Pop Culture Happy Hour

We Watch Classic Movies For The First Time

Publication Date: 2024-10-22

We've all been there. A major movie is mentioned, you shrug, sheepishly, and someone says, "I can't believe you've never seen that!" Today, we make ...

Anora

Publication Date: 2024-10-21

The new movie Anora is a dark rom-dramedy about an enterprising sex worker (Mikey Madison) who links up with a very rich and very immature yo...

Smile 2 And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-10-18

The horror movie Smile was a massive hit. Its flashy new sequel Smile 2 finds the franchise's terrifying entity infecting a new host...

We Live In Time

Publication Date: 2024-10-17

Two people meet, they fall in love, and someone gets sick. The new film We Live In Time tries to bring something new to that familiar story o...

The Pop Culture That Scared Us As Kids

Publication Date: 2024-10-16

A lot of us are about to have the experience of opening our front doors to find witches, goblins, ghosts, and Moo Deng standing on our porches. Why? B...

Disclaimer

Publication Date: 2024-10-15

In the powerful new Apple TV+ drama Disclaimer, Cate Blanchett plays a woman who's terrified after she's sent a novel that's based on a chapt...

Saturday Night And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-10-11

The new film Saturday Night attempts to capture the chaotic 90 minutes leading up to the very first broadcast of Saturday Night Live...

Pop Culture Pumpkin Spice Lattes: Basic But We Love It

Publication Date: 2024-10-10

The word "basic" often gets thrown around to describe anything that's mainstream, popular, frictionless, or otherwise inoffensive. But sometimes bas...

SNL, Late Night, And The Election

Publication Date: 2024-10-09

We're in a pretty critical election year. And in times like these, a lot of us are turning to political comedy to help make sense of (and fun of) the ...

A Different Man

Publication Date: 2024-10-07

The off-beat psycho dramedy A Different Man follows Edward (Sebastian Stan), an aspiring actor living with facial disfigurement. He takes an ...

Joker: Folie à Deux And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-10-04

The new film Joker: Folie à Deux is the sequel to 2019's Joker, which won Joaquin Phoenix an Oscar. This new film is a courtroom dra...

The Wild Robot

Publication Date: 2024-10-02

The Wild Robot is a gorgeous and moving new animated movie from Dreamworks. It follows a helper robot named Roz (Lupita Nyong'o) who washes u...

Nobody Wants This

Publication Date: 2024-10-01

In the new Netflix series Nobody Wants This, Kristen Bell plays an agnostic podcaster, who meets a rabbi, played by Adam Brody. They like eac...

Industry

Publication Date: 2024-09-30

The latest season of HBO's Industry was over the top. The drama is about backstabbing, morally compromised investment bankers. But it managed...

Megalopolis And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-09-27

Francis Ford Coppola, the legendary filmmaker behind The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, is back with his first new f...

His Three Daughters

Publication Date: 2024-09-26

Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon, and Natasha Lyonne are often the best thing about their projects, and they're all together in the moving new Netflix fil...

Colin From Accounts

Publication Date: 2024-09-24

The fun series Colin From Accounts is part raunchy comedy, part romantic comedy, part friendship story, and part very cute dog. It begins wit...

The Substance

Publication Date: 2024-09-23

The Substance is a bloody, campy, fiercely feminist body horror film. Demi Moore plays a TV aerobics instructor desperate to stay in the spot...

Transformers One And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-09-20

The Transformers franchise has been around for decades, and it's brought us many toys, TV shows and movies. Now, in the new animated film...

My Old Ass

Publication Date: 2024-09-19

What would you do if you met your future self, who's a couple of decades older and maybe a little wiser? Would you freak out? In the delightful new mo...

Fall Guide

Publication Date: 2024-09-18

Fall is beginning, and it's the perfect time to talk about all the great things we're excited to watch and listen to between now and the end of the ye...

2024 Emmys Recap

Publication Date: 2024-09-16

Last night's Primetime Emmy Awards included big wins for Hacks, The Bear, Shōgun, and Baby Reindeer. And if you're...

Speak No Evil And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-09-13

Never visit your weird new friends at their enormous isolated country estate. That's a basic rule that an American family fails to follow in the new h...

Rebel Ridge

Publication Date: 2024-09-11

In Netflix's new film Rebel Ridge, Aaron Pierre plays Terry, a young Black man who enters a small Southern town to post bail for his cousin. ...

The Front Room

Publication Date: 2024-09-10

Maybe you think you've seen every scary mother-in-law fiction has to offer — you absolutely haven't. In the new movie The Front Room, a preg...

The Perfect Couple

Publication Date: 2024-09-09

We all love a fancy wedding. The music, the flowers — the body washing up on the beach. At least that's what happens in Netflix's fun new thriller

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-09-06

There's a reason Beetlejuice was a hit back in 1988: it delivered both the spectacle and big stars of a major studio film, and the hilarious,...

Songs To Boost Your Confidence

Publication Date: 2024-09-05

Maybe you're going up for a promotion, or just got out of a bad relationship. Whatever it is, your mood needs a boost. Today, we're recommending three...

Kaos

Publication Date: 2024-09-03

In the clever new Netflix series Kaos, the Greek Gods are a rich and powerful modern-day family. They're led by an impulsive and deeply insec...

Reality TV, Romance, And Race

Publication Date: 2024-09-02

Some people may flinch at the genre of reality TV – it's full of tropes and manipulative editing and ridiculous premises. It's been referred to as a f...

Afraid And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-08-30

The new movie Afraid is latest in the well-established genre of "the computer is alive" stories. John Cho plays a dad who has a chance to t...

The Crow

Publication Date: 2024-08-29

In the new film The Crow, Bill Skarsgård plays a man who gets brutally murdered alongside his soulmate (FKA twigs). He returns to life as an ...

Sabrina Carpenter's Album Short N' Sweet

Publication Date: 2024-08-28

Sabrina Carpenter has had two of the year's biggest hits with "Espresso" and "Please Please Please." Now, she's released a new full-length album c...

When Celebrities Portray Themselves

Publication Date: 2024-08-27

It's practically a tradition for famous people to portray a really offbeat version of themselves in TV and movies. The latest season of Only Murde...

Blink Twice And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-08-23

In the new psychological thriller Blink Twice, Naomi Ackie plays a woman who is invited to the private island of a tech billionaire, played b...

The Reality TV Shows We'd Actually Win

Publication Date: 2024-08-21

Part of the fun of reality TV is putting yourself in the shoes of the people you're watching. Maybe you'd make a great Real Housewife. Maybe ...

Bad Monkey

Publication Date: 2024-08-20

In the new Apple TV+ series Bad Monkey, a fishing boat in the Florida Keys pulls in a human arm, and a suspended detective is the only one wh...

Physical Media We Still Treasure

Publication Date: 2024-08-19

The vinyl record, the CD, the DVD, the VHS tape — even the paper book has been the subject of debate and concern over its future. But we haven't given...

Alien: Romulus And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-08-16

Alien: Romulus is the latest entry in the venerable Alien sci-fi/horror film franchise, and it leans hard into the horror. The new m...

Didi

Publication Date: 2024-08-15

The movie Didi is a vibrant coming-of-age dramedy and was a Sundance film festival favorite. It stars Izaac Wang as a 13-year-old just trying...

$#@*! Profanity In Pop Culture

Publication Date: 2024-08-14

We've got dirty words on the brain, and we're chatting about the use and functions of profanity in entertainment. In this encore episode from 2013, we...

Hunter Schafer's Movie Cuckoo

Publication Date: 2024-08-12

In the new, stylishly odd horror film Cuckoo, Hunter Schafer plays an American teenager who reluctantly moves with her family to a mysterious...

It Ends With Us and what's making us happy

Publication Date: 2024-08-09

The 2016 Colleen Hoover novel It Ends With Us was a massive bestseller. And now that book is a movie. Blake Lively stars as Lily Bloom, a wom...

Three great fiction audiobooks

Publication Date: 2024-08-08

It's summer, and whether you're taking a trip – or simply staying out of the heat with the AC running – there's nothing like relaxing with a good audi...

Here's why we love the Olympics

Publication Date: 2024-08-06

There is nothing better for the summer doldrums than a blast of Olympic glory. For a couple of weeks this summer, athletes are showing us how they fli...

Colman Domingo's Sing Sing is a rare empathetic prison drama

Publication Date: 2024-08-05

The moving drama Sing Sing stars Colman Domingo as the leader of a tight-knit theatre ensemble within one of the most notorious maximum-secur...

Trap and what's making us happy

Publication Date: 2024-08-02

M. Night Shyamalan's new thriller Trap stars Josh Hartnett as a father attending a pop concert with his teenage daughter. But all is not as ...

House Of The Dragon season 2 makes it Rhaen(yra)

Publication Date: 2024-08-01

The second season of HBO's House of the Dragon is almost over. The war between two rival factions of the Targaryen dynasty is fully underway,...

Time Bandits maps contemporary vibes over a cult classic

Publication Date: 2024-07-31

The dryly funny new Apple TV+ series Time Bandits reimagines the 1981 Terry Gilliam film of the same name. A squad of inept thieves — includi...

We're talking songs of the (Brat) summer

Publication Date: 2024-07-30

Trying to declare the "official" song of the summer isn't a new sport. But this year feels like the first in a while where the field's been so crowd...

Deadpool & Wolverine and what's making us happy

Publication Date: 2024-07-26

In the highly meta Deadpool & Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman finally meet up for their own big movie. Deadpool is still smarmy, Wo...

In The Decameron, the Black Death makes for black comedy

Publication Date: 2024-07-25

In Netflix's weirdly compelling dark comedy The Decameron, the bubonic plague is ravaging Florence in 1348. A group of rich nobles and their ...

Three great karaoke songs

Publication Date: 2024-07-23

What makes a good karaoke song? In this encore episode, we're suggesting three great songs to sing at karaoke night.Learn more about sponsor...

Sunny is a robot buddy comedy about loss

Publication Date: 2024-07-22

In the new Apple TV+ series Sunny, Rashida Jones stars as a woman living in Kyoto, whose husband and young son go missing in a plane crash. T...

Twisters and what's making us happy

Publication Date: 2024-07-19

Twister was one of the biggest disaster movies of the '90s. Now, it's finally got a sequel — one with an all-new cast, state-of-the-art effec...

We unpack the 2024 Emmy nominations

Publication Date: 2024-07-17

The nominations the Emmy Awards were just announced, and it was a good day for The Bear, which set a new record in the comedy category. And p...

Exploding Kittens is a simple card game turned wild cartoon

Publication Date: 2024-07-16

The best-selling card game Exploding Kittens has been adapted into a new Netflix animated series. It does plenty of its own world-building: G...

Longlegs is a (satanic) panic

Publication Date: 2024-07-15

They're calling it the scariest movie of the year. The new horror film Longlegs follows FBI special agent Lee Harker (Mika Monroe) tracking a...

Fly Me to the Moon and what's making us happy

Publication Date: 2024-07-12

The cheeky new romantic dramedy Fly Me to the Moon stars Scarlett Johansson as a NASA publicist at the height of the space race. She must sta...

Three great sports documentaries

Publication Date: 2024-07-11

Sports aren't just games. They're intertwined with epic stories about struggle, human behavior, historic greatness and grand emotions. In other words,...

Despicable Me 4 serves up 90 minutes of bankable mayhem

Publication Date: 2024-07-10

Despicable Me 4 is the latest film in an animation franchise that made household names of reformed supervillain Gru (Steve Carrell) and his a...

How we entertain and amuse ourselves on a road trip

Publication Date: 2024-07-08

It's summer, so we're talking all about road trips. Should you blast music that's familiar or unfamiliar? What makes for a good road trip audiobook? W...

MaXXXine and what's making us happy

Publication Date: 2024-07-05

The new movie MaXXXine stars Mia Goth as an adult-film actress who gets her big break in Hollywood, only to be revisited by horrors from her ...

Bowen Yang thinks being present is overrated

Publication Date: 2024-07-04

The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today, so we're bringing you an episode of the NPR podcast Wild Card with Rachel Martin. This...

Megan Thee Stallion sheds her skin on Megan

Publication Date: 2024-07-03

A lot has happened to rapper Megan Thee Stallion over the last couple of years including a highly publicized trial after being shot by a former friend...

Yes, chef: The Bear has a lot going on in its third season

Publication Date: 2024-07-02

The Bear just returned for its third season and it's still one of the most stressful and most interesting shows on TV. Carmy (Jeremy Allen Wh...

In A Quiet Place: Day One, Lupita Nyong'o makes silence golden

Publication Date: 2024-07-01

In the post-apocalyptic world of A Quiet Place, aliens kill anyone who makes a sound, forcing humans into a near-silent existence. The new mo...

Kinds of Kindness and what's making us happy

Publication Date: 2024-06-28

Kinds of Kindness is a weird, dark, and bleak film. It's directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things) and it re-teams him with Emma St...

Lily Gladstone's Fancy Dance is a road trip worth taking

Publication Date: 2024-06-27

The new film Fancy Dance offers something all-too-rare on screen: contemporary Indigenous perspectives, front and center. Lily Gladstone play...

Will they or won't they? Unpacking TV's eternal question

Publication Date: 2024-06-25

Jim and Pam. Mulder and Scully. Janine and Gregory. Carmy and Sydney. Meredith and McDreamy. You know how it goes: two television characters with obv...

Is Star Wars' The Acolyte a force to be reckoned with?

Publication Date: 2024-06-24

The new Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte is a murder mystery. Someone is killing great Jedi masters, and while we learn the kill...

Thelma And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-06-21

Financial scams are an unfortunate phenomenon, but what happens when a fraudster messes with the wrong grandma? The very fun action-comedy Thelma

HBO's Fantasmas is new and different and uniquely itself

Publication Date: 2024-06-20

The brilliant and idiosyncratic new HBO series Fantasmas has a simple plot. Creator and star Julio Torres searches New York City for an earri...

Bridgerton closes out a crowded third season

Publication Date: 2024-06-18

The second half of Bridgerton's latest season just dropped on Netflix, and naturally the course of true love continues to not run sm...

It's getting hot. So what's sweatiest movie ever made?

Publication Date: 2024-06-17

Whether they're lightly perspiring, gently glowing, or soaked through from sweltering, people in the movies sweat a lot. But what movie has had peopl...

Inside Out 2 And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-06-14

Pixar's Inside Out introduced us to the core emotions inside an 11-year-old girl named Riley. We met Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smit...

Jake Gyllenhaal's Presumed Innocent updates a legal thriller

Publication Date: 2024-06-13

Presumed Innocent was a blockbuster legal thriller as a novel, and then a hit movie starring Harrison Ford. Now, Apple TV+ brings back the st...

Our favorite graduation moments in pop culture

Publication Date: 2024-06-11

This is the time of year when so many students graduate. Whether it's graduation episodes of our favorite TV series, high school songs, or movies abou...

Am I OK? is a coming-out movie for adults

Publication Date: 2024-06-10

Am I OK? is a about what happens when you finally come to accept your sexuality much later in life than many do. It stars Dakota Johnson and ...

Hit Man And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-06-07

Netflix's entertaining dark comedy Hit Man

Doctor Who is enlivened by its new Black, openly queer star

Publication Date: 2024-06-06

The venerable British science fiction series Doctor Who is back with a new season. Ncuti Gatwa — who is Black and openly queer — brings a vib...

Clipped recreates an embarrassing NBA scandal

Publication Date: 2024-06-05

The new FX limited series Clipped tells the story of Donald Sterling, the then-owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, who was outed as a racist. ...

Looking back at The Sopranos, the godfather of prestige TV

Publication Date: 2024-06-04

The Sopranos changed television. The HBO series was centered on mobster Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a deeply flawed male antihero. That ...

Best Fictional Bands And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-05-31

Sometimes, our favorite musical artists are too good to be true because they're sprung from the imaginations of Hollywood screenwriters. But what make...

We Are Lady Parts rocks with bracing honesty and nuance

Publication Date: 2024-05-29

The Peacock series We Are Lady Parts is a bold and very funny comedy about an up-and-coming London punk band called Lady Parts. The members o...

Terrible but bingeable TV shows

Publication Date: 2024-05-28

What is it about a show that turns you into a bitter-ender, that keeps you dutifully watching every last episode, long after the train has jumped the ...

Why Chris Pine gave up on being perfect

Publication Date: 2024-05-27

Today, we are bringing you an episode of a new NPR podcast hosted by our pal Rachel Martin. It's called Wild Card, and it's a new interview s...

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-05-24

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is packed with bone-crunching practical stunts and lots of gnarly, diesel-powered chase scenes. It also shows a commi...

Does The Sympathizer worthily adapt its acclaimed book?

Publication Date: 2024-05-23

It's rare to find a series with such an impeccable pedigree as HBO's The Sympathizer. It's based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, co-create...

Does IF capture the magic of its Pixar inspiration?

Publication Date: 2024-05-22

In the new movie IF, a 12-year-old girl (Cailey Fleming) discovers she can see other people's imaginary friends. It stars Ryan Reynolds, and ...

The sexy sex is back in Bridgerton's new season

Publication Date: 2024-05-20

The Netflix series Bridgerton is back, as gossipy and over-the-top as ever. Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and her crush on childh...

Back To Black And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-05-17

The new music biopic Back to Black chronicles the life of singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. The film stars Marisa Abela, and follows Winehouse...

Babes gives us a funny (and gross) portrait of parenthood

Publication Date: 2024-05-16

The new movie Babes stars Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau as longtime best friends who've made very different life choices. It's also about ...

Looking to the past and future of Black Twitter

Publication Date: 2024-05-15

For years, Black Twitter was the watering hole. It was where we could pop off jokes about Olivia and Fitz on Scandal. It's also where you cou...

I Saw the TV Glow is weird and transfixing

Publication Date: 2024-05-14

I Saw the TV Glow is a strange and pleasantly unsettling new film from writer and director Jane Schoenbrun. It's about two teenagers (Justice...

Sink your teeth into Interview with the Vampire

Publication Date: 2024-05-13

If you're familiar with Interview with the Vampire — because you read the Anne Rice novel or you saw the 1994 movie — the AMC series has some...

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-05-10

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes follows Noa (Owen Teague), an extraordinary chimpanzee whose clan is enslaved by a mercenary ape king named...

The Drake-Kendrick Lamar Beef

Publication Date: 2024-05-09

2024 seems destined to go down as the Year of Pop Culture Grievances. Megan vs. Nicki. Beyoncé vs. Nashville. But above all: Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake,...

Dua Lipa's Radical Optimism

Publication Date: 2024-05-08

The British singer Dua Lipa has become one of the world's biggest pop stars. Now, she's back with Radical Optimism, a sort of concept record ...

Unfrosted

Publication Date: 2024-05-07

The new Netflix film Unfrosted tells a fanciful invented version of the Pop-Tart's origin. The film was directed and co-written by Jerry Sein...

Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show

Publication Date: 2024-05-06

In Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, the comedian doubles down on the uncomfortable intimacy of his stand up special Rothaniel, where ...

The Fall Guy And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-05-03

In the entertaining new film The Fall Guy, Ryan Gosling plays a down-on-his-luck stunt performer who gets a big new opportunity to get his ca...

The Idea Of You

Publication Date: 2024-05-02

The new movie The Idea Of You tells the story of a boy band star (Nicholas Galitzine) who falls in love with an older divorced mother (Anne H...

Baby Reindeer

Publication Date: 2024-05-01

The new Netflix series Baby Reindeer has a lot of people talking, including us. It tells the haunting semi-autobiographical story of a man (R...

Summer Guide

Publication Date: 2024-04-30

Today, we're offering up a guide to spotlight some of the movies, TV, and music we are most excited about this summer.

Dead Boy Detectives

Publication Date: 2024-04-29

The new show Dead Boy Detectives is a spinoff of Neil Gaiman's beloved series The Sandman – both the comic and the Netflix series. I...

Challengers And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-04-26

The terrific new film Challengers is about being intense about tennis, sex, and competition. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the film stars Zend...

What Makes A Good Sex Scene?

Publication Date: 2024-04-25

It's easy to notice when a sex scene is bad. But what makes a sex scene good? Today, we are recommending films with good sex scenes, including Bou...

Mary & George

Publication Date: 2024-04-24

In the new Starz series Mary & George, Julianne Moore plays a low-born, scheming woman who recognizes that her handsome son George (Nicolas G...

Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department

Publication Date: 2024-04-22

Taylor Swift dropped an epic new album that spans two hours — and two high-profile breakups. The Tortured Poets Department delves de...

Fallout And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-04-19

The new show Fallout is based on a hugely successful video game series known for its sardonic, very dark comedic sensibility, and its violenc...

Hot Ones And Conan O'Brien

Publication Date: 2024-04-18

Hot Ones is the YouTube show where famous people answer questions while eating increasingly hot chicken wings. Hosted by Sean Evans, the seri...

X-Men '97

Publication Date: 2024-04-16

For millions of kids, the popular 1990s X-Men animated series served as a gateway drug into the world of the X-Men and comics in general. Now...

Books We Love: Love And Romance

Publication Date: 2024-04-15

NPR's Books We Love is a roundup of favorite books of the year, sorted and tagg...

Civil War And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-04-12

The new film Civil War depicts a contemporary America torn apart by a military conflict between the federal government and an alliance of sec...

Girls State

Publication Date: 2024-04-11

The new Apple TV+ documentary Girls State asks: how would high school girls do things if they were in charge? The film is a follow-up to 2020...

Shōgun

Publication Date: 2024-04-10

The sweeping historical epic has roared back with Shōgun. The FX miniseries takes place beginning in 1600, in a fictionalized but historicall...

A Guide To Stephen King

Publication Date: 2024-04-09

Stephen King is one of the most successful living writers. He's written more than 50 books that have sold hundreds of millions of copies. And his work...

Monkey Man And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-04-05

The new action film Monkey Man is Dev Patel's film – he serves as star, director, and co-writer. He plays a young man whose village was destr...

Ripley

Publication Date: 2024-04-04

Tom Ripley is back — and still can't be trusted. The character — created by novelist Patricia Highsmith — was made indelible by Matt Damon in the ...

Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter

Publication Date: 2024-04-02

Throw on those boots with the spurs, grab your cowboy hat, and saddle up that horse, because Beyoncé's highly anticipated album, Cowboy Carter

The Movies Of 1999

Publication Date: 2024-04-01

Movies had a big year in 1999. Today, we're going back 25 years to talk about some of the most interesting movies released in 1999 — including Dro...

Godzilla x Kong, Godzilla Minus One And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-03-29

Godzilla has been around for 70 years and recently won his first Oscar. The beloved 2023 Japanese production Godzilla Minus One won an Oscar ...

3 Body Problem

Publication Date: 2024-03-28

In the new Netflix sci-fi series 3 Body Problem, a killing during the Chinese Cultural Revolution sparks a chain of events that puts humanity...

Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV

Publication Date: 2024-03-26

The new docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV examines the working environment of the young stars who fueled Nickelodeon's rise. ...

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Publication Date: 2024-03-25

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the latest entry in the blockbuster action-comedy franchise. This time, the crew has set up shop in New York, ...

Road House And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-03-22

The 1989 movie Road House starred Patrick Swayze as a no-nonsense bouncer who saves a honky-tonk bar from a local toughs. Now, in the new rem...

Immaculate

Publication Date: 2024-03-21

In the new movie Immaculate, Sydney Sweeney plays Cecelia, an American woman who joins a convent in Italy. But after she arrives, she encount...

Romantic Comedy Guide: Irish Wish, Anyone But You, Upgraded

Publication Date: 2024-03-19

If there is a spot in your heart-shaped like a rom-com, we've got some good news for you. You can stream a few playful love stories from your couch, w...

Problemista

Publication Date: 2024-03-18

In the very funny and gently surreal new film Problemista, Julio Torres plays Alejandro, a young man from El Salvador scraping by in New York...

Love Lies Bleeding And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-03-15

The movie Love Lies Bleeding is a fun and weird erotic thriller. It's set in the late 1980s and stars Kristen Stewart as a brooding gym manag...

Girls5eva

Publication Date: 2024-03-14

The bingeable comedy series Girls5eva is a silly parody of the music industry. It's about four down-on-their-luck members of a 90s girl group...

Kung Fu Panda 4

Publication Date: 2024-03-13

Kung Fu Panda 4 is the latest movie in the popular and surprisingly thoughtful animated film franchise. Jack Black returns to voice Po, a gig...

Love Is Blind

Publication Date: 2024-03-12

Netflix's Love is Blind is like a bad relationship that's hard to give up. We've had doubts. We've had fights. And now, in its sixth season, ...

Our 2024 Oscars Recap

Publication Date: 2024-03-11

At this year's Oscars, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer won in most of the major categories, including best picture and best director. It was ...

2024 Oscars Preview And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-03-08

Will it be Oppenheimer? Will it be Barbie? Or will it be some other story entirely? It's time to get down to business, because the O...

2024 Oscars Guide: Documentary Feature

Publication Date: 2024-03-07

This year's Oscar nominees for outstanding documentary feature are really strong entries that are available on streaming now. They also happen to be p...

Couple To Throuple

Publication Date: 2024-03-06

Most dating shows have two things in common: They are terrible and they are watchable. That dynamic continues on Peacock's new dating show Couple ...

2024 Oscars Guide: International Feature

Publication Date: 2024-03-05

This year's crop of Oscar nominees for the best international feature adopt vastly different approaches to tell their disparate stories. There's a cou...

2024 Oscars Guide: Original Song

Publication Date: 2024-03-04

This year's Oscar nominees for best original song are headlined by two songs from Barbie: one from Billie Eilish, and the other from...

Dune: Part Two And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-03-01

Dune: Part Two is a sweeping, soaring space epic and this year's first big movie. Starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, and directed by Den...

Wendy Williams

Publication Date: 2024-02-28

The new and unsettling Lifetime docuseries Where Is Wendy Williams? documents the former daytime talk show host as she struggled with alcohol...

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Publication Date: 2024-02-27

The animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender is regarded as a classic. Now, it's gotten a live-action adaptation on Netflix. The series tel...

Oppenheimer

Publication Date: 2024-02-26

Oppenheimer tells the story of the brilliant physicist (Cillian Murphy) who oversaw the construction of the first atomic bomb. It goes on to ...

Drive-Away Dolls And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-02-23

The movie Drive-Away Dolls is a shaggy comedy about a couple of lesbian friends (Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan) who take a road ...

Jennifer Lopez's This Is Me... Now

Publication Date: 2024-02-22

The wait to learn more about Jennifer Lopez's love life is finally over. The singer and actress has released a new film on Prime Video called This...

Madame Web

Publication Date: 2024-02-20

Madame Web, the latest Spider-Man-adjacent film that stakes out its own corner of the Spider-Verse. Dakota Johnson plays a New York paramedic...

True Detective: Night Country

Publication Date: 2024-02-19

HBO/Max's True Detective: Night Country is the fourth season of the murder mystery anthology series. It's a bit of a welcome departure, with ...

Feud And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-02-16

Feud: Capote Vs. the Swans is the latest reimagining of historical events produced by Ryan Murphy. The series follows famed author Truman Cap...

Platonic Love In Pop Culture

Publication Date: 2024-02-14

There have been countless romantic movies and TV shows — and a virtually infinite number of ways to watch people fall in love. But we're here to celeb...

Abbott Elementary

Publication Date: 2024-02-13

The fantastic ABC series Abbott Elementary is a workplace sitcom set at a severely underfunded Philadelphia public school. It's a giant hit, ...

2024 Super Bowl, Plus Beyoncé's New Singles

Publication Date: 2024-02-12

This year's Super Bowl featured an exciting game in which the Kansas City Chiefs beat San Francisco 49ers. It also featured an attention-grabbing half...

Lisa Frankenstein And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-02-09

In the new '80s horror comedy Lisa Frankenstein, an introverted teen (Kathryn Newton) finds comfort in visiting the grave of a young Victoria...

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Publication Date: 2024-02-07

On Prime Video's fun new spy show Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Donald Glover and Maya Erskine play spies going undercover as a married couple. The show ...

Expats

Publication Date: 2024-02-06

The new Prime Video series Expats fits quite neatly into the recent work done by its star, Nicole Kidman. She plays a rich woman who is one o...

2024 Grammys Recap

Publication Date: 2024-02-05

Every night is a big night for Taylor Swift. But this year's Grammy night proved especially big: Swift won album of the year for Midnights an...

Argylle And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-02-02

In the comedic spy thriller Argylle, a reclusive author (Bryce Dallas Howard) gets sucked into a web of danger and intrigue when her books mi...

The Pop Culture Hill I'll Die On

Publication Date: 2024-02-01

Maybe you think you shouldn't read a book before seeing the movie adaptation, or you're convinced season two is the best season of The Wire. ...

Marvel's Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur

Publication Date: 2024-01-31

Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is an all-ages animated series that's got style and energy – and original songs – for days. It's the st...

2024 Sundance: Best Movies

Publication Date: 2024-01-30

Over 75 feature films premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year, including a deeply personal coming-of-age story, a film starring Saoirse Rona...

Vanderpump Rules

Publication Date: 2024-01-29

For more than a decade, Vanderpump Rules has been a hit reality show on the Bravo network. The show reached new heights of tabloid infamy las...

Jacqueline Novak's Get On Your Knees And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-01-26

In her smart and funny comedy special Get On Your Knees, performer Jacqueline Novak delivers a kind of Ted Talk on the subject of oral sex. I...

Barbie

Publication Date: 2024-01-24

Barbie was the biggest movie of last year. We saw the memes, we heard the songs, and it was 2023's highest grossing movie. It recently racked...

2024 Oscar Nominations

Publication Date: 2024-01-23

This year's Oscar nominations were announced today and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer leads the field with 13 nominations. Other leading nom...

The Zone Of Interest

Publication Date: 2024-01-22

In The Zone of Interest, a German couple and their family live a bucolic life, but over the garden wall lies the Auschwitz concentration camp...

Origin And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-01-19

Origin is the story of a writer who faces personal loss at the same time she works on a book based on her unified theory about systems of opp...

Echo

Publication Date: 2024-01-18

The new Marvel series Echo spotlights Maya Lopez (played by Alaqua Cox), whom we first met as the stoic badass enforcer for the criminal Wils...

Bluey

Publication Date: 2024-01-17

The TV cartoon Bluey is a hit with young children. But it's also found a devoted following among their parents, who've embraced the show's em...

Our Emmys Recap

Publication Date: 2024-01-16

The 75th annual Emmy Awards are over, and it was a big night for The Bear, Beef, and Succession. Plus Elton John earned his...

Lift

Publication Date: 2024-01-15

In the new Netflix action-comedy-heist movie Lift, Kevin Hart plays an experienced thief and con man whose crew is backed into a corner and f...

Mean Girls And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-01-12

Mean Girls is a film adaptation of the Broadway adaptation of the beloved Lindsay Lohan and Tina Fey comedy. The songs are there, the dances ...

Baldur's Gate 3

Publication Date: 2024-01-11

Baldur's Gate 3 was the most acclaimed video game of last year and recently won Game of the Year at The Game Awards. It maps the experience o...

Night Swim

Publication Date: 2024-01-09

In the new horror film Night Swim, Wyatt Russell plays a former baseball player who's been forced into retirement due to the early stages of ...

All Of Us Strangers

Publication Date: 2024-01-08

The movie All of Us Strangers is a wistful fantasy drama that tells two intersecting stories about different kinds of love: One between a son...

The Brothers Sun And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2024-01-05

The new Netflix series The Brothers Sun is a fun genre mashup of action, comedy, and family drama. Michelle Yeoh plays Eileen Sun, w...

Books We Love: No Biz Like Showbiz

Publication Date: 2024-01-04

NPR's Books We Love is a roundup of favorite books of the year, sorted and tagg...

Percy Jackson And The Olympians

Publication Date: 2024-01-03

The delightful new Disney+ series Percy Jackson and The Olympians is a new adaptation of a beloved series of books by Rick Riordan. The serie...

How To Get The Most Out Of Your Library

Publication Date: 2024-01-02

Your local library is a great source for books. But it can also be a great resource for helping you with your new year's resolution. Perhaps you want ...

2024 Pop Culture Resolutions

Publication Date: 2024-01-01

Do you make resolutions in January? We do. Today, we make pop culture resolutions for 2024, and we check in on what we resolved to do this last year, ...

2024 Pop Culture Predictions

Publication Date: 2023-12-29

What do we do at the end of every year? We hope, we fear, and we make wild guesses. Today, we're checking-in on how we did making predictions for 2023...

Great 2023 Movies You May Have Missed

Publication Date: 2023-12-28

We cover a lot of new movies around here, and some even become our new faves of the moment. Yet at the end of the year, we always have a list of gems ...

Ferrari

Publication Date: 2023-12-27

The new film Ferrari tells one chapter in the life of a man who wanted everything to go as fast as possible. Starring Adam Driver, the film i...

The Iron Claw

Publication Date: 2023-12-26

The very good new film The Iron Claw tells the tragic story of the Von Erich family. They were professional wrestlers in the early 1980s, wit...

All Songs Considered Holiday Extravaganza

Publication Date: 2023-12-25

The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today. So we're bringing you a very special holiday extravaganza from NPR Music's

The Color Purple And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-12-22

The Color Purple was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, then it was a movie, and then, a Broadway musical. Now it's a movie adaptation of the mu...

American Fiction

Publication Date: 2023-12-21

In American Fiction, Jeffrey Wright stars as an author who finds that the books he loves to write aren't selling. What is selling is...

Maestro

Publication Date: 2023-12-20

The Netflix film Maestro is an Old-Hollywood style biopic about the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. Bradley Cooper directed, co-wro...

Songs To Help You Study

Publication Date: 2023-12-19

Maybe you're at school and need to concentrate while hitting the books. Maybe you're trying to get work done and need some sounds to drown out distrac...

Screening Ourselves: The Color Purple

Publication Date: 2023-12-18

Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple has been adapted a few times. Next week, a new version based on the Tony-winning musical hits theaters....

Wonka And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-12-15

The story of Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory has been told and retold, both in the classic Roald Dahl children's books and in two hit films. Now...

The Boy And The Heron

Publication Date: 2023-12-14

The lovely new animated film The Boy and the Heron is the first film in 10 years from visionary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (Spirit...

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour

Publication Date: 2023-12-13

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 t...

2023 Pop Culture Favorites

Publication Date: 2023-12-12

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 ta...

Diddy, Hip-Hop, and #MeToo

Publication Date: 2023-12-11

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 ha...

Poor Things And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-12-08

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, u...

Leave The World Behind

Publication Date: 2023-12-07

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 s...

Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé

Publication Date: 2023-12-06

Beyoncé's album Renaissance drew on generations' worth of Black and queer dance music — and the subsequent tour packed stadiums with an epic,...

Best Christmas Gift I Ever Received

Publication Date: 2023-12-05

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 th...

Colin From Accounts

Publication Date: 2023-12-04

The fun new Australian series Colin From Accounts is part raunchy comedy, part romantic comedy, part friendship story, and part very cute dog...

May December And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-12-01

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...

Songs For When Your Flight Is Delayed

Publication Date: 2023-11-30

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 ...

2023 Books We Love: Staff Picks

Publication Date: 2023-11-29

NPR's Books We Love is a roundup of favorite books of the year, sorted and tagg...

Die Hard

Publication Date: 2023-11-28

Since the holiday season is upon us, it's time to talk about an action classic that many consider to be a Christmas classic: Die Hard. The Br...

Wish

Publication Date: 2023-11-27

It's been said that a dream is a wish your heart makes. But what happens when you entrust your dream to a charismatic but shady leader? That's the pre...

Peso Pluma And The Rise Of Regional Mexican Music

Publication Date: 2023-11-24

Regional Mexican music has taken the music industry by storm. Earlier this year, Mexican artist Peso Pluma and band Eslabon Armado made history when t...

Rethinking Killers Of The Flower Moon

Publication Date: 2023-11-23

Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon is everything an Oscar contender might be: long, epic, morally complicated and expensive. While ...

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Publication Date: 2023-11-22

The delightful Netflix animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off starts off in the same way as the 2010 movie Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Napoleon And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-11-21

In the new film Napoleon, director Ridley Scott tells the story of French leader Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix). It's a lavish war epic...

Saltburn

Publication Date: 2023-11-20

Saltburn is a provocative and fun thriller. Barry Keoghan plays Oliver, an outcast at Oxford University who befriends one of his popular and ...

The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-11-17

The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes is the latest adaptation in the beloved blockbuster franchise. T...

Next Goal Wins

Publication Date: 2023-11-16

The underdog sports comedy Next Goal Wins is based on the true story of American Samoa's soccer team and its attempts to improve its status a...

The Killer

Publication Date: 2023-11-15

The new Netflix movie The Killer is a stylish new thriller starring Michael Fassbender as a stoic and ruthlessly efficient international hitm...

Fellow Travelers

Publication Date: 2023-11-13

The sweeping new Showtime series Fellow Travelers chronicles a relationship between two gay men played by Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey. It ...

The Marvels And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-11-10

The new movie The Marvels is one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's breezier outings, full of energy and jokes and zappy light powers. Brie L...

Dream Scenario

Publication Date: 2023-11-09

In the trippy new A24 absurdist comedy Dream Scenario, Nicolas Cage plays a schlubby, unremarkable biology professor. Suddenly and inexplicab...

Quiz Lady

Publication Date: 2023-11-08

The movie Quiz Lady is a fun new take on the classic comedic trope of polar opposites: Awkwafina plays Anne, an uptight, lonely trivia nerd. ...

Rap Sh!t

Publication Date: 2023-11-07

The Max series Rap Sh!t feels like a comedy for The Moment. Created by Issa Rae, the show focuses on Shawna and Mia (played by Aida Osman and...

Priscilla And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-11-03

The new film Priscilla tells the story of Elvis Presley's wife, but it's not a by-the-book biopic. Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, the...

The Golden Bachelor

Publication Date: 2023-11-02

The Golden Bachelor is the latest show in ABC's long-running Bachelor franchise, in which the bachelor is a 72-year-old widower name...

Five Nights At Freddy's

Publication Date: 2023-11-01

In the new movie Five Nights At Freddy's, Josh Hutcherson plays Mike, a down-on-his-luck security guard who winds up getting hired to keep an...

Britney Spears' Memoir The Woman in Me

Publication Date: 2023-10-31

Britney Spears just released one of the most hotly anticipated celebrity memoirs of the year. The Woman In Me details her meteoric rise to fa...

The Holdovers

Publication Date: 2023-10-30

In the funny, melancholic and weirdly moving new film, The Holdovers, Paul Giamatti plays a widely disliked teacher at a prestigious New Engl...

Naked Attraction And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-10-27

It's weird, it's funny, and it's very, very naked. The title of the dating show Naked Attraction tells you everything you need to know. A sin...

The Gilded Age

Publication Date: 2023-10-26

With HBO's The Gilded Age, creator Julian Fellowes basically airlifts Downton Abbey's soapy plots, ball gowns, sneering servants and...

Bodies

Publication Date: 2023-10-25

The bingeable new Netflix series Bodies has a great hook: The same murdered corpse turns up in the same London location in four different periods. The...

Frasier

Publication Date: 2023-10-24

Kelsey Grammer is back as Frasier Crane. After nine seasons on Cheers and 11 more on the spin-off Frasier, the snobby psychiatrist j...

Killers Of The Flower Moon And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-10-20

The compelling new film Killers of the Flower Moon is a sweeping three-and-half-hour-long crime saga, romance and Western. Directed by Martin...

Bad Bunny's Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana

Publication Date: 2023-10-19

Bad Bunny is one of the biggest stars in music. His previous album Un Verano Sin Tí topped the Billboard charts, won a Grammy, and helped him...

Anatomy Of A Fall

Publication Date: 2023-10-18

In the complex and compelling French film Anatomy of a Fall, a husband is dead and his wife is the chief suspect. The investigation and trial...

Three Great Movies Over Three Hours

Publication Date: 2023-10-17

Sometimes there's a time and place for a long movie — whether it's because you've got an afternoon off, or you just aren't in the mood to flip from on...

Fair Play And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-10-13

The Netflix movie Fair Play stars Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich as a couple that's young, in love, and hot for one another. At least un...

The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Publication Date: 2023-10-12

The new Netflix horror miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher makes for a terrifically spooky October binge. It cleverly reimagines and re...

Dicks: The Musical

Publication Date: 2023-10-11

The frantic, absurdist new movie Dicks: The Musical is about a pair of misogynistic narcissists (played by Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson) who ...

The Scariest Movie I've Ever Seen

Publication Date: 2023-10-10

Do you like scary movies? It's spooky season, after all, so what better way to get into the Halloween spirit than plopping down in front of a film eng...

The Exorcist: Believer And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-10-06

The Exorcist came out 50 years ago, and it's still widely considered one of the greatest horror movies of all time. Now, The Exorcist: Be...

The Changeling

Publication Date: 2023-10-05

The Changeling is an ambitious new series spanning generations and continents to tell an epic tale of a family torn apart by spirits and fair...

Our Flag Means Death

Publication Date: 2023-10-04

The hilarious comedy series Our Flag Means Death follows the misadventures of Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby), a posh aristocrat who decides to giv...

Star Wars: Ahsoka

Publication Date: 2023-10-03

Ahsoka is the latest Star Wars TV series on Disney+. This one's about a character who's beloved by fans of the franchise's animated series – ...

The Creator And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-09-28

In the new movie The Creator, humanity is at war with artificial intelligence. It stars John David Washington as a former soldier who's been ...

Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense

Publication Date: 2023-09-27

Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense has been called the greatest concert film of all time. Directed by Jonathan Demme, the iconic 1984 film take...

Cassandro

Publication Date: 2023-09-26

In the new film Cassandro, Gael García Bernal plays the real-life Mexican-American wrestler who came to international stardom by adopting the...

Dumb Money

Publication Date: 2023-09-25

The snappy "eat the rich" comedy Dumb Money is about a sly bunch of Reddit users who made some Wall Street billionaires sweat, in an infamo...

Sex Education And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-09-21

Netflix's hit series Sex Education is a refreshing and frank coming-of-age story about modern teens learning about their bodies and themselve...

Starfield

Publication Date: 2023-09-20

Starfield is one of the biggest and most antici...

Three Great 90s Thrillers

Publication Date: 2023-09-19

When you're talking about the movies of the 1990s, you have to mention the decade's huge assortment of thrillers. From courtroom standoffs and frantic...

The Other Black Girl

Publication Date: 2023-09-19

Part blistering workplace satire, part creepy thriller, Hulu's The Other Black Girl packs a lot of punches. Nella (Sinclair Daniel) is a youn...

Fall Guide And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-09-14

Today we offer up a guide to some of the most exciting movies, TV, and music you can check out this fall.Learn more about sponsor message ch...

Olivia Rodrigo's GUTS

Publication Date: 2023-09-13

Olivia Rodrigo's debut album, Sour, was one of the biggest hits of 2021. Now, she's back with a new record called GUTS, which has al...

Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour

Publication Date: 2023-09-12

This summer, millions of us got cozy with Beyoncé during the Renaissance World Tour. With stunning visuals, an array of costume changes, and the occas...

Jimmy Fallon And Strike Force Five

Publication Date: 2023-09-11

Recently, late night talk show hosts Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Jimmy Kimmel started the chat podcast Strike Forc...

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-09-07

The family comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a very big hit back in 2002. So it was inevitable that the movie spawned a couple of sequels –...

Are We Witnessing The Death Of Movie Stars?

Publication Date: 2023-09-06

Movie stars are larger than life, and usually have some sort of mystique or mystery. And they defined the movies for generations, from Charlie Chaplin...

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour

Publication Date: 2023-09-05

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour is on pace to become the biggest and most lucrative concert tour in history. Each night's show offers up a career-spanning th...

TV Guest Stars

Publication Date: 2023-09-04

New seasons of FX's The Bear and Hulu's Only Murders in the Building are bringing in big talent like Jamie Lee Curtis, Olivia Colema...

Suits And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-08-31

The long-running lawyer show Suits is this summer's streaming sensation, and riding high on Netflix's top ten. Starring Gabriel Macht and Pat...

NewJeans

Publication Date: 2023-08-30

In a little more than a year, NewJeans has become huge in the world of K-pop, with a reputation for upending industry conventions. They've become the ...

Two Great Scammer Documentaries

Publication Date: 2023-08-29

HBO has two great new documentary projects about two very different scams. BS High is about a high school football team that came from what t...

Archer

Publication Date: 2023-08-28

The FX animated comedy Archer explores the raunchy exploits of Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin), who is known from Berlin to Bangkok as the ...

Bottoms And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-08-24

Hollywood loves a movie about horny teens desperate to lose their virginity, and the smart new comedy Bottoms is a welcome addition to the ca...

Blue Beetle

Publication Date: 2023-08-23

In the great new DC superhero film Blue Beetle, Xolo Maridueña plays Jaime Reyes, a young Mexican-American man who stumbles across a creepy b...

Books We Love: Book Club Ideas

Publication Date: 2023-08-22

We know you read on your own. But we also know you read together. Today we're recommending some great books for your next book club.Learn mo...

Strays

Publication Date: 2023-08-21

In the raunchy new comedy Strays, four talking dogs embark on an incredible journey. Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell) doesn't realize his owne...

The Afterparty And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-08-17

The Apple TV+ murder mystery comedy series The Afterparty looks at the events around a murder and its investigation from a different characte...

The World Cup

Publication Date: 2023-08-17

On Sunday morning, England and Spain will face off in the Women's World Cup Final. Both countries are playing in the women's final for the first time....

Harley Quinn

Publication Date: 2023-08-15

The fantastic Max animated series Harley Quinn is set in its own separate version of the DC Universe where the violence is frequent and the r...

The Hip-Hop Verse That Changed My Life

Publication Date: 2023-08-14

What makes for an unshakable rap verse — the kind that shifts your world view and sticks around years after the first time you encountered it? This mo...

Red, White And Royal Blue And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-08-10

The new film Red White & Royal Blue is a classic enemies-to-lovers rom-com, though in this case the rom is queer, and the com arises out of t...

Shortcomings

Publication Date: 2023-08-09

The tart comedy Shortcomings is about a cynical cinephile with a lot of hang-ups. Ben (Justin H. Min) hates his job and is emotionally checke...

Kokomo City

Publication Date: 2023-08-08

Kokomo City is a remarkable documentary depicting the lives of Black trans sex workers. The women speak candidly about facing transphobia, mi...

Heartstopper

Publication Date: 2023-08-07

They're young, they're in love, and they're navigating the hallways of high school. The Netflix series Heartstopper is a romcom for soft hear...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-08-03

The fun new animated movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem reboots the iconic series. It's directed by Jeff Rowe (The Mitchel...

Hijack

Publication Date: 2023-08-02

Idris Elba is in full action hero mode in the Apple TV+ series Hijack. He stars as a corporate business negotiator onboard an airplane that i...

This Fool

Publication Date: 2023-08-01

The Hulu comedy series This Fool is set in South Central Los Angeles and follow an odd couple of cousins named Julio and Luis. They bicker, h...

Good Omens

Publication Date: 2023-07-31

The second season of Prime Video's Good Omens re-teams Michael Sheen and David Tennant as the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley. In seas...

Haunted Mansion And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-07-27

In Disney's Haunted Mansion, a rag-tag group of paranormal experts attempt to get rid of ghosts that haunt a crumbling New Orleans mansion. B...

They Cloned Tyrone

Publication Date: 2023-07-26

The Netflix movie They Cloned Tyrone is a thrilling, quirky sci-fi comedy about a drug dealer, a sex worker, and a pimp who uncover a vast go...

Barbie: Spoiler Episode

Publication Date: 2023-07-24

In Barbie, Margot Robbie plays the most stereotypically blonde-and-perky Barbie, who finds herself facing an existential crisis. But there ar...

Oppenheimer

Publication Date: 2023-07-23

The new film Oppenheimer tells the story of the brilliant physicist who oversaw the construction of the first atomic bomb. Cillian Murphy pla...

Barbie And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-07-20

After many months of buildup and memes, the Barbie movie is finally here. Margot Robbie plays the stereotypically blonde-and-perky Barbie, wh...

A Barbie v. Oppenheimer Game

Publication Date: 2023-07-19

In honor of the upcoming clash between the same-day releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer, we asked our listeners to weigh in on some o...

Survival of the Thickest

Publication Date: 2023-07-18

The delightful Netflix series Survival of the Thickest is about an up-and-coming stylist whose professional and personal ambitions go sideway...

The Actors And Writers Strikes: What We Know And What's Next

Publication Date: 2023-07-17

Actors and writers are on strike, and it looks like it could last a while. Production of TV and film has largely stopped, and there are deep divides i...

Theater Camp And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-07-13

In the funny new mockumentary Theater Camp, a summer camp for musical theater kids falls on hard times when its founder slips into a coma. Th...

So Bad It's Good

Publication Date: 2023-07-12

Can something bad really be good? Or are we just using "bad" to mean "silly"? Where does a classic like Rocky Horror Picture Show fit int...

2023 Emmy Nominations

Publication Date: 2023-07-12

The nominations for this year's Primetime Emmy Awards were just announced. There were many familiar series in the mix like Succession and

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Publication Date: 2023-07-10

In the new film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Tom Cruise is back as superspy Ethan Hunt. This time he has to defeat an all-p...

Joy Ride and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-07-06

The new film Joy Ride follows four friends (Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Sabrina Wu, and Stephanie Hsu) embarking on a trip to China. T...

Platonic

Publication Date: 2023-07-05

In the breezy comedy series Platonic, Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne play former best friends who reconnect years after a falling out. The show fo...

Nimona

Publication Date: 2023-07-04

The great new Netflix animated film Nimona is the tale of a mysterious shapeshifting teenage girl. Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz) declares hers...

Trans Representation In TV And Film

Publication Date: 2023-07-03

The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today, so we're bringing you an episode of NPR's It's Been A Minute. Host and our pal Brittan...

Indiana Jones And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-06-29

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth and apparently final film starring Harrison Ford as everyone's favorite globe-trotting, wh...

Books We Love: Mysteries And Thrillers

Publication Date: 2023-06-28

There's nothing as exciting as a great mystery or a thriller. The unreal and the all too real combine to give a good scare, with often something to sa...

I'm A Virgo

Publication Date: 2023-06-27

I'm A Virgo follows Cootie (Jharrel Jerome), a 13-foot tall young Black man who's grown up completely isolated and makes his first clumsy ste...

No Hard Feelings

Publication Date: 2023-06-26

Jennifer Lawrence has starred in The Hunger Games, played a member of the X-Men, and won an Oscar — but she hasn't done a ton of broad comedy...

Asteroid City and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-06-22

Writer/director Wes Anderson's latest film Asteroid City is about a tiny town in the middle of the American desert where several young scient...

Black Mirror

Publication Date: 2023-06-21

It's been four years since the Netflix anthology series Black Mirror made new episodes of terrifying speculative fiction. The series is now b...

Elemental

Publication Date: 2023-06-20

Disney and Pixar's latest film Elemental is a family story and a love story. And yes, it's about fire and water and how they come together. F...

The Bear

Publication Date: 2023-06-19

The FX on Hulu series The Bear understands how intense working in a restaurant can be. The dramedy stars Jeremy Allen White as Carmy, a fine ...

The Flash and What's Making us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-06-15

The new superhero movie The Flash has had a rocky trip to theaters. It's faced rewrites, studio turnover, and COVID delays. Plus it's star Ez...

The Blackening

Publication Date: 2023-06-14

In the fantastic new film The Blackening, a group of college friends reunite at a house in the woods to celebrate a Juneteenth holiday weeken...

Evil Dead Rise

Publication Date: 2023-04-24

Sam Raimi's 1981 horror movie The Evil Dead became a cult classic, spawning two sequels, a TV series, and a 2013 film that "reimagined" the...

The Diplomat And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-04-20

In the new Netflix drama, The Diplomat, Keri Russell plays an ambassador who's thrust into an international incident with massive stakes. She...

Judy Blume

Publication Date: 2023-04-19

Judy Blume has been a prominent author for more than 50 years and her books are incredibly beloved. She's written for kids and adults, and has faced c...

Picard

Publication Date: 2023-04-18

Jean-Luc Picard captained the starship Enterprise on the beloved series Star Trek: The Next Generation some 30 years ago. Patrick Stewart ret...

Showing Up

Publication Date: 2023-04-17

In Showing Up, Michelle Williams plays a sculptor preparing to exhibit her work in a small art gallery, even as family and friends complicate...

Renfield And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-04-13

The new horror comedy Renfield is about Count Dracula's long-suffering servant. Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) is trapped in a toxic relationship ...

Mo'Nique

Publication Date: 2023-04-12

Oscar-winner Mo'Nique has had a storied career in entertainment. She's a successful standup comedian, and a former sitcom star turned talk show host. ...

Beef

Publication Date: 2023-04-11

In the great new Netflix series Beef, two people have a lot of beef with each other. Created by Lee Sung Jin, the series stars Ali Wong and S...

Air

Publication Date: 2023-04-10

Almost 40 years ago, a young Michael Jordan signed what was then the NBA's most lucrative sneaker deal with Nike. The new movie Air traces th...

The Super Mario Bros. Movie And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-04-06

In The Super Mario Bros. Movie., Chris Pratt and Charlie Day play Mario and Luigi, two New York City plumbers who get transported to another ...

Top Chef

Publication Date: 2023-04-05

Even after 20 seasons, we still get a thrill every time we hear "hands up utensils down" on Top Chef. Controversial winners, heartbreaking ...

The Big Door Prize

Publication Date: 2023-04-04

In The Big Door Prize, a small town is forever changed when a mysterious machine pops up in the local general store. Each person who gets in ...

Rye Lane

Publication Date: 2023-04-03

The snappy new romantic comedy Rye Lane follows Dom and Yas, two South Londoners who meet in the restroom of an art show and wind up spending...

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-03-30

In Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Chris Pine stars as a wise-cracking and charismatic thief who leads a band of misfits with differ...

Top 10 Muppets

Publication Date: 2023-03-29

When we asked our listeners to tell us which Muppets were their favorites, we knew you'd all come through. More than 6,000 of you cast more than 18,00...

Our Favorite Muppets

Publication Date: 2023-03-28

Today we are tackling two of the most important questions of our time: who are our favorite Muppets? And which Muppets do we most identif...

The Night Agent

Publication Date: 2023-03-27

An FBI agent working in a lonely, secret office in the White House basement gets a phone call. A woman needs help, right away. That's the beginning of...

Books We Love: No Biz Like Show Biz

Publication Date: 2023-03-26

NPR's Books We Love is full of stories. The feature rounds up fiction and nonfi...

John Wick: Chapter 4 And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-03-23

In previous John Wick films, Keanu Reeves played a retired hitman out of revenge. In the latest entry, John Wick: Chapter 4, his rea...

Jonathan Majors

Publication Date: 2023-03-22

Actor Jonathan Majors is having a moment right now: he recently starred in Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Friend o...

Swarm

Publication Date: 2023-03-21

In the new Amazon Prime series Swarm, Dominique Fishback plays Dre, a socially awkward young woman who is obsessed with the mega pop star Ni'...

Grand Crew

Publication Date: 2023-03-20

The very funny, bingeable NBC sitcom Grand Crew has a dependable sitcom setup: Six friends hang out together to decompress and commiserate ab...

Shadow And Bone

Publication Date: 2023-03-19

Shadow and Bone is a fantasy series based on a successful set of novels. There's a lot to take in — at least six main characters, people who ...

Shazam! Fury Of The Gods And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-03-16

Four years ago, Shazam! was a surprise hit and a lighthearted entry in the DC Extended Universe. It follows teenager Billy Batson (Asher Ange...

Scream 6

Publication Date: 2023-03-15

The Ghostface killer is taking yet another stab at the box office as Scream 6 has arrived in theatres. It's a sequel to last year's reboot – ...

You

Publication Date: 2023-03-14

When the thriller series You premiered five years ago, it started a lot of conversations. The show was told largely from the point of view of...

Marvel's Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur

Publication Date: 2023-03-13

Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is an all-ages animated series that's got style and energy – and original songs – for days. It's the st...

2023 Oscars Recap

Publication Date: 2023-03-13

At this year's Oscars, Everything Everywhere All At Once won seven awards, including best picture and best director. The film's actors Jamie ...

2023 Oscars Preview And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-03-09

If you're entering an Oscar pool, or if you're just figuring out which Oscar-nominated movies are worth your time, we're here to help. Today we're off...

2023 Oscars Guide: International Feature

Publication Date: 2023-03-08

The five films nominated for international feature at this year's Oscars wrangle with some tough ideas and issues. There's the brutality of war, the h...

2023 Oscars Guide: Animated Feature

Publication Date: 2023-03-07

This year's Oscar nominees for best animated feature don't have a lot in common besides animation. You've got a dark vision of Pinocchio, a red panda ...

2023 Oscars Guide: Documentary Feature

Publication Date: 2023-03-06

This year's Oscar nominees for documentary feature include films about two brothers who rescue birds, a man who takes on Vladimir Putin, and a couple ...

2023 Oscars Guide: Original Song

Publication Date: 2023-03-05

The Oscar nominees for best original song can be anything from soaring ballads over the credits to toe-tappers that ground musical numbers. This year,...

Creed III And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-03-02

In Creed III, Michael B. Jordan is back as Adonis "Donnie" Creed, the scrappy underdog-turned-world champion boxer from the Rocky ...

Return To Seoul

Publication Date: 2023-03-01

In the moving film Return To Seoul, a young woman named Freddie visits South Korea for the first time since her birth, when she was adopted b...

The Consultant

Publication Date: 2023-02-28

In the darkly satiric, highly bingeable Amazon Prime series The Consultant, Christoph Waltz plays a mysterious businessman who takes over a v...

The Forty-Year-Old Version

Publication Date: 2023-02-27

In the wonderful film The Forty-Year-Old Version, playwright Radha Blank plays a variation on herself. Frustrated by a stall in her theater c...

The New Black Film Canon

Publication Date: 2023-02-26

NPR has teamed up with Slate to expand the Black Film Canon, a collection of the best films directed by Black filmmakers. The intent is to challenge b...

Cocaine Bear And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-02-23

A movie called Cocaine Bear needs two things: a bear, and some cocaine. Both are abundant in the new action comedy about a large quantity of ...

The Last Of Us

Publication Date: 2023-02-22

The HBO series The Last Of Us is a huge hit and it offers a novel, fungus-based twist on a zombie apocalypse. Civilization is in ruins, and i...

Dear Edward

Publication Date: 2023-02-21

In the Apple TV+ series Dear Edward, a plane crashes, and there is only one survivor – a 12-year-old boy named Edward, who loses his whole fa...

Books We Love: Nonfiction

Publication Date: 2023-02-20

NPR's Books We Love is full of stories. The feature rounds up fiction and nonfi...

Top Gun: Maverick

Publication Date: 2023-02-19

Top Gun: Maverick has earned six Oscar nominations, including best picture, adapted screenplay, and original song. The movie stars Tom Cruise...

Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-02-16

In Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly return as Marvel's tiniest titans. With their extended family in tow, th...

How To Be A Better Movie Watcher

Publication Date: 2023-02-15

Our pal and Culture Desk reporter Andrew Limbong teamed up with NPR's Life Kit to get advice on how to be a better movie watcher – h...

Shrinking

Publication Date: 2023-02-14

The Apple TV comedy Shrinking boasts a lot of big names in its cast, including Harrison Ford, Jason Segel, and Jessica Williams, all of whom ...

Titanic

Publication Date: 2023-02-13

Titanic was a box office juggernaut 25 years ago, and it catapulted Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet into a whole new stratosphere of fame....

2023 Super Bowl

Publication Date: 2023-02-13

We recap this year's Super Bowl, including Rihanna's halftime show, the Kansas City Chiefs' win against the Philadelphia Eagles, and the most memorabl...

Magic Mike's Last Dance And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-02-09

In the new movie Magic Mike's Last Dance, Channing Tatum returns as a dancer and male entertainer from Tampa. This time, he must put on a sho...

80 for Brady

Publication Date: 2023-02-08

In the movie 80 for Brady, four best friends (Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Sally Field) take a road trip to the 2017 Super Bowl so t...

Infinity Pool

Publication Date: 2023-02-07

In the fantastic but terrifying thriller Infinity Pool, Alexander Skarsgård plays a struggling writer in search of inspiration. While vacatio...

Poker Face

Publication Date: 2023-02-06

The very entertaining Poker Face is an offbeat case-of-the-week mystery show starring Natasha Lyonne as a dryly witty, down-to-earth oddball ...

2023 Grammys Recap

Publication Date: 2023-02-06

Beyoncé broke a major record at this year's Grammys and has now won more awards than any other artist. But she was shut out of the major categories an...

Knock At The Cabin And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-02-02

In the horror film Knock at the Cabin, a gay couple and their young daughter are vacationing at a remote cabin when four strangers arrive and...

Extraordinary

Publication Date: 2023-02-01

The very funny Hulu comedy Extraordinary is about a smart but directionless young woman named Jen who lives in London and doesn't feel great ...

Harry and Meghan

Publication Date: 2023-01-31

It was a game changer when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down as senior members of the royal family. Since then, they've given interviews, se...

2023 Sundance: Best Movies

Publication Date: 2023-01-30

Over 100 feature films played at this year's Sundance Film Festival. There were deeply personal stories told by emerging filmmakers, buzzy narratives ...

Beyoncé's Renaissance

Publication Date: 2023-01-29

Beyoncé's Renaissance is a joyful, sonic immersion made for dance floors of all kinds. The album earned nine Grammy nominations, and during t...

Shotgun Wedding And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-01-26

The Amazon Prime action comedy Shotgun Wedding delivers on its title in the sense that it's got a wedding, and it's got lots of guns. The fil...

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Publication Date: 2023-01-25

Everything Everywhere All At Once is a zany and profound sci-fi action comedy set in multiple dimensions. It stars Michelle Yeoh as a busines...

2023 Oscar Nominations

Publication Date: 2023-01-24

Nominations for this year's Oscars dropped today, and it's a big year for Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Banshees Of Inisherin

Cheers

Publication Date: 2023-01-23

Cheers is one of the most celebrated TV sitcoms of all time. Set in a Boston bar, the show won major awards and turned stars like Ted Danson,...

Velma

Publication Date: 2023-01-22

The adult animated series Velma chronicles the origin story of the bespectacled brains of the original Scooby Gang. We meet Velma, Fred, Daph...

Missing And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-01-19

The new movie Missing is about our connected world. The social media, the surveillance cameras, the news footage, the video chats — the many,...

The Traitors

Publication Date: 2023-01-18

In Peacock's new reality competition series The Traitors, contestants and reality TV veterans undergo missions at a Scottish castle to earn c...

People We're Pulling For

Publication Date: 2023-01-17

There are pop culture figures we love, and those we could maybe do without. And then there are the ones we're rooting for: The underdogs, the comeback...

Saint Omer

Publication Date: 2023-01-16

The moving new drama Saint Omer tells the story of a young mother (Guslagie Malanda) brought to trial for the killing of her infant daughter....

Dungeons & Dragons

Publication Date: 2023-01-15

The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today, so we're bringing you an episode from our pals at Code Switch all about Dungeons & Dragons....

Plane And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-01-12

What do you need to know about the movie Plane? Well, there's a plane. Specifically, there's a plane that goes down when it's struck by light...

Smiley

Publication Date: 2023-01-11

If you're looking for a charming romantic comedy, consider checking out the Netflix series Smiley. Set in Barcelona, it follows Alex and Brun...

M3GAN

Publication Date: 2023-01-10

In the new movie M3GAN, an orphaned 8-year-old girl is given a lifelike interactive doll. The doll in question was designed by roboticist Gem...

Ginny And Georgia

Publication Date: 2023-01-09

The Netflix series Ginny & Georgia follows a young single mom, her teenage daughter, and their efforts to create a life for themselves in the...

Books We Love: Realistic Fiction

Publication Date: 2023-01-08

NPR's Books We Love is full of stories. The feature rounds up fiction and nonfiction of many different kinds, and it gives you lots of ways to find wh...

Women Talking And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2023-01-06

In the excellent new film Women Talking, a group of Mennonite women gather to discuss the abuse they've suffered at the hands of their men. T...

Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical

Publication Date: 2023-01-04

Roald Dahl's novel Matilda has been adapted many times over the years, including as a 1996 movie directed by Danny DeVito. The newest iterati...

Great 2022 Movies You May Have Missed

Publication Date: 2023-01-03

We talk about a lot of movies on Pop Culture Happy Hour, but we definitely don't talk about all of them. All kinds of films fall thr...

South Side

Publication Date: 2023-01-02

On the HBO Max sitcom South Side, the everyday absurdities of living in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood make for hilarious fodder. The show ...

Comedian Josh Gondelman

Publication Date: 2023-01-01

The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today, so we're bringing you an excerpt of the podcast Bullseye with Jesse Thorn. Normally, w...

2023 Pop Culture Resolutions And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2022-12-29

A lot of people make resolutions in January, and we are no different. Today, we put our stakes in the ground and make our 2023 pop culture resolution...

2023 Pop Culture Predictions

Publication Date: 2022-12-28

It's that time of year again, time for hopes and fears and accountability. What's to come in the new year? We can only guess, and guess we will! Plus,...

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Publication Date: 2022-12-27

The new film Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody stars Naomi Ackie, and traces the pop superstar's rise in the 1980s and 90...

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery: Spoiler Episode

Publication Date: 2022-12-26

There are many secrets at the heart of the comedy mystery Glass Onion, just as there were in its predecessor Knives Out. Who lives, ...

The Kardashians, Plus Celebrity Skincare

Publication Date: 2022-12-25

The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today, so we're bringing you an episode of NPR's It's Been A Minute. In this episode about th...

Babylon And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2022-12-22

The new film Babylon is all about silent-era Old Hollywood, new technology, the intoxication of being famous, and whether love can really con...

The Best Man: The Final Chapters

Publication Date: 2022-12-21

When The Best Man franchise kicked off in 1999, it tapped into a specific kind of Black Gen Xer sensibility. The two films explored the dynam...

Kindred

Publication Date: 2022-12-20

The new FX on Hulu series Kindred is the first on-screen adaptation of any work by the great science fiction writer Octavia Butler. It's the ...

Nanny

Publication Date: 2022-12-19

The Sundance favorite Nanny is a moody thriller starring Anna Diop as Aisha, a Senegalese immigrant who cares for the young child of a rich M...

Hanukkah In Pop Culture

Publication Date: 2022-12-18

Right now, families across the world are celebrating Hanukkah, so we thought it would be a good time to revisit our conversation all about the Jewish ...

Avatar: The Way of Water And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2022-12-15

James Cameron's science-fiction epic Avatar is the highest-grossing movie of all time. But it took 13 years to get a sequel into theaters.

SZA's SOS

Publication Date: 2022-12-14

It's been five years since the artist SZA released her debut album Ctrl. Her new album SOS is home to 23 tracks that seamlessly blen...

2022 Pop Culture Favorites

Publication Date: 2022-12-13

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 m...

The Whale

Publication Date: 2022-12-12

In the new Darren Aronofsky film The Whale, Brendan Fraser plays Charlie, a housebound 600-pound gay writing teacher whose health is failing....

Welcome to Chippendales

Publication Date: 2022-12-11

The Hulu miniseries Welcome to Chippendales takes us back to the 80s and the rise of the famed male revue Chippendales. Kumail Nanjiani stars...

Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2022-12-08

Director Guillermo Del Toro has brought a new take on the classic tale of Pinocchio – the little wooden boy who goes on adventures and learns...

Violent Night

Publication Date: 2022-12-07

Violent Night dares to ask the question: What if Santa Claus was a jaded drunk who steals booze while leaving presents under the tree on Chri...

Fleishman Is In Trouble

Publication Date: 2022-12-06

The smartly written Hulu series Fleishman Is In Trouble stars Jesse Eisenberg as an Upper East Side doctor who finds himself divorced at 41. ...

2022 Books We Love: Staff Picks

Publication Date: 2022-12-05

Books We Love is a yearly labor of love here at NPR. Every year, the Books We L...

Sort Of

Publication Date: 2022-12-04

The HBO Max series Sort Of follows Sabi, played by Bilal Baig, a gender-fluid millennial in Toronto trying to figure their life out. They're ...

The Fabelmans and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2022-12-01

The Fabelmans is Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical and deeply personal film about a Jewish American boy who dreams of making movies. ...

Strange World

Publication Date: 2022-11-30

In Disney's new animated adventure Strange World, a family gets lost in a mysterious land underground. It's a story about discovery and inter...

Disenchanted

Publication Date: 2022-11-29

The Disney Plus movie Disenchanted brings back Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey and James Marsden in the continuing story of a cartoon princess mak...

Bones and All

Publication Date: 2022-11-28

Luca Guadagnino's weirdly beautiful romance Bones and All is a familiar road trip tale of young, angsty lovers drifting from state to state a...

Wednesday

Publication Date: 2022-11-27

The Netflix series Wednesday breaks the beloved Addams Family character Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) out of her home environment and into ...

Ricki Lake

Publication Date: 2022-11-24

The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today, so we're bringing you an excerpt of the podcast Raised By Ricki. If you were a fan of ...

Latinos in Hollywood

Publication Date: 2022-11-23

The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today, so we're bringing you a story from Mandalit del Barco's radio series about Latinos in Hollywood...

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2022-11-22

What has a murder mystery, a big cast of stars, some amazing fashion, and the deep blue waters of Greece? The eagerly awaited Glass Onion, th...

2022 Christmas Movie Guide

Publication Date: 2022-11-21

It's that time of year again, when many cable outlets and streaming services put on their holiday best. That's right, it's holiday movie season, and w...

Songs For Cleaning The Bathroom

Publication Date: 2022-11-20

Maybe you've got guests coming over for the holidays. Maybe an onslaught of news has kept you glued to the couch or hiding under your covers. Either w...

The Color Purple

Publication Date: 2022-11-19

In the final chapter of our special documentary series Screening Ourselves, host Aisha Harris recounts the debates ignited by Steven Spielber...

She Said and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2022-11-17

The film She Said is about the New York Times investigation of movie producer Harvey Weinstein. Zoe Kazan plays Jodi Kantor and Care...

Yellowstone

Publication Date: 2022-11-16

Even if you don't watch the TV show Yellowstone, there's a good chance you know people who do. The very popular western is entering its fifth...

Atlanta

Publication Date: 2022-11-15

When the FX series Atlanta arrived six years ago, it was unlike anything else on TV. It depicted its namesake city as a surreal landscape ric...

The Crown

Publication Date: 2022-11-14

In the latest season of Netflix's The Crown, a new cast steps into the roles of Queen Elizabeth II and her family just in time for the 1990s ...

Mood

Publication Date: 2022-11-13

The excellent BBC America/AMC+ drama series Mood considers how one young woman, at one of her most difficult moments, finds herself making ch...

Basic Instinct

Publication Date: 2022-11-12

In the second chapter of our special documentary series, Screening Ourselves, host Aisha Harris revisits the politics and legacy of Basic Instinct...

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2022-11-10

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the sequel to 2018's Black Panther, which starred the late Chadwick Boseman. This film begins with...

Love Is Blind

Publication Date: 2022-11-09

The reality dating show Love Is Blind is built around a simple premise: Couples date without meeting face to face, fall in love with each oth...

Andor

Publication Date: 2022-11-08

The new Disney Plus series Andor tells the story of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), the rebel captain who stole the plans for the Death Star in

Chadwick Boseman

Publication Date: 2022-11-07

Chadwick Boseman was a gifted actor who was probably best known for his role as T'Challa in Black Panther and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Publication Date: 2022-11-06

You should expect to learn nothing about the life of "Weird Al" Yankovic from the new film Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. That's because in ...

The Godfather

Publication Date: 2022-11-05

Today we debut Screening Ourselves, a new documentary series hosted by Aisha Harris. The Godfather is considered an American film cl...

The Banshees Of Inisherin And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2022-11-03

In The Banshees Of Inisherin, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play two longtime drinking buddies who face a crisis when one of them decides...

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities

Publication Date: 2022-11-02

The Netflix anthology Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities looks at horror storytelling from many angles. Its eight installments come ...

Interview with the Vampire

Publication Date: 2022-11-01

If you're familiar with Interview with the Vampire — because you read the Anne Rice novel or you saw the 1994 movie — the new AMC series has ...

Till

Publication Date: 2022-10-31

When 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered by two white men in 1955, his mother Mamie Till-Mobley became a voice of the civil rights movement. And now,...

Movies For Scaredy Cats

Publication Date: 2022-10-30

It's Halloween, and maybe you're into the idea of horror movies, but you aren't looking to be grossed out by gore or freaked out by jump scar...

Wendell & Wild And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2022-10-27

Director and animator Henry Selick, best-known for films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, has teamed up with co-wri...

Ticket to Paradise

Publication Date: 2022-10-26

In the film Ticket to Paradise, George Clooney and Julia Roberts play divorced parents determined to stop the wedding of their adult daughter...

Taylor's Swift's Midnights

Publication Date: 2022-10-25

Taylor Swift's tenth studio album, Midnights, once again reshapes her music in unexpected ways. Along with producer and co-writer Jack Antono...

Carly Rae Jepsen's The Loneliest Time

Publication Date: 2022-10-24

Carly Rae Jepsen is back with a new album called The Loneliest Time. The Canadian singer first broke through with the inescapable banger "Ca...

Black Adam And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2022-10-20

It's hard to believe Dwayne Johnson hasn't played a superhero before, but he's finally filling this gap in his resume with Black Adam, in whi...

Halloween Ends

Publication Date: 2022-10-18

The lucrative horror franchise Halloween has spanned more than four decades and includes 13 films. And in that time it's amassed countless bl...

BTS

Publication Date: 2022-10-17

The Korean pop band BTS will complete mandatory military service under South Korean law, meaning they will reconvene as a group around 2025. This brea...

Spooky Season Songs

Publication Date: 2022-10-16

Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are creeping up on us, which means it's peak spooky music season. In this episode the hosts of NPR Music's Alt.Latin...

Tár And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2022-10-13

Writer-director Todd Field's fantastic new film Tár stars Cate Blanchett as a world-famous composer and conductor. Intelligent, charismatic a...

2021 Songs Of Summer

Publication Date: 2021-07-07

Every summer gets its own unique soundtrack. So we gathered a bunch of NPR Music contributors and asked them to name their song of the summer.

Starstruck

Publication Date: 2021-07-06

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 Starstru...

Betty

Publication Date: 2021-07-05

The immersive HBO series Betty follows an eclectic bunch of young women skateboarders navigating adulthood while fostering community within a...

A Dose Of Great New Music

Publication Date: 2021-07-04

The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today, so we thought you might like to check out the latest episode of New Music Friday from the A...

Summer Of Soul And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-07-01

In the summer of 1969, hundreds of thousands of fans flooded Harlem's Mount Morris Park to attend the Harlem Cultural Festival, which hosted the likes...

Our Amusement Park Memories

Publication Date: 2021-06-30

It's summer time after a long stretch indoors, and many of us are returning to the world outside, including amusement parks. We thought it was a good ...

Zola

Publication Date: 2021-06-29

Over the years, Hollywood has built movie narratives out of unusual source material, but the dark comedy Zola is one of the first to originat...

Loki

Publication Date: 2021-06-28

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tom Hiddleston's Loki has faced off against Thor and the other Avengers. And now in the new series Loki on ...

The Fast & Furious Franchise

Publication Date: 2021-06-27

In 2001, The Fast and the Furious debuted as a scruffy car-culture movie, and it was a hit. it was followed by two sequels that didn't quite ...

F9: The Fast Saga And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-06-24

What better way to kick off a summer of movies than with F9, the ninth installment of the main Fast & Furious franchise. Directed by...

Physical

Publication Date: 2021-06-23

When the new Apple TV+ series is about Rose Byrne's Sheila, it's a strong examination of hunger and desire. When it wanders off into anything else, it...

Romance Books: A Starter Guide

Publication Date: 2021-06-22

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 experi...

We Are Lady Parts

Publication Date: 2021-06-21

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 Part...

Tuca and Bertie

Publication Date: 2021-06-20

The animated series Tuca & Bertie stars two best friends in the classic odd couple tradition: Tiffany Haddish voices free-spirited Tuca and A...

Luca And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-06-17

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 t...

Top 10 'Friends' Supporting Characters, Ranked

Publication Date: 2021-06-16

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...

'Friends' Main Characters, Ranked

Publication Date: 2021-06-15

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? W...

Three Great Songs For Your Next Road Trip

Publication Date: 2021-06-14

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 y...

Sweet Tooth

Publication Date: 2021-06-13

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 hum...

In The Heights And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-06-10

Before Hamilton made him a household name, Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the music and lyrics for the musical In The Heights. The Broadway product...

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Publication Date: 2021-06-09

The 2013 horror film The Conjuring made more than $300 million and spawned a blockbuster cinematic universe. The main Conjuring movi...

Keeping Up With The Kardashians

Publication Date: 2021-06-08

After 20 seasons, multiple marriages, babies and scandals, Keeping Up With the Kardashians is finally coming to a close. The E! reality serie...

Plan B

Publication Date: 2021-06-07

The new Hulu movie Plan B is about best friends Sunny and Lupe (played by Kuhoo Verma and Victoria Moroles), who go on an emergency road trip...

Bo Burnham: Inside

Publication Date: 2021-06-06

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 p...

Summer Guide And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-06-03

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.

Hacks

Publication Date: 2021-06-02

On the HBO Max series Hacks, the great Jean Smart plays a legendary stand-up comic whose longtime Las Vegas residency is threatened by a casi...

Pose

Publication Date: 2021-06-01

When Pose burst onto the scene in 2018, there had never been anything quite like it before: Here was a scripted TV series on a major network ...

A Quiet Place Part II

Publication Date: 2021-05-31

A Quiet Place told the story of a worl...

Comedian Patti Harrison

Publication Date: 2021-05-30

Patti Harrison is known for bringing her absurd, caustic, yet charming comedy to supporting roles on shows like Search Party, Broad City

Cruella And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-05-27

One of the biggest, baddest and certainly most stylish of Disney villains is getting an origin story. In the new film Cruella, Emma Stone pla...

BTS And More: A Guide To K-Pop

Publication Date: 2021-05-26

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 "Butte...

SNL Musical Performances: Best And Worst

Publication Date: 2021-05-25

For the last four years over at NPR Music, S...

Master Of None

Publication Date: 2021-05-24

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 D...

Olivia Rodrigo, Drivers License, And Sour

Publication Date: 2021-05-23

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 si...

Army Of The Dead And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-05-20

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 ...

Mare Of Easttown

Publication Date: 2021-05-19

In the HBO series Mare of Easttown, Kate Winslet plays a detective in a small town just outside of Philadelphia. Her character Mare is conduc...

Top Chef

Publication Date: 2021-05-18

Eighteen seasons of Top Chef, and we still get a thrill every time we hear "hands up, utensils down." The show has traveled to classic food...

The Woman In The Window

Publication Date: 2021-05-17

In Netflix's adaptation of The Woman In The Window, Amy Adams plays a psychologist named Anna, who is agoraphobic and entirely confined to he...

The Underground Railroad

Publication Date: 2021-05-16

The new Amazon series The Underground Railroad is the latest project from Barry Jenkins, who directed Moonlight and If Beale Str...

Those Who Wish Me Dead And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-05-13

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 terri...

Girls5Eva

Publication Date: 2021-05-12

In the grand tradition of movies like This is Spinal Tap and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, the new Peacock series Girls5ev...

Three Favorite Nintendo Switch Games

Publication Date: 2021-05-11

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 ...

The Nanny

Publication Date: 2021-05-10

Fran Fine was working at a bridal shop in Flushing, Queens, and now she's on HBO Max. The Nanny, starring Fran Drescher as Fran Fine, nanny t...

Selena: The Series

Publication Date: 2021-05-09

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 wa...

The Mitchells Vs. The Machines And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-05-06

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 ...

Rutherford Falls

Publication Date: 2021-05-05

The Peacock sitcom Rutherford Falls, which follows a conflict over a historical statue in a small town, is notable for a few reasons, besides...

TCM On HBO Max Guide

Publication Date: 2021-05-04

The 2021 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival is taking place in your local living room. Beginning this Thursday, a special lineup of curated programmi...

Star Wars And Other Merchandise

Publication Date: 2021-05-03

Today is May the 4th, also known as Star Wars Day. The first Star Wars film spawned many sequels, TV series, videogames and

Shadow and Bone

Publication Date: 2021-05-02

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 charac...

Without Remorse, Michael B. Jordan, And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-04-29

Michael B. Jordan has played a range of characters, from sympathetic figures like Wallace on The Wire, to an underdog in Creed and a...

Law And Order: Organized Crime

Publication Date: 2021-04-28

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...

Stowaway

Publication Date: 2021-04-27

Netflix's Stowaway stars Toni Collette, Daniel Dae Kim and Anna Kendrick as a three-person crew on a mission to Mars. When they discover a fo...

Mortal Kombat

Publication Date: 2021-04-26

The Mortal Kombat franchise began in 1992 with an arcade fighting game featuring grisly pixelated deaths. It spawned many sequels and spinoff...

2021 Oscars Recap

Publication Date: 2021-04-26

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 b...

2021 Oscars Preview And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-04-22

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...

2021 Oscars Guide: Original Songs

Publication Date: 2021-04-21

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 n...

2021 Oscars Guide: Animated Features

Publication Date: 2021-04-20

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 ex...

2021 Oscars Guide: Documentary Features

Publication Date: 2021-04-19

Corruption, loneliness, family, activism, and the adventures that take place in the ocean. The Oscar-nominated documentary features are about all thes...

2021 Oscars Guide: International Features

Publication Date: 2021-04-18

This year's Oscar nominees for best international feature film tackle a variety of issues, from school bullying to mass slaughter, from government cor...

Legally Blonde And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-04-15

Twenty years ago, Legally Blonde opened in theaters, and now it's available on Netflix. Reese Witherspoon plays a first-year law student name...

Made For Love

Publication Date: 2021-04-14

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 te...

Three Songs For Staring Out The Window

Publication Date: 2021-04-13

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 dist...

Queen Sugar

Publication Date: 2021-04-12

Queen Sugar is a sprawling melodrama following the Bordelons, a tight-knit, multi-generational black family in rural Louisiana. Created by Av...

Viola Davis: Essentials

Publication Date: 2021-04-11

Viola Davis' name is rarely far from awards season chatter, and this year is no different — the highly decorated performer received her fourth Oscar n...

The Great Pottery Throw Down, What's Making Us Happy, And Remembering DMX

Publication Date: 2021-04-08

The Great Pottery Throw Down is one of the gentlest, kindest and warmest competitive reality shows you will ever see (even when things litera...

Bad Trip

Publication Date: 2021-04-07

In the Netflix movie Bad Trip, Eric Andre and Lil Rel Howery play best friends who take a road trip from Florida to New York City. The twist ...

Frances McDormand: Essentials

Publication Date: 2021-04-06

Over the course of her long, varied and distinguished career, actor Frances McDormand has won two Oscars - and her performance in Nomadland t...

Chadwick Boseman: Essentials

Publication Date: 2021-04-05

Chadwick Boseman is nominated for an Oscar this year for his performance in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. It's his final onscreen role —

The Father

Publication Date: 2021-04-04

In The Father, Anthony Hopkins plays a character whose fierce independence is complicated by his worsening dementia. Olivia Colman plays his ...

Top 10 Muppets And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-04-01

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 vot...

Our Favorite Muppets

Publication Date: 2021-03-31

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 identif...

Godzilla Vs. Kong

Publication Date: 2021-03-30

Godzilla Vs. Kong is a collision of two classic film franchises. As the sequel to 2017's Kong: Skull Island and 2019's Godzilla:...

The Falcon And The Winter Soldier

Publication Date: 2021-03-29

As the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues its march across Disney Plus, it needs a buddy show, specifically The Falcon And The Winter Soldier

Die Hard

Publication Date: 2021-03-28

There's no wrong time to talk about an influential Hollywood classic. So that's why we are talking about Die Hard. We will never get tired of...

Beverly Cleary: Essentials

Publication Date: 2021-03-27

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...

Sound of Metal and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-03-25

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...

King Of The Hill

Publication Date: 2021-03-24

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...

Audience Questions: What Should I Watch?

Publication Date: 2021-03-23

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 finishe...

2020 Best Books: Book Club Ideas

Publication Date: 2021-03-22

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 Cons...

Favorite Concert Films

Publication Date: 2021-03-21

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 th...

Justice League And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-03-18

The 2017 film Justice League had a famously rocky road to the big screen and premiered to polarized reactions. Following an extended online c...

Raya And The Last Dragon

Publication Date: 2021-03-17

Raya And The Last Dragon is an animated Disney movie without musical numbers, without romantic intrigue and with a largely Asian cast. It's a...

Steven Yeun: Essentials

Publication Date: 2021-03-16

Steven Yeun's filmography reveals a remarkably varied career. From his breakout role as Glenn Rhee in The Walking Dead to his work with direc...

Oscar Nominations 2021

Publication Date: 2021-03-15

The Oscar nominations are out, and in the lead is Mank. The David Fincher-directed film about the writing of Citizen Kane picked up ...

2021 Grammys Recap

Publication Date: 2021-03-15

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 a...

RuPaul's Drag Race And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-03-11

RuPaul's Drag Race began in 2009 as a raggedy spoof of reality competition shows, with hilariously low-rent production values on Logo. After ...

Antiques Roadshow

Publication Date: 2021-03-10

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 ...

Ginny And Georgia

Publication Date: 2021-03-09

Netflix's Ginny & Georgia follows a young single mom, her teenage daughter, and their efforts to create a life for themselves in the suburbs ...

Delroy Lindo: Essentials

Publication Date: 2021-03-08

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. ...

The WandaVision Finale

Publication Date: 2021-03-07

After nine episodes, several battles, big reveals and a lot of different hairstyles, WandaVision has come to an end on Disney Plus. What happ...

Coming 2 America And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-03-04

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 Eddi...

Regina King: Essentials

Publication Date: 2021-03-03

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...

Three Great Documentaries

Publication Date: 2021-03-02

If you dig into the archives of any streaming service, you're gonna find loads of documentaries — tales of true crime, plucky dreamers, obsessive ecce...

The United States v. Billie Holiday

Publication Date: 2021-03-01

The United States v. Billie Holiday is the latest dramatization of the singer's tumultuous personal life. Directed by Lee Daniels and starrin...

2021 Golden Globes Recap

Publication Date: 2021-03-01

This year's Golden Globes ceremony took place under a cloud, following fresh reporting on accusations that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is ...

Minari And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-02-25

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 ...

Cinderella

Publication Date: 2021-02-24

There are many versions of Cinderella, but few are as beloved as Disney's production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, starring ...

I Care A Lot

Publication Date: 2021-02-23

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 g...

2020 Best Books: Nonfiction

Publication Date: 2021-02-22

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 a...

It's A Sin

Publication Date: 2021-02-21

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 backgroun...

Nomadland and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-02-18

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 w...

To All The Boys: Always And Forever

Publication Date: 2021-02-17

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 th...

Shark Tank

Publication Date: 2021-02-16

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...

Supernova

Publication Date: 2021-02-15

In Supernova, Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci play a gay couple coming to terms with the fact that Tucci's character is experiencing early onse...

Desus And Mero On Politics, Fame And Life In The Pandemic

Publication Date: 2021-02-14

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 ph...

Judas And The Black Messiah And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-02-11

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...

2020 Best Books: For Music Lovers

Publication Date: 2021-02-10

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 r...

2020 Best Books: Music Books

Publication Date: 2021-02-10

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 r...

Superstore

Publication Date: 2021-02-09

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, ...

Desus & Mero Writer Josh Gondelman On Making A Late Night Talk Show During COVID-19

Publication Date: 2021-02-08

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 ...

2021 Super Bowl

Publication Date: 2021-02-07

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 sea...

Malcolm & Marie And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-02-04

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...

2021 Sundance: Best Movies

Publication Date: 2021-02-03

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 F...

Bling Empire

Publication Date: 2021-02-02

Reality television has long had a fascination with some factions of the extremely rich. Bling Empire shifts the focus a little bit, to a grou...

Our Favorite Cicely Tyson Performances

Publication Date: 2021-02-01

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 s...

Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself

Publication Date: 2021-01-31

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 s...

Lupin And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-01-28

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 h...

All Creatures Great And Small

Publication Date: 2021-01-27

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...

Almost Famous

Publication Date: 2021-01-26

The film Almost Famous recently turned 20. Writer and director Cameron Crowe looks at the ecosystem surrounding a rising rock band in the ear...

Search Party

Publication Date: 2021-01-25

In the dark comedy Search Party, four narcissistic millennials become amateur sleuths following the disappearance of a former classmate. Alia...

2020 Best Books About Families

Publication Date: 2021-01-24

Every year, NPR brings together some of the best books of the year in a searchable, explorable guide called the Book Concierge. Today, we're highlight...

WandaVision and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-01-21

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

Locked Down

Publication Date: 2021-01-20

In Locked Down — a movie to be filmed and released during the pandemic — Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anne Hathaway play a couple sheltering in Londo...

Cobra Kai

Publication Date: 2021-01-19

When The Karate Kid ended with a crane kick in 1984, it seemed like it was all over. But then came sequels. Then came a remake. And now we ha...

Promising Young Woman

Publication Date: 2021-01-18

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 he...

One Night In Miami And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2021-01-14

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...

2020 Best Books About America

Publication Date: 2021-01-13

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 highlight...

Dickinson

Publication Date: 2021-01-12

Despite its preponderance of bustles and bonnets, the Apple TV+ series Dickinson is not some fusty old biopic. It casts Hailee Steinfeld as a...

Bring It On

Publication Date: 2021-01-11

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...

Sylvie's Love

Publication Date: 2021-01-10

Sylvie's Love follows a relationship that blossoms in the late 1950s between a spirited young woman who loves television and a gifted saxopho...

Showgirls

Publication Date: 2021-01-06

In 1995, critics howled and self-appointed guardians of good taste were horrified at the release of Showgirls. Directed by Paul Verhoeven wit...

Bridgerton

Publication Date: 2021-01-05

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 Bri...

Card Sharks

Publication Date: 2021-01-04

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 ...

2020 Best Books: Love Stories

Publication Date: 2021-01-03

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 ab...

Wonder Woman 1984 And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-12-23

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 predecesso...

The Midnight Sky

Publication Date: 2020-12-22

The new George Clooney movie The Midnight Sky takes place in two very lonely, post-apocalyptic settings: the Arctic, and outer space. Clooney...

Tenet

Publication Date: 2020-12-21

Director Christopher Nolan's latest film, Tenet, is a riff on spy movies — featuring globe-trotting CIA agents, Russian arms dealers and big set piece...

2020 Pop Culture Favorites

Publication Date: 2020-12-20

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 an...

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-12-17

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 G...

Small Axe

Publication Date: 2020-12-16

A tense courtroom, an intimate house party, a stifling police academy. These are just a few of the environments depicted in Small Axe, the am...

Ted Lasso And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-11-12

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 L...

SNL

Publication Date: 2020-11-11

When the country went on lockdown earlier this year, Saturday Night Live was forced to end their 45th season earlier than expected. After pro...

HGTV And Home Makeover Shows

Publication Date: 2020-11-10

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...

On the vaguely unsettling, but satisfyingly pulpy FOX techno-thriller series Next, John Slattery plays a genius billionaire who blows the whi...

Remembering Jeopardy! Host Alex Trebek

Publication Date: 2020-11-08

The game show host Alex Trebek died Sunday following a battle with pancreatic cancer. Trebek hosted Jeopardy! for 36 years — his last episod...

2020 Comedy Special Recommendations And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-11-05

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 ...

2020 Comedy Special Recommendations

Publication Date: 2020-11-05

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 ...

The Vow And Seduced: Two NXIVM Docuseries

Publication Date: 2020-11-04

NXIVM gained mainstream attention when several high-ranking members were charged with crimes, including racketeering, forced labor conspiracy and sex ...

The Queen's Gambit

Publication Date: 2020-11-03

The new Netflix series The Queen's Gambit finds its story in the equally intense if less obviously bruising world of competitive chess. Based...

2020 Election Day Distractions

Publication Date: 2020-11-02

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 whateve...

Remembering Sean Connery

Publication Date: 2020-11-02

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 ...

Ariana Grande's Album Positions

Publication Date: 2020-11-01

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 ...

Great British Baking Show And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-10-29

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 g...

Borat 2

Publication Date: 2020-10-28

In 2006, Sacha Baron Cohen's movie Borat was an unlikely blockbuster. It starred Cohen as a fictional reporter from Kazakhstan who journeys a...

The Witches

Publication Date: 2020-10-27

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 ...

Three Great Horror Movies For Scaredy Cats

Publication Date: 2020-10-26

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 m...

Bad Hair

Publication Date: 2020-10-25

In the horror satire Bad Hair, a meek young woman named Anna becomes emboldened after getting her very first weave. At first, the new 'do bri...

Rebecca And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-10-22

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 ...

David Byrne's American Utopia

Publication Date: 2020-10-20

David Byrne and Spike Lee. Two artists with very defined, very distinct, and yet very different, sensibilities — but when you put them together, it wo...

Pop Culture Happy Hour Goes Daily

Publication Date: 2020-10-18

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 befo...

The Trial Of The Chicago 7 And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-10-15

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...

Is 'The Good Lord Bird' A White Savior Story, or Something Different?

Publication Date: 2020-10-13

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 Ha...

The Forty-Year-Old Version And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-10-08

In the wonderful new film The Forty-Year-Old Version, playwright Radha Blank plays a variation on herself. In it, the fictional Radha, frustr...

Latinx Songs That Helped Shape The Decade

Publication Date: 2020-10-06

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 Shakir...

The Boys In The Band And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-10-01

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 s...

John Wick And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-07-07

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-f...

A Guide To HBO Max And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-06-02

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 y...

The High Note And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-05-28

There have been countless movies about real and fictional musicians. And in the new movie The High Note, Tracee Ellis Ross plays the fictional legenda...

Why You Should Stream Booksmart, Plus What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-05-26

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 spen...

Great Recent Movies We Missed And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-05-21

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 h...

The Great And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-05-19

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 p...

The Movies Of 2000 And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-05-14

Twenty years ago, before the Harry Potter movies or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the movie landscape looked really different. And today, we're takin...

Never Have I Ever And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-05-12

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...

Normal People And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-05-07

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 H...

Derry Girls And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-05-05

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, a...

Michael Jordan Documentary The Last Dance And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-04-30

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 ...

Nintendo Switch Game Recommendations And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-04-28

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 game...

Toddler TV Recommendations And What's Making Us Happy This Week

Publication Date: 2020-04-23

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...

HBO's Run And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-04-21

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, als...

The Regrettable Television Pop Quiz And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-04-16

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 s...

Survivor And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-04-14

Started out eating rats, and now they're here. Forty seasons in, Survivor is midway through a season where former winners are playing against...

Pop Culture Solutions To Quarantine Problems And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-04-09

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...

Tiger King and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-04-07

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 captur...

Schitt's Creek and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-04-02

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 ...

Short Bursts Of Joy To Change Your Mood

Publication Date: 2020-03-31

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...

Book Recommendations To Read While Isolating And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-03-27

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....

Family Friendly Crowd Pleasers: Three Things To Stream Your Whole Family Can Enjoy

Publication Date: 2020-03-24

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 ...

New Music Discoveries And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-03-19

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 w...

The Invisible Man Is Transparently Creepy

Publication Date: 2020-03-10

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 ...

Onward And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-03-05

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...

Project Runway

Publication Date: 2020-03-03

When Project Runway launched in 2004, competitive reality shows were in their infancy. Now, they're in their mature pantsuit years, but the series, no...

Sonic The Hedgehog, Fan Service, And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-02-20

The new movie Sonic the Hedgehog is about this hedgehog — who runs fast. Ben Schwartz voices the Hedgehog, Jim Carrey is the evil Dr. Robotni...

Birds of Prey and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-02-13

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...

Bad Boys For Life and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-01-30

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. Th...

The L Word: Generation Q

Publication Date: 2020-01-14

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 mar...

1917 And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2020-01-09

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 ...

2020 Golden Globes Recap

Publication Date: 2020-01-05

We've just gotten done watching the Golden Globes. In TV, Succession, Fleabag, and Chernobyl won multiple awards. As for th...

We Revisit Friends

Publication Date: 2020-01-02

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 ...

Our Pop Culture Resolutions and Predictions

Publication Date: 2019-12-31

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 wh...

Little Women And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-12-26

Greta Gerwig was nominated for an Oscar for directing 2017's Lady Bird. She's following it up with an adaptation of Little Women tha...

Cats

Publication Date: 2019-12-24

What has ears, tails, Andrew Lloyd Webber music, and the Idris Elba/Taylor Swift duet you've been waiting for all your life? That's right, it's Cats, ...

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-12-19

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 ...

Our 15 Favorite Things Of 2019

Publication Date: 2019-12-17

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...

The Mandalorian, Baby Yoda, and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-12-12

The Mandalorian is the highest profile and most expensive original series to debut on the Disney+ streaming service. Set in the Star Wars uni...

Marriage Story

Publication Date: 2019-12-10

What's the opposite of a love story?

The Irishman And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-12-05

The movies and the mob have made a winning combination for decades. The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Departed — and that's on...

The Morning Show

Publication Date: 2019-12-03

Apple TV Plus launched a few weeks ago, and its highest profile series was unquestionably The Morning Show. Apple spent a massive amount of m...

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-11-28

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 per...

Knives Out

Publication Date: 2019-11-26

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 c...

Frozen 2 And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-11-21

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 favo...

The Crown

Publication Date: 2019-11-19

Netflix's The Crown is back for season three, and it's got a fresh polish in the form of a brand new cast playing the British royal family. T...

Dolly Parton's America And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-11-14

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 ...

Last Christmas

Publication Date: 2019-11-12

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 ...

Doctor Sleep

Publication Date: 2019-11-07

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. ...

Watchmen

Publication Date: 2019-11-05

HBO's series Watchmen is not strictly an adaptation of the landmark comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons — it's technically a sequel. It s...

How To Survive The Election Year

Publication Date: 2019-10-31

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 y...

Dolemite Is My Name

Publication Date: 2019-10-29

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 th...

Jojo Rabbit And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-10-24

Jojo Rabbit is already an Oscar favorite. The dark comedy from director Taika Waititi won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festiva...

Parasite

Publication Date: 2019-10-22

Even if you've seen a lot of movies about class struggle, you can bet you've never seen one like Parasite. From director Bong Joon-ho, it tel...

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-10-17

The Emmy-award winning series Breaking Bad chronicled the transformation of Walter White, a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher played by Brya...

A Conversation With Terry Gross

Publication Date: 2019-10-15

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. T...

The Politician And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-10-10

Ryan Murphy and his collaborators are responsible for everything from Glee to American Horror Story. And now, they've made their first project for Net...

Our 2019 Fall Book Preview

Publication Date: 2019-10-08

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...

Joker And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-10-03

In the new Todd Phillips film Joker, Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, an aspiring comic. Neglected by the world and beaten down everywhere...

Netflix's Unbelievable

Publication Date: 2019-10-01

The Netflix series Unbelievable brings together a group of actresses including Kaitlyn Dever, Toni Collette, Merritt Wever, Dale Dickey and D...

Fall Movie Preview And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-09-26

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 aw...

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-08-22

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, ...

Glow

Publication Date: 2019-08-20

The panel discusses Netflix's new wrestling comedy GLOW with NPR's Code Switch Kat Chow. (This episode originally aired on June 23, 2017.)

Where'd You Go, Bernadette And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-08-15

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 t...

Succession

Publication Date: 2019-08-13

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-...

Veronica Mars And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-08-08

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...

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

Publication Date: 2019-08-06

The new film Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Jason Statham. The two play their characters from the Fast & ...

The Farewell And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-08-01

In The Farewell, Akwafina plays Billi, a young woman whose beloved grandmother back in China is diagnosed with lung cancer. The family decide...

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Publication Date: 2019-07-30

Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood is writer-director Quentin Tarantino's ninth film. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a fading western actor name...

Queer Eye

Publication Date: 2019-07-25

Queer Eye is back for a fourth season, so we figured it'd be interesting to review our first impressions of the series, back when it premiered last ye...

Jeopardy!

Publication Date: 2019-07-23

Jeopardy! has been in the news a lot this year, both for James Holzhauer's historic championship run and for Alex Trebek's recent cancer diagnosis. Bu...

The Lion King And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-07-18

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 ...

We Go To The Opera

Publication Date: 2019-07-16

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 ...

Los Espookys And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-07-11

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 f...

Midsommar

Publication Date: 2019-07-09

In the film Midsommar, writer-director Ari Aster follows up his cult horror hit Hereditary with a film about a literal cult. Florence Pugh plays a you...

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Publication Date: 2019-07-04

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 ...

Songs Of Summer, 2019 Edition

Publication Date: 2019-07-01

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" — s...

'Yesterday' Imagines A World Without The Beatles

Publication Date: 2019-06-27

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 suppo...

We Spoil Avengers: Endgame

Publication Date: 2019-06-25

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...

Toy Story 4 And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-06-20

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, th...

Big Little Lies Returns For Season 2

Publication Date: 2019-06-19

When Big Little Lies came to HBO, it boasted a cast full of stars: Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz and Laura ...

Late Night And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-06-13

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. New...

Olivia Wilde Is Quizzed On Buffalo Wild Wings

Publication Date: 2019-06-11

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 ro...

The 2019 Tony Awards

Publication Date: 2019-06-09

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 F...

You Should Watch Fleabag. Here's Why.

Publication Date: 2019-06-06

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 woma...

Rocketman

Publication Date: 2019-06-04

Rocketman is a new biopic about queer rock icon Elton John. It is in many ways a typical rise-and-fall, dangers of fame kind of rock star biopic. But ...

Booksmart and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-05-31

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 mis...

Russian Doll

Publication Date: 2019-02-28

Today we're diving into the complicated and tangled world of Netflix's Russian Doll, a series anchored by a dynamic performance from...

2019 Oscars Recap

Publication Date: 2019-02-24

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....

2019 Oscars Preview

Publication Date: 2019-02-21

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 goin...

A Pop Culture Quiz

Publication Date: 2019-02-19

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 ...

The Oscar-Nominated Documentaries And Foreign-Laungage Films

Publication Date: 2019-02-14

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...

The 2019 Grammys

Publication Date: 2019-02-10

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 Mon...

'The Lego Movie 2'

Publication Date: 2019-02-07

The Lego Movie was a surprise commercial and critical hit. It starred Chris Pratt as an every-man construction worker named Emmet and Elizabe...

The 2019 Super Bowl

Publication Date: 2019-02-04

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 c...

Bohemian Rhapsody, Vice and Green Book

Publication Date: 2019-01-31

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, t...

Tidying Up With Marie Kondo

Publication Date: 2019-01-29

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....

Roma and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-01-24

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,...

We Get It Now

Publication Date: 2019-01-22

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 Br...

Glass

Publication Date: 2019-01-17

In 2000, director M. Night Shyamalan presented Unbreakable, the story of two men whose epic tales of good and evil collided. Then came 2016's Split, a...

The Masked Singer

Publication Date: 2019-01-15

The Masked Singer isn't your everyday singing competition. Based on a South Korean format, each week we learn the identity of the elaborately...

If Beale Street Could Talk

Publication Date: 2019-01-10

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 nov...

The 2019 Golden Globes

Publication Date: 2019-01-06

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 ...

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2019-01-03

The sci-fi series Black Mirror has always been about changing technology and its usually dark implications for the future. Its latest episode, Banders...

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Publication Date: 2019-01-01

Fox canceled Brooklyn Nine-Nine at the end of its fifth season, but much to our delight, NBC picked it back up again. It's coming back for a ...

Our Pop Culture Resolutions and Predictions

Publication Date: 2018-12-27

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 pr...

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and a little Aquaman

Publication Date: 2018-12-25

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 ...

Our 15 Favorite Things Of 2018

Publication Date: 2018-12-20

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 Asi...

Mary Poppins Returns

Publication Date: 2018-12-18

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, Emi...

The Favourite and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-12-13

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 Q...

Sam Sanders Chats With Guy Branum

Publication Date: 2018-12-11

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, heter...

Hallmark Holiday Movies

Publication Date: 2018-12-06

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 ...

Our Favorite Christmas Songs

Publication Date: 2018-12-04

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, song...

Ralph Breaks The Internet and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-11-29

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 th...

Creed II

Publication Date: 2018-11-27

It's been three years since the Rocky movies were reborn with Creed, starring Michael B. Jordan as Apollo Creed's son, Adonis. Now, in Creed 2, Adonis...

Widows and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-11-22

Widows is not your average heist movie — director Steve McQueen and co-screenwriter Gillian Fylnn have created something far more interesting. The fil...

Die Hard

Publication Date: 2018-11-20

Die Hard turned 30 this year. So as the season of Season's Greetings approaches, it's time for the Pop Culture Happy Hour conversation we've always be...

Homecoming

Publication Date: 2018-11-15

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 w...

Remembering Stan Lee

Publication Date: 2018-11-12

Stan Lee helped create some of the most indelible comic book characters in American popular culture, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Fo...

'Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj' and 'Busy Tonight'

Publication Date: 2018-11-08

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 Hasa...

Nobody's Fool

Publication Date: 2018-11-06

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 h...

The Haunting of Hill House

Publication Date: 2018-11-01

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 ...

Wildlife

Publication Date: 2018-10-30

Wildlife, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan, tells the story of a marriage in crisis in 1960's Montana. Based on a novel by Richard...

Beautiful Boy and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-10-25

Beautiful Boy is a story of addiction starring two Oscar-nominated actors. Timothée Chalamet plays Nic Sheff, who's addicted to crystal meth. Steve Ca...

Halloween

Publication Date: 2018-10-23

It's been forty years since the release of the classic horror film, Halloween. Since then, the franchise has wandered through its own house o...

Big Mouth and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-10-18

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...

Venom

Publication Date: 2018-10-16

In Venom, Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock, an investigative journalist who's trying to rebound from a major setback in his career. But Eddie's pl...

'First Man' and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-10-11

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 directe...

The Hate U Give

Publication Date: 2018-10-09

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 ...

A Star Is Born and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-10-04

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 E...

A Simple Favor

Publication Date: 2018-10-02

What has Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, menswear looks, mysteries, and YouTube's most cheerful mom? It's the stylish, mischievous, and sometimes darkly ...

Fall Movie Preview

Publication Date: 2018-09-27

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 — fr...

All-Books Edition: Volume 2

Publication Date: 2018-09-25

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 ...

Forever And What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-09-20

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 i...

2018 Emmy Awards

Publication Date: 2018-09-17

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 nominati...

On the Books: An All-Book Edition

Publication Date: 2018-09-13

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 fa...

Celebrating Women in Music With Turning the Tables

Publication Date: 2018-09-12

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...

Pop Culture Serotonin and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-09-07

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 sero...

To All The Boys I've Loved Before

Publication Date: 2018-09-04

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 ...

Fall TV Preview and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-08-30

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...

Black Panther

Publication Date: 2018-08-28

Ryan Coogler's Marvel film, set largely in the richly imagined Afro-futurist utopia of Wakanda, is by turns intimate, immediate and — most importantly...

BlacKkKlansman and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-08-23

BlacKkKlansman tells the story Ron Stallworth — a black police detective who infiltrated the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. On today's ...

2018 MTV VMAs

Publication Date: 2018-08-20

Last night the VMAs honored some top songs and artists including Camila Cabello, Jennifer Lopez, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj. The show also recogniz...

Crazy Rich Asians and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-08-16

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 ...

Remembering Aretha Franklin

Publication Date: 2018-08-16

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...

Blockers and Game Night: Playing Catch-Up On Comedies We Missed

Publication Date: 2018-08-14

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...

Pop Culture Punching Bags and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-08-09

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 ...

Sorry to Bother You

Publication Date: 2018-08-07

The indie movie Sorry to Bother You is a summer hit. Lakeith Stanfield stars as Cassius Green, a telemarketer whose world spirals into chaos....

Eighth Grade and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-08-02

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 gi...

Breath Of The Wild

Publication Date: 2018-07-31

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...

Mission: Impossible - Fallout and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-07-26

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 ...

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Publication Date: 2018-07-24

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 adapt...

Skyscraper and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-07-19

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. ...

Hannah Gadsby's Netflix Special 'Nanette' With Kumail Nanjiani

Publication Date: 2018-07-17

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 somethin...

Sharp Objects and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-07-12

Before Gillian Flynn wrote Gone Girl, she wrote Sharp Objects. Now, HBO has produced an adaptation starring Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson, and Chris Me...

Jeopardy!

Publication Date: 2018-07-10

Jeopardy! — the juggernaut, the pop culture monster, the game show to shave your mustache to and then grow it back again. Guest: NPR Music's ...

Ant-Man And The Wasp, Plus What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-07-05

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 wor...

The Mister Rogers Documentary 'Won't You Be My Neighbor'

Publication Date: 2018-07-03

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 f...

The Songs Of Summer

Publication Date: 2018-06-28

Stephen Thompson and our pals at NPR Music road-test the songs the songs of the summer.

Cooking Shows

Publication Date: 2018-06-26

The panel chats about some of their favorite cooking shows including Top Chef, Chopped and Chef's Table. Guests: Weekend Edition editor Barrie Hardymo...

Jurassic World, Jurassic Park and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-06-21

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom takes a bizarre but not unwelcome left turn. How does it compare to 2015's mediocre but hugely successful revi...

The Great Big Stand-Up Roundup

Publication Date: 2018-06-19

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 epi...

Incredibles 2 and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-06-14

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. G...

The Tony Awards and Remembering Anthony Bourdain

Publication Date: 2018-06-11

The Tony Awards paid off for The Band's Visit, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the Angels in America revival and a scrap...

Ocean's 8 and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-06-07

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 Bu...

The Paddington Movies

Publication Date: 2018-06-05

At last, we take a deep, overdue dive into the sweet, tangy jars of emotional marmalade that are the Paddington films. Guests: writer Chris K...

Law & Order and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-05-31

We talk about one of the most durable franchises in television history. Guests: Librarian Margaret H. Willison and Sarah D. Bunting, the East Coast Ed...

'Cobra Kai' Is A Surprisingly Good 'Karate Kid' Reboot

Publication Date: 2018-05-29

Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso are still at it in Cobra Kai, a surprisingly interesting look at what happens later to people who peak — o...

Solo: A Star Wars Story and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-05-24

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 sta...

The Royal Wedding

Publication Date: 2018-05-19

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 a...

Deadpool 2 and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-05-17

Ryan Reynolds once again assumes the role of a deadly mercenary who makes many references to various pop culture properties while disemboweling folk a...

The Half-Hour Drama Flourishes With 'Vida'

Publication Date: 2018-05-15

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...

Tully and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-05-10

Written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman, the film stars Charlize Theron in an often brutal look at the emotional and physical to...

Killing Eve

Publication Date: 2018-05-08

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...

A Quiet Place and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-05-03

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.

Leaving 'Hamilton' And 'Failing Up' With Leslie Odom Jr.

Publication Date: 2018-05-01

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 wh...

Avengers: Infinity War and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-04-26

The Avengers try to keep a space-tyrant from performing cosmic genocide. The film doubles down on character interactions both familiar and unfamiliar....

Scandal

Publication Date: 2018-04-22

After seven seasons, Shonda Rhimes' roller-coaster of a drama screeches to a final halt as Olivia Pope and the team try to get out of one last scrape ...

Summer Movie Preview and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-04-19

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, ho...

Pop Culture Dichotomies

Publication Date: 2018-04-17

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 dich...

Antiques Roadshow and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-04-12

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 t...

Barry

Publication Date: 2018-04-10

Bill Hader stars as a depressed hit man who wants a fresh start in acting but can't seem to get one. And the HBO comedy-drama asks questions most anti...

Roseanne and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-04-05

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 thi...

Love, Simon

Publication Date: 2018-04-03

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 ...

Ready Player One and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-03-29

Spielberg returns to his cinema-as-thrill-ride roots in this adaptation of Ernest Cline's YA novel. Guest: The Verge's Tasha Robinson.

Isle of Dogs

Publication Date: 2018-03-27

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 crit...

SXSW 2018 Wrap

Publication Date: 2018-03-22

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 w...

High Maintenance

Publication Date: 2018-03-20

The panel High Maintenance, HBO's anthology series about a marijuana dealer and his clients in New York City. Guests: Weekend Edition editor Barrie Ha...

Talk Show Talk and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-03-15

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 cre...

Atlanta

Publication Date: 2018-03-13

Donald Glover's Emmy-winning comedy returns for second season that includes sharply drawn characters and an appreciation for the problems with success...

A Wrinkle In Time and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-03-08

Director Ava DuVernay's adaptation of the classic Madeleine L'Engle novel is devoid of cynicism, filled with beautiful images and deeply moving. Guest...

The 2018 Oscars

Publication Date: 2018-03-04

Last year's Oscars were wildly unpredictable. This year's were very predictable, with big wins for The Shape Of Water, all the actors who wer...

Our 2018 Oscars Preview

Publication Date: 2018-03-01

The team takes a moment to consider the upcoming Oscars in categories big and small. They probably won't end with anyone handing over the wrong envelo...

The Regrettable Television Pop Quiz

Publication Date: 2018-02-27

The panel tries to stump each other with clips from the weirdest TV they could find. Guest: All Things Considered host Audie Cornish.

Annihilation and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-02-22

Alex Garland's new sci-fi thriller is very weird, and we loved it. Guests: Writer Chris Klimek and Daisy Rosario of NPR member station WAMU.

Queer Eye

Publication Date: 2018-02-20

The Netflix series "Queer Eye" is a reboot of the 2003 phenomenon, not a retread. They've dropped "For the Straight Guy" from the title, reflectin...

Black Panther and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-02-15

Ryan Coogler's Marvel film, set largely in the richly imagined Afro-futurist utopia of Wakanda, is by turns intimate, immediate and — most importantly...

The Winter Olympics

Publication Date: 2018-02-13

Sam Sanders joins the panel to talk about his memories of the Sochi Olympics, the way young athletes handle attention and athleticism itself, what we ...

Darkest Hour and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-02-08

The panel discusses the Oscar-nominated film Darkest Hour, which stars Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill. Guest: Aisha Harris, host of Slate's Represen...

The Super Bowl

Publication Date: 2018-02-05

The Eagles won a thrilling victory in the Super Bowl on Sunday night, to the delight of Philadelphians everywhere. Tom Brady of the Patriots proved fa...

Roxane Gay

Publication Date: 2018-02-01

Roxane Gay latest book is the memoir Hunger. It's about her relationship with her body, with trauma, and with her own history. In September 2017, host...

The 2018 Grammys

Publication Date: 2018-01-28

We recap the highlights of this year's Grammy Awards, including a sweep by Bruno Mars and memorable performances from Kendrick Lamar and Kesha. Guests...

The Good Doctor and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-01-25

We chat about The Good Doctor, ABC's hit medical drama in which Freddie Highmore plays a surgical resident with autism and savant syndrome. Guest: Upr...

Phantom Thread

Publication Date: 2018-01-23

The gang discusses Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film, Phantom Thread. The story about the twisted relationship between a dressmaker (Daniel Day-Lewis...

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-01-18

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, ...

The Florida Project and Remembering Dolores O'Riordan

Publication Date: 2018-01-16

The panel talks about the Florida Project, Sean Baker's small-scale but memorable film set at a motel near Disney World. Then, we take a moment to rem...

I, Tonya and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-01-11

This week's show takes a look at an emerging awards contender in the acting categories: I, Tonya, the semi-mockumentary retelling of the life...

The Golden Globe Awards

Publication Date: 2018-01-07

Recent stories of sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood inspired black dresses and unexpected guests at the Golden Globes. Plus, Oprah Winfrey beca...

Pop Culture Resolutions and Predictions, Plus What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2018-01-04

Code Switch's Kat Chow joins the panel as they say goodbye to 2017 by revisiting their resolutions and predictions from last year and making new ones ...

John Cho

Publication Date: 2018-01-02

Host Linda Holmes talks with actor John Cho (Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, Star Trek) about why he misses doing broad comedies, his decision to...

Black Mirror and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-12-28

The panel chats about Black Mirror, Netflix's sci-fi anthology series. The fourth season premiers today. Guests: film and theater critic Chris Klimek ...

Our 15 Favorites Of 2017

Publication Date: 2017-12-26

The panel runs down their 15 favorite TV shows, movies, books, video games, and trends of 2017.

The Post and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-12-21

The panel chats about the Post, Steven Spielberg's latest film which follows the Washington Post's decision to publish the Pentagon Papers. The movie ...

Our Hanukkah Special

Publication Date: 2017-12-19

While you may have wrapped up your Hanukkah celebrations, we wanted to share a conversation about the role that Hanukkah plays for kids and adults, an...

Star Wars: The Last Jedi and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-12-14

Writer/director Rian Johnson joins the Star Wars franchise to deliver a chapter that's fast, fun and freewheeling, even as it introduces surp...

The Shape of Water

Publication Date: 2017-12-12

The panel talks about the Guillermo del Toro film about a woman racing to save her not-quite-human true love from the bad guys. Guest: NPR Arts Desk C...

The Disaster Artist, The Room, and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-12-07

James Franco's The Disaster Artist tells the story of the making of The Room, one of the most famous awful movies of all time. The p...

Call Me By Your Name

Publication Date: 2017-12-05

Luca Guadagnino's lush adaptation of Andre Aciman's novel stars Timothee Chalamet as a teenage prodigy who falls in love with a visiting grad student ...

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Publication Date: 2017-11-30

The panel reviews Martin McDonagh's polarizing new film, which stars Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell. Guest: Code Switch co-host ...

Coco

Publication Date: 2017-11-28

Pixar's latest animated film follows young Miguel through an adventure that teaches him about family and remembrance. Code Switch's Shereen Marisol Me...

Black-ish and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-11-23

The panel checks in with the ABC sitcom Black-ish, then share what's making them happy this week. Guests: Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings, co-hosts of ...

Lady Bird

Publication Date: 2017-11-21

The panel chats about why they love Lady Bird, the coming-of-age film written and directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Saoirse Ronan.

Justice League and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-11-16

The gang discusses DC Comics' latest movie, featuring Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Cyborg. That, plus What's Making Us Happy this week. Guests...

Murder On The Orient Express and Cozy Murder Mysteries

Publication Date: 2017-11-14

The panel tackles Kenneth Branagh's new Agatha Christie remake — and picks a few recommendations for when you just want to snuggle under blankets and ...

This Is Us, Speechless, and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-11-09

All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro joins the panel to disuss This Is Us, NBC's hit family drama. Then, All Things Considered Host Audie Cornish ta...

Pop Culture Advice With Audie Cornish

Publication Date: 2017-11-07

The Pop Culture Happy Hour gang answer some pop culture advice questions, including balancing recaps with television consumption and if you should try...

Thor: Ragnarok and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-11-02

The panel takes on the latest from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with help from Code Switch co-host and established Taika Waititi fan Shereen Marisol...

Stranger Things 2

Publication Date: 2017-10-31

After a highly successful first season, the Netflix monster mystery returns. But does it overcome the challenges that have plagued sequels for decades...

American Vandal and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-10-26

The panel discusses American Vandal, the Netflix mockumentary series that's a hilariously precise dissection of our cultural fascination with true cri...

John Hodgman

Publication Date: 2017-10-24

Author, comedian, and fake internet judge John Hodgman talks about his new book Vacationland, mediating internet disputes, writing a serious ...

Shark Tank and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-10-19

NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith joins the panel to talk about the oddly successful and often bizarre ABC series that brings entrepreneurs t...

Tom Hanks

Publication Date: 2017-10-17

Actor Tom Hanks talks to host Linda Holmes about his new short story collection Uncommon Type, the cosmos, David S. Pumpkins, Nora Ephron, men dancing...

Will & Grace and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-10-12

NBC's Will & Grace is back for at least two revival seasons, more than 10 years after it went off the air the first time. But is the sitcom s...

The Good Place

Publication Date: 2017-10-10

A discussion of the NBC comedy The Good Place, which stars Kristen Bell and Ted Danson. We're big fans of the show, and it's from one of the creators ...

Blade Runner 2049

Publication Date: 2017-10-05

Writer Chris Klimek joins Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon to discuss Denis Villeneuve's sequel to the Ridley Scott cult classic Blade Runner.

The Princess Bride And Remembering Tom Petty

Publication Date: 2017-10-03

This year The Princess Bride turns 30, so we decided to discuss the film and its enduring legacy. Plus, we take a moment to remember rock leg...

Battle of the Sexes and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-09-28

The new film, starring Emma Stone as Billie Jean King and Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs, the players facing off in one of the most famous tennis matches...

Movie Roundup: The LEGO Ninjago Movie, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, And Mother!

Publication Date: 2017-09-26

Linda Holmes, Stephen Thompson, and Glen Weldon discuss three recent releases then look back at their summer box office predictions.

Fall Movie Preview

Publication Date: 2017-09-21

As summer gives way to fall, blockbusters give way to award contenders. Critics Linda Holmes, Bob Mondello, Tasha Robinson, and Bilal Quershi share so...

Emmy Awards 2017

Publication Date: 2017-09-17

NPR's TV critic joins the gang for a look at this year's Emmy Awards. The Handmaid's Tale, Big Little Lies, Saturday Night Live

The Deuce and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-09-14

The gang tackles David Simon's new HBO drama about the rise of the adult-film industry in New York's Times Square. And, as always, What's Making Us Ha...

People We're Pulling For

Publication Date: 2017-09-12

It's Been a Minute host Sam Sanders and writer Katie Presley join Glen Weldon and Stephen Thompson for an old favorite: People We're Pulling For. The ...

Outlander

Publication Date: 2017-09-07

Weekend Edition Book Editor Barrie Hardymon and librarian Margaret Willison chat with Linda about Outlander, a sexy time-travel fantasy series current...

Mother-Daughter Directors Nancy Meyers and Hallie Meyers-Shyer

Publication Date: 2017-09-05

Nancy Meyers is the filmmaker behind comedies like Something's Gotta Give and It's Complicated. Now her daughter, Hallie Meyers-Shyer, is joining the ...

Lake Bell and What's Making Us Happy

Publication Date: 2017-08-31

Director, writer, and actor Lake Bell talks about the making of her new film I Do... Until I Don't, the way her British friends hang up the p...

Game of Thrones

Publication Date: 2017-08-29

Game of Thrones just wrapped its penultimate season, so we sit down for a spoiler-packed discussion with our pals Gene Demby, Barrie Hardymon, and Tas...

The MTV VMAs and Taylor Swift

Publication Date: 2017-08-28

Music writers Sarah Ventre and Marissa Lorusso join us to discuss Taylor Swift's new single and a disjointed MTV Video Music Awards hosted by Katy Per...

Fall TV Preview

Publication Date: 2017-08-24

The broadcast, cable and streaming networks have a lot on tap for the remainder of 2017. We talk about what we are excited to watch and what we think ...

Logan Lucky

Publication Date: 2017-08-22

Steven Soderbergh's racetrack heist film opened small for a big director, but its strong cast (Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, and Daniel Craig) and unus...

Regrettable Television Pop Quiz

Publication Date: 2017-08-17

Sam Sanders (NPR's It's Been A Minute) joins the panel for the Regrettable Television Pop Quiz, in which the gang shares their knowledge about trashy ...

Judith Light From 'Transparent,' 'Ugly Betty' And 'Who's The Boss?'

Publication Date: 2017-08-15

Actress Judith Light talks to host Linda Holmes her roles as Shelly Pfefferman on Transparent, Angela Bower on Who's The Boss?, and Karen Wolek on One...

A Guide to Stephen King

Publication Date: 2017-08-10

Dark Tower is a snooze, so instead we talk about some of our favorite Stephen King books and film adaptations. Guests: Weekend Edition Books Editor Ba...

Detroit

Publication Date: 2017-08-08

We discuss Kathryn Bigelow's new film Detroit. Its intense and unsettling depictions of police brutality in the summer of 1967, Detroit got u...

Insecure

Publication Date: 2017-08-03

We check back in on Issa Rae's HBO comedy series Insecure as it kicks off its tighter, more assured second season. Plus, What's Making Us Hap...

Atomic Blonde

Publication Date: 2017-08-01

Film critic Chris Klimek joins us to talk Atomic Blonde, a stylish and visceral spy thriller set in 1989 Berlin. It co-stars Charlize Theron ...

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Publication Date: 2017-07-27

We review the bonkers space opera Valerian, a passion project of director Luc Besson. Guest: Aisha Harris, host of Slate's Represent podcast.

Girls Trip

Publication Date: 2017-07-26

The "surprising" success of the raunch-com Girls Trip didn't particularly surprise us; we talk about precisely where this "out-of-nowhere\...

Dunkirk

Publication Date: 2017-07-20

NPR Music's Daoud Tyler-Ameen joins the panel for a discussion of the new film Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan's World War II epic.

Twin Peaks: The Return

Publication Date: 2017-07-19

We sort out the adventures of Dale Cooper and the other residents of Twin Peaks: what works, what doesn't, and whether there's such a thing as "under...

Spider-Man: Homecoming and Tour de Pharmacy

Publication Date: 2017-07-13

All Things Considered host Audie Cornish joins the panel for discussions about Marvel's Spider-Man: Homecoming and Andy Samberg's HBO special Tour de ...

Baby Driver and When Auteurs Meet Film Franchises

Publication Date: 2017-07-06

First, a discussion of Baby Driver, Edgar Wright's fun new action film with Code Switch co-host Gene Demby and It's Been a Minute host Sam Sanders. Th...

Pop Culture Summer Stories And 'Playing House'

Publication Date: 2017-06-29

This week, All Things Considered host Audie Cornish joins the panel to chat about how they spent their summers growing up. Plus, a conversation with b...

GLOW And Lena Waithe

Publication Date: 2017-06-22

This week, the panel discusses Netflix's new wrestling comedy GLOW with NPR's Code Switch Kat Chow. Then, we bring you a conversation we recently had ...

Wonder Woman And The Tony Awards

Publication Date: 2017-06-15

This week, the panel talks about Wonder Woman — or Diana, Princess of Themyscira — with NPR Books Editor Petra Mayer. Then, they shift the spotlight t...

When To Break Up With Television And Pop Culture Advice With Mallory Ortberg

Publication Date: 2017-06-08

This week, we bring you two unaired segments from our fall tour. First, All Things Considered host Audie Cornish helps us figure out when to quit a te...

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Derivative Culture

Publication Date: 2017-06-01

This week the panel is prepping for a few live shows, so we decided to revisit one of our favorite episodes from 2015. Code Switch's Kat Chow joins us...

Alien: Covenant and Veep

Publication Date: 2017-05-25

Film critic Chris Klimek joins the panel for a chat about the new Ridley Scott film Alien: Covenant and HBO's Veep.

Master of None and Snatched

Publication Date: 2017-05-18

On this week's show, Gene Demby from NPR's Code Switch and NPR TV critic Eric Deggans join us for a conversation about the second season of Master...

The Handmaid's Tale and a New Comedy

Publication Date: 2017-05-11

The panel talks about the harrowing TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, then switches gears to check in on the NBC comedy Great Ne...

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and W. Kamau Bell

Publication Date: 2017-05-04

This week we discuss Marvel's space action-comedy Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2. Plus, a conversation we recently had in Chicago with comedi...

Summer Movie Preview 2017

Publication Date: 2017-04-27

All Things Considered Host Audie Cornish joins us for our annual summer movie preview. We break down what we are excited to watch, what we think will ...

The Fate of the Furious, Plus Clapbacks and Feuds

Publication Date: 2017-04-20

Code Switch's Gene Demby and critic Chris Klimek join the gang for a discussion of latest installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise. Then, it'...

Changing Colors in Comics and RuPaul's Drag Race

Publication Date: 2017-04-13

The panel is on the road this week, so we are bringing you two special treats. First, you'll hear an episode of Code Switch that explores how comics a...

S-Town and Chewing Gum

Publication Date: 2017-04-06

The panel dissects the new podcast S-Town, the latest project from the team behind Serial and This American life. Then, they'll chat about Chewing Gum...

Dave Chappelle and CHiPs

Publication Date: 2017-03-30

First we review Dave Chappelle's new Netflix stand-up specials with Code Switch's Gene Demby and For Colored Nerds co-host Brittany Luse. Then, we dis...

Beauty and the Beast & SXSW

Publication Date: 2017-03-23

The panel discusses a tale as old as time, Disney's remake of Beauty and the Beast. Then, they share what bands and films they saw at SXSW. Guest: Kat...

Memes, Fads, Advice, and Neil Gaiman

Publication Date: 2017-03-16

Comedian Guy Branum joins the panel for a discussion about why some fads and memes endure and others fade away. Then, the panel offer some pop culture...

Get Out and The Americans

Publication Date: 2017-03-09

This week, we'll get very unsettled by the very successful film, Get Out, and we'll catch up with the intrigue of The Americans as i...

Big Little Lies and Feud

Publication Date: 2017-03-02

This week, we'll drop in on the volatile suburban surroundings of HBO's Big Little Lies, and we'll consider Ryan Murphy's high-drama look at ...

The Oscars Were Crazy

Publication Date: 2017-02-27

It wasn't a terribly exciting or unusual Academy Awards telecast — until all of a sudden, it made all kinds of history.

Our Oscars Preview

Publication Date: 2017-02-22

NPR film critic Bob Mondello joins us for our annual Oscars Omnibus: We talk the nominees for Best Picture, some of the hottest races, and make some p...

Justin Timberlake

Publication Date: 2017-02-20

Morning Edition Host David Greene talks with singer and actor Justin Timberlake about how it feels to be an Oscar nominee, his boy band past, and prog...

Legion and Planet Earth II

Publication Date: 2017-02-16

Television critic Alan Sepinwall joins us for a discussion of the new FX series Legion, which is based on an obscure X-Men character and adapted by Fa...

Philip Pullman To Follow-Up 'His Dark Materials' Trilogy

Publication Date: 2017-02-14

Glen Weldon talks to author Philip Pullman about his return to the world of Lyra Belacqua, who we first met in The Golden Compass. The first volume of...

Small Batch: The Grammys

Publication Date: 2017-02-13

NPR Music's Jacob Ganz and Stephen Thompson join Linda Holmes for a discussion of Beyoncé, Adele, Chance the Rapper, Bruno Mars, and much more.

The LEGO Batman Movie and MasterChef Junior

Publication Date: 2017-02-09

NPR Politics Podcast alum Sam Sanders joins the panel for The LEGO Batman Movie. Then, Code Switch's Kat Chow sits in for a chat about MasterChef Juni...

Small Batch: Super Bowl Thoughts, From 'Overdog' Tom Brady To Sparkly Lady Gaga

Publication Date: 2017-02-06

Code Switch's Gene Demby joins Stephen Thompson and Linda Holmes for a look at Super Bowl LI. The New England Patriots won with a huge fourth-quarter ...

Oscar Documentary Roundup and a Foreign Language Film We Love

Publication Date: 2017-02-02

NPR film critic Bob Mondello joins the panel for a roundup of all the films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature: I Am Not You...

Riverdale and Other Teen Soaps

Publication Date: 2017-01-26

Sarah D. Bunting of Previously.TV and the Extra Hot Great podcast joins the panel for a review of Riverdale, the CW's dark and sexy reimagini...

Rachel Bloom on Mary Tyler Moore

Publication Date: 2017-01-25

Mary Tyler Moore died Wednesday at 80 years old. Host Linda Holmes talks to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star and co-creator Rachel Bloom about how on...

Small Batch: The Oscar Nominations

Publication Date: 2017-01-24

Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon round up this year's Oscar nominations. As widely predicted, La La Land racked up the most nominations, while Moonlig...

The Young Pope & Hell or High Water

Publication Date: 2017-01-19

Code Switch Co-Host Gene Demby joins the panel for a discussion of the nutty new HBO series The Young Pope, which stars Jude Law. Then, the panel revi...

Small Batch: DJ Khaled

Publication Date: 2017-01-16

Morning Edition host David Greene talks with musician and Snapchat star DJ Khaled about the keys to his success, getting lost in a jet ski, and the im...

Hidden Figures and One Day at a Time

Publication Date: 2017-01-12

Brittany Luse, host at Gimlet and co-host of For Colored Nerds, joins NPR's Linda Holmes, Stephen Thompson, and Glen Weldon for a chat about Hidden Fi...

Small Batch: The Golden Globe Awards

Publication Date: 2017-01-09

Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon, and Stephen Thompson wrap up the 2017 Golden Globe awards, including La La Land's sweep, the surprising wins in television,...

Sherlock, Carrie Fisher, George Michael, and Debbie Reynolds

Publication Date: 2017-01-05

Weekend Edition Books Editor Barrie Hardymon joins the panel for a discussion of mystery series Sherlock, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin ...

Ciao 2016, Hello 2017!

Publication Date: 2016-12-29

Code Switch's Kat Chow joins the panel as they say goodbye to 2016 by revisiting their resolutions and predictions from last year and making new ones ...

2016 Favorites and Unfinished Business

Publication Date: 2016-12-21

Sam Sanders of NPR's Politics Podcast joins the panel for a roundup of their favorite movies, songs, TV shows, and writing of the year. Then, they rev...

Favorite Podcasts of 2016

Publication Date: 2016-12-19

Lauren Ober, the host of The Big Listen, joins Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon, and Stephen Thompson for a roundup of their favorite podcast episodes of the...

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and La La Land

Publication Date: 2016-12-15

NPR Music's Daoud Tyler-Ameen joins the panel for a discussion of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Then, the panel discusses the romantic musical La La L...

This Is Us and Speechless

Publication Date: 2016-12-08

All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro joins the panel to disuss This Is Us, NBC's hit family drama. Then, All Things Considered Host Audie Cornish ta...

Small Batch: Younger

Publication Date: 2016-12-06

Linda Holmes chats with Emmanuel Hapsis, the host of KQED's The Cooler and a bonafide millenial, about the plausibility of the TV Land show Younger.

Small Batch: Westworld

Publication Date: 2016-12-05

Glen Weldon and All Things Considered host Audie Cornish discuss the first season of HBO's densely plotted science fiction series.

Gilmore Girls and Moana

Publication Date: 2016-12-01

Margaret H. Willison and Daisy Rosario join the panel for a discussion of the return of Gilmore Girls that's now streaming on Netflix. Then, they chat...

Romantic Comedies With Kumail Nanjiani

Publication Date: 2016-11-22

Comedian and actor Kumail Nanjiani joins the gang for our live show recorded at the Regent Theater in Los Angeles. First, they discuss romantic comedi...

Arrival and Pop Culture Serotonin

Publication Date: 2016-11-17

Critic Chris Klimek joins the panel for a chat about the inventive sci-fi film Arrival. Then, the gang shares some of their picks for pop culture sero...

Doctor Strange and Moonlight

Publication Date: 2016-11-10

Code Switch's Gene Demby and Kat Chow join Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon for a discussion of the trippy Marvel blockbuster Doctor Strange. Then, th...

Small Batch: The Election and Political Comedy

Publication Date: 2016-11-06

Tomorrow is Election Day, so Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon guide us through the state of political comedy. Topics include Saturday Night Live, Last...

Hamilton: An American Musical

Publication Date: 2016-11-03

The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is recovering from our west coast tour, so we decided to bring you one of our favorite episodes of the year: Look arou...

The Great Halloween Candy Debate with Mallory Ortberg

Publication Date: 2016-10-27

It's a Halloween Spooktacular! We bring you two Halloween-themed segments from our west coast tour: Mallory Ortberg (Dear Prudence, The Toast.) joins ...

Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Publication Date: 2016-10-20

The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is traveling this week, so we bring you two of our favorite segments. First, NPR Editor Barrie Hardymon joins the pane...

Lupita Nyong'o, Cameron Esposito & Rhea Butcher, and the Best of TV

Publication Date: 2016-10-13

All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro talks with Lupita Nyong'o and Madina Nalwanga, the stars of Queen of Katwe. Then, television critics Matt Zolle...

A Fall Movie and Television Preview

Publication Date: 2016-10-06

NPR Film Critic Bob Mondello joins the panel for a fall television and movie preview. Plus, what's making us happy this week.

The Magnificent Seven and Fleabag

Publication Date: 2016-09-29

Writer Chris Klimek and NPR Editor Tanya Ballard join Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon to review the remake of The Magnificent Seven. Then, they chat ...

Emmy Awards, Hari Kondabolu, and Alan Moore

Publication Date: 2016-09-22

Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon reflect on this year's Emmy Awards. Then, Morning Edition host David Greene interviews comedian Hari Kondabolu. We cl...

Documentary Now! & A Documentary Roundup

Publication Date: 2016-09-15

Sam Sanders, Co-Host of NPR's Politics Podcast, joins the panel for a discussion of Documentary Now!, the mockumentary series from Fred Armisen, Bill ...

HGTV and Cooking Shows

Publication Date: 2016-09-08

Code Switch's Kat Chow and Weekend Edition Editor Barrie Hardymon join Linda Holmes and Glen Weldon for a discussion of home improvement shows, real e...

You're The Worst & Mixing Comedy and Drama

Publication Date: 2016-09-01

Pop Culture Happy Hour Producer Emeritus Mike Katzif joins the panel for a discussion of the FXX comedy You're The Worst. Then, they discuss when the ...

Big News: West Coast Tour!

Publication Date: 2016-09-01

WEST COAST TOUR! WOOHOO!We are so excited to announce that Pop Culture Happy Hour is coming to the west coast in October. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, ...

Small Batch: MTV's Video Music Awards 2016

Publication Date: 2016-08-29

Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson discuss this year's MTV Video Music Awards. This year's VMAs featured Rihanna, Beyonce, Britney Spears, and several ...

Pete's Dragon & Kids and Their Monsters

Publication Date: 2016-08-25

NPR Music's Daoud Tyler-Ameen joins Linda Holmes, Stephen Thompson, and Glen Weldon for a discussion of the critically acclaimed Disney film Pete's Dr...

Small Batch: Stranger Things Creators The Duffer Brothers

Publication Date: 2016-08-23

All Things Considered Host Ari Shapiro talks with Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of the Netflix summer hit Stranger Things. (A shorter ve...

Small Batch: A Conversation With Amy Schumer

Publication Date: 2016-08-23

Morning Edition host David Greene talks with comedian Amy Schumer about her new book, the Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo. (A shorter version of the i...

The Get Down and TCA 2016

Publication Date: 2016-08-18

Writer Kiana Fitzgerald and Brittany Luse, host of Sampler and For Colored Nerds, join Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson for a chat about the Netflix ...

Small Batch: You're Listening To Delilah

Publication Date: 2016-08-17

Morning Edition host David Greene talks with late night radio personality Delilah Rene Luke. This year marks 20 years Delilah has been taking calls an...

Small Batch: Mr. Robot's Sam Esmail

Publication Date: 2016-08-15

All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro talks with Sam Esmail, the creator of Mr. Robot. (A shorter version of the interview aired on All Things Consid...

Steven Universe and Board Games

Publication Date: 2016-08-11

Code Switch's Kat Chow and Gene Demby join the show for thoughts on the groundbreaking Cartoon Network series Steven Universe and various card and boa...

Jason Bourne and Suicide Squad

Publication Date: 2016-08-04

Critic Chris Klimek and NPR Editor Tanya Ballard-Brown join Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon for a discussion of two summer blockbusters, Jason Bourne...

Small Batch: MTV Classic

Publication Date: 2016-08-02

MTV turns 35 years old Monday, and they're marking the occasion with a channel called MTV Classic. The new channel will air MTV programming from the 1...

Small Batch: Match Game

Publication Date: 2016-08-01

ABC recently rebooted the vintage game show with Alec Baldwin as host and celebrity panelists such as Rosie O'Donnell and Tituss Burgess. Here, Glen W...

Stranger Things and Weddings

Publication Date: 2016-07-28

Host Linda Holmes, NPR Music's Stephen Thompson, Librarian Margaret Willison, and Producer Emeritus Mike Katzif chat about the new Netflix series Stra...

Small Batch: Swiss Army Man

Publication Date: 2016-07-26

Glen Weldon and Chris Klimek debate the merits of Swiss Army Man, the new indie comedy referred to as the Daniel Radcliffe farting corpse movie.

Small Batch: Comic-Con Dispatches

Publication Date: 2016-07-25

In this Pop Culture Happy Hour extra, hear two dispatches from this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. First, panelist Glen Weldon explores ...

Ghostbusters and Mr. Robot

Publication Date: 2016-07-21

All Things Considered Host Ari Shapiro joins the gang for a discussion of the new Ghostbusters film and the return of the television thriller Mr. Robo...

On Endings And Road Trips

Publication Date: 2016-07-14

This week on Pop Culture Happy Hour, we revisit an episode from summer 2012. Linda Holmes talked with Stephen Thompson, Trey Graham and Glen Weldon a...

Small Batch: Pokemon Go

Publication Date: 2016-07-13

Pop Culture Happy Hour's Glen Weldon and Stephen Thompson discuss the game: its allure and ubiquity, its backlash and glitches, and its zeitgeist-y co...

The BFG and The Great British Baking Show

Publication Date: 2016-07-07

NPR Books editor Petra Mayer joins the panel to discuss The BFG specifically and Steven Spielberg movies in general. Then they move on to talk of crum...

The Giant Foam Finger: Who's Afraid of a Superteam?

Publication Date: 2016-07-07

Pop Culture Happy Hour's Stephen Thompson and Code Switch's Gene Demby discuss Kevin Durant's move to the Golden State Warriors: Is it good for basket...

The State of the Sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, and a Quiz

Publication Date: 2016-06-30

Code Switch's Gene Demby joins the panel for a discussion of the state of the sequel and why we decided not to go deep on Independence Day: Resurgence...

Small Batch: Game of Thrones

Publication Date: 2016-06-27

The sixth season of HBO's Game of Thrones showed a real evolution in the way the show portrays women and in the season finale, several female characte...

Small Batch: UnREAL's Sarah Gertrude Shapiro

Publication Date: 2016-06-27

Weekend Edition Sunday Host Rachel Martin chats with Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, the co-creator of Lifetime's UnREAL and a former producer of The Bachelor...

Finding Dory and Great Voice Acting

Publication Date: 2016-06-23

Latino U.S.A's Daisy Rosario joins the panel for a discussion of Pixar's Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo. Then they chat about voice acting, ...

Small Batch: The Outs with Adam Goldman

Publication Date: 2016-06-21

In this Pop Culture Happy Hour extra, Glen Weldon talks to Adam Goldman, the star and co-creator of the web series The Outs, about what sets ...

O.J.: Made in America and a Television Quiz

Publication Date: 2016-06-16

Code Switch's Gene Demby joins the panel for a discussion of ESPN's new documentary miniseries O.J.: Made in America. Then, we bring you a television ...

Small Batch: 2016 Tony Awards

Publication Date: 2016-06-13

The shadow of a mass shooting in Orlando cast a pall over the 70th Annual Tony Awards broadcast, but host James Corden offered a spirited paean to "e...

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and Making Music Funny

Publication Date: 2016-06-09

Librarian Margaret Willison joins the gang for a discussion of Popstar, the new movie from the Lonely Island comedy group. The they looka back at othe...

Small Batch: The Black Film Canon

Publication Date: 2016-06-06

Slate recently published The Black Film Canon, a list of 50 films by black directors curated by a panel that included Henry Louis Gates Jr., Wesley Mo...

X-Men: Apocalypse and Supervillains

Publication Date: 2016-06-02

Writer Chris Klimek and NPR Music's Daoud Tyler-Ameen join Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson for a discussion of X-Men: Apocalypse. Then they discuss ...

Live At Vulture Festival

Publication Date: 2016-05-26

All Things Considered Host Audie Cornish joins the panel for a show recorded live at New York Magazine's Vulture Festival. First, the panel runs with ...

Money Monster and Eurovision

Publication Date: 2016-05-19

Weekend Edition Books Editor Barrie Hardymon joins the crew this week. They discuss George Clooney and Julia Roberts in their new movie, ...

Captain America: Civil War

Publication Date: 2016-05-12

Code Switch's Gene Demby joins Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon for a discussion of the new Marvel blockbuster Captain America: Civil War. Then, Linda...

Free Comic Book Day and Keanu

Publication Date: 2016-05-05

NPR Books editor Petra Mayer joins the panel for a preview of Free Comic Book Day. Then, they discuss Keanu, the new action comedy from the team behin...

Silicon Valley and Bob's Burgers

Publication Date: 2016-04-28

Writer Danielle Henderson joins the gang for a discussion of the HBO comedy Silicon Valley. Then, Stephen Thompson interviews Loren Bouchard, the crea...

Small Batch: Another Round's Heben Nigatu and Tracy Clayton

Publication Date: 2016-04-27

Linda Holmes chats with Heben Nigatu and Tracy Clayton, the hosts of BuzzFeed's Another Round podcast.

Small Batch: Beyoncé's 'Lemonade'

Publication Date: 2016-04-25

NPR Music's Kiana Fitzgerald reviews Beyonce's new album Lemonade. Fitzgerald says the story Beyonce is telling this time, that of a woman wronged, is...

Summer Movie Preview

Publication Date: 2016-04-21

Pop Culture Happy Hour Producer Emeritus Mike Katzif joins the gang for a summer movie preview. They'll discuss what they most want to see. They will ...

Small Batch: Remembering Prince

Publication Date: 2016-04-21

Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson discuss the way Prince changed music, supported other artists, defied creative constraints and challenged the notion...

Small Batch: Comedian Josh Gondelman

Publication Date: 2016-04-19

Linda Holmes chat with Josh Gondelman, and stand-up comedian and writer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. His album Physical Whispe...

The Mindy Project and Romantic Comedies

Publication Date: 2016-04-14

All Things Considered host Audie Cornish and librarian Margaret Willison join Linda Holmes and Glen Weldon for a discussion of The Mindy Project and r...

Small Batch: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Black Panther

Publication Date: 2016-04-13

All Things Considered host Audie Cornish chats with Ta-Nehisi Coates about writing the latest iteration of Marvel's Black Panther. Marvel's Black ...

Best Bad Movies and a Quiz

Publication Date: 2016-04-07

Trey Graham returns to PCHH for a discussion of the best bad movies. Then, Glen Weldon tests the panel in a top-secret quiz. Plus, what's making us ha...

Small Batch: The Real Housewives of Potomac

Publication Date: 2016-04-01

Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings, hosts of the For Colored Nerds podcast, join Linda Holmes for a chat about the Real Housewives of Potomac.

Batman V Superman and Pop Culture Objects

Publication Date: 2016-03-31

Writer Chris Klimek joins Linda Holmes, Stephen Thompson, and Glen Weldon for a discussion of Batman V Superman and how to build a better blockbuster....

SXSW Wrap and Songs That Changed Our Lives

Publication Date: 2016-03-24

All Things Considered Audie Cornish and NPR Music's Katie Presley join the PCHH gang for a look at the 2016 SXSW Festival. Then, they'll discuss the s...

Small Batch: Glen Weldon's 'The Caped Crusade'

Publication Date: 2016-03-23

All Things Considered host Audie Cornish chats with Glen Weldon about his new book "The Cape Crusade." It traces the evolution of Batman, and argues...

Hamilton

Publication Date: 2016-03-17

Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now: We didn't want to throw away our shot at talking about Lin-Manuel Miranda's acclai...

Hamilton's Leslie Odom Jr., Kanye, and Gilmore Girls

Publication Date: 2016-03-10

While our panel recovers from our New York field trip, we bring you three great conversations. First, NPR Music's Daoud Tyler-Ameen talks to Leslie Od...

Small Batch: American Crime

Publication Date: 2016-03-08

In our first dispatch from New York, Linda Holmes chats with culture writer Danielle Henderson about American Crime, ABC's acclaimed anthology series.

Downton Abbey and Nostalgia as a Genre

Publication Date: 2016-03-03

All Things Considered host Audie Cornish and Weekend Edition Books Editor Barrie Hardymon join Linda Holmes and Glen Weldon for a look back at Downton...

Small Batch: The 2016 Oscars

Publication Date: 2016-02-29

Linda Holmes, Stephen Thompson, and Code Switch's Gene Demby chat about the 88th Academy Awards, including Chris Rock's monologue, Lady Gaga and Joe B...

The Oscars Omnibus 2016

Publication Date: 2016-02-25

All Things Considered's film critic Bob Mondello joins the panel for the annual Oscars omnibus. The gang discuss all the best picture nominees, a numb...

Small Batch: Harper Lee and To Kill A Mockingbird

Publication Date: 2016-02-19

In this Pop Culture Happy Hour extra, Linda Holmes and Barrie Hardymon of NPR's Weekend Edition about the book that was, for most of her life...

Hail, Caesar! and Entertainment About Entertainment

Publication Date: 2016-02-18

Film critics Bob Mondello and Chris Klimek join Linda Holmes and Glen Weldon for a discussion of the new Coen brothers film Hail, Caesar! Then the pan...

Small Batch: The 2016 Grammy Awards

Publication Date: 2016-02-16

Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson talk about how awards themselves went more or less as expected. But two performances, one from Broadway's Hamilt...

Awards Show Expectations and Product Placement

Publication Date: 2016-02-11

Alex Kapelman, host of the Pitch podcast, joins the gang for a discussion of what they want and expect from award shows. Then they'll chat about produ...

Small Batch: Super Bowl 50

Publication Date: 2016-02-08

Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson chat about Super 50, including the game itself, Beyoncé stealing the halftime show, and some memorable commercials.

Small Batch: Super Bowl Snacks

Publication Date: 2016-02-05

Dan Pashman from The Sporkful podcast joins Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson for a chat about the eternal question: If you're watching the Super Bowl...

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Grease: Live, and Musicals On TV

Publication Date: 2016-02-04

Code Switch's Kat Chow joins the panel to discuss the musical comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, currently airing on the CW. Then the gang discusses Fox's li...

Fred Armisen and Welcome To Night Vale

Publication Date: 2016-01-28

The PCHH gang couldn't tape a show this week, so instead we bring you two interviews. First, Linda Holmes chats with Fred Armisen about his illustriou...

Making a Murderer, True Crime, and Remembering Alan Rickman

Publication Date: 2016-01-21

This week on Pop Culture Happy Hour, NPR Monkey See's Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon, Stephen Thompson and Sarah D. Bunting chat about Making a Murderer an...

The Giant Foam Finger: How Do You Choose Your Favorite Team?

Publication Date: 2016-01-20

Sometimes, sports fandom comes naturally: We grew up immersed in it, or we get swept up in local fervor. But there's more than one way to become a fan...

The Hateful Eight and the Evolving Theatrical Experience

Publication Date: 2016-01-14

This week on Pop Culture Happy Hour, NPR Monkey See's Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon, Stephen Thompson and Chris Klimek discuss new Quentin Tarantino film ...

Small Batch: Comedian John Mulaney

Publication Date: 2016-01-11

All Things Considered Host Audie Cornish talks with comedian John Mulaney about his new stand-up special The Comeback Kid, his failed network sitcom, ...

Small Batch: Remembering David Bowie

Publication Date: 2016-01-11

In this Pop Culture Happy Hour extra, Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson remember pop icon David Bowie.

American Idol and People We're Pulling For

Publication Date: 2016-01-07

This week on Pop Culture Happy Hour, NPR Monkey See's Linda Holmes, Stephen Thompson, Tanya Ballard Brown, and Marc Hirsh look back at the legacy of A...

Ciao 2015, Hello 2016!

Publication Date: 2015-12-31

Monkey See's Linda Holmes, Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon and guest Kat Chow of NPR's Code Switch say goodbye to 2015, and revisit their resolutions...

Melancholidays, Sisters and 2015 Highlights

Publication Date: 2015-12-24

This week on Pop Culture Happy Hour, librarian Margaret Willison helps NPR Monkey See's Linda Holmes, Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon get on their me...