Pop Culture Happy Hour
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.<br><br><em>Make your happy hour even happier with Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus! Your subscription supports the podcast and unlocks a sponsor-free feed. </em><em>Learn more at </em><em>plus.npr.org/</em><em>happyhour</em>
- 23 minutes 35 secondsBTS ArirangBTS, one of the biggest groups in K-pop, is back. Arirang is the group’s first full-length album following a hiatus in which the members released solo projects and served in South Korea’s military. It’s a brash, catchy comeback, with a mix of hip-hop, pop, and R&B. And like their previous hits, Arirang is bound to make a mark on the Billboard charts.
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NPR Privacy Policy25 March 2026, 7:00 am - 16 minutes 25 secondsThe Reality TV Show We’d Actually WinPart of the fun of reality TV is putting yourself in the shoes of the people you're watching. Maybe you'd make a great Real Housewife. Maybe you could win The Amazing Race. In this encore episode, we're not here to make friends. But we are here to pick the reality shows that we think could thrive on.
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NPR Privacy Policy24 March 2026, 7:00 am - 16 minutes 41 secondsReady or Not 2: Here I ComeThe cheeky horror comedy Ready Or Not starred Samara Weaving as a bride who’s forced to partake in her new family’s game of hide and seek, which turns quite deadly. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come picks up right where the previous story left off, but this time with more lore, more gore, and more stars like Elijah Wood, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kathryn Newton.
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NPR Privacy Policy23 March 2026, 7:00 am - 27 minutes 3 secondsProject Hail Mary and What’s Making Us HappyRyan Gosling has teamed up with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) for the new sci-fi movie Project Hail Mary. It’s based on a novel by Andy Weir (The Martian), and tells the story of a molecular biologist who winds up on a one-way mission into space to save Earth’s population. If that all sounds incredibly bleak, fear not: you can expect quirk, charm, and a cutesy alien creature.
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NPR Privacy Policy20 March 2026, 7:00 am - 19 minutes 12 secondsRoosterSteve Carell is a writer of pulpy crime novels and a hapless new writing teacher at a small college in the HBO comedy series Rooster. His daughter (Charly Clive) is also a teacher, and she’s the subject of campus gossip because her husband just dumped her for a student. The show’s got a great cast, including Danielle Deadwyler and John C. McGinley, and one of its creators is Bill Lawrence of Scrubs, Shrinking and Ted Lasso.
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NPR Privacy Policy18 March 2026, 7:00 am - 22 minutes 40 secondsScarpettaIn the Prime Video series Scarpetta, Nicole Kidman plays a tough, smart medical examiner whose latest murder case is entangled with a much earlier one. The show's got a big cast including Jamie Lee Curtis, Bobby Cannavale and Ariana DeBose. Scarpetta is based on a series of successful crime novels by Patricia Cornwell.
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NPR Privacy Policy17 March 2026, 7:00 am - 31 minutes 21 secondsOur 2026 Oscars RecapAt the Oscars, One Battle After Another took home six awards including best picture, Michael B. Jordan won for lead actor in Sinners, and the telecast had plenty of jokes at Timothée Chalamet’s expense. We’re recapping the highs and lows of the 2026 Oscars.
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NPR Privacy Policy16 March 2026, 9:27 am - 52 minutes 28 seconds2026 Oscars Guide and What's Making Us HappyWe've watched all the nominees in the major categories for the Oscars including Sinners, One Battle After Another, Hamnet, and Marty Supreme. So we’ve got opinions about what will win and what should win. (And yes, we’ll talk about Timothée Chalamet.)
For a list of our favorite Oscar nominated films, check out our list at Letterboxd — at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.
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NPR Privacy Policy13 March 2026, 7:00 am - 21 minutes 47 secondsWhat Makes A Great Cast?This year, there's finally an Oscar being awarded for casting. The nominees are the casting directors for Sinners, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, and The Secret Agent. That got us thinking - what makes a great cast, anyway? Today, we spent some time talking about some of the nominees and casting generally.
For a list of films we discussed, check out our list at Letterboxd — at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.
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NPR Privacy Policy12 March 2026, 7:00 am - 24 minutes 54 secondsHarry Styles Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.Harry Styles just released his new album Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. It’s his fourth solo album since leaving the boy band One Direction, and the follow-up to Harry’s House, which won album of the year at the Grammys. The new album is a fairly radical departure, inspired by dance floors and post-punk music. But it still swoons, as any Harry Styles record must.
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NPR Privacy Policy11 March 2026, 7:00 am - 18 minutesHoppersIn Disney and Pixar’s delightful new film Hoppers, a young woman (Piper Curda) learns a beloved glade is under threat from the town’s slimy mayor (Jon Hamm). But luckily, she discovers that her college professor has developed technology that can let her live as one of the critters she loves – by allowing her mind to “hop” into an animatronic beaver. And it just might just allow her to help save the glade from serious risk of destruction.
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