Pop Culture Happy Hour

Jay Kelly

In Netflix?s Jay Kelly, George Clooney plays the aging movie star Jay Kelly. His longtime manager (Adam Sander) and publicist (Laura Dern) struggle to manage Jay on a trip through Europe as he deals with the difficult relationship he has with his two grown daughters. From director and co-writer Noah Baumbach, the film is an exploration of regret and missed opportunities.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-12-10
Link to episode

The Worst Christmas Movies

?Tis the season you?ll find plenty of good holiday movies ? films that can be counted upon to deliver warmth and cheer. And bad holiday movies? They can be fun in their own way. So we?re debating: what?s the worst Christmas movie of all time? We?ll talk about Love Actually, Jingle All The Way, I Believe In Santa, and Scrooge & Marley.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-12-09
Link to episode

The Abandons

In Netflix?s The Abandons, Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey play two steely matriarchs that face off on the American frontier. But don?t let the spurs and cowboy hats fool you. At its heart, the new Western series is a sudsy nighttime soap. But is that a good thing?

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-12-08
Link to episode

Five Nights at Freddy?s 2 and What?s Making Us Happy

In the new film Five Nights at Freddy?s 2, Josh Hutcherson returns as the protagonist trying to survive in a haunted children?s restaurant called Freddy Fazbear?s Pizza. The creepy animatronic robots remain, and the sequel adds fresh lore and extends the action beyond the original abandoned restaurant.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

The first-ever NPR Pod Club Awards are coming up, and YOU get to crown the winner of the People?s Choice Award. Vote for Pop Culture Happy Hour here!

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-12-05
Link to episode

2025 Pop Culture Favorites

It?s been a great year for TV, movies, and music. And we are highlighting some of the best, including KPop Demon Hunters, Sinners, and Severance. We?ll also talk about some things you might have missed.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-12-04
Link to episode

Rereading Pride & Prejudice

This year, readers around the world are celebrating Jane Austen?s 250th birthday. Today we?ve got an episode of NPR?s Books We?ve Loved where Linda Holmes, Andrew Limbong and B.A. Parker discuss Austen?s seminal novel Pride & Prejudice. The trio weighs in on how the romance genre continues to reference the book?s ?enemies to lovers? story ? and why the tale?s leads Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy still make us and laugh and swoon even today.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-12-02
Link to episode

Hamnet

Hamnet tells the fictionalized account of the lives of William Shakespeare and his wife, played by Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. They fall in love, have children, suffer an unspeakable tragedy. When their only son dies, it creates a rift in their marriage and inspires Will to write one of his greatest works?Hamlet. Directed by Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), it does everything it can to make you cry a whole lot.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-12-01
Link to episode

All?s Fair And What?s Making Us Happy

Ryan Murphy?s latest show All?s Fair centers on an all-female law firm led by Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, and Niecy Nash-Betts. The high-powered law firm specializes in obtaining hefty divorce settlements for wealthy women. The show is barbed, nasty, over-the-top and maybe too much. It?s got us wondering: Is it fair that Murphy?s unleashed this utter silliness upon the world?

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-28
Link to episode

Zootopia 2

Disney?s Zootopia grossed over a billion dollars worldwide. Now our heroes return in the sequel Zootopia 2. Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) are now partners in the Zootopia police force. And there's a new problem: a snake has appeared in a reptile-free zone, and he brings to light a mystery from Zootopia's complicated past. The cast also includes Ke Huy Quan, Andy Samberg and Fortune Feimster, who add something new to what has already been a winning formula.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-26
Link to episode

Sentimental Value

The new movie Sentimental Value is one of the great films about absentee dads who reappear in their kids? lives. Stellan Skarsgård plays a renowned filmmaker preparing his next feature and attempting to reconnect with his estranged daughters (played by Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). And it proves that at the very least, the tension between art and parenthood is complicated. The film is directed by Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World) and also stars Elle Fanning.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-25
Link to episode

All Her Fault

The entertaining Peacock series All Her Fault begins with a cute kid, an Emmy winner, and a mystery. Sarah Snook plays a mother who goes to pick up her young son from a playdate and learns there is no child to pick up. There are a lot of twists and turns?a lot of them?particularly as she gets to know another mom at the school, played by Dakota Fanning. While the agony of a missing child is bad enough, the show ultimately interrogates marriage, and the way women are forced to accommodate the behavior and misbehavior of men in their lives.

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-24
Link to episode

Wicked: For Good And What?s Making Us Happy

Wicked was a smash hit that earned Oscar nominations for Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo?but that was only the first half of the story. Wicked: For Good has more songs, more magic, more extravagant production design, and more belting. But can it match the impact and live up to the hype of the first film?

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-21
Link to episode

A Man On The Inside

The charming Netflix sitcom A Man on the Inside stars Ted Danson as a lonely widower who?s hired by a private investigator to live undercover in a senior living facility. His mission is to find out who stole a precious item from one of the residents. Created by Michael Schur (The Good Place), the series is also a tender and poignant depiction of loss, aging, and finding community. A Man on the Inside just returned for a second season, so today we?re revisiting our conversation about the show.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-20
Link to episode

The Beast In Me

In the new Netflix series The Beast In Me, a writer played by Claire Danes struggles to find the topic of her next book ? until a nefarious real estate tycoon played by Matthew Rhys moves in next door. He?s widely suspected of having murdered his first wife, even though her death has been officially treated as a suicide. The two cautiously get acquainted, as she tries to figure out the truth.

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-18
Link to episode

Now You See Me: Now You Don't

In Now You See Me: Now You Don?t, the magical Four Horsemen ? played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher ? reunite after almost 10 years to fight a cruel diamond heiress played by Rosamund Pike. You?ve got twists and turns, tricks galore, mysterious benefactors? and, just like in the Fast & Furious movies, a fair bit of talk about family.

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-17
Link to episode

The Running Man And What's Making Us Happy

The Running Man is a new dystopian thriller starring Glen Powell as a man so desperate for money to care for his family that he volunteers to run for his life. As a contestant on a TV game show, he must survive for 30 days while being hunted by a group of highly skilled assassins and by his fellow citizens. Based on a Stephen King novel, director Edgar Wright brings in an all-star cast including Lee Pace, Colman Domingo, William H. Macy and Michael Cera.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-14
Link to episode

Death By Lightning

Netflix?s Death by Lightning pits President James Garfield (Michael Shannon) against Charles Guiteau (Matthew McFadyen), the disgruntled would-be political operative who shot him. But it?s not quite the stuffy, stately historical drama that you ? and your dad ? are probably expecting. Toss in a brace of white middle-aged actors in great big bushy beards and sideburns ? Shea Whigham, Nick Offerman, Bradley Whitford ? and you?ve got yourself a show.

Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-13
Link to episode

Pluribus

The new and highly anticipated Apple TV series Pluribus, from Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad), asks a simple question: What if a proud misanthrope suddenly found herself truly alone? Pluribus stars Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul) in a tour de force performance as a miserable romantasy author who escapes an event that swallows practically everyone on Earth. The show is a creepy, lonely, darkly funny look at loss and what makes us human.

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-11
Link to episode

Predator: Badlands

Predator: Badlands is the latest film about an alien race that hunts things using all sorts of space-gadgets. It?s told from the Predator?s perspective. He?s an outcast sent to a hostile planet to hunt down a deadly monster to prove his worth to his people ? with Elle Fanning joining as an unlikely ally. It?s from the same team that made Prey. And both Predator movies are much better than they had any right to be.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-10
Link to episode

Frankenstein And What's Making Us Happy

Guillermo del Toro?s Frankenstein is a new reimagining of Mary Shelly?s classic gothic horror tale about a misunderstood monster who?s abandoned by his creator and shunned by society. Oscar Isaac is the narcissistic doctor Victor Frankenstein, and Jacob Elordi has a gargantuan yet humanizing turn as The Creature. Now streaming on Netflix, Frankenstein is dark, epic, and preoccupied with the existential dread of life and death.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-07
Link to episode

I Love LA

Rachel Sennott?s next project, the HBO series I Love LA, has finally arrived. And like plenty of shows before it, it?s about young people trying to work and socialize in a big city while screwing up in every conceivable way. Sennott stars as an ascendant employee at a boutique talent management firm with a very online crew played by Josh Hutcherson, Jordan Firstman, Odessa A?zion and True Whitaker.

Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-06
Link to episode

Hedda

In the new film Hedda, Tessa Thompson plays a woman bored with her dull husband, and who devilishly manipulates the affections of everyone in her orbit. Writer/director Nia DaCosta makes some bold changes in this adaptation of the classic Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler, and sets almost all of the action during a lavish party gone awry. But this is not your grandmother?s Hedda. It?s sexy, chaotic, and, above all, messy as hell. It?s streaming on Prime Video.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-04
Link to episode

IT: Welcome To Derry

In new HBO prequel series IT: Welcome to Derry, we return to the clown who keeps on giving. Based on the Stephen King novel and a prequel to the films It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019), the show finds a whole new crop of kids being terrorized by whatever lives underneath their little town in Maine. And at the nearby military base, some of the local adults are acting pretty sketchy, too. There is a lot going on and a lot of it is very bloody. Bill Skarsgård returns as Pennywise, but be patient since it takes a while to lay eyes on him.

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-11-03
Link to episode

Bugonia And What?s Making Us Happy

Bugonia stars Emma Stone as a high-powered CEO who?s kidnapped by conspiracy theorists, one of whom is played by Jesse Plemons. The conflict grows more and more complex and intense ? and, given that this is a Yorgos Lanthimos movie, it gets 1) very dark; and 2) very weird.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-31
Link to episode

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

Rose Byrne shows off her dramatic chops in the new movie If I Had Legs I?d Kick You, where she plays a therapist shouldering all the responsibility of caring for her ill daughter while her emotionally absent husband is away for work. Her patients have their own issues, and sometimes they don't grasp the meaning of "boundaries." And her relationship with her own therapist/co-worker, who?s played by Conan O?Brien, is? messy. And that?s only the beginning.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-29
Link to episode

Halloween Songs

Who's the Mariah Carey of Halloween? Every year we hear many familiar Halloween songs ? from the Ghostbusters theme to ?Thriller? to ?Monster Mash.? But beyond those Halloween staples, what?s next? Today we've got an episode of NPR?s All Songs Considered that offers up a new canon spooky season songs ? from the truly terrifying to autumnal and nostalgic.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-28
Link to episode

Blue Moon

In the new movie Blue Moon, Ethan Hawke plays songwriter Lorenz Hart, who is having maybe the worst night of his life. His long term collaborator Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) has forged a new partnership with Oscar Hammerstein II, and tonight is the opening of Oklahoma!, their first show. And it's safe to say Hart is miserable. Blue Moon is directed by Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise, Boyhood), and co-stars Margaret Qualley.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-27
Link to episode

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere And What?s Making Us Happy

In the new film Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, the currently red-hot actor Jeremy Allen White plays the eternally red-hot rock star, Bruce Springsteen. And yes, White does his own singing. The film tells the story of the 1982 album Nebraska. It came at a time of personal and career uncertainty for Springsteen, and ended up being recorded in a bedroom, without a band. It?s largely a film about fighting to preserve the integrity of your art, which Springsteen does alongside his manager, played by Jeremy Strong.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-24
Link to episode

Nobody Wants This

In the Netflix series Nobody Wants This, Kristen Bell plays an agnostic podcaster, who meets a rabbi, played by Adam Brody. They like each other immediately, but there are some hurdles for them when it comes to being together. The show offers plenty of romantic comedy banter and good chemistry, as well as some pretty deep questions about faith and compatibility. Nobody Wants This just returned for a second season, so today we are revisiting our conversation about the series.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-23
Link to episode

The Reality TV Show I'd Like To Judge

When you watch a competitive reality show, you might think about how you'd win. But maybe you think about a much more powerful role for yourself: the judge. We discuss which reality tv show we?d like to judge - including Top Chef, American Idol, RuPaul?s Drag Race, and Rhythm + Flow.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-22
Link to episode

Good Fortune

In Good Fortune, Keanu Reeves plays a doofy, well-meaning guardian angel named Gabriel who gets a little too involved in the life of a gig worker named Arj (Aziz Ansari). In trying to teach Arj a life lesson, Gabriel grants him the opportunity to swap places with a finance mogul (Seth Rogen). This mostly buddy comedy is Ansari?s feature directorial debut and has a bit to say about wealth inequality and even some musings on what makes life meaningful.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-21
Link to episode

Black Phone 2 And What?s Making Us Happy

Grabbers gonna grab, even from beyond the grave. In Black Phone 2, Ethan Hawke returns from the dead as the serial killer who hides behind a demonic mask. It?s four years later, and the siblings (Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw) who survived the Grabber?s killing spree are having a hard time with things. They head off to camp to investigate Gwen's psychic nightmares of the Grabber's early victims.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-17
Link to episode

Roofman

In the new movie Roofman, Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst ooze with their signature charm and chemistry. Tatum plays an exceptionally savvy military veteran who robs fast food joints by entering through the rooftops. Eventually he gets caught and sent to prison, but he?s able to escape and hides out in a Toys ?R? Us for several months undetected. Obviously, he can only survive on M&Ms and keep up the ruse for so long before the roof comes crashing down on him. Consequences!

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-15
Link to episode

After the Hunt

In the new movie After The Hunt, Julia Roberts plays a Yale professor who finds herself in a hard place when one of her star students (Ayo Edebiri) makes an allegation against another faculty member (Andrew Garfield). Who?s telling the truth? Who?s the victim? Is there a victim? Directed by Luca Guadagnino (Challengers, Call Me by Your Name) the film poses a lot of questions. But are any of them answered?

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-14
Link to episode

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Jennifer Lopez stars in the new film adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman. Set in an Argentine prison, one man (Tonatiuh) tells his cellmate (Diego Luna) the story of his favorite old Hollywood musical, starring the silver screen goddess he worships ? that?s J. Lo. The musical is packed with glitz, glamour and songs written by Kander and Ebb, the minds behind Cabaret and Chicago.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-13
Link to episode

TRON: Ares And What's Making Us Happy

TRON: Ares is the third film in the franchise, and this time flips the script: Instead of humans entering the digital world, this movie sees human-shaped artificial intelligence programs entering our world. Starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee and Evan Peters, is TRON: Ares an upgrade from the previous movies?

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-10
Link to episode

Most Overused Songs In Movies

Some great songs are so overused in movies, they?ve become cliches. Everyone?s mileage is bound to vary, but we?re rounding up a few songs we love that need to be retired and suggesting a few worthy replacements.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-09
Link to episode

The Lost Bus

In the new movie The Lost Bus, Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera play a bus driver and a teacher who have to transport more than 20 kids to safety when evacuation orders roll in from a wildfire. Based on the 2018 Camp Fire in California, the movie is a harrowing drama, a climate warning, and a disaster film all in one. It?s streaming on Apple TV+.

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-07
Link to episode

Taylor Swift The Life Of A Showgirl

Taylor Swift just dropped her new album The Life Of A Showgirl. It touches on her relationship with fiancé Travis Kelce while reflecting on fame, normalcy, the Internet, and a simmering beef with a fellow pop star. We?re unpacking the songs, including ?Actually Romantic,? ?Eldest Daughter,? ?CANCELLED!?, and ?Ruin The Friendship.?

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-06
Link to episode

The Smashing Machine And What's Making Us Happy

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Emily Blunt star in the new sports biopic The Smashing Machine. Johnson plays Mark Kerr, a UFC champion who is reeling from his first major loss in the ring and confronting an addiction to painkillers. Directed by Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems), the wrestling drama pulls out all the classic moves in the awards season playbook. We can smell what The Rock is cooking ? but is it a hearty meal?

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-03
Link to episode

Brokeback Mountain

This year marks 20 years since Brokeback Mountain hit theaters. The film starred Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two sheep herders who fall in love in a place and time that keeps them apart. Before its release, Hollywood considered it a huge risk. It went on to be a critical and box office success, but it also made a lot of folks so uncomfortable they made cheap jokes about it for years. Today, its legacy is a tough one to untangle.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-10-02
Link to episode

The Lowdown

The Lowdown is a great new FX series starring Ethan Hawke as a freelance investigative reporter with a knack for sticking his nose where it doesn?t belong and getting that nose punched. He gets drawn into the seedy goings-on of one of Tulsa?s most prominent families. Created by Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs), the modern-day Western noir comedy has an excellent ensemble including Kyle MacLachlan, Keith David, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Killer Mike.

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-09-30
Link to episode

Wayward

In the new Netflix series Wayward, Toni Collette plays a deeply creepy woman who runs a facility that promises to fix troubled teens. A cop (Mae Martin) moves to town with his wife, who's a graduate of the facility and an acolyte of its leader. And he starts to think something is very, very wrong. Things are not all they seem in the picturesque town of Tall Pines, but you?ll have to watch to find out why.

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-09-29
Link to episode

One Battle After Another And What's Making Us Happy

One Battle After Another is an action-thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor and Sean Penn. DiCaprio plays a washed up ex-revolutionary searching for his missing daughter while raging against the machine. In this case, the machine is unabashedly racist, xenophobic, and corrupt. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the ensemble also includes Regina Hall and Benicio del Toro.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-09-26
Link to episode

Showgirls

Showgirls stars Elizabeth Berkley as a Vegas dancer trying to move up from a seedy club to a glamorous hotel show. Paul Verhoeven?s NC-17 movie was a notorious flop, but it is now considered a camp classic and a window into a moment of moral panic. Showgirls turns 30 this year, so today we?re revisiting our conversation about the film.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-09-25
Link to episode

Task

The new HBO series Task stars Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey in a grim, but stealthily hopeful drama. From the creator of Mare of Easttown, the show is a cat-and-mouse crime thriller about an FBI agent reluctantly dragged back into the field to investigate a series of drug related crimes. The show offers drugs, stolen money, family drama, kidnapping, shootouts, grief, and forgiveness.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-09-24
Link to episode

Haunted Hotel

From one of the minds behind Rick and Morty, Netflix?s new animated comedy Haunted Hotel is the perfect mix of fun and creepy to kick off spooky season. Will Forte voices a ghost who previously ran the Undervale, a very, very haunted old hotel. The show follows his attempts to show his family the ropes, vis a vis ghosts, demons, bleeding mirrors, and possession.

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-09-22
Link to episode

Him And What?s Making Us Happy

In the new horror film HIM, Tyriq Withers stars as a young football player who has a chance to be trained by his idol, played by Marlon Wayans. As they train at a mysterious facility in the desert, it becomes clear early on that greatness might not be worth the price. From director Justin Tipping and produced by Jordan Peele, the film takes some big swings you may not fully see coming.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-09-19
Link to episode

Fall Guide

The fall of 2025 is shaping up to have something for everyone with a fresh Knives Out mystery, Guillermo del Toro?s take on Frankenstein, and a new Emma Stone movie. We?ve got a guide of the TV and films we are most excited to see, including Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Bugonia, Park Chan-wook?s No Other Choice and The Lowdown.

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-09-18
Link to episode

The Summer I Turned Pretty

The TV series The Summer I Turned Pretty features a messy love triangle, plenty of drama, and a LOT of Taylor Swift songs. The show has become a word-of-mouth sensation, with fans obsessing over whether they?re Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah. Now in its final season, the Prime Video series is based on a series of books by Jenny Han (To All The Boys I?ve Loved Before, XO Kitty).

To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

2025-09-16
Link to episode

Subscribe

Website

Episodes

Jay Kelly

The Worst Christmas Movies

The Abandons

Five Nights at Freddy?s 2 and What?s Making Us Happy

2025 Pop Culture Favorites

Rereading Pride & Prejudice

Hamnet

All?s Fair And What?s Making Us Happy

Zootopia 2

Sentimental Value

All Her Fault

Wicked: For Good And What?s Making Us Happy

A Man On The Inside

The Beast In Me

Now You See Me: Now You Don't

The Running Man And What's Making Us Happy

Death By Lightning

Pluribus

Predator: Badlands

Frankenstein And What's Making Us Happy

I Love LA

Hedda

IT: Welcome To Derry

Bugonia And What?s Making Us Happy

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

Halloween Songs

Blue Moon

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere And What?s Making Us Happy

Nobody Wants This

The Reality TV Show I'd Like To Judge

Good Fortune

Black Phone 2 And What?s Making Us Happy

Roofman

After the Hunt

Kiss of the Spider Woman

TRON: Ares And What's Making Us Happy

Most Overused Songs In Movies

The Lost Bus

Taylor Swift The Life Of A Showgirl

The Smashing Machine And What's Making Us Happy

Brokeback Mountain

The Lowdown

Wayward

One Battle After Another And What's Making Us Happy

Showgirls

Task

Haunted Hotel

Him And What?s Making Us Happy

Fall Guide

The Summer I Turned Pretty