Stop Everything! It's a big one this week.

It's our final show before we break for summer, and we're wrapping the year in pop culture with two of our favourite members of the Stop Everything! cinematic universe: comedian, author and Drag Race Down Under judge, Rhys Nicholson; and broadcaster, film and tv critic and Stop Everything! fill-in cohost, Wenlei Ma.

And — we are farewelling co-host Benjamin Law, who's stepping back from Stop Everything! After SIX years, so he can focus on some big exciting and non-disclosable projects in 2024. BW and BL tell their Stop Everything! origin story, laugh through a classy selection of bloopers and hug it out as they close the book on a very special era of the show.

We're sad but we're also excited! Because Stop Everything! continues in 2024 in a new format, with BW hosting solo and welcoming a rotating roster of guest critics each week to talk all things pop culture.

Farewell, 2023 and Benjamin Law

Pop culture is everywhere. But it's also a lot. If you need help making sense of like, everything in your feed, Beverley Wang is here to help. Every episode, Beverley and a special guest sort through the latest hot takes and Internet discourse to help you understand how pop culture reflects your world.

Want to know which new releases to watch or skip, which long reads to share with your group chat and which podcasts to follow? Stop Everything's got you.

New Podcast ep every Thursday.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Vietnamese-Australian actor Hoa Xuande is breaking into Hollywood's big league as the star of HBO's The Sympathizer, a limited series based on Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer-prize winning novel.

Hoa is Stop Everything's special guest, and he's taking us behind the scenes of this A24-produced series, telling us about how he landed this huge role, and what it was like to act opposite heavyweights like Robert Downey Jr. and Sandra Oh.

HBO's The Sympathizer has an Aussie star!

How do Star Trek: The Next Generation and all the other Star Trek spin off series give us hope for the future? Guest Critic Steven Oliver shares how pop culture passions for sci fi and superheroes have helped sustain him through tough times.

BW also shares a glimpse into her nerdy teenage past; and stick around to the end of the episode for Steven's surprise spoken word performance.

How sci fi and superheroes help us dream of better futures

New ABC comedy series White Fever follows Jane Thomas, a woman trying to cure her fetish for hairy white men while simultaneously processing the emotional and psychological impact of being a Korean transracial adoptee.

Ra Chapman, White Fever's creator and star, is this episode's guest critic and she's in to talk about everything from growing up Asian in a white family to … sex dolls.

Have you got White Fever?

Jojo Siwa's ditched her giant bow for a glam rock makeover, celebrity chef David Chang's chili crunch trademark grab is flaring nostrils, and a viral essay making the case for marrying an older man — have left us wondering 'What the hell are they thinking?!'

Guest critic Hannah Reich is back to update us on her addiction to mumfluencers and how she's spending her TikTok Time.

Jojo Siwa and Dave Chang's chili crunch are really going for it

Well, a good chunk of them at least.
Guest critic and elite Beyhive member Maria Lewis is in to help decode the layers of meaning in Beyoncé's latest album, Act II: Cowboy Carter, a country album that transcends the country genre.

Also, a review of Oscar-nominated actor Dev Patel's directorial debut, Monkey Man.

Farewell, 2023 and Benjamin Law

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