Pop Culture Happy Hour
Episodes
Disclaimer
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Saturday Night And What's Making Us Happy
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Pop Culture Pumpkin Spice Lattes: Basic But We Love It
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The word "basic" often gets thrown around to describe anything that's mainstream, popular, frictionless, or otherwise inoffensive. But sometimes basic...
SNL, Late Night, And The Election
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We're in a pretty critical election year. And in times like these, a lot of us are turning to political comedy to help make sense of (and fun of) the ...
A Different Man
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The off-beat psycho dramedy A Different Man follows Edward (Sebastian Stan), an aspiring actor living with facial disfigurement. He takes an opportuni...
Joker: Folie à Deux And What's Making Us Happy
04 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Wild Robot
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Nobody Wants This
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 i...
Industry
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Megalopolis And What's Making Us Happy
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 re...
His Three Daughters
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon, and Natasha Lyonne are often the best thing about their projects, and they're all together in the moving new Netflix fil...
Colin From Accounts
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 chanc...
The Substance
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Substance is a bloody, campy, fiercely feminist body horror film. Demi Moore plays a TV aerobics instructor desperate to stay in the spotlight. Sh...
Transformers One And What's Making Us Happy
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
My Old Ass
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What would you do if you met your future self, who's a couple of decades older and maybe a little wiser? Would you freak out? In the delightful new mo...
Fall Guide
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fall is beginning, and it's the perfect time to talk about all the great things we're excited to watch and listen to between now and the end of the ye...
2024 Emmys Recap
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Speak No Evil And What's Making Us Happy
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Never visit your weird new friends at their enormous isolated country estate. That's a basic rule that an American family fails to follow in the new h...
Rebel Ridge
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 Front Room
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 wo...
The Perfect Couple
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 T...
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice And What's Making Us Happy
06 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 vi...
Songs To Boost Your Confidence
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Maybe you're going up for a promotion, or just got out of a bad relationship. Whatever it is, your mood needs a boost. Today, we're recommending three...
Kaos
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Reality TV, Romance, And Race
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Afraid And What's Making Us Happy
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ve...
The Crow
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 unstoppa...
Sabrina Carpenter's Album Short N' Sweet
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 calle...
When Celebrities Portray Themselves
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 i...
Blink Twice And What's Making Us Happy
23 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 Channin...
The Reality TV Shows We'd Actually Win
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Bad Monkey
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 cra...
Physical Media We Still Treasure
19 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 giv...
Alien: Romulus And What's Making Us Happy
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Didi
15 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 survi...
$#@*! Profanity In Pop Culture
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We've got dirty words on the brain, and we're chatting about the use and functions of profanity in entertainment. In this encore episode from 2013, we...
Hunter Schafer's Movie Cuckoo
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the new, stylishly odd horror film Cuckoo, Hunter Schafer plays an American teenager who reluctantly moves with her family to a mysterious resort i...
It Ends With Us and what's making us happy
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 fa...
Three great fiction audiobooks
08 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Here's why we love the Olympics
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is nothing better for the summer doldrums than a blast of Olympic glory. For a couple of weeks this summer, athletes are showing us how they fli...
Colman Domingo's Sing Sing is a rare empathetic prison drama
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 priso...
Trap and what's making us happy
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 appear...
House Of The Dragon season 2 makes it Rhaen(yra)
01 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Time Bandits maps contemporary vibes over a cult classic
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 thei...
We're talking songs of the (Brat) summer
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Deadpool & Wolverine and what's making us happy
26 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the highly meta Deadpool & Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman finally meet up for their own big movie. Deadpool is still smarmy, Wolverine i...
In The Decameron, the Black Death makes for black comedy
25 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Three great karaoke songs
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 c...
Sunny is a robot buddy comedy about loss
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 co...
Twisters and what's making us happy
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
We unpack the 2024 Emmy nominations
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Exploding Kittens is a simple card game turned wild cartoon
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 E...
Longlegs is a (satanic) panic
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 k...
Fly Me to the Moon and what's making us happy
12 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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-...
Three great sports documentaries
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sports aren't just games. They're intertwined with epic stories about struggle, human behavior, historic greatness and grand emotions. In other words,...
Despicable Me 4 serves up 90 minutes of bankable mayhem
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 na...
How we entertain and amuse ourselves on a road trip
08 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's summer, so we're talking all about road trips. Should you blast music that's familiar or unfamiliar? What makes for a good road trip audiobook? W...
MaXXXine and what's making us happy
05 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Bowen Yang thinks being present is overrated
04 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 int...
Megan Thee Stallion sheds her skin on Megan
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A lot has happened to rapper Megan Thee Stallion over the last couple of years including a highly publicized trial after being shot by a former friend...
Yes, chef: The Bear has a lot going on in its third season
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
In A Quiet Place: Day One, Lupita Nyong'o makes silence golden
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 Qui...
Kinds of Kindness and what's making us happy
28 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 Daf...
Lily Gladstone's Fancy Dance is a road trip worth taking
27 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The new film Fancy Dance offers something all-too-rare on screen: contemporary Indigenous perspectives, front and center. Lily Gladstone plays a woman...
Will they or won't they? Unpacking TV's eternal question
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jim and Pam. Mulder and Scully. Janine and Gregory. Carmy and Sydney. Meredith and McDreamy. You know how it goes: two television characters with obv...
Is Star Wars' The Acolyte a force to be reckoned with?
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 earl...
Thelma And What's Making Us Happy
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Financial scams are an unfortunate phenomenon, but what happens when a fraudster messes with the wrong grandma? The very fun action-comedy Thelma imag...
HBO's Fantasmas is new and different and uniquely itself
20 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 los...
Bridgerton closes out a crowded third season
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 Brid...
It's getting hot. So what's sweatiest movie ever made?
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Whether they're lightly perspiring, gently glowing, or soaked through from sweltering, people in the movies sweat a lot. But what movie has had peopl...
Inside Out 2 And What's Making Us Happy
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 A...
Jake Gyllenhaal's Presumed Innocent updates a legal thriller
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 th...
Our favorite graduation moments in pop culture
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is the time of year when so many students graduate. Whether it's graduation episodes of our favorite TV series, high school songs, or movies abou...
Am I OK? is a coming-out movie for adults
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 Mi...
Hit Man And What's Making Us Happy
07 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Doctor Who is enlivened by its new Black, openly queer star
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Clipped recreates an embarrassing NBA scandal
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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'...
Looking back at The Sopranos, the godfather of prestige TV
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Sopranos changed television. The HBO series was centered on mobster Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a deeply flawed male antihero. That then- inn...
Welcome to Pop Culture Happy Hour
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Get obsessed with us. Four days a week, Pop Culture Happy Hour serves you recommendations and commentary on the buzziest movies, TV, music, books, vid...
Best Fictional Bands And What's Making Us Happy
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes, our favorite musical artists are too good to be true because they're sprung from the imaginations of Hollywood screenwriters. But what make...
We Are Lady Parts rocks with bracing honesty and nuance
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 Pa...
Terrible but bingeable TV shows
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What is it about a show that turns you into a bitter-ender, that keeps you dutifully watching every last episode, long after the train has jumped the ...
Why Chris Pine gave up on being perfect
27 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga And What's Making Us Happy
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Does The Sympathizer worthily adapt its acclaimed book?
23 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 aute...
Does IF capture the magic of its Pixar inspiration?
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The sexy sex is back in Bridgerton's new season
20 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Netflix series Bridgerton is back, as gossipy and over-the-top as ever. Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and her crush on childhood best ...
Back To Black And What's Making Us Happy
17 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 r...
Babes gives us a funny (and gross) portrait of parenthood
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 inher...
Looking to the past and future of Black Twitter
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 o...
I Saw the TV Glow is weird and transfixing
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 an...
Sink your teeth into Interview with the Vampire
13 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 surp...
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes And What's Making Us Happy
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Drake-Kendrick Lamar Beef
09 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
2024 seems destined to go down as the Year of Pop Culture Grievances. Megan vs. Nicki. Beyoncé vs. Nashville. But above all: Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake...
Dua Lipa's Radical Optimism
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 mov...
Unfrosted
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show
06 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, the comedian doubles down on the uncomfortable intimacy of his stand up special Rothaniel, where he came out public...
The Fall Guy And What's Making Us Happy
03 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
The Idea Of You
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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)....
Baby Reindeer
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 Ga...