630 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

    It's getting hot. So what's sweatiest movie ever made?

    It's getting hot. So what's sweatiest movie ever made?

    Whether they're lightly perspiring, gently glowing, or soaked through from sweltering, people in the movies sweat a lot. But what movie has had people sweat the very most? With summer underway, we are debating what is the sweatiest movie of all time — including Do the Right Thing, Dog Day Afternoon, Y tu mamá también, and Body Heat.

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    • 22 min
    Inside Out 2 And What's Making Us Happy

    Inside Out 2 And What's Making Us Happy

    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 Anger (Lewis Black). In Inside Out 2, Riley is experiencing puberty and a whole new crop of emotions have popped up. Most notably Anxiety (Maya Hawke) who has literally bottled up Riley's original core emotions and sent them hurtling into the back of her mind, where they plot to get back and set things right.

    We want to hear your opinions about summer snacks. Are you Team Hot Dog or Team Hamburger? What's better: churro or a funnel cake? Click here to cast your votes. The results will be revealed at a virtual live event for Pop Culture Happy Hour+ supporters on Thursday, June 27th at 6 p.m. ET.

    Sign up for PCHH+ at plus.npr.org/happyhour to get access to the event.

    (Once you've signed up for PCHH+, make sure to set up your special feed, where you'll see a special bonus episode from May 31st with instructions on how to register for the live event. Email plus@npr.org for any extra assistance.)

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    • 21 min
    Jake Gyllenhaal's Presumed Innocent updates a legal thriller

    Jake Gyllenhaal's Presumed Innocent updates a legal thriller

    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 the accuser turned defendant as a limited series. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the lead this time, as a prosecutor who is accused of the murder of the colleague he'd had an affair with. David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies, The Practice, Ally McBeal) created the show.

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    • 23 min
    Our favorite graduation moments in pop culture

    Our favorite graduation moments in pop culture

    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 about the last wild night of high school, we're revisiting our episode about the best moments about graduation in pop culture.

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    • 23 min
    Am I OK? is a coming-out movie for adults

    Am I OK? is a coming-out movie for adults

    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 Mizuno as two women in their 30s who have been best friends a long time. But Johnson's character is grappling with the possibility that she's queer – and with the fact that her most treasured friendship is in trouble. Directed by Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne, it's streaming on Max.

    We want to hear your opinions about summer snacks. Are you Team Hot Dog or Team Hamburger? What's better: churro or a funnel cake? Click here to cast your votes. The results will be revealed at a virtual live event for Pop Culture Happy Hour+ supporters on Thursday, June 27th at 6 p.m. ET.

    Sign up for PCHH+ at plus.npr.org/happyhour to get access to the event.

    (Once you've signed up for PCHH+, make sure to set up your special feed, where you'll see a special bonus episode from May 31st with instructions on how to register for the live event. Email plus@npr.org for any extra assistance.)

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    • 14 min
    Hit Man And What's Making Us Happy

    Hit Man And What's Making Us Happy

    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 co-wrote this film with movie star of the moment, Glen Powell. Based very loosely on a real guy, Powell plays a mild-mannered professor who also works undercover for the police as a fake hitman.

    We want to hear your opinions about summer snacks. Are you Team Hot Dog or Team Hamburger? What's better: churro or a funnel cake? Click here to cast your votes. The results will be revealed at a virtual live event for Pop Culture Happy Hour+ supporters on Thursday, June 27th at 6 p.m. ET.

    Sign up for PCHH+ at plus.npr.org/happyhour to get access to the event.

    (Once you've signed up for PCHH+, make sure to set up your special feed, where you'll see a special bonus episode from May 31st with instructions on how to register for the live event. Email plus@npr.org for any extra assistance.)

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    • 25 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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