574 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 • 10K Ratings

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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

    Problemista

    Problemista

    In the very funny and gently surreal new film Problemista, Julio Torres plays Alejandro, a young man from El Salvador scraping by in New York City as he pursues his dreams. But those dreams – and his immigration status – become imperiled. He must turn to a frazzled, fire-breathing art critic played by Tilda Swinton for emotional and financial support, which proves very fraught.

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    • 20 min
    Love Lies Bleeding And What's Making Us Happy

    Love Lies Bleeding And What's Making Us Happy

    The movie Love Lies Bleeding is a fun and weird erotic thriller. It's set in the late 1980s and stars Kristen Stewart as a brooding gym manager who falls in love with a hitchhiking bodybuilder, played by Katy O'Brian. Directed by Rose Glass (Saint Maud), the film's got a killer electronic soundtrack, and cinematic references of everything from John Waters to Showgirls.

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    • 22 min
    Girls5eva

    Girls5eva

    The bingeable comedy series Girls5eva is a silly parody of the music industry. It's about four down-on-their-luck members of a 90s girl group who reunite to stage a comeback, and find that a lot has changed. The show features a stacked cast, including Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps, and Paula Pell. Girls5Eva recently moved to Netflix and just returned for a new season, so today, we revisit our conversation about the series.

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    • 14 min
    Kung Fu Panda 4

    Kung Fu Panda 4

    Kung Fu Panda 4 is the latest movie in the popular and surprisingly thoughtful animated film franchise. Jack Black returns to voice Po, a gigantic, adorable panda who becomes the highly unlikely Dragon Warrior. He embarks on a quest alongside a devious fox, played by Awkwafina, to face a new villain, the Chameleon, played by Viola Davis. You got your hero's journey and training montages and some pretty stellar voice acting.

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    • 18 min
    Love Is Blind

    Love Is Blind

    Netflix's Love is Blind is like a bad relationship that's hard to give up. We've had doubts. We've had fights. And now, in its sixth season, we just can't seem to call it quits. This season has more strange proposals, more fights between people who obviously should not get married, and more moments when we find ourselves saying, "Really, Love Is Blind?"

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    • 29 min
    Our 2024 Oscars Recap

    Our 2024 Oscars Recap

    At this year's Oscars, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer won in most of the major categories, including best picture and best director. It was also a big night for Emma Stone, and Robert Downey Jr. Plus, Ryan Gosling brought the kenergy with a performance from Barbie.

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    • 28 min

Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5
10K Ratings

10K Ratings

Bridge0614 ,

Pop Culture Happy Hour is the bomb!

I listen to most of these. Fabulous commentary and has introduced me to movies, shows and books. Love it!

David_888111 ,

Antisemitism on display

The reviewers’ gleeful adulation of Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar acceptance speech is almost as offensive and troubling to many Jews as the speech itself. While Aisha called his words “powerful,” many Jews saw his “refuting of his Jewishness” just the newest step in the millennia-long effort to compel Jews to erase themselves - renounce your heritage, your faith, etc. Jews should not need to refute themselves to make people feel better about the Israel-Gaza war. Secondly, Linda’s point that Glazer didn’t need to “stretch to make that connection” between Auschwitz and Gaza is disgusting. 1 million Jews were forcibly deported to and gassed at Auschwitz (and 6 million killed overall in the Holocaust). While the Gaza situation is horrible, deaths are occurring in context of an overall war that Palestinian political leadership (Hamas) initiated; you can condemn death in both cases without equating the two.
The podcast doesn’t need to wade into politics at all. But since you’ve decided this is a political podcast, please expect legitimate criticism and condemnation of your antisemitic biases going forward.

SpongeBobbyHil589 ,

Poppycock

Pretentious pop npr npc

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