Pop Culture Happy Hour

By NPR

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Pop Culture Happy Hour is a fun and freewheeling chat about the latest movies, television, books, comics and music.

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	EPISODES LIST
		'Us' Us is Jordan Peele's follow up to his 2017 film Get Out. The film stars Lupita Nyong'o as a mother whose whole family is confronted by their own doppelgängers.	03.22.2019
		Music Discoveries From SXSW 2019 The South by Southwest music festival brings together artists from around the world to perform in big venues and small ones, on sidewalks and sprawling stages. Every year, we bring back some musical discoveries that just might be your next favorites.	03.20.2019
		PEN15 The much-praised Hulu series PEN15 is about two middle-school girls who feel like they might never figure out how to grow into adults. The show was created by Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle and Sam Zvibelman. And the hook is that Erskine and Konkle play versions of themselves as kids, awkwardly surrounded by actual tween actors.	03.15.2019
		The Other Two Comedy Central's very funny new show The Other Two is about the older siblings of a newly minted YouTube star. His fame makes them feel overshadowed in some of the ways you might expect. But it's also a chance for them to look out for him, and to learn a lot about the broad outlines of fleeting fame.	03.13.2019
		The All Songs Considered SXSW Preview NPR Music is heading to South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. It's a huge feast of musical discovery that brings together bands and fans from around the world. All Songs Considered convened a panel to preview some of the new discoveries we're most excited to see and hear.	03.10.2019
		Captain Marvel Captain Marvel is the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first movie to give a woman the lead role. Brie Larson stars as a badass space-warrior fighting in an intergalactic war between two alien races. Samuel L. Jackson is back as Nick Fury, albeit digitally de-aged, because Captain Marvel is set in the '90s.	03.08.2019
		Remembering Luke Perry If you came of age in the 1990s, you might know Luke Perry as the rebellious teenage fantasy boyfriend Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills, 90210. But you also might know him from the original movie version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Or as Archie's dad on Riverdale. Perry was only 52 when he died on Monday. We take a moment to celebrate Perry's contributions to pop culture.	03.04.2019
		Russian Doll Today we're diving into the complicated and tangled world of Netflix's Russian Doll, a series anchored by a dynamic performance from Natasha Lyonne. She co-created the series with Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler.	03.01.2019
		2019 Oscars Recap Green Book is your best picture, and Bohemian Rhapsody and Roma took a bunch of the top prizes, too. And it all got done in a ceremony without a host. We're breaking it all down: the winners, the speeches, the songs, why we're mad, and why we're glad.	02.25.2019
		2019 Oscars Preview Where will you find rock bands going up against jazz pianists, superheroes, and scheming women in beautiful dresses? At this year's Oscars. We're going to talk actors, directors, and much more. We'll also make some predictions, so we might help you win your Oscars pool.	02.22.2019
		A Pop Culture Quiz Pop Culture Happy Hour is in its ninth year, so Linda decided to write a quiz about the ninth seasons of television shows. Stephen and Glen faced off against one of our favorite podcast teams, Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings of The Nod. This episode was recorded live at the Bell House in Brooklyn.	02.20.2019
		The Oscar-Nominated Documentaries And Foreign-Laungage Films We're diving into the Oscar-nominated documentaries and foreign language films. We'll tell you which ones to watch and where to find them, which might make you the star of your Oscar party.	02.15.2019
		The 2019 Grammys This year's awards were a big night for Childish Gambino and Kacey Musgraves. It was also a night of strong performances from artists like Janelle Monae and Cardi B. And don't forget Diana Ross, who wished herself a happy birthday a month and a half early.	02.11.2019
		'The Lego Movie 2' The Lego Movie was a surprise commercial and critical hit. It starred Chris Pratt as an every-man construction worker named Emmet and Elizabeth Banks as a rugged bad ass called Wyldstyle. Together, they saved the Lego world. Now, five years later, Emmet is back — and so is the fusillade of cameos, both surprising and not so surprising — to take on a new threat to the extruded plastic world.	02.08.2019
		The 2019 Super Bowl Another year, another Patriots Super Bowl win. But was it a high scoring game? It was not. In fact, no one had even scored a touchdown when Maroon 5 came out to headline the halftime show. We recap the game, the halftime show, and the commercials.	02.04.2019
		Bohemian Rhapsody, Vice and Green Book What do Bohemian Rhapsody, Vice, and Green Book have in common? Two things: one, they're nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars; and two, they're based on events in the lives of real people. Today, awards season leads us to a wide-reaching conversation on some very different movies.	02.01.2019
		Tidying Up With Marie Kondo If you've noticed your friends have been a little more "tidy" than usual, or your thrift store a bit better stocked, it might be because of Netflix. The streaming series Tidying Up With Marie Kondo has spurred an organizational renaissance. Or at least a conversation about one.	01.30.2019
		Roma and What's Making Us Happy Alfonso Cuarón directed the award-winning film Gravity in 2013, and won an Oscar for it. Now he's back with a movie that's equally ambitious, and much more personal. Roma is inspired by Alfonso Cuarón's childhood, and the movie tells the story of Cleo, a nanny and housekeeper in 1970's Mexico City.	01.25.2019
		We Get It Now Despite how firm our opinions often seem when we first declare them, there have been times when they've changed. During our recent live show at the Brooklyn Podcast Festival, we took a moment to talk about some things we have different feelings on now then we once did.	01.23.2019
		Glass In 2000, director M. Night Shyamalan presented Unbreakable, the story of two men whose epic tales of good and evil collided. Then came 2016's Split, a stealth sequel. Now, Shyamalan wraps up the trilogy with Glass.	01.18.2019
		The Masked Singer The Masked Singer isn't your everyday singing competition. Based on a South Korean format, each week we learn the identity of the elaborately costumed "celebrity" who gets voted off. So far, we've unmasked football player Antonio Brown, and comedian Tommy Chong.	01.16.2019
		If Beale Street Could Talk After winning an Oscar in 2017 for Moonlight, director Barry Jenkins is back with If Beale Street Could Talk. This time, he adapts a James Baldwin novel for the screen.	01.11.2019
		The 2019 Golden Globes Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody unexpectedly won big. So did thanking your parents and going on just a little too long. It's the wee hours of Monday morning, and we are wrapping up this year's big winners and big surprises.	01.07.2019
		Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and What's Making Us Happy The sci-fi series Black Mirror has always been about changing technology and its usually dark implications for the future. Its latest episode, Bandersnatch, is itself the result of new technology developed at Netflix. As you watch it, you make your own on-screen choices that determine which of several possible endings you reach.	01.04.2019
		Brooklyn Nine-Nine Fox canceled Brooklyn Nine-Nine at the end of its fifth season, but much to our delight, NBC picked it back up again. It's coming back for a sixth season starting on January 10th, and we thought that would make it just the right time to revisit our conversation about it.	01.02.2019
		Our Pop Culture Resolutions and Predictions Today, we look back on our 2018 resolutions to see how we fared, and make some new ones for the year to come. We also make our fearless pop culture predictions for the next 12 months, and see how last year's predictions panned out.	12.28.2018
		Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and a little Aquaman The animated Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse focuses on one of the Spider-People who has come along in the years since the world first met Peter Parker, in 1962. In the film, Miles Morales is a Brooklyn teenager who acquires spider-powers at the same time he discovers that there are other versions of himself across alternate dimensions.	12.26.2018
		Our 15 Favorite Things Of 2018 It's the end of the year, and that makes it the perfect time to talk about the things we loved the most in 2018. From Black Panther, to Crazy Rich Asians, to the viral moments you might have missed, we are rounding up our fifteen favorites of the year. So get ready for a whole lot of recommending.	12.21.2018
		Mary Poppins Returns In 1964, the original Mary Poppins made Julie Andrews a movie star and introduced a generation to Dick Van Dyke's regrettable Cockney accent. Now, Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda head up Mary Poppins Returns.	12.19.2018
		The Favourite and What's Making Us Happy The Favourite, set in the early 1700s, tells the story of Britain's Queen Anne and two women who are jostling for her favor. Rachel Weisz plays the Queen's close adviser Sarah, and Emma Stone plays an ambitious servant named Abigail who has her eye on a bigger prize.	12.14.2018
		Sam Sanders Chats With Guy Branum Comedian Guy Branum joins NPR's Sam Sanders to talk about his new book My Life As A Goddess and the many challenges presented by a mostly white, hetero-normative comedy scene.	12.12.2018
		Hallmark Holiday Movies What's warm and fuzzy, emotionally manipulative, and desperate for attention almost every hour of every day? Linda's dog, sure. But also the Hallmark Channel's endless supply of holiday movies and the competitors nipping at their heels.	12.07.2018
		Our Favorite Christmas Songs You can't have an abundance of Christmas songs without also having an abundance of opinions about Christmas songs — songs we love, songs we hate, songs we love when they're sung by one person, but hate when they're sung by another. This week on Pop Culture Happy Hour, we've convened a special panel to tackle our favorite songs for the season.	12.05.2018
		Ralph Breaks The Internet and What's Making Us Happy Wreck It Ralph was a hit when it came out in 2012. Ralph Breaks the Internet picks up where that film left off, and is even more ambitious than its predecessor. This time, Ralph travels to the Internet — which gives the movie a lot of material to work with.	11.30.2018
		Creed II It's been three years since the Rocky movies were reborn with Creed, starring Michael B. Jordan as Apollo Creed's son, Adonis. Now, in Creed 2, Adonis is up against the son of Ivan Drago, the man who killed his father in the ring in 1985.	11.28.2018
		Widows and What's Making Us Happy Widows is not your average heist movie — director Steve McQueen and co-screenwriter Gillian Fylnn have created something far more interesting. The film also has a star-studded cast that includes Viola Davis, Daniel Kaluuya, Michelle Rodriguez, Brian Tyree Henry, and Liam Neeson.	11.23.2018
		Die Hard Die Hard turned 30 this year. So as the season of Season's Greetings approaches, it's time for the Pop Culture Happy Hour conversation we've always been dying to have.	11.21.2018
		Homecoming In the Amazon thriller Homecoming, Julia Roberts plays a caseworker at a facility that helps soldiers re-adjust to civilian life. Or at least that's what she thinks it does. But calls from a mysterious boss and sessions with a young soldier make her question everything.	11.16.2018
		Remembering Stan Lee Stan Lee helped create some of the most indelible comic book characters in American popular culture, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Black Panther. He died Monday. He was 95.	11.13.2018
		'Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj' and 'Busy Tonight' There are a bunch of new shows to pay attention to this season, and today we're talking about two of our favorite talk entries — Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj and Busy Tonight.	11.09.2018
		Nobody's Fool Nobody's Fool is a Tyler Perry movie, but maybe more important at the moment, it's a Tiffany Haddish movie. Haddish plays Tanya, who fears her sister is being catfished in an online relationship.	11.07.2018
		The Haunting of Hill House The Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House tells what is, in many ways, an old-fashioned ghost story. Moving between the past and the present, the series traces the effects of trauma on a family that once chose to spend a summer living in a house that is up to no good.	11.02.2018
		Wildlife Wildlife, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan, tells the story of a marriage in crisis in 1960's Montana. Based on a novel by Richard Ford and directed by actor Paul Dano, it's told from the point of view of a young teenager watching his family fall to pieces.	10.31.2018
		Beautiful Boy and What's Making Us Happy Beautiful Boy is a story of addiction starring two Oscar-nominated actors. Timothée Chalamet plays Nic Sheff, who's addicted to crystal meth. Steve Carell plays David Sheff, his journalist father who's struggling to help him get well.	10.26.2018
		Halloween It's been forty years since the release of the classic horror film, Halloween. Since then, the franchise has wandered through its own house of horrors in the form of sequels and reboots. The newest Halloween throws all of those additions out, and assumes that only the 1978 original ever happened.	10.24.2018
		Big Mouth and What's Making Us Happy If you've been longing for a cartoon that covers the really important questions — like how to manage lust, and how to avoid your embarrassing parents — you are in luck. Big Mouth, Netflix's animated comedy series about the horrors of puberty, is back for a second season.	10.19.2018
		Venom In Venom, Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock, an investigative journalist who's trying to rebound from a major setback in his career. But Eddie's plans are halted when he's overtaken by a violent — and gooey — alien symbiote.	10.17.2018
		'First Man' and What's Making Us Happy First Man tells the story of Neil Armstrong's life in the decade leading up to his walk on the moon. Ryan Gosling stars as Armstrong, and it's directed by Damien Chazelle. It's the second time they're teaming up after the huge commercial and critical success of La La Land.	10.12.2018
		The Hate U Give The Hate U Give finds teenager Starr Carter caught between two worlds — her mostly black neighborhood and a white prep school. When her friend Khalil is killed by a police officer, she's forced to reconcile these two very different parts of her identity. We're joined by Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings, hosts of The Nod podcast.	10.10.2018
		A Star Is Born and What's Making Us Happy Lady Gaga stars opposite Bradley Cooper in the latest retelling of A Star Is Born. It's also Cooper's directing debut, with a cast that includes Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, and Dave Chappelle. We're joined by Ari Shapiro to break down the singing, the glamour, the tears, and the wonder of Sam Elliott's voice.	10.05.2018

LAST EPISODE

'Us'

03.22.2019

Us is Jordan Peele's follow up to his 2017 film Get Out. The film stars Lupita Nyong'o as a mother whose whole family is confronted by their own doppelgängers.