Accessibility links
Pop Culture News and commentary on popular culture trends. Download the Pop Culture podcast.

Pop Culture

Tuesday

'Fresh Air' Favorites: Joan Rivers

Fresh Air

This week, we're listening back to some favorite Fresh Air interviews from the past decade. Rivers, who died in 2014, spoke to Terry Gross in 2010 about the sacrifices she made as a female comedian.

'Fresh Air' Favorites: Joan Rivers

Listen · 25:31
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/792592797/792677345" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

'Disinformation' Is The Word Of The Year — And A Sign Of What's To Come

Columbia Journalism Review set up a misinformation newsstand in Manhattan in October 2018, in an effort to educate news consumers about the dangers of disinformation in the lead-up to the U.S. midterm elections. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Opinion

'Disinformation' Is The Word Of The Year — And A Sign Of What's To Come

Fresh Air

Foreign nations have been systematically spreading falsehoods on social media for years; in 2019, it seemed like the world began to fully grasp the ramifications of disinformation campaigns.

'Disinformation' Is The Word Of The Year — And A Sign Of What's To Come

Listen · 6:23
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/790144099/792413683" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

'Little Women' Is A Dynamic Sister Act

Laurie (Timothée Chalamet) and Amy (Florence Pugh) in Greta Gerwig's adaptation of Little Women. Wilson Webb/Columbia Pictures hide caption

toggle caption
Wilson Webb/Columbia Pictures

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Little Women' Is A Dynamic Sister Act

Greta Gerwig was nominated for an Oscar for directing 2017's Lady Bird. She's following it up with an adaptation of Little Women that features two of her Lady Bird stars, Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet. Ronan plays Jo, the free-spirited March sister. She's joined by Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern and Meryl Streep. Gerwig also wrote the script, which makes some changes to the story and the structure of Louisa May Alcott's book.

'Little Women' Is A Dynamic Sister Act

Listen · 25:17
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/788456363/789881141" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

Wednesday

'Cats' Is The Dirty Litter Box Of The Soul

Taylor Swift as Bombalurina in Tom Hooper's Cats. Universal Pictures hide caption

toggle caption
Universal Pictures

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Cats' Is The Dirty Litter Box Of The Soul

What has ears, tails, Andrew Lloyd Webber music, and the Idris Elba/Taylor Swift duet you've been waiting for all your life? That's right, it's Cats, the new film adaptation of the musical that became a surprise smash in the 1980's. The movie directed by Tom Hooper, who also made the Les Miserables adaptation that won Anne Hathaway an Oscar. Cats wrestles with how to present a variety of cat characters, dance numbers, and even a drug-induced catnap.

'Cats' Is The Dirty Litter Box Of The Soul

Listen · 22:33
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/788479740/789751134" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Tuesday

Monday

Why We Love Surprises
Angela Hsieh

Hidden Brain

Why We Love Surprises

Why do we fall for surprise endings? It turns out that our capacity to be easily fooled in books and movies is made possible by a handful of predictable mental shortcuts. In this 2018 conversation, we talk with Vera Tobin, one of the world's first cognitive scientists to study plot twists. She says storytellers have been exploiting narrative twists and turns for millennia — and that studying these sleights of hand can give us a better understanding of the contours of the mind.

Why We Love Surprises

Listen · 29:32
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/789441553/789929210" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
A Critic Returns To The Books, TV, Music And Movies He Didn't Get To In 2019

Merritt Wever and Toni Collette play two detectives investigating a series of sexual assaults in the Netflix show Unbelievable. Beth Dubber/Netflix hide caption

toggle caption
Beth Dubber/Netflix

Review

A Critic Returns To The Books, TV, Music And Movies He Didn't Get To In 2019

Fresh Air

Few things haunt a critic more than loving something and not being able to share it. This year, Fresh Air critic John Powers circles back to Unbelievable, Atlantics, Where the Light Falls and more.

A Critic Returns To The Books, TV, Music And Movies He Didn't Get To In 2019

Listen · 9:14
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/789288835/790860602" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

Scrunchie Cat And Friends: Global Social Media Moments We Loved In 2019

In a year of gloom and doom, disasters and disease, these are the sweet online moments from around the world that brightened up our days this year. Left to right: an aspiring singer in the Philippines; scrunchie cat; Venezuelan cooking lessons. Screenshots by NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Screenshots by NPR

Goats and Soda

Scrunchie Cat And Friends: Global Social Media Moments We Loved In 2019

They're sweet. And funny! And weird! Here's a sampling of viral videos, tweets and TikToks from around the world.

Friday

Comedian Margaret Cho: 'I Invented The Cancellation'

Comedian Margaret Cho is currently on a stand-up tour called Fresh Off the Bloat. Albert Sanchez hide caption

toggle caption
Albert Sanchez

She's Funny

Comedian Margaret Cho: 'I Invented The Cancellation'

Loud and unapologetic, and a trailblazer on race and sexuality, the stand-up comic discussed "cancel culture," Asian American comedy and her short-lived sitcom All-American Girl.

Comedian Margaret Cho: 'I Invented The Cancellation'

Listen · 7:53
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/790201044/790319885" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'Star Wars': The End Is... Sigh

Rey (Daisy Ridley) returns in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm Ltd. hide caption

toggle caption
Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm Ltd.

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Star Wars': The End Is... Sigh

It's time to say goodbye to a story that began in 1977 with a movie then known as Star Wars. Nine films later, this branch of the saga concludes with Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker. In this chapter, director J.J. Abrams attempts the almost impossible by trying to bring all this in for a landing. Scavenger Rey, her friends Finn and Poe, and the mysterious Kylo Ren are all back for one last lap, and so are brief glimpses of many faces from movies past.

'Star Wars': The End Is... Sigh

Listen · 22:52
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/788490268/789839820" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday