656 episodes

Get obsessed with us. Five 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

Pop Culture Happy Hour Pop Culture Happy Hour

    • TV & Film
    • 4.5 • 214 Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

Get obsessed with us. Five 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

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    Deadpool & Wolverine and what's making us happy

    Deadpool & Wolverine and what's making us happy

    In the highly meta Deadpool & Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman finally meet up for their own big movie. Deadpool is still smarmy, Wolverine is still tragic, and they have to get together to save the world. Along the way, Deadpool continues his usual routine of endless wisecracking. The movie is jam-packed with fan service and Easter eggs. But how will casual Marvel fans like the movie?

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    • 23 min
    In The Decameron, the Black Death makes for black comedy

    In The Decameron, the Black Death makes for black comedy

    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 decide to retreat to a picturesque villa in the country to wait it all out. The large ensemble includes Tony Hale and Zosia Mamet. Every character is hiding something, and those secrets get revealed — and more than a few uglies get bumped.

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    • 17 min
    Three great karaoke songs

    Three great karaoke songs

    What makes a good karaoke song? In this encore episode, we're suggesting three great songs to sing at karaoke night.

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    • 9 min
    Sunny is a robot buddy comedy about loss

    Sunny is a robot buddy comedy about loss

    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 console her, her husband's electronics company gives her a robot companion. The show is an interesting mix of styles and genres – it's a buddy comedy, a crime thriller and a drama about loss. But at the center of it all is the mystery of what happened to her husband and son – and why.

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    • 14 min
    You voted on the best summer snacks and we have the results (Pop Culture Happy Hour+)

    You voted on the best summer snacks and we have the results (Pop Culture Happy Hour+)

    Waffle cone vs. sugar cone? Hamburger vs. hot dog? Lemonade vs. iced tea? We matched up summer treats and put the questions of which are better to Pop Culture Happy Hour listeners, and we are revealing the results in a special bonus episode. To access this bonus episode—and listen to every episode sponsor-free—sign up for Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happyhour

    Twisters and what's making us happy

    Twisters and what's making us happy

    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 a whole lot of tornadoes. The new film stars Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones as rival storm-chasers who have a habit of running into tornadoes while everyone else is fleeing. Twisters was directed by Lee Isaac Chung, who also directed the Oscar-nominated Minari.

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    • 27 min

Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5
214 Ratings

214 Ratings

Stesallthat ,

Great show

Would love to hear you cover the new Doctor Who.

Sonalih ,

Such a positive, happy show

It’s all in the name! It’s a joyful show to listen to. And I have found so many wonderful things to watch and read from Pop Culture Happy Hour.

H Mit ,

Great one except

The episode on Expats was very shallow. If you have lived in Hong Kong as an Asian person in the year it was set you would never be able to dismiss it so readily. Besides that one episode that really offended me it’s a great show

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