Pop Culture Happy Hour
By NPR
Get obsessed with us. Four days a week, Pop Culture Happy Hour serves you recommendations and commentary on the buzziest movies, TV, music, books, videogames and more. Join arts journalists Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon, Stephen Thompson, and Aisha Harris - plus a rotating cast of guest pop culture aficionados. The Happy Hour team leaves room at the table for exploring a range of reactions and opinions on every bit of the pop universe. From lowbrow to highbrow to the stuff in between, they take it all with a shot of cheer. Make your happy hour even happier with Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus! Your subscription supports the podcast and unlocks a sponsor-free feed. Learn more at plus.npr.org/happyhour
Episodes (9)
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Backrooms
The horror film *Backrooms* isn’t just a scare movie—it’s a generational artifact, born from internet folklore and shaped by a 20-year-old director who grew up entirely within the digital ecosystem. Set in a surreal, endless labyrinth of beige, fluorescent-lit
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Spider-Noir
The Pop Culture Happy Hour team delivers a scathing yet nuanced critique of Prime Video's new live-action series *Spider-Noir*, starring Nicolas Cage as a down-on-his-luck 1930s-style private detective who once wore the Spider-Man mask. While the show’s black-
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Scary Movie
The reboot of Scary Movie, a legacy sequel led by the Wayans brothers, arrives not as a fresh satire but as a self-aware parody of its own franchise’s decline—lampooning the very idea of reboots while delivering a patchwork of dated jokes and fleeting meta-com
Pop Culture Happy Hour
‘Office Romance’ stars J.Lo as a CEO with a bad case of Brett Goldstein
The new Netflix rom-com 'Office Romance' stars Jennifer Lopez as a glamorous airline CEO entangled in a forbidden romance with Brett Goldstein, a reserved British lawyer. While the film leans into the absurdity of J-Lo’s on-screen persona—her 'glowing' presenc
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Summer House
The latest season of Bravo's Summer House has ignited a cultural firestorm not for its usual antics, but for a scandal that blurs the line between reality TV drama and real-life betrayal. When Amanda Batula, recently divorced from Kyle Cook, began dating Wes W
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Disclosure Day and What’s Making Us Happy
Steven Spielberg’s latest film, *Disclosure Day*, arrives at a moment when the director’s legacy feels both revered and increasingly out of step with contemporary cultural anxieties. The movie, a sci-fi thriller about a secret alien presence and the emotional
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Stop! That! Train!
Stop That Train isn't just a spoof movie—it's a love letter to queer joy, drag culture, and the unapologetic absurdity of RuPaul's Drag Race. The film, a chaotic, joke-dense romp starring RuPaul as a flamboyant president and drag queens Jujubee and Ginger Minj
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Widow’s Bay
Widow's Bay, Apple TV+'s new series, reimagines the small-town mayor as a reluctant guardian of a cursed island where supernatural threats blend with bureaucratic absurdity. At its core, the show is a genre-bending comedy-horror that thrives on its cast of vet
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Olivia Rodrigo you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love
Olivia Rodrigo's third album, *You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love*, marks a bold pivot from her earlier, sharper breakup anthems into a more introspective, narrative-driven exploration of love’s highs and devastating lows. On Pop Culture Happy Hour, hos
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