22
Sir Sean Connery has died. He was 90 years old. Though he became a star by creating the role of James Bond onscreen, over the course of his career he played many characters — all with his distincti...
ListenAriana Grande's Album Positions from 2020-11-02T00:01:51
Ariana Grande is one of the world's biggest pop stars, and on Friday, she released her sixth album, Positions. The singer's follow-up to Thank U, Next finds her celebrating hard-w...
ListenGreat British Baking Show And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-10-30T00:01:58
Whether you like an éclair or a bagel, a biscuit or a Bakewell tart, The Great British Baking Show will bring all your feelings about baked goods to the surface. The hosts have changed, an...
ListenThe Witches from 2020-10-28T00:01:51
The Witches, starring Octavia Spencer and Anne Hathaway, is streaming on HBO Max. It's an adaptation of the 1983 Roald Dahl book about a kid and his grandmother who get caught up in the da...
Listen3 Great Horror Movies For Scaredy Cats from 2020-10-27T00:01:21
We are deep into the Halloween season, and many of us are cooped up at home with our streaming services, scrolling through movie after movie full of monsters, murderers, jump scares, and rivers of ...
ListenRebecca And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-10-23T00:01:27
You may know Rebecca as a 1938 novel by Daphne du Maurier. You might know it as a 1940 adaptation directed by Alfred Hitchcock that won Best Picture. But if you've always wanted a version ...
ListenDavid Byrne's American Utopia from 2020-10-21T00:01:03
David Byrne and Spike Lee. Two artists with very defined, very distinct, and yet very different, sensibilities — but when you put them together, it works. The theatrical concert film David Byrn...
ListenPop Culture Happy Hour Goes Daily from 2020-10-19T00:01:44
Like many of you, the Pop Culture Happy Hour team is socially distancing at home. And we are watching more TV shows and movies than ever before. So that's Listen
The Trial Of The Chicago 7 And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-10-16T00:01:50
Writer-director Aaron Sorkin knows his way around a courtroom drama: He wrote the screenplay for A Few Good Men nearly 30 years ago. Now, he's written and directed The Trial of the Chicago 7 Listen
Is 'The Good Lord Bird' A White Savior Story, or Something Different? from 2020-10-14T00:01:33
Ethan Hawke plays the abolitionist John Brown in the new series The Good Lord Bird, which traces the events leading up to the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry. Told from the point of view of a f...
ListenThe Forty-Year-Old Version And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-10-09T00:01:55
In the wonderful new film The Forty-Year-Old Version, playwright Radha Blank plays a variation on herself. In it, the fictional Radha, frustrated by a stall in her theater career, finds a ...
ListenLatinx Songs That Helped Shape The Decade from 2020-10-07T00:01
Latinx music has experienced a huge boom in the last 10 years. We've seen the rise of global superstars like Bad Bunny and J Balvin. We've seen Shakira and Jennifer Lopez take over this year's Supe...
ListenThe Boys In The Band And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-10-02T00:01:32
Fifty two years ago, Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band debuted off-Broadway. The structure was simple, and not unfamiliar to anyone who'd seen a play before: Over the course of an evenin...
ListenThe Legend Of Korra from 2020-09-30T00:01:38
The Legend of Korra is a sequel to the hugely popular animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. It takes place 70 years later, in a darker, more industrialized world where bendi...
ListenEnola Holmes And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-09-25T00:01:41
The new, bright and breezy Netflix movie Enola Holmes stars Millie Bobby Brown as the 16-year-old sister of Sherlock Holmes. She sets out on an adventure when her eccentric mother (Helena ...
Listen2020 Emmys Recap from 2020-09-21T06:12
It was not your usual Emmy Awards ceremony. Because of the pandemic, there was no crowd, and host Jimmy Kimmel worked mostly alone. People accepted their awards from home. But surprisingly enough, ...
ListenAntebellum And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-09-18T00:01
In the new horror film Antebellum, Janelle Monáe plays an enslaved woman on a plantation run by Confederate soldiers. She's desperate to escape. But Monáe also plays a successful contemporary autho...
ListenPredictions Of How COVID-19 Will Impact Pop Culture from 2020-09-16T00:01
It's hard to predict how the current pandemic will affect the work of artists in television and film and theater, but that doesn't mean we can't try. What will change? What won't change? How might ...
ListenBilly Porter On Pose, Kinky Boots And More from 2020-09-14T00:01:53
A special bonus feed drop from the NPR podcast It's Been A Minute With Sam Sanders. Billy Porter is a force to be reckoned with. A Tony Award-winning Broadway performer. A fashion icon wit...
ListenI'm Thinking Of Ending Things And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-09-11T00:01:08
In the Netflix film, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, the plot is easy to follow. A young couple played by Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons drives through a snowstorm to the farmhouse where ...
ListenAvatar: The Last Airbender from 2020-09-09T00:01:34
The fantasy adventure Avatar: The Last Airbender aired on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. But this year, as the pandemic struck, the animated series became one of the biggest streaming hits...
ListenMulan And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-09-04T00:01:47
The biggest movie so far to be bumped from theaters to home viewing during the pandemic is Disney's Mulan. The live-action reimagining of the 1998 animated musical doesn't have songs or a ...
Listen2020 MTV VMAs from 2020-08-31T04:55:06
The 2020 MTV Video Music Awards took place Sunday night. The telecast was in the shadow of a pandemic, in the midst of major civil unrest, and in the aftermath of actor Chadwick Boseman's death. Th...
ListenBill And Ted Face The Music And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-08-28T00:01:15
Back in 1989, we met Bill S. Preston and Ted "Theodore" Logan in the movie Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. They returned in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey in 1991. And now, almost 3...
ListenSome Exciting News from 2020-08-27T11:02:05
In October, Pop Culture Happy Hour will publish episodes five days a week. Also, Aisha Harris will join us as a fourth permanent host.
ListenLovecraft Country from 2020-08-26T00:01:47
The best horror is the horror that feels true. That's one of the reasons the new HBO series Lovecraft Country works. Set in the 1950s, it follows a young Black man who sets off with his ch...
ListenBoys State And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-08-21T00:01:29
The world of politics is not pretty, even in high school. That's one of the takeaways from the new documentary Boys State, about a week-long program sponsored by the American Legion. In it...
ListenStar Trek: Lower Decks from 2020-08-19T00:01:53
The mega-franchise Star Trek has produced a slew of movies and ten different TV series — the latest of which is a brand-new animated comedy called Star Trek: Lower Decks. The show...
Listen10th Birthday Quiz With Kumail Nanjiani And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-08-14T00:01:14
Ten years ago, we started Pop Culture Happy Hour. And ten years later, it's time to celebrate. Recently, we invited one of our great pals, actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani, to join us fo...
ListenWhy You Should Stream Watchmen from 2020-08-12T00:01:36
The HBO miniseries Watchmen recently earned 26 well-deserved Emmy nominations. And if you haven't seen the series, now is a good time to catch up. It stars Regina King as an ex-cop in Tuls...
ListenP-Valley And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-08-07T00:01:11
The Starz drama P-Valley is set in a Black strip club in the Mississippi delta. The dancers are acrobatic, artistic and independent. The show is about their labor, but also about a wide va...
ListenBeyonce's Black Is King from 2020-08-05T00:01:22
Last summer, Beyoncé released an album called The Lion King: The Gift. It was based around Disney's remake of The Lion King — a film that included voice acting from Beyoncé herself, among many othe...
ListenIndian Matchmaking And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-07-31T00:01:43
There's marriage, and then there's love marriage. That's the philosophy of Sima, the matchmaker at the center of the new Netflix reality series Indian Matchmaking. And her focus is not helping you ...
ListenTaylor Swift's Folklore from 2020-07-29T00:01:43
Taylor Swift was supposed to spend this summer touring with songs from Lover, an album she'd put out last August. Instead, she wound up cooped up at home. The isolation sparked her creativity, lead...
ListenFirst Cow And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-07-24T00:01:46
Sometimes, all it takes to change your life is a cow. In the new film First Cow, director Kelly Reichardt follows two men who meet by chance and come up with a plan to get rich. All they n...
ListenThe Baby-Sitters Club from 2020-07-22T00:01:18
Kristy, Claudia, Mary-Anne and Stacey are back. Netflix has adapted the book series The Baby-Sitters Club, and hopes to reintroduce it to young viewers, nostalgic millennials, and anyone else who l...
ListenThe Old Guard And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-07-17T00:01:23
The big summer action movie is one of the things we've been missing this year, and now, we've got one. And it's a good one, too. The Old Guard stars Charlize Theron and KiKi Layne as members of a s...
ListenFloor Is Lava from 2020-07-15T00:01:27
There's a new game show so silly, so stupid, so low-stakes that we can't stop watching it. Teams of three try to cross a course made of furniture and obstacles without touching the ground. It's cal...
ListenTracee Ellis Ross On Black-ish And The High Note from 2020-07-13T00:01:44
On this bonus episode of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we bring you a conversation from our pal Sam Sanders. Sam recently had a wide-ranging conversation with the one and only Tracee Ellis Ross on ...
ListenTaste The Nation And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-07-10T00:01:11
Food media has become one of the many arenas in which debates about inclusivity and justice have taken center stage in recent months. And now, into this troubled world comes Taste The Nation. Hoste...
ListenJohn Wick And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-07-08T00:01:54
Once upon a time, a man named John Wick retired from his successful career as an assassin. But then he returned to it. And across what's now a three-film series, he's been having a heck of a week e...
ListenHamilton And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-07-03T00:01:25
Let's cut to the chase: the Hamilton film has arrived, and it's great. Four years after Lin-Manuel Miranda's show won 11 Tony Awards, you can watch an original Broadway cast performance at home. Th...
ListenI May Destroy You And Remembering Carl Reiner from 2020-07-01T00:01:13
Close watchers of smart television know Michaela Coel from Chewing Gum, the acclaimed comedy series she created and starred in. Her new show on HBO is called I May Destroy You. It's just as strong,...
ListenDa 5 Bloods And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-06-26T00:01:51
In Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods, four Black war veterans return to Vietnam. They're there to retrieve the remains of a fellow soldier, who died on the battlefield. They're also after millions of dollars...
ListenIn 'On The Record,' Black Women's Voices Get A Needed Spotlight from 2020-06-19T00:01:03
In 2017, the #MeToo movement brought to light accusations of sexual abuse and misconduct against powerful people in entertainment. Most of the women whose allegations received detailed media consi...
ListenThe King Of Staten Island And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-06-17T00:01:35
In The King Of Staten Island, comedian Pete Davidson plays a wayward stoner whose life isn't going anywhere. He still lives with his mom, he doesn't have a job, and his plans for his life involve a...
ListenCentral Park And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-06-12T00:01:55
The new Apple TV+ series Central Park is an animated musical with a lot of interesting DNA. It shares creative and performing talent with Bob's Burgers, Frozen, and Hamilton, among other projects. ...
ListenThe Limitations Of An Anti-Racist Reading List from 2020-06-10T00:01
Sales are surging for books like Ibram X. Kendi's 'How To Be Anti-Racist,' Robin DiAngelo's 'White Fragility,' and Michelle Alexander's 'The New Jim Crow.' That's in part because these titles often...
ListenDigging Into Slate's Black Film Canon from 2020-06-07T00:01:51
Right now, many of us are thinking about the ways we can start to address the shortfalls in our own knowledge that have grown out of structural racism in every part of life, entertainment very much...
ListenRamy And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-06-05T00:01:21
It surprised a lot of people when Ramy Youssef won a Golden Globe in January. But it shouldn't have. His show, the half-hour comedy-drama Ramy on Hulu, is a smart, fresh take on a young man navigat...
ListenA Guide To HBO Max And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-06-03T00:01:26
You may not have needed another streaming service, but last week, one came along anyway. It's HBO Max, and it's part HBO, part Warner Brothers — and yes, it's where you can now stream all the episo...
ListenThe High Note And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-05-29T00:01:19
There have been countless movies about real and fictional musicians. And in the new movie The High Note, Tracee Ellis Ross plays the fictional legendary singer Grace Davis. Dakota Johnson plays Mag...
ListenWhy You Should Stream Booksmart, Plus What's Making Us Happy from 2020-05-27T00:01:34
Last year we talked about the movie Booksmart, and we really, really liked it. It's about two young women about to graduate from high school who spend one last night trying to catch up on everythi...
ListenGreat Recent Movies We Missed And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-05-22T00:01:45
This is not a normal summer movie season. Theaters are closed, big projects are delayed, and we're missing the flood of new films that would usually have already started. But you don't have to go w...
ListenThe Great And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-05-20T00:01:09
Hulu's new series The Great bills itself as "An Occasionally True Story." And it's a big story: a sweeping epic about Russia in the 1700s, full of palace intrigue, sex and violence, and the rise of...
ListenThe Movies Of 2000 And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-05-15T00:04
Twenty years ago, before the Harry Potter movies or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the movie landscape looked really different. Take a look back at some of the movies that came out in 2000 and why ...
ListenNever Have I Ever And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-05-13T00:01:48
The new comedy Never Have I Ever is a great binge from Netflix. It might remind you of a lot of warm and funny shows about navigating high school. Its hero is an Indian-American girl named Devi. Sh...
ListenNormal People And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-05-08T00:01:38
When a popular book becomes a television series, the stakes are high. Sally Rooney's novel Normal People is no exception, and the very good Hulu adaptation has finally arrived. The new ser...
ListenDerry Girls And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-05-06T00:01:26
Derry Girls might remind you of a lot of warm and funny shows about high school. It has the group of loyal friends, the adventures and humiliations, and the slow progress toward adulthood. But thes...
ListenMichael Jordan Documentary The Last Dance And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-05-01T00:01:53
In the mid-1990s, sports teams didn't get any bigger than the Chicago Bulls. Led by supermegastar Michael Jordan, the Bulls won six NBA championships in eight years. And now, ESPN is presenting a t...
ListenNintendo Switch Game Recommendations And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-04-29T00:01:59
We've been playing games. Stuck at home, exhausted from streaming all the good TV we can find, looking for distractions, we've all been exploring games for the Nintendo Switch. And not just Animal ...
ListenToddler TV Recommendations And What's Making Us Happy This Week from 2020-04-24T00:01
Staying in can be hard on everybody. But it's a special kind of hard for little kids and the people who love them. So we're here to help, with some TV recommendations for those who are toddling thr...
ListenHBO's Run And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-04-22T00:01:55
A woman sitting in her car gets a text message. It says "RUN." She texts back the same thing: "RUN." That's the beginning of a new HBO series, also called Run, that tells you what happens next. Sta...
ListenThe Regrettable Television Pop Quiz And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-04-17T00:01
Today, we're excited to be bringing back a classic Pop Culture Happy Hour segment — the Regrettable Television Pop Quiz. We've each brought clips of some of our favorite regrettable shows, and our ...
ListenSurvivor And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-04-15T00:01:55
Started out eating rats, and now they're here. Forty seasons in, Survivor is midway through a season where former winners are playing against each other. And as you'd imagine, it's a d...
ListenPop Culture Solutions To Quarantine Problems And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-04-10T00:01
Let's talk about solutions. Specifically, solutions to the problems we're running into entertaining ourselves at home. There's a lot to watch and read and hear, but there's also a lot that we're mi...
ListenTiger King and What's Making Us Happy from 2020-04-08T00:01:16
Almost three weeks ago, as isolation at home tightened its grip on many of us, Netflix released the documentary series Tiger King. It seemed to capture a binge-ready audience at just the right mome...
ListenSchitt's Creek and What's Making Us Happy from 2020-04-03T00:01:45
Schitt's Creek is a Canadian comedy from the minds of Eugene Levy and his son Daniel follows a wealthy family that falls on hard times. They have no choice but to retreat to the small town...
ListenShort Bursts Of Joy To Change Your Mood from 2020-04-01T00:01
There are plenty of binge recommendations out there if you find yourself with a lot of free time in isolation. But with work at home, and kids at home, and everything else going on, you might be bu...
ListenBook Recommendations To Read While Isolating And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-03-27T07:18
There's no wrong time for a good book. But as we tape this, many people are stuck at home more than usual, which makes it an exceptionally right time. So we're here to pass on some book recommendat...
ListenNew Music Discoveries And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-03-20T00:01
Every year, the South by Southwest music festival provides a showcase for many hundreds of musicians, who travel to Austin, Texas, from all over the world. But this year's festival was canceled due...
ListenThree Pop Culture Recommendations To Calm Your Nerves from 2020-03-17T00:01
There's a time for excitement, for the things that make us angry or scare us silly. But then there are all the other times. Sometimes we want something that will calm us down and slow our heart rat...
ListenEmma., Clueless, And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-03-13T00:00:32
Jane Austen's Emma tells the story of a young woman who knows what's right for everyone else and knows very little about herself. In a new film adaptation directed by Autumn de Wilde, Emma is as fo...
ListenThe Invisible Man Is Transparently Creepy from 2020-03-11T00:01:08
Being stalked by a tormentor you can't see is scary enough on its own. But the film The Invisible Man suggests that the worst part might just be the fact that no one would believe you. In writer a...
ListenOnward And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-03-06T00:01:31
Tom Holland and Chris Pratt have already worked together as pals of the Avengers. And now they provide the voices of two elves in the latest film from Disney and Pixar, Onward. These two elves are...
ListenProject Runway from 2020-03-04T00:01:41
When Project Runway launched in 2004, competitive reality shows were in their infancy. Now, they're in their mature pantsuit years, but the series, now in its 18th season, rolls on. The show moved ...
ListenLove Is Blind And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-02-28T00:01:31
The Netflix plan to take over television has extended to dating shows for a while. But perhaps they've never made one so weird, so baffling, so cringe-inducingly embarrassing for everyone involved ...
ListenPortrait Of A Lady On Fire from 2020-02-26T00:01:40
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire begins with a woman named Marianne assigned to paint a woman named Heloise. It's the second half of the 18th century, and the portrait is the best way to present Heloise ...
ListenSonic The Hedgehog, Fan Service, And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-02-21T00:01
The new movie Sonic the Hedgehog is about this hedgehog — who runs fast. Ben Schwartz voices the Hedgehog, Jim Carrey is the evil Dr. Robotnik, and James Marsden is also in there somewhere...
ListenRevisiting To All The Boys I've Loved Before from 2020-02-19T00:01:34
In 2018, Netflix had a big hit with its adaptation of Jenny Han's YA novel To All The Boys I've Loved Before, a high-school rom-com with a big heart. Stars Lana Condor and Noah Centineo are now bac...
ListenBirds of Prey and What's Making Us Happy from 2020-02-14T00:01:08
Margot Robbie played Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad in 2016. Now, she's back in Birds of Prey. It finds Harley crossing paths with characters played by Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead,...
Listen2020 Oscars Recap from 2020-02-10T04:16
We are wrapping up the 92nd Academy Awards. Parasite took home the Oscar for best picture--the first time a film not in the English language has one the prize. Parasite also took ...
Listen2020 Oscars Preview And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-02-07T00:01:45
The Oscars are Sunday night, and while some of the races have clear front-runners, plenty still seem to be up in the air. As always, we're ready to help you put together your watch list, and prepar...
Listen2020 Super Bowl from 2020-02-03T12:44:14
On Sunday night, the Kansas City Chiefs came from behind to beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 in Super Bowl LIV. But of course there was more than football — there was also an exuberant, hip-shaki...
ListenBad Boys For Life and What's Making Us Happy from 2020-01-31T00:01:33
In 1995, while Will Smith was on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Martin Lawrence was on Martin, the two teamed up for the cop buddy movie Bad Boys. They reunited in 2003 for Bad Boys II, and now, a...
Listen2020 Grammys Recap from 2020-01-27T05:35
We've just gotten done watching the 62nd Grammy Awards. Billie Eilish swept the night's four biggest categories and won five Grammys overall. But two major news events cast shadows over the ceremon...
ListenCheer, Dare Me, And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-01-24T00:01:57
Competitive cheerleading is on a pop culture roll. Netflix recently dropped the documentary series Cheer, about a highly successful Texas squad. And USA is midway through the series Dare Me. Based ...
ListenFord V Ferrari from 2020-01-22T00:01:57
Cars that are going very fast have been cinema staples for decades. In the Oscar best picture nominee Ford v Ferrari, we find out a little about what it can take to make them go that fast....
ListenUncut Gems And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-01-17T00:01:28
A gambler, a rock, a ring, and Kevin Garnett are the primary ingredients in Uncut Gems, a thriller directed by Josh and Benny Safdie. Adam Sandler stars as compulsive gambler Howard Ratner...
ListenThe L Word: Generation Q from 2020-01-15T00:01:58
From 2004 to 2009, the Showtime TV drama The L Word examined the lives of a group of queer women in L.A. The show was uneven, but it also marked an important milestone for queer representa...
Listen1917 And What's Making Us Happy from 2020-01-10T00:00:12
The war epic 1917 startled a lot of awards watchers Sunday night when it won the Golden Globe for best dramatic film. That's in part because it's just now going into wide release. 1917...
Listen2020 Golden Globes Recap from 2020-01-06T03:43:28
We've just gotten done watching the Golden Globes. In TV, Succession, Fleabag, and Chernobyl won multiple awards. As for the movies, big winners included 1917, <...
ListenWe Revisit Friends from 2020-01-03T00:01:16
Created by Marta Kauffman and David Crane, Friends was little more than a bunch of pals who hung out, dated and broke up with each other and a variety of guest stars, and had unrealistical...
ListenLittle Women And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-12-27T00:01:05
Greta Gerwig was nominated for an Oscar for directing 2017's Lady Bird. She's following it up with an adaptation of Little Women that features two of her Lady Bird stars,...
ListenStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-12-20T00:01:31
It's time to say goodbye to a story that began in 1977 with a movie then known as Star Wars. Nine films later, this branch of the saga concludes with Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker. In this chapt...
ListenOur 15 Favorite Things Of 2019 from 2019-12-18T00:01:34
We loved a lot of things in 2019. And now, as the year comes to a close, it's time to give you just a taste of some of our favorite things of the year. We've got movies, music, television, and thea...
ListenMarriage Story from 2019-12-11T00:01:32
What's the opposite of a love story? It might be the new Noah Baumbach film Marriage ...
ListenThe Morning Show from 2019-12-04T00:01:24
Apple TV Plus launched a few weeks ago, and its highest profile series was unquestionably The Morning Show. Apple spent a massive amount of money on it and landed a cast that includes Jenn...
ListenA Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-11-29T00:01:13
Who can possibly play Fred Rogers? That's a question that the new film A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood tries to answer with a performance from Tom Hanks as the beloved TV host....
ListenFrozen 2 And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-11-22T00:04:40
1.3 billion dollars will buy a lot of ice. That's how much Frozen made after its release in 2013. The film also gave Disney princess fans two new favorites in sisters Anna and Elsa, and it made a s...
ListenDolly Parton's America And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-11-15T00:01:42
Dolly Parton might be one of the most famous women in the United States. She's one of our great country singers, she produces television including an upcoming Netflix series, and she has her own th...
ListenLast Christmas from 2019-11-13T00:01:42
There are a lot of Christmas movies with a lot of different inspirations. The new film Last Christmas, is inspired by Wham! song of the same name. The film is directed by Paul Feig and wri...
ListenDolemite Is My Name from 2019-10-30T00:01:35
Dolemite Is My Name is a new Netflix biopic about comedian Rudy Ray Moore, who created a flamboyant alter ego and became a blaxploitation legend in the 1970s. The film stars Eddie Murphy, who's joi...
ListenJojo Rabbit And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-10-25T00:01:02
Jojo Rabbit is already an Oscar favorite. The dark comedy from director Taika Waititi won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival. That's preceded a best picture nomination in...
ListenEl Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie and What's Making Us Happy from 2019-10-18T00:41:58
The Emmy-award winning series Breaking Bad chronicled the transformation of Walter White, a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher played by Bryan Cranston, into a ruthless and deadly crystal ...
ListenA Conversation With Terry Gross from 2019-10-16T00:00:16
Last month at an Advertising Week event in New York, Linda Holmes had the chance to sit down with a legend of public radio and of good conversation. Terry Gross has hosted Fresh Air since 1975. She...
ListenThe Politician And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-10-11T00:01:11
Ryan Murphy and his collaborators are responsible for everything from Glee to American Horror Story. And now, they've made their first project for Netflix. It follows Payton Hobart, a high school s...
ListenJoker And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-10-04T00:01:06
In the new Todd Phillips film Joker, Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, an aspiring comic. Neglected by the world and beaten down everywhere he turns, Fleck does what any discouraged clow...
ListenFall Movie Preview And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-09-27T00:00:39
In our fall movie preview, we will cover the ones we're excited about, the ones you'll be hearing more about, and the ones that might be picking up awards in a few months. Whether you like comedies...
ListenThe 2019 Emmys from 2019-09-23T04:17:20
It was a huge night for Fleabag and a coronation for Game Of Thrones, and there were a few surprises and big moments along the way. The awards got spread out quite a bit this year, including a hist...
ListenDownton Abbey And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-09-20T00:01:03
If you thought the end of the series Downton Abbey would be the end of the Crawley family's adventures, a new film has arrived to prove you wrong. The movie continues the story of this very wealthy...
ListenThe Goldfinch And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-09-13T00:00:19
Donna Tartt's 2013 book The Goldfinch won a Pulitzer Prize for its story of a boy whose mother dies in a bombing. It's an epic tale of grief, abandonment, friendship, drugs, and a stolen p...
ListenSteven Universe: The Movie from 2019-09-11T00:00:01
The animated show Steven Universe has told the story of a human-alien hybrid boy and the race of alien women called Gems who've helped raise him on Earth. The show has told lighthearted st...
ListenIt: Chapter Two And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-09-06T00:51:28
The 2017 movie It was a massive blockbuster, and became the highest-grossing R-rated horror film of all time. Adapting the Stephen King novel of the same name, it tells the story of seven misfit ki...
ListenThe Movies Of 1999 from 2019-09-04T00:00:01
Just about every week, we talk about what we're watching or reading or listening to right now. Today, we're doing something different. We're going back 20 years to talk about some of the movies of ...
ListenFall TV Preview from 2019-08-30T00:01
It's autumn again. And that means we're getting a wave of new television. So it's time for the annual fall TV preview. Whether you like superheros or detectives, broadcast or cable or streaming, we...
ListenThe 2019 MTV VMAs from 2019-08-27T05:01:53
We just spent three hours watching the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, which are never really about awards so much as moments: big performances and the memes and soundbites we may or may not remember ...
ListenThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and What's Making Us Happy from 2019-08-23T00:01:11
The gang takes a look at Amy Sherman-Palladino's award-winning comedy, starring Rachel Brosnahan as a '50s housewife-turned-comedian. And, as always, What's Making Us Happy this week. Guests: Write...
ListenWhere'd You Go, Bernadette And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-08-16T00:00:31
In Maria Semple's novel Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Bernadette Fox is a wife and mother who mysteriously vanishes from her ordinary life in the middle of a personal crisis. Her daughter is...
ListenSuccession from 2019-08-14T00:01
Of all the TV shows about monstrous rich people, the HBO series Succession might be one of the most cutting. It follows heartless media mega-mogul Logan Roy and his ruthless children as th...
ListenVeronica Mars And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-08-09T00:01:07
Back in 2004, Veronica Mars was a high school student working for her private-eye father on the side. After three seasons on the air and a crowdfunded movie in 2014, Veronica is back. Now an adult ...
ListenFast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw from 2019-08-07T00:01:23
The new film Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Jason Statham. The two play their characters from the Fast & Furious franchise, spun off into a fresh adventur...
ListenThe Farewell And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-08-02T00:00:50
In The Farewell, Akwafina plays Billi, a young woman whose beloved grandmother back in China is diagnosed with lung cancer. The family decides not to tell the grandmother that she's got on...
ListenOnce Upon A Time In Hollywood from 2019-07-31T00:00:02
Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood is writer-director Quentin Tarantino's ninth film. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a fading western actor named Rick Dalton and Brad Pitt as his loyal stuntm...
ListenThe Lion King And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-07-19T00:00:57
For the last few years, Disney has been turning its beloved animated films into live-action revamps . But this revamp isn't live-action — even though it looks like it is. The digital animation is r...
ListenWe Go To The Opera from 2019-07-17T00:01:03
What has music, neon signs, classic cars, and Vegas gangsters in a dramatic story of love and death? Believe it or not, it's the Metropolitan Opera's production of Rigoletto, which we recently chec...
ListenLos Espookys And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-07-12T00:00:49
Los Espookys is a very odd HBO comedy series about a group of horror-loving friends who start up a business that provides scary experiences for their clients.The six-episode series, which ...
ListenSpider-Man: Far From Home from 2019-07-05T00:00:26
In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Tom Holland's Peter Parker deals with the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame by not dealing with it — he takes a class trip to Europe, attempting to leave his great power,...
ListenSongs Of Summer, 2019 Edition from 2019-07-02T00:01
It's our second annual songs of summer spectacular! Every year at NPR Music we debate which hits might be remembered as "the song of the summer" — sometimes it's a frothy pop song, or a star-packed...
Listen'Yesterday' Imagines A World Without The Beatles from 2019-06-28T00:00
In Yesterday, Himesh Patel plays Jack Malik, an English singer whose career is going nowhere. His parents don't understand him, but he's got the support of his friends — especially Ellie, his manag...
ListenToy Story 4 And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-06-21T00:00:31
The Toy Story movies have been skittering around the closets of our hearts for almost 25 years. Anchored by Woody the sheriff, voiced by Tom Hanks, they're central to the story of Pixar. Now we're ...
ListenBig Little Lies Returns For Season 2 from 2019-06-19T08:01:16
When Big Little Lies came to HBO, it boasted a cast full of stars: Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz and Laura Dern. For season two, they upped their game by ...
ListenLate Night And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-06-14T00:00:03
In the movie Late Night, Mindy Kaling plays Molly Patel, a woman who gets her big break in the writers' room of late night host Katherine Newbury. Newbury, played by Emma Thompson, is on thin ice w...
ListenOlivia Wilde Is Quizzed On Buffalo Wild Wings from 2019-06-12T00:00:11
A few weeks ago we talked about the wonderful new teen comedy Booksmart. the film is directed by Olivia Wilde, who is also an actress known for her roles on House, The O.C., and Tron: Legacy. In th...
ListenThe 2019 Tony Awards from 2019-06-10T04:12:30
We are recapping this year's Tony Awards. James Corden was back as the host, and it was a big night for the musical Hadestown and the Irish play The Ferryman. The musicals Tootsie and Oklahoma! als...
ListenYou Should Watch Fleabag. Here's Why. from 2019-06-07T00:00:19
In 2016, Phoebe Waller-Bridge presented the world with Fleabag. She not only writes the show, but she stars in it too. She plays a young woman only referred to as Fleabag who is bruised by...
ListenBooksmart and What's Making Us Happy from 2019-05-31T07:23:28
In the new movie Booksmart, two young women about to graduate from high school spend one last night trying to catch up on everything they missed. Starring Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Deve...
ListenOur Great Big Theater Roundup from 2019-05-29T00:00:39
We recently packed up and road-tripped to New York to check out some selections from the current Broadway theater season. We went to musicals and plays, revivals and new works, and we have a lot of...
ListenAladdin and What's Making Us Happy from 2019-05-24T00:01:26
Aladdin is the latest Disney live-action remake of an animated classic. The 1992 original starred Robin Williams as the genie, and this time it's Will Smith.
ListenGame Of Thrones from 2019-05-20T04:33:48
After eight seasons, 73 episodes, and way too many characters busting out the phrase "bend the knee" all the time, HBO's Game of Thrones has come to an end. And there's a lot to unpack.
ListenJohn Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum and What's Making Us Happy from 2019-05-17T00:01:46
Once upon a time, a man named John Wick retired from his successful career as an assassin. But then he returned to it. And across what's now a three-film series, he's been having a heck of a week e...
ListenPokémon Detective Pikachu from 2019-05-15T00:00:40
The Pokémon universe has brought the world television cartoons, trading cards, video games, plush toys, the mobile-game sensation Pokemon GO, and a string of animated movies. Now, the franchise mak...
ListenPeople We're Pulling For and What's Making Us Happy from 2019-05-10T02:00:45
Everyone needs inspiration. And we need it too. So from time to time, we pause just to single out some of the people whose work we're appreciating. People from whom we want more. We call this segme...
ListenLong Shot: Charlize Theron And Seth Rogen Mix Romance And Politics from 2019-05-08T02:00:36
While summer is a time of spectacles and sequels, there is always time for love. The new romantic comedy Long Shot stars Charlize Theron as a beautiful and sophisticated presidential candidate and ...
ListenPopstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and Comedies About Music from 2019-05-03T02:00
We revisit our 2016 discussion of the film Popstar. We The also look at back at other films that find humor in the foibles of musicians.
ListenElizabeth Holmes and Theranos in Pop Culture from 2019-05-01T02:00:46
Nothing fascinates the world like a meteoric rise. Except, of course, for a spectacular fall. The story of the Silicon Valley startup Theranos and its young founder Elizabeth Holmes has both. And t...
Listen'Avengers: Endgame' and What's Making Us Happy from 2019-04-26T02:00:44
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought us Iron Man movies, Thor movies, Captain America movies, Avengers movies, and many other superhero franchises over the last decade, and they all feed into ...
ListenOur Summer Movie Preview from 2019-04-19T02:00
It's time again for our summer movie preview. We'll take a shot at guessing hits and misses, and we'll tell you what we can't wait to see.
ListenWe Offer Some Pop Culture Advice from 2019-04-17T02:00:21
Today we open up the vault to finally bring you a segment we recorded back in 2016 with our pal Audie Cornish. You'll hear us live in Seattle offering advice on some classic pop culture problems.
ListenThe Twilight Zone and What's Making Us Happy from 2019-04-12T02:01:22
It's been 60 years since The Twilight Zone first aired, with the voice and eventually the face of its creator, Rod Serling. Now, CBS All Access has brought the anthology series back in a new incarn...
ListenCrazy Ex-Girlfriend from 2019-04-10T02:00:07
For the last four seasons, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has followed Rebecca Bunch as she pursued love, dreaded her mother, and tried to address her mental health. The show stars Rachel Bloom as Bunch, who ...
ListenShazam! And What's Making Us Happy from 2019-04-05T02:00:42
"Shazam!" is what young Billy Batson says to morph into a big red superhero. It's also the name of the new movie about him. Starring Zachary Levi as the big lug in the suit, Shazam! makes ...
ListenBoost Your Mood With Pop Culture Serotonin from 2019-04-03T02:00
Spring is here, but it's been a long winter. And we're a little overwhelmed by the news of the world, so we're taking a moment to share some of the things that lift our spirits in a segment we call...
ListenWhat We Do In The Shadows: A Comedy With Bite from 2019-03-29T01:00:30
The comedy series What We Do In The Shadows imagines what a slacker reality show might look like if all the roommates were vampires. The show is based on a 2014 film of the same name, whi...
ListenHulu's Shrill from 2019-03-27T08:48:37
The new Hulu series Shrill follows Annie, a young writer. She's trying to get her career moving, figure out what's up with her sort-of boyfriend, and learn to feel good about her body. Annie is pla...
ListenMusic Discoveries From SXSW 2019 from 2019-03-20T01:02:09
The South by Southwest music festival brings together artists from around the world to perform in big venues and small ones, on sidewalks and sprawling stages. Every year, we bring back some musica...
ListenThe Other Two from 2019-03-13T01:05:05
Comedy Central's very funny new show The Other Two is about the older siblings of a newly minted YouTube star. His fame makes them feel overshadowed in some of the ways you might expect. But it's a...
ListenThe All Songs Considered SXSW Preview from 2019-03-10T01:01
NPR Music is heading to South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. It's a huge feast of musical discovery that brings together bands and fans from around the world. All Songs Considered convened a panel ...
ListenCaptain Marvel from 2019-03-08T01:02
Captain Marvel is the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first movie to give a woman the lead role. Brie Larson stars as a badass space-warrior fighting in an intergala...
ListenRemembering Luke Perry from 2019-03-04T19:49
If you came of age in the 1990s, you might know Luke Perry as the rebellious teenage fantasy boyfriend Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills, 90210. But you also might know him from the original movie versi...
ListenRussian Doll from 2019-03-01T01:00:23
Today we're diving into the complicated and tangled world of Netflix's Russian Doll, a series anchored by a dynamic performance from Natasha Lyonne. She co-created the series with...
Listen2019 Oscars Recap from 2019-02-25T05:39
Green Book is your best picture, and Bohemian Rhapsody and Roma took a bunch of the top prizes, too. And it all got done in a ceremony without a host. We're breaking it all down: the winners, the s...
Listen2019 Oscars Preview from 2019-02-22T01:01:51
Where will you find rock bands going up against jazz pianists, superheroes, and scheming women in beautiful dresses? At this year's Oscars. We're going to talk actors, directors, and much more. We'...
ListenA Pop Culture Quiz from 2019-02-20T01:00:44
Pop Culture Happy Hour is in its ninth year, so Linda decided to write a quiz about the ninth seasons of television shows. Stephen and Glen faced off against one of our favorite podcast teams, Brit...
ListenThe Oscar-Nominated Documentaries And Foreign-Laungage Films from 2019-02-15T01:01:22
We're diving into the Oscar-nominated documentaries and foreign language films. We'll tell you which ones to watch and where to find them, which might make you the star of your Oscar party.
ListenThe 2019 Grammys from 2019-02-11T06:02
This year's awards were a big night for Childish Gambino and Kacey Musgraves. It was also a night of strong performances from artists like Janelle Monae and Cardi B. And don't forget Diana Ross, wh...
Listen'The Lego Movie 2' from 2019-02-08T01:00:53
The Lego Movie was a surprise commercial and critical hit. It starred Chris Pratt as an every-man construction worker named Emmet and Elizabeth Banks as a rugged bad ass called Wyldstyle. ...
ListenThe 2019 Super Bowl from 2019-02-04T14:01:52
Another year, another Patriots Super Bowl win. But was it a high scoring game? It was not. In fact, no one had even scored a touchdown when Maroon 5 came out to headline the halftime show. We recap...
ListenBohemian Rhapsody, Vice and Green Book from 2019-02-01T01:30:47
What do Bohemian Rhapsody, Vice, and Green Book have in common? Two things: one, they're nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars; and two, they're based on events in the lives of real peo...
ListenWe Get It Now from 2019-01-23T01:01:22
Despite how firm our opinions often seem when we first declare them, there have been times when they've changed. During our recent live show at the Brooklyn Podcast Festival, we took a moment to ta...
ListenThe Masked Singer from 2019-01-16T01:01:28
The Masked Singer isn't your everyday singing competition. Based on a South Korean format, each week we learn the identity of the elaborately costumed "celebrity" who gets voted off. So fa...
ListenThe 2019 Golden Globes from 2019-01-07T05:48:48
Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody unexpectedly won big. So did thanking your parents and going on just a little too long. It's the wee hours of Monday morning, and we are wrapping up this year's big...
ListenSpider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and a little Aquaman from 2018-12-26T01:01:55
The animated Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse focuses on one of the Spider-People who has come along in the years since the world first met Peter Parker, in 1962. In the film, Miles Moral...
ListenMary Poppins Returns from 2018-12-19T01:01:34
In 1964, the original Mary Poppins made Julie Andrews a movie star and introduced a generation to Dick Van Dyke's regrettable Cockney accent. Now, Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda head up Mary Po...
ListenRemembering Stan Lee from 2018-11-12T21:55
Stan Lee helped create some of the most indelible comic book characters in American popular culture, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Black Panther. He died Monday...
ListenNobody's Fool from 2018-11-07T01:01:31
Nobody's Fool is a Tyler Perry movie, but maybe more important at the moment, it's a Tiffany Haddish movie. Haddish plays Tanya, who fears her sister is being catfished in an online relat...
ListenBig Mouth and What's Making Us Happy from 2018-10-19T02:01:50
If you've been longing for a cartoon that covers the really important questions — like how to manage lust, and how to avoid your embarrassing parents — you are in luck. Big Mouth, Netflix's anim...
ListenFall Movie Preview from 2018-09-28T02:01
We're excited for a whole bunch of new movies this fall. Today, we dive into our 2018 Fall Movie Preview and talk about as many of them as we can — from the big studio flicks to the festival favori...
ListenAll-Books Edition: Volume 2 from 2018-09-26T02:01:44
We recommended a lot of stuff during our 'All-Books' episode. So please enjoy this second volume (see what we did there?) of the All-Books Edition of Pop Culture Happy Hour, again led by our extra ...
ListenForever And What's Making Us Happy from 2018-09-21T02:02:21
Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen star in the new Amazon series Forever. The two of them play a middle-aged married couple named Oscar and June, who are in a bit of a rut. Along the way, they find them...
Listen2018 Emmy Awards from 2018-09-18T06:38:59
We're here to fill you in on everything you need to know about the 2018 Emmys. On a night we were constantly reminded how diverse this year's nominations were — the winners were mostly white. T...
ListenOn the Books: An All-Book Edition from 2018-09-14T02:01
Today, we take a break from TV and movies to talk about some of our favorite books we've read — and what books we're most looking forward to this fall.
Listen