Pop Culture Happy Hour

By NPR

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

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The Lion King And What's Ma...

07.19.2019

For the last few years, Disney has been turning its beloved animated films into live-action revamps . But this revamp isn't live-action — even though it looks like it is. The digital animation is ridiculously advanced, bringing Simba, Mufasa, Scar, ...

Pop Culture Happy Hour episodes:

07.19.2019 The Lion King And What's Making Us Happy For the last few years, Disney has been turning its beloved animated films into live-action revamps . But this revamp isn't live-action — even though it looks like it is. The digital animation is ridiculously advanced, bringing Simba, Mufasa, Scar, ...
07.17.2019 We Go To The Opera What has music, neon signs, classic cars, and Vegas gangsters in a dramatic story of love and death? Believe it or not, it's the Metropolitan Opera's production of Rigoletto, which we recently checked out in New York. Not only did ...
07.12.2019 Los Espookys And What's Making Us Happy Los Espookys is a very odd HBO comedy series about a group of horror-loving friends who start up a business that provides scary experiences for their clients.The six-episode series, which is now four episodes into its run, is co-written by ...
07.10.2019 Midsommar In the film Midsommar, writer-director Ari Aster follows up his cult horror hit Hereditary with a film about a literal cult. Florence Pugh plays a young woman who tags along with her awful boyfriend and his pals to a remote ...
07.05.2019 Spider-Man: Far From Home In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Tom Holland's Peter Parker deals with the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame by not dealing with it — he takes a class trip to Europe, attempting to leave his great power, and his great responsibility, behind.
07.02.2019 Songs Of Summer, 2019 Edition It's our second annual songs of summer spectacular! Every year at NPR Music we debate which hits might be remembered as "the song of the summer" — sometimes it's a frothy pop song, or a star-packed hip-hop banger, or simply ...
06.28.2019 'Yesterday' Imagines A World Without The Beatles In Yesterday, Himesh Patel plays Jack Malik, an English singer whose career is going nowhere. His parents don't understand him, but he's got the support of his friends — especially Ellie, his manager, played by Lily James. One night, Jack ...
06.26.2019 We Spoil Avengers: Endgame When Avengers: Endgame came out in late April, it got good reviews and it did huge business. As with everything we talk about, we didn't want to spoil it for you, so some of its biggest developments went un-analyzed. But ...
06.21.2019 Toy Story 4 And What's Making Us Happy The Toy Story movies have been skittering around the closets of our hearts for almost 25 years. Anchored by Woody the sheriff, voiced by Tom Hanks, they're central to the story of Pixar. Now we're up to Toy Story 4. ...
06.19.2019 Big Little Lies Returns For Season 2 When Big Little Lies came to HBO, it boasted a cast full of stars: Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz and Laura Dern. For season two, they upped their game by adding Meryl Streep. The end of season ...
06.14.2019 Late Night And What's Making Us Happy In the movie Late Night, Mindy Kaling plays Molly Patel, a woman who gets her big break in the writers' room of late night host Katherine Newbury. Newbury, played by Emma Thompson, is on thin ice with the network and ...
06.12.2019 Olivia Wilde Is Quizzed On Buffalo Wild Wings A few weeks ago we talked about the wonderful new teen comedy Booksmart. the film is directed by Olivia Wilde, who is also an actress known for her roles on House, The O.C., and Tron: Legacy. In this bonus episode, ...
06.10.2019 The 2019 Tony Awards We are recapping this year's Tony Awards. James Corden was back as the host, and it was a big night for the musical Hadestown and the Irish play The Ferryman. The musicals Tootsie and Oklahoma! also picked up multiple awards.
06.07.2019 You Should Watch Fleabag. Here's Why. In 2016, Phoebe Waller-Bridge presented the world with Fleabag. She not only writes the show, but she stars in it too. She plays a young woman only referred to as Fleabag who is bruised by external and internal struggles. And ...
06.05.2019 Rocketman Rocketman is a new biopic about queer rock icon Elton John. It is in many ways a typical rise-and-fall, dangers of fame kind of rock star biopic. But there is a difference: this is a full-on jukebox musical on film. ...
05.31.2019 Booksmart and What's Making Us Happy In the new movie Booksmart, two young women about to graduate from high school spend one last night trying to catch up on everything they missed. Starring Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever, it's the directing debut of actress Olivia Wilde. ...
05.29.2019 Our Great Big Theater Roundup We recently packed up and road-tripped to New York to check out some selections from the current Broadway theater season. We went to musicals and plays, revivals and new works, and we have a lot of thoughts.
05.24.2019 Aladdin and What's Making Us Happy Aladdin is the latest Disney live-action remake of an animated classic. The 1992 original starred Robin Williams as the genie, and this time it's Will Smith.
05.20.2019 Game Of Thrones After eight seasons, 73 episodes, and way too many characters busting out the phrase "bend the knee" all the time, HBO's Game of Thrones has come to an end. And there's a lot to unpack.
05.17.2019 John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum and What's Making Us Happy Once upon a time, a man named John Wick retired from his successful career as an assassin. But then he returned to it. And across what's now a three-film series, he's been having a heck of a week ever since.
05.15.2019 Pokémon Detective Pikachu The Pokémon universe has brought the world television cartoons, trading cards, video games, plush toys, the mobile-game sensation Pokemon GO, and a string of animated movies. Now, the franchise makes the leap into live action with a big-budget summer blockbuster ...
05.10.2019 People We're Pulling For and What's Making Us Happy Everyone needs inspiration. And we need it too. So from time to time, we pause just to single out some of the people whose work we're appreciating. People from whom we want more. We call this segment People We're Pulling ...
05.08.2019 Long Shot: Charlize Theron And Seth Rogen Mix Romance And Politics While summer is a time of spectacles and sequels, there is always time for love. The new romantic comedy Long Shot stars Charlize Theron as a beautiful and sophisticated presidential candidate and Seth Rogen as the grubby speechwriter with her ...
05.03.2019 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and Comedies About Music We revisit our 2016 discussion of the film Popstar. We The also look at back at other films that find humor in the foibles of musicians.
05.01.2019 Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos in Pop Culture Nothing fascinates the world like a meteoric rise. Except, of course, for a spectacular fall. The story of the Silicon Valley startup Theranos and its young founder Elizabeth Holmes has both. And the coverage it's received has been huge. There's ...
04.26.2019 'Avengers: Endgame' and What's Making Us Happy The Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought us Iron Man movies, Thor movies, Captain America movies, Avengers movies, and many other superhero franchises over the last decade, and they all feed into one epic that ties up many of the loose ...
04.22.2019 Beyoncé's Homecoming On Wednesday, Beyoncé released two major projects. On Netflix, a new documentary captures the process of putting on headlining appearances at last year's Coachella Music Festival. She also surprise-released a double-length live album that contains just some of the highlights ...
04.19.2019 Our Summer Movie Preview It's time again for our summer movie preview. We'll take a shot at guessing hits and misses, and we'll tell you what we can't wait to see.
04.17.2019 We Offer Some Pop Culture Advice Today we open up the vault to finally bring you a segment we recorded back in 2016 with our pal Audie Cornish. You'll hear us live in Seattle offering advice on some classic pop culture problems.
04.12.2019 The Twilight Zone and What's Making Us Happy It's been 60 years since The Twilight Zone first aired, with the voice and eventually the face of its creator, Rod Serling. Now, CBS All Access has brought the anthology series back in a new incarnation. This time, the host ...
04.10.2019 Crazy Ex-Girlfriend For the last four seasons, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has followed Rebecca Bunch as she pursued love, dreaded her mother, and tried to address her mental health. The show stars Rachel Bloom as Bunch, who created the show with Aline Brosh Mckenna. ...
04.05.2019 Shazam! And What's Making Us Happy "Shazam!" is what young Billy Batson says to morph into a big red superhero. It's also the name of the new movie about him. Starring Zachary Levi as the big lug in the suit, Shazam! makes for a lighter DC ...
04.03.2019 Boost Your Mood With Pop Culture Serotonin Spring is here, but it's been a long winter. And we're a little overwhelmed by the news of the world, so we're taking a moment to share some of the things that lift our spirits in a segment we call ...
03.29.2019 What We Do In The Shadows: A Comedy With Bite The comedy series What We Do In The Shadows imagines what a slacker reality show might look like if all the roommates were vampires. The show is based on a 2014 film of the same name, which was helmed by ...
03.27.2019 Hulu's Shrill The new Hulu series Shrill follows Annie, a young writer. She's trying to get her career moving, figure out what's up with her sort-of boyfriend, and learn to feel good about her body. Annie is played by Saturday Night Live's ...
03.22.2019 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.
03.20.2019 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 ...
03.15.2019 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 ...
03.13.2019 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 ...
03.10.2019 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 ...
03.08.2019 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. ...
03.04.2019 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 ...
03.01.2019 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.
02.25.2019 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 ...
02.22.2019 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 ...
02.20.2019 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 ...
02.15.2019 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.
02.11.2019 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 ...
02.08.2019 '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 ...
02.04.2019 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, ...

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

What's Pop Culture Happy Hour about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Pop Culture Happy Hour episodes:

The Lion King And What's Making Us Happy

We Go To The Opera

Los Espookys And What's Making Us Happy

Midsommar

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Songs Of Summer, 2019 Edition

'Yesterday' Imagines A World Without The Beatles

We Spoil Avengers: Endgame

Toy Story 4 And What's Making Us Happy

Big Little Lies Returns For Season 2

Late Night And What's Making Us Happy

Olivia Wilde Is Quizzed On Buffalo Wild Wings

The 2019 Tony Awards

You Should Watch Fleabag. Here's Why.

Rocketman

Booksmart and What's Making Us Happy

Our Great Big Theater Roundup

Aladdin and What's Making Us Happy

Game Of Thrones

John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum and What's Making Us Happy

Pokémon Detective Pikachu

People We're Pulling For and What's Making Us Happy

Long Shot: Charlize Theron And Seth Rogen Mix Romance And Politics

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and Comedies About Music

Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos in Pop Culture

'Avengers: Endgame' and What's Making Us Happy

Beyoncé's Homecoming

Our Summer Movie Preview

We Offer Some Pop Culture Advice

The Twilight Zone and What's Making Us Happy

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Shazam! And What's Making Us Happy

Boost Your Mood With Pop Culture Serotonin

What We Do In The Shadows: A Comedy With Bite

Hulu's Shrill

Us

Music Discoveries From SXSW 2019

PEN15

The Other Two

The All Songs Considered SXSW Preview

Captain Marvel

Remembering Luke Perry

Russian Doll

2019 Oscars Recap

2019 Oscars Preview

A Pop Culture Quiz

The Oscar-Nominated Documentaries And Foreign-Laungage Films

The 2019 Grammys

'The Lego Movie 2'

The 2019 Super Bowl

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