Pop Culture Happy Hour

The movie Queer stars Daniel Craig as you've never seen him: as a junkie prowling the streets, hooking up, shooting up and guzzling tequila. He meets a handsome young man (Drew Starkey) he longs to connect with, and they embark on a quest into the jungle in search of a drug that will unite them on a deep, spiritual level. Directed by Luca Guadagnino (Challengers, Call Me By Your Name), the film is based on a short novel by William S. Burroughs.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.Subscribe to NPR Plus at plus.npr.org or make a gift at donate.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

For a lot of people, It's A Wonderful Life is the Christmas movie. George Bailey's story of learning how much you really matter to the world has family, community, an angel, a mean rich guy, and a little kid playing carols on the piano. It has become a staple of holiday viewing, so we thought it was a perfect time to revisit our discussion about the movie. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

We check out a lot of things in a given year: Lots of movies, TV shows, and music. Today, we are highlighting some of the best pop culture moments we enjoyed the most in 2024.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.Subscribe to NPR Plus at plus.npr.org or make a gift at donate.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new Netflix series Black Doves is a pulpy and stylish British spy show starring Keira Knightly and Ben Whishaw. Knightly plays a politician's wife who's been secretly funnelling information to a mysterious spy network for years, and Whishaw plays her old partner who's been out of the game. But when Knightly's character gets targeted, Whishaw's returns to protect her. It's all set in London at Christmastime, so if you like your holiday cheer spiced with British wit and gunplay, Black Doves may be for you.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new movie Nightbitch stars Amy Adams as an exhausted stay-at-home mom to a toddler. Missing her career and frustrated by her inattentive husband (Scoot McNairy), her woes begin to manifest in a bizarre way: She transforms into a dog at night. She enjoys tapping into her animal instincts. But eventually, she's forced to confront her resentments toward motherhood and the lack of support from her husband. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.Subscribe to NPR Plus at plus.npr.org or make a gift at donate.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's holiday movie season, and there are so many new movies to choose from. So where do you start? We've got you covered. This year we've got the return of Lindsay Lohan, a shirtless Chad Michael Murray, and a cameo from Travis Kelce's mom. We discuss: Our Little Secret, Meet Me Next Christmas, Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, and The Merry Gentleman.Check out Linda's full holiday movie guide here. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

What do you do when you need a good movie, but you don't have much time? The answer is that you find a short one. In this encore episode, we recommend three films that deliver a lot of punch without taking up your whole day. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the Netflix series The Madness, Colman Domingo plays a CNN pundit who witnesses a brutal murder, and then finds himself on the run as he's framed for the crime. What follows is a paranoid thriller full of sinister forces, evil billionaires, underground militias, devious assassins, and lots of red herrings.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The super-meta Hulu series Interior Chinatown mashes up a whole bunch of genres — including kung fu movies and police procedurals — to explore Asian-American identity in interesting ways. Jimmy O. Yang plays a waiter who dreams of a more exciting life outside his close-knit community. After witnessing a crime, he has a chance to help investigators solve the case — and he soon realizes he's more deeply connected to the mystery than he initially thought. The show was created by Charles Yu, who based it on his own novel.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the hit Disney film Moana, a girl (Auli'i Cravalho) finally gets her chance to see more of the world. And with a whole new batch of songs, in Moana 2, she's older and has a new purpose. With the help of her chicken, her pig, and her demigod pal Maui (Dwayne Johnson), Moana wants to reunite her island with people from across the ocean.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. Subscribe to NPR Plus at plus.npr.org or make a gift at donate.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

You may not see Denzel Washington in the new Netflix film adaptation of the August Wilson play The Piano Lesson, but his influence as producer – and parent – is unmistakable. Denzel's son Malcolm Washington is the director, and his son John David Washington plays one of the leads alongside Danielle Deadwyler and Samuel L. Jackson. It's a story about family, legacy and community. And the hauntings both literal and figurative make a big impression.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The charming Netflix sitcom A Man on the Inside stars Ted Danson as a lonely widower who's hired by a private investigator to live undercover in a senior living facility. His mission is to find out who stole a precious item from one of the residents. Created by Michael Schur (The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), the series is also a tender and poignant depiction of loss, aging, and finding community.Subscribe to NPR Plus at plus.npr.org or make a gift at donate.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The musical Wicked is a bold, revisionist take on The Wizard of Oz. It imagines that back in college, the Wicked Witch of the West (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda the Good Witch of the North (Ariana Grande) were best friends. The sprawling film delivers lavish spectacle, costumes, music, and choreography. But does the long-awaited film live up to the hype? Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new film Gladiator II is a sequel to Gladiator, Oscar-winning swords-and-sandals blockbuster that starred Russell Crowe. It tells a similar tale — a soldier, sold into slavery, becomes a gladiator in the Roman arena. This time out, it's Paul Mescal whose prowess in the coliseum earns him fame that threatens Rome's tyrannical rulers. Directed by Ridley Scott, the film also stars Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The moving dramedy A Real Pain stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin as two very different cousins attempting to reconnect by going on a heritage tour of Poland. As they make their way across the country, they mourn their late grandmother, confront the fractures in their relationship, and reckon with the grief left in the wake of the Holocaust. A Real Pain was written and directed by Eisenberg.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

If you've ever loved a movie musical, then you've probably got a favorite movie musical number — a song that makes you want to sing along, swoon, celebrate, or simply dance with the nearest lamppost. But what makes these moments great? With Wicked hitting theaters, there's never been a better time to debate the best movie musical numbers.For even more of our favorite movie musical numbers, check out our list at Letterboxd — at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the deeply goofy Christmas action comedy Red One, the holiday season comes to an emergency halt when Santa (J.K. Simmons) is kidnapped. It's up to his head of security, played by Dwayne Johnson, and a ne'er-do-well played by Chris Evans to save Christmas.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

One night in Belfast in 1972, a mother of ten was abducted from her home in front of her children and never seen again. But the new FX series Say Nothing isn't just true crime – it's part of a more complex history. Because this particular woman was kidnapped and killed by members of the Irish Republican Army during the period known as the Troubles. And decades later, one of the women involved in her disappearance still grapples with her memories and whether to tell the truth about what happened. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Emilia Pérez is Netflix's new divisive musical about a Mexican cartel boss who disappears from the criminal underworld to create a new life as a woman. But when her love for her kids proves overpowering, she ingratiates herself back into their lives, posing as a distant relative. The movie stars Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, and Selena Gomez.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

There are songs you want to groove to, and songs you want to pump up to. But sometimes, you just want something for the come down at the end of a long day. If you're having trouble sleeping in silence, or are just looking for some new songs to throw into your bedtime rotation, we've got you covered. In this encore episode, we are recommending three great songs that will help you fall asleep.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the claustrophobic thriller Heretic, two young Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) knock on the door of a charming man played by Hugh Grant. At first he seems genuinely interested in learning more, and invites them in. But it quickly becomes clear that this guy doesn't actually want to have a good-faith discussion. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Today, we're bringing you an episode of How To Do Everything, a new NPR podcast from the team behind Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! On each episode, Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag offer practical advice for everyday problems — like how to tell if you smell, or how to get close to a panda — with help from celebrity guests. This episode, their guest is Tom Hanks. Mike and Ian also help a listener who's curious about world fame. Plus, a bottoms-up approach to recognizing your family members. Follow How To Do Everything on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Elections can be pretty stressful. And it never hurts to have some emergency distractions on hand if you just need to shut down for a while. One of our favorites is YouTube: a place for the good, the bad, the bizarrely detailed, and the wildly specialized. Today, we're talking about our favorite YouTube rabbit holes that are great distractions.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the HBO new series The Penguin, an unrecognizable Colin Farrell reprises his role as Oswald Cobb from The Batman. This time though, the caped crusader is nowhere to be found. Instead, we've got an unexpectedly fresh take on Gotham, and a crackling turf war involving the vengeful daughter of a crime boss, played by Cristin Milioti. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

What if you spent eternity in one living room? That's the premise of Here, a new drama starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright as a married couple whose lives unfold in that living room over the course of many decades. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film also shows vignettes of other people who lived in the house, and moments throughout history.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the Netflix drama The Diplomat, Keri Russell plays an ambassador who's thrust into an international incident with massive stakes. She's also sorting through a tumultuous marriage with her husband, a hotshot veteran diplomat (Rufus Sewell). The series combines the tension of Homeland with the administrative drama of The West Wing. The Diplomat just returned for a new season, so in this encore episode, we revisit our conversation about the series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new movie Conclave is a fun and twisty political thriller. Ralph Fiennes plays a cardinal tasked to managing the secretive process in which the pope is replaced. The film offers plenty of scandals, surprises, and dark horses, along with some strong commentary on the state of the Catholic church. Directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), the film also stars Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Agatha All Along is a darkly funny new Marvel show on Disney Plus. It stars the selfish, sardonic and hilariously petty witch Agatha Harkness, played by the great and good Kathryn Hahn. When a mysterious goth teen saves her from a spell she's been trapped in, she assembles a coven of witches so they can together undergo a series of trials that will grant them each what they most desire. The thing is – the other witches hate Agatha's guts, and there's more to this goth kid than meets the eye.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In Venom: The Last Dance, Tom Hardy returns for a third time as a sad-sack loser with an alien symbiotic life-form bonded to him. This time out, it's a buddy comedy and road movie, as the two are hunted by another race of aliens. And along the way, they meet some hippies, hit the Vegas strip, and get in a quick dance number.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Netflix's Woman Of The Hour is not your conventional serial killer movie. It's based on the true story of a serial killer who appeared on The Dating Game in the 1970s. But it's also about the women who became — or almost became — his victims. Directed by and starring Anna Kendrick, it's a tense, thoughtful film that has much to say about the systems that make life easier for dangerous and otherwise crummy men. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 a dent in our own lists of classic films we somehow had not yet gotten to, including Erin Brockovich, Flower Drum Song, Enter the Dragon and Raging Bull.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 young man (Mark Eydelshteyn). Their transactional encounter turns into a quickie Vegas wedding. But her new in-laws are Russian oligarchs, and they'll do everything in their power to put an end to this whirlwind romance. Anora is the latest feature from writer and director Sean Baker (The Florida Project). Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The horror movie Smile was a massive hit. Its flashy new sequel Smile 2 finds the franchise's terrifying entity infecting a new host: a pop star (Naomi Scott) who's about to head out on tour after experiencing a trauma. And the movie has a lot to say about the horrors of pop stardom.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 of the preciousness of life. Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield laugh and cry as a couple trying to make the most of their time together. Director John Crowley (Brooklyn) utilizes an unconventional structure that jumps around from their first meeting to their later crisis and several key points in between.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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? Because it's almost Halloween. In this encore episode, we talk about what kinds of entertainment scared us when we were kids, and whether they still scare us now.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 chapter of her past that she's desperate to keep secret. From Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuarón, the series was also stars Kevin Kline, as a man who's also consumed by the events recounted in the book.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new film Saturday Night attempts to capture the chaotic 90 minutes leading up to the very first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Untried producer Lorne Michaels (played by Gabriel LaBelle) and his cast of complete unknowns prepare to make television history. At the same time, network suits breathe down their necks, and just about everything that can go wrong does.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The word "basic" often gets thrown around to describe anything that's mainstream, popular, frictionless, or otherwise inoffensive. But sometimes basic stuff is just what we crave, whether it's a binge-watch, a popular song, or a pumpkin spice latte. It's fall, so today we're talking about what we're calling... Pop Culture Pumpkin Spice Lattes.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 bizarre, ongoing news cycle. Today on the show, we're talking about how late night comedy shows like Saturday Night Live, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and The Daily Show are speaking to the moment.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The off-beat psycho dramedy A Different Man follows Edward (Sebastian Stan), an aspiring actor living with facial disfigurement. He takes an opportunity to try a new procedure and reconstruct his appearance. But then, he encounters a guy with the same condition he once had, and who lives a fun, fulfilling life. To put it mildly, Edward now has some regrets. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 drama and a romance tossed into a musical blender set to liquefy, as the Joker goes on trial for the murders he committed in the last film and falls in love with a groupie played by Lady Gaga.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 up on the beach of a remote island and learns to blend in with the wildlife. After an accident, Roz unexpectedly finds herself the caregiver of a baby gosling named Brightbill (Kit O'Connor) Soon, it's learning lessons about parenthood and sacrifice while teaching the animals to work together.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the new Netflix series Nobody Wants This, Kristen Bell plays an agnostic podcaster, who meets a rabbi, played by Adam Brody. They like each other immediately, but there are some hurdles for them when it comes to being together. The show offers plenty of romantic comedy banter and good chemistry, as well as some pretty deep questions about faith and compatibility.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The latest season of HBO's Industry was over the top. The drama is about backstabbing, morally compromised investment bankers. But it managed to make its characters even more backstabb-y and ethically dubious than ever before. Frenemies fought hard. Buried vices and addictions came to light. And death hovered over the entire season in shocking fashion. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Francis Ford Coppola, the legendary filmmaker behind The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, is back with his first new film in over a decade. It reimagines the fall of Rome through a futuristic American city, and has a lot of big and messy ideas about time and the fate of humanity. It's also jam-packed with stars like Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, and Aubrey Plaza. We try to make sense of it all.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 film His Three Daughters. They play three sisters who are odds with one another, but must gather in their father's apartment when he's dying. As his illness progresses, their own sibling relationships are tested.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The fun series Colin From Accounts is part raunchy comedy, part romantic comedy, part friendship story, and part very cute dog. It begins with a chance encounter between two strangers (played by Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall) who meet after accidentally injuring an adorable dog. They reluctantly decide to take joint responsibility for the pup, and form a strange bond. The show is about to return for a second season on Paramount+, so we are revisiting our conversation about the series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Substance is a bloody, campy, fiercely feminist body horror film. Demi Moore plays a TV aerobics instructor desperate to stay in the spotlight. She learns of a mysterious drug she can inject that causes another, younger, entirely separate version of herself (Margaret Qualley) to splurt out of her back and assume her consciousness. They must switch back and forth or very bad bloody things will happen.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Transformers One, the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron finally gets told. With a voice cast that includes Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry, the movie hopes to offer a fresh entry point for the long-running franchise.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 movie My Old Ass, a teenager named Elliott (Maisy Stella) faces this very scenario. Her older self is played by Aubrey Plaza, and she's got some advice to impart. But her younger self may or may not take it.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 year. Today, we're offering up a guide to spotlight some of the movies, TV, and music we are looking forward to this fall.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Last night's Primetime Emmy Awards included big wins for Hacks, The Bear, Shōgun, and Baby Reindeer. And if you're nostalgic for shows like Schitt's Creek or Happy Days, the telecast had you covered.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 horror thriller Speak No Evil starring James McAvoy. By the time they figure out they are in way over their heads, it's much much too late.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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. But when the local cops seize his money, he faces off against the corrupt chief of police (Don Johnson). Things escalate, and soon he uncovers a sinister conspiracy that threatens his life.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 pregnant woman (Brandy Norwood) allows her mother-in-law (Kathryn Hunter) to move in. In a film that's part creepy and part very darkly funny, the two women square off for control of the house and the child on the way.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 The Perfect Couple. Based on the novel by Elin Hilderbrand, the series stars Nicole Kidman as the matriarch of a wealthy Nantucket family that suddenly finds itself in the middle of a whodunit. And in this family, it seems like almost anybody could be guilty.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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, weird vision of director Tim Burton. Now he returns with the sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — which stars Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Michael Keaton, and Jenna Ortega. But does Beetlejuice Beetlejuice capture any of the original's silly, surreal, singular magic? Should it even try?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 songs that make for great motivators and pick-me-ups when you need them most.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 insecure Zeus (Jeff Goldblum), who lives on Mount Olympus with his wife Hera (Janet McTeer). But there is a plan to overthrow Zeus that depends on a slew of gods, demigods and mortals working together, whether or not they are aware of the roles they each are playing.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 funhouse mirror of our culture. But it can reflect back to us new ways of understanding what we accept as a society – especially when it comes to things like gender, sexuality, class and race. Today we're bringing you an episode of NPR's Code Switch that zeroes in on the The Bachelor and Love Island. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 try out a very advanced AI system at his home — and it does a lot more than talk back.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 unstoppable figure of vengeance, hunting down their killers. It's not a remake of the 1994 cult classic; the filmmakers are pitching it as a brand new reimagining of the comic book series that inspired the original film. But how does this new movie stack up?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 called Short n' Sweet, which serves up more catchy silliness and high drama. But does the album keep that "Espresso" magic alive?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Murders in the Building features Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, and Eva Longoria all playing fictional versions of themselves. So we thought it would be the perfect time to talk about about the many ways actors portray themselves on screen, and why it does and doesn't work.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the new psychological thriller Blink Twice, Naomi Ackie plays a woman who is invited to the private island of a tech billionaire, played by Channing Tatum. He's recently re-entered public life after a scandal and has gathered his friends for a long party. But as the party stretches on, it's clear that something is seriously amiss. Blink Twice is the directorial debut of Zoë Kravitz, and the vibes are definitely pretty weird.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 you could win The Amazing Race. Maybe you could even win the fickle hand of The Bachelor. We're not here to make friends, but we are here to pick the reality shows that we think could thrive on.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 who can crack the case. Created by Bill Lawrence (Ted Lasso) and starring Vince Vaughn, the series is a beachy, sun-drenched comedy-mystery with plenty of twists and turns as well as, yes, a monkey. But does it successfully capture the vibe of Carl Hiaasen's book that it's based on?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 up our collections just yet. Today, we're revisiting our conversation about the physical media we still treasure.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Alien: Romulus is the latest entry in the venerable Alien sci-fi/horror film franchise, and it leans hard into the horror. The new movie stars Cailee Spaeney as one of a young crew of space miners, along with David Jonsson as her android brother. You'll never guess what species of slimy extraterrestrial evil they encounter. Faces get hugged, chests get burst, and acid blood eats through everything.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 to survive the awkwardness of puberty as a Taiwanese-American kid living in the Bay Area. He's got a crush to impress, complicated friendships to navigate, and family members who are sooooo embarrassing. Didi was directed by Sean Wang, who earned an Oscar nomination earlier this year for his documentary short Nai Nai & Wai Po. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 cover everything from Anchorman to South Park to Shakespeare.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the new, stylishly odd horror film Cuckoo, Hunter Schafer plays an American teenager who reluctantly moves with her family to a mysterious resort in the German Alps. Her rebellious spirit clashes with the resort's creepy proprietor, played by Dan Stevens. When weird stuff starts happening, long-buried family secrets come to light and the resort's true nature stands revealed.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 woman who falls for a hot neurosurgeon played by Justin Baldoni — who also directs the film. But their relationship is complicated by the return of her old flame (Brandon Sklenar). She also has to reckon with her feelings about her abusive father and the mother who stayed with him.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 audiobook. So in this encore episode, we are recommending three of our favorite fiction audiobooks.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 flip, run, swim, climb, and paddle and even breakdance to prove they are the best in the world. We're checking in with the 2024 Olympics, including wins for gymnast Simone Biles, swimmer Katie Ledecky, and sprinter Noah Lyles.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The moving drama Sing Sing stars Colman Domingo as the leader of a tight-knit theatre ensemble within one of the most notorious maximum-security prisons in the United States. Most of the cast are alumni of the actual program who had input on the filmmaking process. The movie showcases the ups and downs of putting on a show without being overly sentimental or cliché.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 it appears. It quickly turns out that the entire concert is surrounded by police who are trying to catch a dangerous serial killer in the most difficult way possible. There is a lot going on in this bonkers movie: lots of pop songs, and lots of strange decision-making.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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, complete with stealth missions, palace intrigue, battle scenes and hot dragon-on-dragon action. But now that the Dance of the Dragons is in full swing, has the Game of Thrones prequel finally hit its stride?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The dryly funny new Apple TV+ series Time Bandits reimagines the 1981 Terry Gilliam film of the same name. A squad of inept thieves — including their sort-of leader, played by Lisa Kudrow — have stolen a map of the universe. They use it to jump through portals to various time periods to steal stuff. One jump takes them into the bedroom of a British kid (Kal-El Tuck), who tags along as they're chased by Taika Waititi's Supreme Being and Jemaine Clement's Pure Evil.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 crowded from the domination of pop girls like Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, and Chappell Roan to country twang with Post Malone, Morgan Wallen, and Shaboozey. Today, we discussing the songs and artists who seem to be everywhere this summer, and why they are so catchy and inescapable.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the highly meta Deadpool & Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman finally meet up for their own big movie. Deadpool is still smarmy, Wolverine is still tragic, and they have to get together to save the world. Along the way, Deadpool continues his usual routine of endless wisecracking. The movie is jam-packed with fan service and Easter eggs. But how will casual Marvel fans like the movie?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In Netflix's weirdly compelling dark comedy The Decameron, the bubonic plague is ravaging Florence in 1348. A group of rich nobles and their servants decide to retreat to a picturesque villa in the country to wait it all out. The large ensemble includes Tony Hale and Zosia Mamet. Every character is hiding something, and those secrets get revealed — and more than a few uglies get bumped.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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. To help console her, her husband's electronics company gives her a robot companion. The show is an interesting mix of styles and genres – it's a buddy comedy, a crime thriller and a drama about loss. But at the center of it all is the mystery of what happened to her husband and son – and why.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 effects, and a whole lot of tornadoes. The new film stars Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones as rival storm-chasers who have a habit of running into tornadoes while everyone else is fleeing. Twisters was directed by Lee Isaac Chung, who also directed the Oscar-nominated Minari.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 plenty of our favorites also got Emmy nods, including Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Shōgun, Reservation Dogs and What We Do in the Shadows. We'll help you unpack this year's the notable nominees and snubs.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The best-selling card game Exploding Kittens has been adapted into a new Netflix animated series. It does plenty of its own world-building: God (Tom Ellis) and the devil (Sasheer Zamata) are sent to earth, where they take the form of talking cats — and meddle in the lives of a struggling family.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 serial killer in the 1990s. If that sounds like familiar ground, consider this – the clues she follows hint at the involvement of the occult in general and Satanism in particular. And the killer in question: Nicolas Cage, uncaged.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 stage a top-secret fake version of the moon landing as backup, just in case the real attempt fails. No one else at NASA can know about it — especially the upstanding launch director, played by Channing Tatum. The pair clash (and flirt) as they prepare for Apollo 11 to launch.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Sports aren't just games. They're intertwined with epic stories about struggle, human behavior, historic greatness and grand emotions. In other words, sports make for great documentaries. And if you're looking for some good ones, we've got recommendations: Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, The Armstrong Lie, and Athlete A.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Despicable Me 4 is the latest film in an animation franchise that made household names of reformed supervillain Gru (Steve Carrell) and his army of nattering Minions. The franchise has grossed billions of dollars, and the latest movie topped the weekend box office. But are these films growing up with their audience, or continuing to cater to young kids? And does that matter?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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? What are some road trip games we hate? Pop Culture Happy Hour talked all about how to entertain and amuse ourselves in the car way back in 2012. Today, in this encore episode, we're revisiting that conversation.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 past. Set in 1985 Los Angeles, it's the final film in director Ti West's beloved horror trilogy that began with the movie X. MaXXXine also features performances from Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth Debicki, and Giancarlo Esposito.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 episode is an interview with Bowen Yang. He is the first Chinese American cast member on SNL, the co-host the podcast Las Culturistas, and he starred in the rom-com Fire Island. He talks to Rachel about living too much in the present, hard truths from Tina Fey, and why the afterlife should have a rollercoaster.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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, a messy breakup, and a feud with artist Nicki Minaj. She confronts all of that and more on her boastful and vulnerable new album Megan. But she also has fun on playful tracks like 'Down Stairs DJ' and 'Otaku Hot Girl' that are odes to self-pleasure and her anime nerddom.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 White) and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) are launching their new fine dining restaurant, but he's estranged from some of the people who are closest to him just as he sneaks up on a new level of success. The series is streaming now on Hulu.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 movie A Quiet Place: Day One takes us back to the beginning, but this time through the eyes of a terminally ill cancer patient played by the excellent Lupita Nyong'o.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Stone and Willem Dafoe, along with Jesse Plemons. Each actor plays different characters in three different stories — which all involve someone going to extreme measures to regain something they've lost.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new film Fancy Dance offers something all-too-rare on screen: contemporary Indigenous perspectives, front and center. Lily Gladstone plays a woman trying to keep it together under stressful circumstances. Her sister's gone missing, and she steps in to look after her young niece (Isabel Deroy-Olson). The pair take what turns out to be a rocky road trip and a unique bonding experience.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Jim and Pam. Mulder and Scully. Janine and Gregory. Carmy and Sydney. Meredith and McDreamy. You know how it goes: two television characters with obvious chemistry who fight or look at each other longingly. You know that there's only one question: will they, or won't they? Today, we break down the different types of will-they-won't-they couples and discuss some of the best and worst couples in television, including Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Cheers, Grey's Anatomy, Dawson's Creek, and more.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte is a murder mystery. Someone is killing great Jedi masters, and while we learn the killer's identity early on, the real mystery driving the series is why they're doing it. It stars Amandla Stenberg as Force-sensitive twins Osha and Mae, and Squid Game's Lee Jung-jae as Osha's former Jedi master. By the time it's finished its eight-episode run, The Acolyte may shed new light on the nature of the Force, and the hidden history of the Jedi.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Financial scams are an unfortunate phenomenon, but what happens when a fraudster messes with the wrong grandma? The very fun action-comedy Thelma imagines exactly this scenario. The movie stars June Squibb as a woman scammed by someone pretending to be her grandson. She then enlists her old friend (the late Richard Roundtree) to help get her money back.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The brilliant and idiosyncratic new HBO series Fantasmas has a simple plot. Creator and star Julio Torres searches New York City for an earring he lost at a club. In the execution, that quest gets transformed into something epic and surreal and queer in every sense of the word. He keeps bumping into random New Yorkers whose stories play out in a series of sketch-like vignettes. They are played by actors including Emma Stone, Bowen Yang, and Tilda Swinton.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The second half of Bridgerton's latest season just dropped on Netflix, and naturally the course of true love continues to not run smoothly. Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) may have finally declared their feelings for each other, but there's still a lot left to figure out. We previously talked about the first part of the third season in May, so today, we're diving in everything that happens in the conclusion.We want to hear your opinions about summer snacks. Are you Team Hot Dog or Team Hamburger? What's better: churro or a funnel cake? Click here to cast your votes. The results will be revealed at a virtual live event for Pop Culture Happy Hour+ supporters on Thursday, June 27th at 6 p.m. ET.Sign up for PCHH+ at plus.npr.org/happyhour to get access to the event.(Once you've signed up for PCHH+, make sure to set up your special feed, where you'll see a special bonus episode from May 31st with instructions on how to register for the live event. Email plus@npr.org for any extra assistance.)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Whether they're lightly perspiring, gently glowing, or soaked through from sweltering, people in the movies sweat a lot. But what movie has had people sweat the very most? With summer underway, we are debating what is the sweatiest movie of all time — including Do the Right Thing, Dog Day Afternoon, Y tu mamá también, and Body Heat.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Smith), and Anger (Lewis Black). In Inside Out 2, Riley is experiencing puberty and a whole new crop of emotions have popped up. Most notably Anxiety (Maya Hawke) who has literally bottled up Riley's original core emotions and sent them hurtling into the back of her mind, where they plot to get back and set things right.We want to hear your opinions about summer snacks. Are you Team Hot Dog or Team Hamburger? What's better: churro or a funnel cake? Click here to cast your votes. The results will be revealed at a virtual live event for Pop Culture Happy Hour+ supporters on Thursday, June 27th at 6 p.m. ET. Sign up for PCHH+ at plus.npr.org/happyhour to get access to the event.(Once you've signed up for PCHH+, make sure to set up your special feed, where you'll see a special bonus episode from May 31st with instructions on how to register for the live event. Email plus@npr.org for any extra assistance.)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Presumed Innocent was a blockbuster legal thriller as a novel, and then a hit movie starring Harrison Ford. Now, Apple TV+ brings back the story of the accuser turned defendant as a limited series. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the lead this time, as a prosecutor who is accused of the murder of the colleague he'd had an affair with. David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies, The Practice, Ally McBeal) created the show.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 about the last wild night of high school, we're revisiting our episode about the best moments about graduation in pop culture.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Sonoya Mizuno as two women in their 30s who have been best friends a long time. But Johnson's character is grappling with the possibility that she's queer – and with the fact that her most treasured friendship is in trouble. Directed by Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne, it's streaming on Max.We want to hear your opinions about summer snacks. Are you Team Hot Dog or Team Hamburger? What's better: churro or a funnel cake? Click here to cast your votes. The results will be revealed at a virtual live event for Pop Culture Happy Hour+ supporters on Thursday, June 27th at 6 p.m. ET. Sign up for PCHH+ at plus.npr.org/happyhour to get access to the event. (Once you've signed up for PCHH+, make sure to set up your special feed, where you'll see a special bonus episode from May 31st with instructions on how to register for the live event. Email plus@npr.org for any extra assistance.)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Netflix's entertaining dark comedy Hit Man is not about a hired killer. It's about a guy who pretends to be a hired killer. Director Richard Linklater co-wrote this film with movie star of the moment, Glen Powell. Based very loosely on a real guy, Powell plays a mild-mannered professor who also works undercover for the police as a fake hitman.We want to hear your opinions about summer snacks. Are you Team Hot Dog or Team Hamburger? What's better: churro or a funnel cake? Click here to cast your votes. The results will be revealed at a virtual live event for Pop Culture Happy Hour+ supporters on Thursday, June 27th at 6 p.m. ET. Sign up for PCHH+ at plus.npr.org/happyhour to get access to the event. (Once you've signed up for PCHH+, make sure to set up your special feed, where you'll see a special bonus episode from May 31st with instructions on how to register for the live event. Email plus@npr.org for any extra assistance.)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The venerable British science fiction series Doctor Who is back with a new season. Ncuti Gatwa — who is Black and openly queer — brings a vibrant energy to the story of an alien who travels through space and time in a blue box. The series, now streaming on Disney+, also features the return of showrunner Russell T. Davies, who birthed the modern era of Doctor Who. But what does this mix of new and old mean for the sci-fi institution?We want to hear your opinions about summer snacks. Are you Team Hot Dog or Team Hamburger? What's better: churro or a funnel cake? Click here to cast your votes. The results will be revealed at a virtual live event for Pop Culture Happy Hour+ supporters on Thursday, June 27th at 6 p.m. ET. Sign up for PCHH+ at plus.npr.org/happyhour to get access to the event. (Once you've signed up for PCHH+, make sure to set up your special feed, where you'll see a special bonus episode from May 31st with instructions on how to register for the live event. Email plus@npr.org for any extra assistance.)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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. Sterling's girlfriend – who was Black and Mexican – secretly recorded their conversations. When those tapes leaked, he was embroiled in a scandal that upended the NBA – an industry that profits off the star power of its majority Black players. The series stars Ed O'Neill and Laurence Fishburne as the owner and the head coach who clashed as it all went down.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Sopranos changed television. The HBO series was centered on mobster Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a deeply flawed male antihero. That then- innovative approach cast a long shadow on television, but what really set The Sopranos apart was the fact that Tony was in therapy — a genius touch that granted viewers special access to his inner conflicts. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the show's premiere, so we're revisiting our conversation about the series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Sometimes, our favorite musical artists are too good to be true because they're sprung from the imaginations of Hollywood screenwriters. But what makes a fake band great? Today, we are debating the best fictional bands in TV and film — including from Mamma Mia!, Josie and the Pussycats, It's Your Move, and Miami Connection. We want to hear your opinions about summer snacks. Are you Team Hot Dog or Team Hamburger? What's better: churro or a funnel cake? Click here to cast your votes. The results will be revealed at a virtual live event for Pop Culture Happy Hour+ supporters on Thursday, June 27th at 6 p.m. ET. Sign up for PCHH+ at plus.npr.org/happyhour to get access to the event. (Once you've signed up for PCHH+, make sure to set up your special feed, where you'll see a special bonus episode from May 31st with instructions on how to register for the live event. Email plus@npr.org for any extra assistance.)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 of Lady Parts, and its manager, are all young Muslim women, from various racial and ethnic backgrounds. Over the course of its first season, each member experiences triumphs and setbacks – including its lead guitarist, who strives to overcome stage fright. The show is about to return for a new season, so today, we are revisiting our conversation about it.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 tracks? Even when you know it's not good, but, for you anyway, it's just good enough to muddle through, all the way to the finale? Today, we're talking about terrible but bingeable TV shows.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 show where the game controls the conversation. Each week, the guest chooses questions at random — about the memories, insights, and beliefs that have shaped their lives. This episode is an interview with the actor Pop Culture Happy Hour listeners voted as their favorite Chris — Chris Pine.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is packed with bone-crunching practical stunts and lots of gnarly, diesel-powered chase scenes. It also shows a commitment to worldbuilding that grapples with themes of feminism, environmentalism, and humanity. Directed by George Miller, the prequel film tells the story of a Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy), who was taken from her home as a girl, raised to be a warrior in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and now seeks revenge on an evil warlord (Chris Hemsworth).Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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-created by auteur director Park Chan-wook, and features Robert Downey, Jr. in four supporting roles. Set during and after the Vietnam war, the series follows a man (Hoa Xuande) juggling a position with the South Vietnamese military and one as a spy for the North Vietnamese. But is it a worthy adaptation?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 directed by John Krasinski. It mixes the real world and animation, but does it capture the heart of the Pixar movies that inspired it?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Netflix series Bridgerton is back, as gossipy and over-the-top as ever. Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and her crush on childhood best friend Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) take center-stage. When Penelope is determined to find a husband, Colin wants to help her and they start spending extra time together. But where will this lead? Well, you know the answer to that. It's all about the journey, and the clothes, and the nudity, and obviously, the Queen's hair. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new music biopic Back to Black chronicles the life of singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. The film stars Marisa Abela, and follows Winehouse as she records her breakthrough album, gets married, and struggles with addiction. But does the movie do justice to the singer and her music?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 the inherent joys, stressors, and grossness of parenthood, and what it means to embrace your chosen family. It's the feature directorial debut of Pamela Adlon (Better Things).Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 could call out social injustices. It was both a state of mind and a state of being online. A new Hulu docuseries called Black Twitter: A People's History puts the massive global reach of that space into perspective. But what's changed now that it's owned by Elon Musk?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine) who bond so strongly over a cult monster-of-the-week TV show that it becomes their entire identities. When the show gets canceled, their bond dissolves – until years later, when one of the teens sweeps back into the other's life, bearing secret knowledge that could change everything.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 surprises. It revolves around a young man named Louis, his handsome vampire lover, and the creepy vampire child they adopt — but it's funnier, sexier and queerer than you remember. But this Louis isn't a white plantation owner — he's an ambitious and closeted Black man. The show just returned for a new season, so we're revisiting our conversation about the series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes follows Noa (Owen Teague), an extraordinary chimpanzee whose clan is enslaved by a mercenary ape king named Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand). As he sets out to gets them back, he's joined by a sage orangutan (Peter Maykin) and a scavenging human (Freya Allan). The movie is set hundreds of years after the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy, but the spirit of Andy Serkis' revolutionary character Caeser still looms large over this new film.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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, who are currently engaged in the nastiest lyrical warfare rap fans have seen in a minute. Today, we're talking about all the pettiness: Why so much beef, and what makes a good battle? And is there ever a clear "winner" in these battles?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 about moving through life with a more mature and constructive attitude. But it's also a pretty straightforward collection of grievance-free, hyper-catchy bangers.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Seinfeld, who also stars as a Kellogg's executive who's in a race to release a new breakfast idea before their rival beats them to it. Seinfeld is joined by a big cast of funny people including Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, Jim Gaffigan, and Hugh Grant. But is the movie as satisfying as the Pop-Tart itself?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, the comedian doubles down on the uncomfortable intimacy of his stand up special Rothaniel, where he came out publicly as gay for the first time. Jerrod Carmichael gets a film crew to follow him around as he bares his soul to the camera as he cheats on his boyfriend and forces his parents into deeply uncomfortable conversations. The HBO series is funny and poignant. But it isn't a spotless, media-managed facade. It's a portrait of a man who absolutely delights in letting us know just how flawed and selfish he is.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 career on track. And maybe get back the woman (Emily Blunt) whose heart he broke. Directed by David Leitch, it's a knowing comedy about action movies, and a character study of a man who likes to think he's invincible. And the movie has amazing stunts.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Hathaway). It's based on a hit novel that's at least partially inspired by Harry Styles' life and career.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new Netflix series Baby Reindeer has a lot of people talking, including us. It tells the haunting semi-autobiographical story of a man (Richard Gadd) who becomes the romantic obsession of a mentally ill woman (Jessica Gunning) who proceeds to stalk him. Eventually, her threatening actions force him to address a past trauma in his own life that leaves him shaken and confused.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Today, we're offering up a guide to spotlight some of the movies, TV, and music we are most excited about this summer.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new show Dead Boy Detectives is a spinoff of Neil Gaiman's beloved series The Sandman – both the comic and the Netflix series. It's about a pair of detective ghosts (played by George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri) who refuse to move on to the afterlife. Aided by a young psychic (Kassius Nelson), they stick around and solve mysteries that will resolve the unfinished business of other ghosts.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The terrific new film Challengers is about being intense about tennis, sex, and competition. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the film stars Zendaya as Tashi, a tennis coach and object of desire to two men. She's married to Art (Mike Faist), who is facing his old friend Patrick (Josh O'Connor) at a Challengers event. This reopens all the trio's old wounds, and they excavate all of their relationships with each other.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Bound, Love & Basketball, Magic Mike's Last Dance, and Oppenheimer.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the new Starz series Mary & George, Julianne Moore plays a low-born, scheming woman who recognizes that her handsome son George (Nicolas Galitztine) could seduce the king and become his favorite. Inspired by the true story of King James I, the series is packed with seduction, vicious dialogue, and ruthless political intrigue.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Taylor Swift dropped an epic new album that spans two hours — and two high-profile breakups. The Tortured Poets Department delves deeply into two of the singer's recent relationships — one with the English actor Joe Alwyn and the other with Matty Healy, who's the lead singer of The 1975. And while Taylor Swift indulges in a few beefs on this record, the target she returns to most often is herself. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new show Fallout is based on a hugely successful video game series known for its sardonic, very dark comedic sensibility, and its violence. It's set in the game's post-apocalyptic world – an America divided into factions wrestling for control of an irradiated wasteland. When the hopeful Lucy (Ella Purnell) steps out of the comfortable life she's known in an underground vault, the world she's confronted with is harsh, brutal, merciless – and kinda funny.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hot Ones is the YouTube show where famous people answer questions while eating increasingly hot chicken wings. Hosted by Sean Evans, the series is a phenomenon. And Conan O'Brien is its most recent high achiever, and possibly the best guest ever. What exactly makes a good Hot Ones guest?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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, the new Disney+ series X-Men '97 picks up right where the original ended. But changes are also taking place: secrets get revealed, the team roster gets shuffled, and characters meet shocking fates. What hasn't changed is everything fans expect from the X-Men: big fights, big powers, and lots of mutant melodrama.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

NPR's Books We Love is a roundup of favorite books of the year, sorted and tagged to help you find exactly what you're looking for. From the meet cutes to the happy endings and through all the ups and downs in between, we're recommending great books for people who love love and romance.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new film Civil War depicts a contemporary America torn apart by a military conflict between the federal government and an alliance of secessionist states. Directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina), the film follows a small band of journalists led by Kirsten Dunst's jaded war photographer. They embark on a harrowing journey to the heart of the conflict, encountering brutality and bloodshed along the way.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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's Boys State, and this time, follows an annual high school program that gives hundreds of girls a chance to create a mock government, complete with elections and a Supreme Court. It was made during the 2022 session, which ended days before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and the case is very much on the minds of the girls in the program.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The sweeping historical epic has roared back with Shōgun. The FX miniseries takes place beginning in 1600, in a fictionalized but historically inspired feudal Japan, where the previous ruler has died with an heir not yet old enough to be in power, and everything has become chaotic. Shōgun has war, power struggles, violence, impossible love, beautiful naked people, and thorny questions about whose story it really is.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 works have been adapted into a number of classic films, including The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, and It. This month marks the 50th anniversary of his first novel, Carrie, so we are revisiting our guide to Stephen King.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 destroyed and mother murdered by elite members of society. He sets out to infiltrate their corrupt, rarified existence and seek his bloody, bloody revenge. There's plenty of gunplay, knife-play, ax-play, bone-crunching, tuk-tuk chases, and gouts of blood.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 film The Talented Mr. Ripley. Now, he's played by Andrew Scott on a Netflix series called simply Ripley. Tom once again worms his way into the life of one Dickie Greenleaf and attempts to sabotage his luxurious life in the Italian countryside. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Throw on those boots with the spurs, grab your cowboy hat, and saddle up that horse, because Beyoncé's highly anticipated album, Cowboy Carter is here. Cowboy Carter is a country-fied album, full of legendary guests like Dolly Parton and Linda Martell, and duets with stars like Post Malone and Miley Cyrus — all tied together with the unbridled swagger of Queen Bey. But is Beyoncé knocking down the doors of the country establishment, or looking for validation?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Drop Dead Gorgeous, Office Space, and The Talented Mr. Ripley. In this encore episode, we'll talk about what holds up, what looks really different, and what we miss the most.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Godzilla has been around for 70 years and recently won his first Oscar. The beloved 2023 Japanese production Godzilla Minus One won an Oscar for visual effects. Now, the Hollywood MonsterVerse franchise rolls on with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which pairs the two titans as they face a common enemy. Today, we talk about both movies and how they offer different takes on the decades-old monster story.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 at risk. When scientists start dying in mysterious ways, five friends just might be the key to saving the world. The series' showrunners include David Benioff and D.B Weiss, the team behind Game of Thrones, who are once again adapting an epic book series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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. The series pays close attention to allegations of sexual harassment, manipulation, and other problematic behavior by Dan Schneider, who was in charge of shows like iCarly, Sam & Cat, and All That. And Drake & Josh star Drake Bell talks publicly for the first time about the sexual abuse and assault he says he experienced at the hands of his dialogue coach. Today, we talk about the series and how it fits into a larger conversation about protecting kids who work in entertainment.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the latest entry in the blockbuster action-comedy franchise. This time, the crew has set up shop in New York, and, with the help of the surviving original Ghostbusters, tries to stop a demon looking to freeze the world and rule over it. The film is packed with both newer and nostalgic cast members, including Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and more.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 remake, Jake Gyllenhaal plays a former UFC fighter who accepts a job to clean up a seaside bar in the Florida Keys that's being terrorized by a motorcycle gang. There's still plenty of fighting and plenty of brooding, but how does it hold up to the original cult classic?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the new movie Immaculate, Sydney Sweeney plays Cecelia, an American woman who joins a convent in Italy. But after she arrives, she encounters strange occurrences and mysteriously winds up pregnant. Almost everyone in the convent touts it as a miracle, but Cecelia isn't so sure. Horror, of course, ensues. Immaculate was directed by Michael Mohan – who previously collaborated with Sweeney on the Hitchcock-esque thriller The Voyeurs.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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, whether you're a fan of Lindsay Lohan's red hair shining in Irish sunlight, Glen Powell's gleaming chest, or Camila Mendes navigating the glamorous art world. Today, we're rounding up three recent romantic comedies: Irish Wish, Anyone But You, and Upgraded.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 City as he pursues his dreams. But those dreams – and his immigration status – become imperiled. He must turn to a frazzled, fire-breathing art critic played by Tilda Swinton for emotional and financial support, which proves very fraught.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 manager who falls in love with a hitchhiking bodybuilder, played by Katy O'Brian. Directed by Rose Glass (Saint Maud), the film's got a killer electronic soundtrack, and cinematic references of everything from John Waters to Showgirls.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 who reunite to stage a comeback, and find that a lot has changed. The show features a stacked cast, including Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps, and Paula Pell. Girls5Eva recently moved to Netflix and just returned for a new season, so today, we revisit our conversation about the series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Kung Fu Panda 4 is the latest movie in the popular and surprisingly thoughtful animated film franchise. Jack Black returns to voice Po, a gigantic, adorable panda who becomes the highly unlikely Dragon Warrior. He embarks on a quest alongside a devious fox, played by Awkwafina, to face a new villain, the Chameleon, played by Viola Davis. You got your hero's journey and training montages and some pretty stellar voice acting.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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, we just can't seem to call it quits. This season has more strange proposals, more fights between people who obviously should not get married, and more moments when we find ourselves saying, "Really, Love Is Blind?" Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

At this year's Oscars, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer won in most of the major categories, including best picture and best director. It was also a big night for Emma Stone, and Robert Downey Jr. Plus, Ryan Gosling brought the kenergy with a performance from Barbie.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Oscars are upon us. In this guide, we're talking about actors, directors, best pictures — and everything we think will and should win.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This year's Oscar nominees for outstanding documentary feature are really strong entries that are available on streaming now. They also happen to be pretty heavy, gripping watches — and well worth checking out. Today, we get into what we think will win, what should win, and where to watch this year's nominees.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 to Throuple. Four couples exploring polyamory arrive at a resort and are allowed to choose from a smorgasbord of single people in the hopes that they will find a "third" who can put the "throup" in "throuple." Drama ensues. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This year's crop of Oscar nominees for the best international feature adopt vastly different approaches to tell their disparate stories. There's a couple that tackle the specter of fascism, one about the plight of migrants and one about an infamous real-life plane crash and its aftermath. Also there's one about a guy who cleans toilets.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This year's Oscar nominees for best original song are headlined by two songs from Barbie: one from Billie Eilish, and the other from Ryan Gosling. But there's also an intriguing mix of tracks from Jon Batiste, the Osage Tribal Singers, and Becky G — with an assist from perennial Oscar nominee Diane Warren. Today, we get into what we think will win, what should win, and what criteria should we use when we judge original songs in movies?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Dune: Part Two is a sweeping, soaring space epic and this year's first big movie. Starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, and directed by Denis Villeneuve, the film delivers plenty of spaceships and big explosions like any good sci-fi blockbuster should. But it also tackles themes of rebellion, religion, and the use and abuse of political power.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new and unsettling Lifetime docuseries Where Is Wendy Williams? documents the former daytime talk show host as she struggled with alcohol addiction, serious health ailments, and financial issues. Days before the documentary aired, we learned that Williams had been diagnosed with aphasia and frontotemporal dementia. The four-episode series raises many ethical questions related to celebrity, privacy, and perceived exploitation.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender is regarded as a classic. Now, it's gotten a live-action adaptation on Netflix. The series tells the story of a boy named Aang (Gordon Cormier) who must learn how to harness the power of air, water, earth, and fire — and ultimately save the world. But how does the new show hold up to the beloved original?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Oppenheimer tells the story of the brilliant physicist (Cillian Murphy) who oversaw the construction of the first atomic bomb. It goes on to chart the dark, complicated legacy of what he made – a technology that has gone on to irrevocably change the world, and that retains the real possibility of ending it. Christopher Nolan's film was a blockbuster hit last summer, and it earned 13 Oscar nominations – including best picture and best director. Today, we are revisiting our conversation about the movie.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The movie Drive-Away Dolls is a shaggy comedy about a couple of lesbian friends (Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan) who take a road trip and unwittingly find themselves wrapped up in a bizarre criminal caper. There's a strange briefcase, a shady senator, and psychedelic vibes, which makes for one weird little movie. The movie directed by Ethan Coen, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tricia Cooke.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Is Me...Now: A Love Story, in conjunction with a new album and an upcoming documentary. It's all about her journey from Gigli to joyful, from falter to altar, with her now-husband Ben Affleck. She sings, she dances, and is cared for by the weirdest council of advisors ever assembled — including cameos from Neil deGrasse Tyson, Post Malone, Jane Fonda.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 who sees glimpses of the future. She bonds with three young women who are being hunted by a mysterious and remorseless supervillian. It has gotten pilloried by critics and has been ruthlessly mocked by a series of memes. But is it as bad as all that?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 new showrunner Issa López at the helm. Set in a remote Alaskan mining town, this season's victims are a team of scientists, and the mismatched pair of cops investigating the murders are two women, played by Jodie Foster and Kali Reis.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Feud: Capote Vs. the Swans is the latest reimagining of historical events produced by Ryan Murphy. The series follows famed author Truman Capote (played by Tom Hollander), who hobnobs with a close-knit circle of New York socialites known as the Swans. But then he embarrasses them by airing their dirty laundry — and things get nasty. The Swans are deliciously played by actors like Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, and Chloë Sevigny.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 celebrate pop culture that revolves around friendship — where people love and care about each other deeply, even though they'll never kiss. Today we're recommending things to watch that get platonic love right.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The fantastic ABC series Abbott Elementary is a workplace sitcom set at a severely underfunded Philadelphia public school. It's a giant hit, and it's become an Emmys darling, including two wins for its creator and star Quinta Brunson. Abbott Elementary just returned for its long-awaited third season, so in this encore episode, we are revisiting our conversation about the show's first season.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 halftime show from Usher, many Taylor Swift sightings, and a big announcement during the commercials: Beyoncé is releasing a new album in March, and she just dropped two new singles.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the new '80s horror comedy Lisa Frankenstein, an introverted teen (Kathryn Newton) finds comfort in visiting the grave of a young Victorian bachelor (Cole Sprouse). When his corpse comes to life, he becomes her confidante as they embark on a murderous spree. Written by Diablo Cody (Jennifer's Body) and directed by Zelda Williams, the movie is an over-the-top mix of romance, jealousy, self-realization, horniness and murder.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 is part tense thriller and part romantic comedy. But it's also a character study, of two people who have made their way into the spy life and aren't sure how they feel about being in it together.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 of three American so-called expats living in 2014 Hong Kong whose stories intersect. The series was created by Lulu Wang (The Farewell) and looks at the lives of these three women, who are all affected by one catastrophic event and its aftermath. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 and announced her next album, titled The Tortured Poets Department. It may be time to pose the question: Have we reached peak Taylor Swift? Other major winners included Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish and SZA. In fact, women swept all nine categories presented during Sunday night's telecast.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the comedic spy thriller Argylle, a reclusive author (Bryce Dallas Howard) gets sucked into a web of danger and intrigue when her books mirror the inner workings of a rogue spy agency. Argylle is full of globe-trotting action, with more twists than you can count. It's directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, the Kingsman movies) with a cast that includes Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, and Dua Lipa.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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. We've all got that one argument we're always making: that non-negotiable stance, that immutable truth we're sticking to no matter what. Today, we're talking about the pop culture hills we'll die on.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 story of a 13-year-old Black girl genius who accidentally transports a T-Rex from the prehistoric past to present day. She then launches into a side-hustle fighting crime. The Disney+ show is about to return for a second season, so today we are revisiting our conversation about the series.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Over 75 feature films premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year, including a deeply personal coming-of-age story, a film starring Saoirse Ronan, and Steven Soderbergh's highly immersive ghost tale. It was impossible to catch them all, but today, we're highlighting some of the standouts we think are worth keeping on your radar.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 last season due to a much-discussed affair between two members of its cast. The whole thing was nicknamed "Scandoval" and led to record-breaking ratings and countless memes. Vanderpump Rules is about to return for its 11th season, and if you want to catch up on all the drama from last year, we've got you covered.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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. It's also a passionate and thoughtful coming-of-age tale delivered in language that's been finely honed to accomplish its very funny purpose. Directed by Natasha Lyonne, the Netflix special began as an off-Broadway show.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 up eight Oscar nominations, including best picture. Today in this encore episode, we revisit our conversation about Barbie.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This year's Oscar nominations were announced today and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer leads the field with 13 nominations. Other leading nominees include Poor Things, Killers Of The Flower Moon, and Barbie. We run down the nominees in the major categories and talk about some of the surprising snubs.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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. The father is one of the chief architects of the Holocaust, and over the course of the film, he and his wife attempt to preserve their compartmentalized lives. But the horrors taking place outside refuse to be held at bay. Directed by Jonathan Glazer, the film is favored to pick up a best picture nomination at the Oscars.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 oppression. Written and directed by Ava DuVernay, the film is adapted from Isabel Wilkerson's best-selling book, Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontents, and dramatizes the book's ideas and the way it comes together. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor stars as Wilkerson, and also features Jon Bernthal and Niecy Nash-Betts.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new Marvel series Echo spotlights Maya Lopez (played by Alaqua Cox), whom we first met as the stoic badass enforcer for the criminal Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio). She's now on the run, fleeing to her tiny Oklahoma hometown determined to nurse her wounds and make plans to take over Fisk's criminal empire. But her friends and family – including generations of her Choctaw ancestors – may have other plans. It's streaming on Disney + and Hulu.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 emotional depth – as well as its messages about creativity, collaboration, and learning through play. Bluey just returned with a batch of new episodes on Disney+, so today we're revisiting our conversation about the series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The 75th annual Emmy Awards are over, and it was a big night for The Bear, Beef, and Succession. Plus Elton John earned his EGOT, and Jennifer Coolidge and Niecy Nash Betts gave memorable speeches.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 forced to work for the government. Their next theft will be their greatest, and it's all to avert an enormous disaster. They'll have to fly planes, use disguises, sneak around, beat the bad guys, and look great doing it.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 are there, and the nasty, nasty high school drama is there. But does the retelling capture the energy, the style, and the jokes of the original? The new cast includes Reneé Rapp, Auliʻi Cravalho, and Angourie Rice.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 of Dungeons and Dragons onto the mechanics of videogames. You and your companions embark on an epic quest, going through dark dungeons and dangerous wilderness — all while being confronted with choices that change the game in ways big and small. But what makes it so beloved?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 MS. He and his wife, played by Kerry Condon, decide to buy an old house and refurbish its dilapidated swimming pool. But there is a catch: the pool is haunted.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 and his long-deceased parents; the other of two lonely men and neighbors who long for connection. Directed by Andrew Haigh, the film stars Andrew Scott as Adam, a TV writer living a lonely existence in London, and Paul Mescal as his neighbor Harry. Adam's parents are played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new Netflix series The Brothers Sun is a fun genre mashup of action, comedy, and family drama. Michelle Yeoh plays Eileen Sun, who married into a powerful Taiwanese crime family, and then secretly raised her youngest son (Sam Song Li) in the U.S. to protect them both from being targeted by rival gangs, while her oldest son (Justin Chien) was left in Taiwan and is now a remorseless killer. But when danger threatens the family, they must band together by any means necessary.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

NPR's Books We Love is a roundup of favorite books of the year, sorted and tagged to help you find exactly what you're looking for. Today, we're highlighting books about show business, including a memoir, a history of the Oscars, and a biography about two iconic film critics.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The delightful new Disney+ series Percy Jackson and The Olympians is a new adaptation of a beloved series of books by Rick Riordan. The series tells the story of how Percy (Walker Scobell) finds out the startling truth that his father is a Greek god. Percy soon discovers what that means, with the help of some faithful friends. The series also features Jason Mantzoukas and Megan Mullally.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 to learn a new language, take a cooking class, or research your family's genealogy. Or maybe you just want to save a ton of money. Today, we're presenting an episode of the podcast Life Kit all about the ways to get the most out of your library.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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, and whether we are inclined to bask in our victories or fret about our defeats.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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, and then we boldly make new ones for 2024.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour, or donate to your local NPR station at donate.npr.org/happyLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 we didn't get to talk about, and now's our chance to show them some love. Today, we're making recommendations for great movies we missed in 2023.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 is a portrayal of Enzo Ferrari's complex personal life, defined by relationships with his wife (Penelope Cruz) and his mistress (Shailene Woodley). Ferrari is the latest film from director Michael Mann, but how does it stack up to his previous work such as Heat and Collateral?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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, with patriarch Fritz (Holt McCallany) directing several of his sons into the sport, with disastrous consequences. Directed by Sean Durkin, and starring Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White as two of the sons, the film considers the way their father's version of masculinity and strength echoes in their lives.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today. So we're bringing you a very special holiday extravaganza from NPR Music's All Songs Considered podcast. In this festive episode, All Songs' annual celebration of the season returns with a trip to a snowy cabin in the woods – as they attempt to throw a party for the ages. Eggnog will be had, plenty of delightful holiday music will be played – and some special guests might just drop by, including Carly Rae Jepsen, Robert Glasper, and Olivia Rodrigo.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 musical. In the new film, Fantasia Barrino plays Celie, who survives the abuse by the men in her life and longs to be reunited with the sister who was taken from her. The film also stars Danielle Brooks and Taraji P. Henson. Directed by Blitz Bazawule, The Color Purple is in theaters on Christmas Day.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour, or donate to your local NPR station at donate.npr.org/happyLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 books by Black authors that he finds reductive and drowning in stereotypes. So, he sets out to write the ultimate Black novel under a pseudonym, with all the tropes and simplifications he thinks publishers expect. But his life gets very complicated when it turns out that he's right. The cast includes Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, and Tracee Ellis Ross. It's the directorial debut of Cord Jefferson, a writer whose credits for television include Watchmen, The Good Place and Station Eleven.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Netflix film Maestro is an Old-Hollywood style biopic about the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. Bradley Cooper directed, co-wrote, and stars in the film as Bernstein. It examines Bernstein's life through the lens of his complicated marriage to his wife played by Carey Mulligan. And of course, there are many scenes in which we watch Cooper passionately conducting orchestras of both the work of classical composers as well as Bernstein's own music.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour, or donate to your local NPR station at donate.npr.org/happyLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 distractions. When silence isn't cutting it, sometimes you need music that'll fill your head without distracting you with words. Today, we're recommending three great songs to help you study.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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. The 1985 film is remembered as a fan-favorite centering Black women's lives, but this acclaimed adaptation was received quite differently among female viewers and male viewers. Today, we revisit our episode about the original film from our three-part documentary series Screening Ourselves, which explored films through the lens of representation – and misrepresentation – on screen.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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, in the new movie musical Wonka, Timothée Chalamet takes on the iconic role. In this prequel, Wonka arrives in the big city with dreams of opening a chocolate shop, but his plans are complicated by a host of corrupt villains. Wonka is directed by Paul King, who also directed the Paddington films.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The lovely new animated film The Boy and the Heron is the first film in 10 years from visionary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro). The heron in question is part-heron, part-man who serves as a guide for a boy as they navigate a realm somewhere between life and death. The English dubbed version features the voices of Robert Pattinson, Mark Hamill, and Florence Pugh.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Taylor Swift has had a very big year. Her career-spanning Eras Tour is on pace to become the biggest and most lucrative concert tour in history, and the subsequent concert film set box office records. She's been streamed on Spotify globally more than any other artist in 2023, and was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year. Today, in honor of her birthday, Taylor Swift is releasing The Eras Tour film digitally, so we thought it was the perfect time to revisit our conversation about what made the tour such a juggernaut.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As we come to the end of 2023 we find ourselves in the familiar position of wrapping up the year. From the sublime to the slightly ridiculous we're talking about our favorite TV, movies, memes, and music from this year. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour, or donate to your local NPR station at donate.npr.org/happy Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Last month, a civil lawsuit was filed against rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs by his ex-girlfriend and former protégé Cassie Ventura. She alleged to have suffered years of emotional and physical abuse during the course of their relationship. Diddy denied the allegations and settled the suit quickly, but other damning claims have resurfaced in its wake. His reputation seems to have been tarnished — at least for the moment. And it has us wondering: Is this a crucial turning point for a long-awaited reckoning within the music industry? Or merely a blip in the routine of business as usual?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the wild and wonderful new film Poor Things, Emma Stone plays a woman brought back to life from the brink of death. She's a clean slate, unconcerned with the bonds a repressive society tries to put on her. The film reunites Stone with director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favorite) and shares that film's darkly comedic sensibility, but it's even weirder.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour, or donate to your local NPR station at donate.npr.org/happyLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

What would the end of the world actually look like? That's the creeping fear behind the new Netflix movie Leave The World Behind. The movie stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali, in a story about strangers who are alone together as things get eerie out in the world. The film was written and directed by Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot).Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Beyoncé's album Renaissance drew on generations' worth of Black and queer dance music — and the subsequent tour packed stadiums with an epic, lavish spectacle. Now, with the new concert film and documentary Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, she's shows the work that went into putting on the tour while also providing a sense of her journey as a highly driven artist.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

What's the best Christmas gift you ever received? You probably didn't have to think about it; you knew it in your bones. Today, we're talking about the actual, tangible gift you found waiting for you under the tree and still think about it from time to time.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The fun new Australian series Colin From Accounts is part raunchy comedy, part romantic comedy, part friendship story, and part very cute dog. It begins with a chance encounter between two strangers (played by Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall) who meet after accidentally injuring an adorable dog. They reluctantly decide to take joint responsibility for the pup, and form a strange bond.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the campy film May December Julianne Moore stars as a tabloid fixture who was at the center of a scandal after she sexually abused a minor she later married. Charles Melton (Riverdale) plays her husband and Natalie Portman plays the famous actress who's preparing to play her in a movie decades later. It's directed by Todd Haynes (Carol) and is streaming on Netflix.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

If you travel by plane with any regularity, you've been there: stuck in an airport because your flight is delayed. So we thought it best to give your most stressful travel moments a soundtrack. Today, we're recommending three songs for when your flight is delayed.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

NPR's Books We Love is a roundup of favorite books of the year, sorted and tagged to help you find exactly what you're looking for. Recommendations come in from critics and contributors and today, we're highlighting picks from NPR staff.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Bruce Willis movie turned 35 this year, so today we're bringing you this encore episode about the film that was recorded back in 2018. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour, or donate to your local NPR station at donate.npr.org/happyLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 premise of Disney's latest animated movie Wish. It's a musical fantasy that stars Ariana DeBose as an idealist who goes head-to-head with Chris Pine's selfish King. There are catchy songs, cute talking animals, and a few heartfelt moments — in other words, the Disney blueprint.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Regional Mexican music has taken the music industry by storm. Earlier this year, Mexican artist Peso Pluma and band Eslabon Armado made history when their song "Ella Baila Sola" topped the Billboard Global 200 chart. But this musical trend didn't come out of nowhere. In this episode of NPR's Alt. Latino, hosts Anamaria Sayre and Felix Contreras head to Peso Pluma's performance in Nashville and try to understand the root of the phenomenon.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon is everything an Oscar contender might be: long, epic, morally complicated and expensive. While many movie-goers left theaters moved, others called the film a problematic disaster. Today, we're bringing you an episode of NPR's It's Been A Minute, where host Brittany Luse and guests talk about what Killers of the Flower Moon got wrong and how it fits into a broader history of Native Americans on screen.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The delightful Netflix animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off starts off in the same way as the 2010 movie Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and comic. Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a dim-bulb young Torontonian who falls in love and must fight to win the hand of Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). But in the animated series, the show's focus shifts to Ramona. The show reunites the entire cast of the film including Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzman, and Aubrey Plaza.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the new film Napoleon, director Ridley Scott tells the story of French leader Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix). It's a lavish war epic that tracks Bonaparte's rise to power through epic military battles, and explores his tumultuous marriage to the love of his life Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby).Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Saltburn is a provocative and fun thriller. Barry Keoghan plays Oliver, an outcast at Oxford University who befriends one of his popular and posh classmates, Felix (Jacob Elordi). When Felix invites Oliver to spend the summer at his family's lush estate, a twisty game of obsession and manipulation ensues. The film is written and directed by Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman), and it seems safe to say it will leave audiences in heated debate.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes is the latest adaptation in the beloved blockbuster franchise. The new prequel film follows the early life of Coriolanus (Tom Blyth), the man who would one day become the evil President Snow, and Lucy Gray Baird, (Rachel Zegler), the singer who becomes his mentee.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 as a worldwide laughingstock. Directed by Taika Waititi, the film stars Michael Fassbender as the real-life coach tasked with helping the team compete in a World Cup qualifying match.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new Netflix movie The Killer is a stylish new thriller starring Michael Fassbender as a stoic and ruthlessly efficient international hitman. When a hit goes wrong, his very detached and methodical life begins to fall apart. The film from director David Fincher and also features Tilda Swinton.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The sweeping new Showtime series Fellow Travelers chronicles a relationship between two gay men played by Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey. It spans the McCarthy Era of the 1950s through the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. One is perfectly content to stay in the closet and live a lie, and the other wants more out of their relationship. As the years pass the two men keep coming back together only to find the power dynamic between them shifting back and forth.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Larson returns as Captain Marvel, and sees her teaming up with newer characters, Monica Rambeau (played by Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan (played by Iman Vellani). They must team up when their powers become entangled and cause them to switch places whenever they try to use them.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the trippy new A24 absurdist comedy Dream Scenario, Nicolas Cage plays a schlubby, unremarkable biology professor. Suddenly and inexplicably, he starts appearing in the dreams of people around the world. This phenomenon brings him a weird and difficult-to-manage kind of fame for a while–until the dreams turn into nightmares.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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. Her sister Jenny, played by Sandra Oh, is the outgoing, perpetual screw up. Together, they must set aside their differences to try and win a TV game show and save Anne's kidnapped dog.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 KaMillion), two aspiring rappers from Miami, and documents the challenges they face as young women trying to break into the music industry. The show is about to return for a second season, so today we're revisiting our conversation about the series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 movie shows how Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) and Elvis (Jacob Elordi) first meet, fall in love, get married, and eventually split in the early '70s. But it's also a moodier look at the way Priscilla is walled off, isolated from family, and kept at a distance from his life of superstardom.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Golden Bachelor is the latest show in ABC's long-running Bachelor franchise, in which the bachelor is a 72-year-old widower named Gerry Turner. Gerry's potential matches are also significantly older than the usual crop, so the priorities are a little different. But the weird dates, the awkward conversations, and the fixations on who has kissed remain.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 eye on a family-friendly theme restaurant that's gone out of business. It also happens to be haunted by murderous animatronic mascots. The film is based on the hugely successful video game series, and now it's a box-office sensation.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Britney Spears just released one of the most hotly anticipated celebrity memoirs of the year. The Woman In Me details her meteoric rise to fame, her family history, and her 13-year-long conservatorship. Today we're bringing you a special episode of It's Been a Minute, where host Brittany Luse and her guests discuss all the juicy, strange, and sad highlights from the new book.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the funny, melancholic and weirdly moving new film, The Holdovers, Paul Giamatti plays a widely disliked teacher at a prestigious New England boarding school in 1970. He's forced to look after the boys who can't go home for the Christmas break, including one kid (Dominic Sessa) who's a particular pain in the butt. The film is directed by Alexander Payne, and also stars Da'Vine Joy Randolph as the school cook, who's spending the first Christmas without her son.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 single person is presented with six entirely naked strangers and whittles them down to one person they want to go on a date with. The long-running U.K. dating show has recently found success in the U.S after streaming on Max. There's some controversy and consternation, but do a bunch of naked bodies really merit all this chatter?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

With HBO's The Gilded Age, creator Julian Fellowes basically airlifts Downton Abbey's soapy plots, ball gowns, sneering servants and quippy old ladies out of Yorkshire and plops them down in the Manhattan of 1882. The series stars Christine Baranski, and Cynthia Nixon, plus a sprawling cast of socialites, servants, and members of the working class. The Gilded Age is about to return for a second season, so today we're revisiting our conversation about the series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 four detectives assigned to the cases are played by Kyle Soller, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Amaka Okafor and Shira Haas. What each of them doesn't know is that their investigations are inextricably linked to the same dark secret that can change the world forever.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Kelsey Grammer is back as Frasier Crane. After nine seasons on Cheers and 11 more on the spin-off Frasier, the snobby psychiatrist joins the long list of characters rebooted for the streaming age. In the new Frasier series on Paramount+, Dr. Crane returns to Boston with a new supporting cast and a new set of challenges. But what made the original series so watchable, and how does the new show stack up?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Scorsese, it's told through the lens of a marriage in 1920s Oklahoma. It stars Lily Gladstone as an Osage woman and Leonardo DiCaprio as the low-level white thug who professes to love her. But he continues to do the bidding of his uncle (Robert De Niro), who's stealing from and murdering her people.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 become most streamed artist on Spotify for a third straight year. Now he's back with a supersized new album, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana. The record finds him wrangling with the trappings of fame amid the sounds of trap and electronic music, and the reggaeton sounds that helped make him an icon.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 expose the many rifts in their marriage, as the couple's young son yearns to understand what happened and why. Directed by Justine Triet and starring Sandra Hüller, the film won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 one entertainment to another. Martin Scorsese's latest movie Killers of the Flower Moon clocks in at over three hours, so today we're recommending other great movies over three hours long.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 until one gets a promotion over the other at the hedge fund where they both work, and things get tense at home and in the office. Can their relationship withstand the pull of cutthroat ambition and male ego, or is their stock doomed for a free fall?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new Netflix horror miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher makes for a terrifically spooky October binge. It cleverly reimagines and remixes several works by Edgar Allan Poe in a modern setting. Created by Mike Flanagan, the series follows doomed siblings Roderick (Bruce Greenwood) and Madeline Usher (Mary McDonnell), and the dark secrets that even their unimaginable wealth and privilege can't manage to keep buried.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The frantic, absurdist new movie Dicks: The Musical is about a pair of misogynistic narcissists (played by Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson) who discover they're long-lost twins. Also starring Megan Mullally, Nathan Lane, and Megan Thee Stallion, the movie's got cheeky song and dance numbers — plus crude humor and a distinctly queer sensibility.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 engineered to scare your pants off. Today we're talking about the scariest movie we've ever seen. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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: Believer serves as both a reboot and a sequel. Directed by David Gordon Green, the film stars a mostly new cast, including Leslie Odom, Jr., Lidya Jewett and Olivia O'Neill, but also brings back Ellen Burstyn, who reprises her iconic role from the original film.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Changeling is an ambitious new series spanning generations and continents to tell an epic tale of a family torn apart by spirits and fairies. The Apple TV+ series stars LaKeith Stanfield as Apollo, a new dad whose dreams of fatherhood morph into nightmares following the birth of his son. Apollo's rude awakening sets him on a horrifying journey to confront his demons, past and present.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The hilarious comedy series Our Flag Means Death follows the misadventures of Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby), a posh aristocrat who decides to give up his pampered life and become a swashbuckling pirate on the high seas. But when he meets the fearsome Blackbeard (Taika Waititi), the two men find they have much to teach one another about pirating – and about accepting who they are. The second season is about to return to Max, so today we're revisiting our conversation about the series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 – but if you only know the Star Wars movies, you're likely meeting her for the very first time. Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) was once a Jedi who rejected the Order's stuffy, bureaucratic ways and is harboring a great sense of guilt over her mentor becoming Darth Vader. She's back with a new Jedi mentee of her own (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) as they try to stop a new threat to the galaxy. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 recruited to find and kill the creator of a powerful AI weapon. Directed by Gareth Edwards, the film's big themes involve the role of AI, the brutality of war, and the building blocks of life and society.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense has been called the greatest concert film of all time. Directed by Jonathan Demme, the iconic 1984 film takes the audience onstage with the band and captures them at the height of their power. Now, a restored version of the film is back in theaters, featuring propulsive performances of early hits like "Psycho Killer," along with deeper and funkier cuts, too.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the new film Cassandro, Gael García Bernal plays the real-life Mexican-American wrestler who came to international stardom by adopting the persona of the flamboyant Cassandro, the Liberace of Lucha Libre. It's the story of a queer man who challenges a macho and homophobic system through sheer showmanship – and earns the respect of his fellow wrestlers and audiences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 infamous stock market incident known as the Game Stop short squeeze. With a star-studded ensemble including Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Pete Davidson, the movie has got class warfare and needle drops galore. But will it inspire you to fight the power or just go out and buy some stocks?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Netflix's hit series Sex Education is a refreshing and frank coming-of-age story about modern teens learning about their bodies and themselves in awkward, relatable ways. In the final season, amateur sex therapist Otis (Asa Butterfield), his best friend Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), and their friends juggle academic life and young adulthood.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Starfield is one of the biggest and most anticipated video game releases of the year. It's a massive open world game set in humanity's future, when we've settled on star systems throughout the galaxy. There's over 1000 planets to explore, multiple factions to join, spaceships to pilot and quests to go on. But does Starfield live up to the hype? Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 chases to wild twists and A-list stars, today, we are recommending three of our favorite 90s thrillers.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Part blistering workplace satire, part creepy thriller, Hulu's The Other Black Girl packs a lot of punches. Nella (Sinclair Daniel) is a young editorial assistant who forms a fast-friendship with her new-coworker, Hazel (Ashleigh Murray) as they both navigate working in a mostly white publishing company. Hazel is confident, a bit mysterious, and full of secrets. The Other Black Girl is based on the novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 already spawned two hits with "vampire" and "bad idea right?" The album sharpens a sound inspired by pop, punk and singer-songwriters.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This summer, millions of us got cozy with Beyoncé during the Renaissance World Tour. With stunning visuals, an array of costume changes, and the occasional Blue Ivy cameo, this is reportedly Beyonce's highest-grossing tour yet. Renaissance has been unlike any other Beyoncé experience, a truly communal and social media-hyped dance party. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Recently, late night talk show hosts Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Jimmy Kimmel started the chat podcast Strike Force Five to raise money and support their staff during the actors and writers strikes. Shortly after it launched, an investigation in Rolling Stone outlined allegations of erratic and aggressive behavior by Jimmy Fallon and a generally terrible working environment at The Tonight Show. So now, this unusual project finds itself in an awkward position.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 – thus, we now have My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3. Writer and director Nia Vardalos is back as Toula, John Corbett is back as her husband, and this time, they're headed to Greece for a family reunion.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 to Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts. But in an age of Disney and Marvel, the movie star seems to have been eclipsed by the franchises in which they appear. So are we witnessing the death of the movie star? Today we present an episode of NPR's Consider This podcast about the history of movie stars, and their place in Hollywood today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 three-hour epic, with a sprawling setlist that includes a nightly assortment of surprises. But what made the tour such a juggernaut this summer?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Coleman and Meryl Streep. So we decided to discuss: What makes a great TV guest star? And who are some of the best guest stars of all time?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The long-running lawyer show Suits is this summer's streaming sensation, and riding high on Netflix's top ten. Starring Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams, the series originally ran on the USA Network and ended its run four years ago. So why is it now so popular? Is it nostalgia for a different kind of television? Is it Meghan Markle? And how good is this show?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 fastest K-Pop act ever to reach one billion streams on Spotify, and their new EP, Get Up, just hit number one on the Billboard charts. Plus, their single "OMG" went viral on TikTok, spawning dance challenges and memes. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 turned out to be a nonexistent high school. Telemarketers is about telemarketing scams, and how hard it is to stop them. Both stories are about not just the very colorful nitty-gritty details of a successful scam, but also the conditions and the systems that make scams possible.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The FX animated comedy Archer explores the raunchy exploits of Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin), who is known from Berlin to Bangkok as the world's most dangerous spy. The show is violent, smutty, and packed with profanity, wordplay, and callbacks. The final season is about to premiere, so we thought now would be the perfect time to revisit our conversation about the series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hollywood loves a movie about horny teens desperate to lose their virginity, and the smart new comedy Bottoms is a welcome addition to the canon. Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott star as unpopular best friends who start a fight club in hopes of seducing the cheerleaders of their dreams. Bottoms was co-written by Sennott and Emma Seligman, who also directs. They previously collaborated on the movie Shiva Baby.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the great new DC superhero film Blue Beetle, Xolo Maridueña plays Jaime Reyes, a young Mexican-American man who stumbles across a creepy bug-like alien artifact that bonds to him and gives him superpowers. It may seem like just another story about a reluctant hero, but in execution, centering the film on a Latino family changes the familiar formula in ways big and small.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the raunchy new comedy Strays, four talking dogs embark on an incredible journey. Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell) doesn't realize his owner Doug (Will Forte) is desperate to abandon him on the streets. But when Doug's intentions become clear, Reggie's motivation shifts from a reunion to revenge. Strays' voice cast also features Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher and Randall Park. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Apple TV+ murder mystery comedy series The Afterparty looks at the events around a murder and its investigation from a different character's point of view in each episode. Starring Sam Richardson, Zoë Chao, Tiffany Haddish, and many others, each installment is made in a different film style — like an erotic thriller, a midcentury melodrama, or a Wes Anderson sendup.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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. And whether you'll be watching for the first time or a diehard soccer fan, we've got you've covered. Plus, we'll talk about why the U.S. was knocked out in the round of 16, and the impact of the American team on the sport.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 raunchy jokes come at you fast. In the show, Harley (Kaley Cuoco) has ditched the Joker and started making her own brand of mayhem alongside her best friend and romantic partner Poison Ivy (Lake Bell). Harley Quinn recently returned for a new season, so we decided to revisit our conversation about the series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 month marks 50 years since the birth of hip-hop, so we reached out to some NPR colleagues and a few hip-hop luminaries and asked them what hip-hop verse changed their lives. You can hear all the tracks discussed in this episode in our Spotify playlist.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 the fact that there are huge geopolitical stakes involved. That's because the two lovers in question are Alex (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of the American president and Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), the prince of England. Directed by Matthew López, the movie is based on Casey McQuiston's wildly successful and much-loved novel.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 checked out of his relationship with his longtime girlfriend (Ally Maki). When the couple goes on a hiatus, he's forced to confront unresolved insecurities tied to his Asian-American identity. Directed by Randall Park, the film has a lot to say about interracial dating and intraracial conflict. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Kokomo City is a remarkable documentary depicting the lives of Black trans sex workers. The women speak candidly about facing transphobia, misogynoir, and economic instability on a daily basis. Directed by D. Smith, the movie is definitely a conversation starter about finding strength in sisterhood and speaking truth to power.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 hearts everywhere. The two teenage boys at the center of the story go from rugby teammates to good friends to, you guessed it, something more. The series just returned for a second season, so we decided to revisit our conversation about the first season.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy