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Pop Culture Happy Hour
NPR · Culture
Trying to keep up with the latest in pop culture? We’ve got you covered. The Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast helps you find the best new binge-worthy tv shows, movies, music, and videogames. Join hosts Linda Holmes, Aisha Harris, Stephen Thompson, and Glen Weldon four episodes a week - plus a rotating cast of guest pop culture enthusiasts. It’s your fix for reviews, recommendations, and recaps of…
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Digger and What’s Making Us Happy
Digger is a loud, surprising, audacious, and sure-to-be-polarizing entry in this year’s Oscars race. The film stars Tom Cruise as a powerful oil baron who’s helped unleash an existential threat on the world — but that’s only the beginning. The looming devastation attracts the attention of the president (John Goodman)…
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A Different World
The TV series A Different World has loomed large in the culture since ending in the ‘90s, and now school is back in session in a new sequel series on Netflix. The show welcomes a new generation of students to the fictional HBCU Hillman College, and brings back notable alumni like Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy) and…
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Forgotten Island
Forgotten Island is a wonderful new animated feature from the team that brought you Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish . We’re introduced to childhood friends Jo (H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano). One is a free spirit, the other an aspiring scientist, and they’re both getting ready to go their separate…
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The Love Hypothesis
The Love Hypothesis brings the beloved trope of fake dating to the world of science and academia – but does it bring a fresh take to the bestselling book by Ali Hazelwood? The new Prime Video movie follows Stanford graduate student Olive (Lili Reinhart). Her best friend Anh (Rachel Marsh) is holding back from pursuing…
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Primetime and What's Making Us Happy
The new docudrama Primetime is a weird and highly fictionalized account of the meteoric rise of To Catch a Predato r. Robert Pattinson plays host Chris Hansen, who is struggling to get bigger ratings. Hansen and his team work with local law enforcement to drag the accused sexual abusers of minors before the camera and…
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Jay-Z
Jay-Z has been everywhere lately. It’s been 30 years since his acclaimed debut Reasonable Doubt , and he celebrated with a series of concerts at Yankee Stadium. And now there’s the HBO docuseries, JAŸ-Z In 8 , in which Jay-Z dissects his catalog with producer Rick Rubin. The series hopes to further cement his legacy…
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Fall Guide
This fall, there’s a lot of movies and TV on tap for you to see. And we're as excited for all of it to arrive as you are. So we’ve got a guide to what’s worth keeping on your radar, including Wicker , Wildwood , Wild Horse Nine , Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother and Avatar: Seven Havens . Looking for more buzzy…
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Great documentaries you don’t want to miss
We talk a lot about movies and TV shows, but new documentary films sometimes can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. So today we’re highlighting some new documentaries that are worth your time and you don’t want to miss – including Remake , The History of Concrete , Black Zombie , The Oldest Person in the World , and…
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Resident Evil and What's Making Us Happy
The new Resident Evil movie is wild, scary, inventive, fast-paced, and funny . That’s because the videogame-turned-film franchise got a reboot courtesy of director Zach Cregger ( Weapons and Barbarian ). Austin Abrams plays a medical courier tasked with transporting an important medical MacGuffin, and his journey goes…
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Last Seen
The new Apple TV series Last Seen is a compelling thriller. It stars Patrick Brammall ( Colin from Accounts) as an emergency dispatcher named who gets a call one night from a girl he thinks might be his long-missing daughter. The show follows him as he becomes obsessed with finding the truth, even at the cost of his…
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Crew Girl
The Netflix TV show Crew Girl follows in the footsteps of successful coming-of-age dramas like Sterling Point and The Summer I Turned Pretty . It follows Teagan, an ambitious high school rower (Miku Martineau) trying to fit in on the boys’ crew team at a fancy prep school. The show’s got a plucky fish out of water, a…
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2026 Emmys recap
This year’s Emmys were a big night for shows we really love, including Widow’s Bay , The Pitt and Pluribus. Actors Jean Smart and Matthew Rhys picked up wins, and Rhys made some history. And we’ll explain why we love Mariska Hargitay, who proved to be a game yet corny host. Connect with Pop Culture Happy Hour…
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Practical Magic 2 and What’s Making Us Happy
In Practical Magic 2, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as witch sisters doomed by a family curse that means any man they love will die. They embark on a new chapter where the next generation is discovering the dangers of being born into this family. It’s been over 25 years since the original film. But will…
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Unapologetically basic TV and movies that we love
When you hear the words “pumpkin spice latte,” maybe you think of fall. But maybe you just think about the pleasures of something unapologetically basic. The same can be said for movies and TV. Today, we are revealing some of the most basic things we really love – including National Treasure , Mamma Mia! Here We Go…
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Watch this: Filipiñana
Are you tired of the same eat-the-rich narratives churned out by Hollywood? There is a great new film Filipiñana offering a new take about the inner-workings of a country club in the Philippines. It’s both beautiful to look at and an emotional gut-punch. From director Rafael Manuel, this film kind of feels like if Wes…
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The hidden money financing your favorite songs
We all need a trusted source for music discovery – a music-savvy friend or family member, a music site – or someone on social media. But are influencers taking money to promote music and not telling you? Today we’re bringing you an episode of NPR’s It's Been a Minute , where host Brittany Luse talks to NPR music…
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Sterling Point and What’s Making Us Happy
The buzzy fantastic new TV drama Sterling Point has it all. A mysterious inheritance. A teen love triangle. Secrets and lies that echo across generations. The Prime Video series has twists, turns, and heart. You won’t want to miss it. Want more Gen Z drama? Check out these episodes: ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ has…
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Beyond Wordle: Our favorite online games
Millions of us play little daily games on our phone. But if you’re looking to expand the horizons of your morning distractions beyond Wordle and Connections, we’re here for you. Today we’re recommending some fun daily online games, including MapTap, Catfishing, TimeGuessr, The Loop, and Clues by Sam. Looking for more…
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It Ends
Have you ever been on a road trip that feels like it goes on forever and things started getting a bit existential? That’s the whole deal with the chewy new film It Ends . The horror-meets-psychological thriller follows four friends who just graduated college, as they turn onto a road through a dense forest and the…
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The Dog Stars
In the new post-apocalyptic film The Dog Stars , a virus has wiped out most of humanity and the survivors eke out a meager existence trying to stay alive. Sound like an oh-too-familiar tale? What if it featured stars like Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, and Allison Janney? And was directed by Ridley Scott and based on…
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Coyote vs. Acme and Dolly Parton
The movie Coyote vs. Acme comes with some buzzy lore: it was famously shelved, and almost didn’t see the light of day. But it’s here now, and it’s good and looney! It follows Wile E. Coyote when he decides to sue the Acme Corporation for manufacturing crappy, ineffective products. The cast includes Will Forte, John…
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Adults
Every generation gets its own version of a “20-somethings hang out and make mistakes” sitcom. And Gen Z’s got Adults , a silly series about a group of friends cohabitating in Queens, New York – and it makes for fun and all-too-relatable TV fodder. Adults is back for its second season on Hulu, so today we’re revisiting…
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Fictional teachers we wish we had
It’s back to school season, which has us thinking about our favorite teachers. The ones who really saw us, changed our points of view, or set us on new paths. But of all the teachers we've seen in TV and movies, which of them do we wish we'd had to educate us in real life? Today we’re talking about fictional on-screen…
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Lanterns
HBO’s new DC superhero show Lanterns is not the show you think it is. It’s about a couple of space cops: Kyle Chandler plays Earth’s Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, a grizzled, impulsive old-timer reluctantly training up his backup, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre). Yet the story avoids cosmic sweep and spectacle in favor of a…
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Tony and What’s Making Us Happy
In the new film Tony , we meet chef and author Anthony Bourdain before he was in the public eye. He was a wayward, overconfident young guy, and, as played by Dominic Sessa, kind of a piece of work. The movie focuses on a pivotal summer in 1975, when Tony worked in his first kitchen, a tiny hole-in-the-wall in…
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What's Making Us Happy (1970s Version)
We're traveling way back in time to 1971 -- when Richard Nixon was president, the Beatles were newly broken up, and Fiddler on the Roof was one of the biggest movies at the box office. Today in this encore episode, we’re revisiting a special edition of What's Making Us Happy, recommending pop culture from the 1970s –…
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Phoebe Bridgers’ album Lost Weekend
Phoebe Bridgers is your favorite pop star’s favorite pop star. And she’s just released a gorgeous new solo album, Lost Weekend . It’s packed with guest stars including her boygenius bandmates, pop superproducer Jack Antonoff and her partner, Bo Burnham. The record’s 16 songs are full of lore, lush sonic ideas, and…
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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
The new movie Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a bloody and bewildering queer slasher film. Directed by Jane Schoenbrun ( I Saw the TV Glow ), it stars Hannah Einbinder as a queer young filmmaker tapped to reboot a defunct slasher franchise, and Gillian Anderson as a reclusive actress. The movie is a meditation…
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The End of Oak Street and What’s Making Us Happy
In the fun, entertaining new film, The End of Oak Street , Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor star as a married couple in the early 1980s. One night, their entire suburban neighborhood is transported to a time filled with a variety of large and dangerous dinosaurs. Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell ( It…
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Summer blockbusters we somehow missed
Summer blockbusters are hugely popular and as a result, financially successful, and seen by lots of people. So with summer blockbuster season coming to a close, we decided to revisit our conversation about our own personal blockbuster gaps, and finally watch a movie that absolutely everyone saw – except for us —…
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