After eight seasons, 73 episodes, and way too many characters busting out the phrase "bend the knee" all the time, HBO's Game of Thrones has come to an end. And there's a lot to unpack.By NPR.

Once upon a time, a man named John Wick retired from his successful career as an assassin. But then he returned to it. And across what's now a three-film series, he's been having a heck of a week ever since.By NPR.

The Pokémon universe has brought the world television cartoons, trading cards, video games, plush toys, the mobile-game sensation Pokemon GO, and a string of animated movies. Now, the franchise makes the leap into live action with a big-budget summer blockbuster called Pokemon Detective Pikachu.By NPR.

Everyone needs inspiration. And we need it too. So from time to time, we pause just to single out some of the people whose work we're appreciating. People from whom we want more. We call this segment People We're Pulling For.By NPR.

While summer is a time of spectacles and sequels, there is always time for love. The new romantic comedy Long Shot stars Charlize Theron as a beautiful and sophisticated presidential candidate and Seth Rogen as the grubby speechwriter with her on the campaign trail.By NPR.

We revisit our 2016 discussion of the film Popstar. We The also look at back at other films that find humor in the foibles of musicians.By NPR.

Nothing fascinates the world like a meteoric rise. Except, of course, for a spectacular fall. The story of the Silicon Valley startup Theranos and its young founder Elizabeth Holmes has both. And the coverage it's received has been huge. There's the book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, the podcast The Dropout, and the H ...…

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought us Iron Man movies, Thor movies, Captain America movies, Avengers movies, and many other superhero franchises over the last decade, and they all feed into one epic that ties up many of the loose ends. Today we're talking the juggernaut to end all juggernauts, Avengers: Endgame.…

On Wednesday, Beyoncé released two major projects. On Netflix, a new documentary captures the process of putting on headlining appearances at last year's Coachella Music Festival. She also surprise-released a double-length live album that contains just some of the highlights from Beyoncé's two ambitious Coachella performances. Both projects are ...…

It's time again for our summer movie preview. We'll take a shot at guessing hits and misses, and we'll tell you what we can't wait to see.By NPR.

Today we open up the vault to finally bring you a segment we recorded back in 2016 with our pal Audie Cornish. You'll hear us live in Seattle offering advice on some classic pop culture problems.By NPR.

It's been 60 years since The Twilight Zone first aired, with the voice and eventually the face of its creator, Rod Serling. Now, CBS All Access has brought the anthology series back in a new incarnation. This time, the host is Jordan Peele. He is also an executive producer, and the big cast includes Adam Scott, Kumail Nanjiani, Steven Yeun, Chr ...…

For the last four seasons, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has followed Rebecca Bunch as she pursued love, dreaded her mother, and tried to address her mental health. The show stars Rachel Bloom as Bunch, who created the show with Aline Brosh Mckenna. Now, it's all over, and we're going to talk about it.By NPR.

"Shazam!" is what young Billy Batson says to morph into a big red superhero. It's also the name of the new movie about him. Starring Zachary Levi as the big lug in the suit, Shazam! makes for a lighter DC Comics movie.By NPR.

Spring is here, but it's been a long winter. And we're a little overwhelmed by the news of the world, so we're taking a moment to share some of the things that lift our spirits in a segment we call Pop Culture Serotonin.By NPR.

The comedy series What We Do In The Shadows imagines what a slacker reality show might look like if all the roommates were vampires. The show is based on a 2014 film of the same name, which was helmed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. A new cast of vampires inhabits the FX show.By NPR.

The new Hulu series Shrill follows Annie, a young writer. She's trying to get her career moving, figure out what's up with her sort-of boyfriend, and learn to feel good about her body. Annie is played by Saturday Night Live's Aidy Bryant, who developed Shrill with TV writer Ali Rushfield and with Lindy West. West wrote the 2016 book of the same ...…

Us is Jordan Peele's follow up to his 2017 film Get Out. The film stars Lupita Nyong'o as a mother whose whole family is confronted by their own doppelgängers.By NPR.

The South by Southwest music festival brings together artists from around the world to perform in big venues and small ones, on sidewalks and sprawling stages. Every year, we bring back some musical discoveries that just might be your next favorites.By NPR.

The much-praised Hulu series PEN15 is about two middle-school girls who feel like they might never figure out how to grow into adults. The show was created by Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle and Sam Zvibelman. And the hook is that Erskine and Konkle play versions of themselves as kids, awkwardly surrounded by actual tween actors.…

Comedy Central's very funny new show The Other Two is about the older siblings of a newly minted YouTube star. His fame makes them feel overshadowed in some of the ways you might expect. But it's also a chance for them to look out for him, and to learn a lot about the broad outlines of fleeting fame.…

NPR Music is heading to South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. It's a huge feast of musical discovery that brings together bands and fans from around the world. All Songs Considered convened a panel to preview some of the new discoveries we're most excited to see and hear.By NPR.

Captain Marvel is the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first movie to give a woman the lead role. Brie Larson stars as a badass space-warrior fighting in an intergalactic war between two alien races. Samuel L. Jackson is back as Nick Fury, albeit digitally de-aged, because Captain Marvel is set in the '90s.…

If you came of age in the 1990s, you might know Luke Perry as the rebellious teenage fantasy boyfriend Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills, 90210. But you also might know him from the original movie version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Or as Archie's dad on Riverdale. Perry was only 52 when he died on Monday. We take a moment to celebrate Perry's cont ...…

Today we're diving into the complicated and tangled world of Netflix's Russian Doll, a series anchored by a dynamic performance from Natasha Lyonne. She co-created the series with Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler.By NPR.

Green Book is your best picture, and Bohemian Rhapsody and Roma took a bunch of the top prizes, too. And it all got done in a ceremony without a host. We're breaking it all down: the winners, the speeches, the songs, why we're mad, and why we're glad.By NPR.

Where will you find rock bands going up against jazz pianists, superheroes, and scheming women in beautiful dresses? At this year's Oscars. We're going to talk actors, directors, and much more. We'll also make some predictions, so we might help you win your Oscars pool.By NPR.

Pop Culture Happy Hour is in its ninth year, so Linda decided to write a quiz about the ninth seasons of television shows. Stephen and Glen faced off against one of our favorite podcast teams, Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings of The Nod. This episode was recorded live at the Bell House in Brooklyn.By NPR.

We're diving into the Oscar-nominated documentaries and foreign language films. We'll tell you which ones to watch and where to find them, which might make you the star of your Oscar party.By NPR.

This year's awards were a big night for Childish Gambino and Kacey Musgraves. It was also a night of strong performances from artists like Janelle Monae and Cardi B. And don't forget Diana Ross, who wished herself a happy birthday a month and a half early.By NPR.

The Lego Movie was a surprise commercial and critical hit. It starred Chris Pratt as an every-man construction worker named Emmet and Elizabeth Banks as a rugged bad ass called Wyldstyle. Together, they saved the Lego world. Now, five years later, Emmet is back — and so is the fusillade of cameos, both surprising and not so surprising — to take ...…

Another year, another Patriots Super Bowl win. But was it a high scoring game? It was not. In fact, no one had even scored a touchdown when Maroon 5 came out to headline the halftime show. We recap the game, the halftime show, and the commercials.By NPR.

What do Bohemian Rhapsody, Vice, and Green Book have in common? Two things: one, they're nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars; and two, they're based on events in the lives of real people. Today, awards season leads us to a wide-reaching conversation on some very different movies.By NPR.

If you've noticed your friends have been a little more "tidy" than usual, or your thrift store a bit better stocked, it might be because of Netflix. The streaming series Tidying Up With Marie Kondo has spurred an organizational renaissance. Or at least a conversation about one.By NPR.

Alfonso Cuarón directed the award-winning film Gravity in 2013, and won an Oscar for it. Now he's back with a movie that's equally ambitious, and much more personal. Roma is inspired by Alfonso Cuarón's childhood, and the movie tells the story of Cleo, a nanny and housekeeper in 1970's Mexico City.By NPR.

Despite how firm our opinions often seem when we first declare them, there have been times when they've changed. During our recent live show at the Brooklyn Podcast Festival, we took a moment to talk about some things we have different feelings on now then we once did.By NPR.

In 2000, director M. Night Shyamalan presented Unbreakable, the story of two men whose epic tales of good and evil collided. Then came 2016's Split, a stealth sequel. Now, Shyamalan wraps up the trilogy with Glass.By NPR.

The Masked Singer isn't your everyday singing competition. Based on a South Korean format, each week we learn the identity of the elaborately costumed "celebrity" who gets voted off. So far, we've unmasked football player Antonio Brown, and comedian Tommy Chong.By NPR.

After winning an Oscar in 2017 for Moonlight, director Barry Jenkins is back with If Beale Street Could Talk. This time, he adapts a James Baldwin novel for the screen.By NPR.

Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody unexpectedly won big. So did thanking your parents and going on just a little too long. It's the wee hours of Monday morning, and we are wrapping up this year's big winners and big surprises.By NPR.

The sci-fi series Black Mirror has always been about changing technology and its usually dark implications for the future. Its latest episode, Bandersnatch, is itself the result of new technology developed at Netflix. As you watch it, you make your own on-screen choices that determine which of several possible endings you reach.…

Fox canceled Brooklyn Nine-Nine at the end of its fifth season, but much to our delight, NBC picked it back up again. It's coming back for a sixth season starting on January 10th, and we thought that would make it just the right time to revisit our conversation about it.By NPR.

Today, we look back on our 2018 resolutions to see how we fared, and make some new ones for the year to come. We also make our fearless pop culture predictions for the next 12 months, and see how last year's predictions panned out.By NPR.

The animated Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse focuses on one of the Spider-People who has come along in the years since the world first met Peter Parker, in 1962. In the film, Miles Morales is a Brooklyn teenager who acquires spider-powers at the same time he discovers that there are other versions of himself across alternate dimensions.…

It's the end of the year, and that makes it the perfect time to talk about the things we loved the most in 2018. From Black Panther, to Crazy Rich Asians, to the viral moments you might have missed, we are rounding up our fifteen favorites of the year. So get ready for a whole lot of recommending.By NPR.

In 1964, the original Mary Poppins made Julie Andrews a movie star and introduced a generation to Dick Van Dyke's regrettable Cockney accent. Now, Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda head up Mary Poppins Returns.By NPR.

The Favourite, set in the early 1700s, tells the story of Britain's Queen Anne and two women who are jostling for her favor. Rachel Weisz plays the Queen's close adviser Sarah, and Emma Stone plays an ambitious servant named Abigail who has her eye on a bigger prize.By NPR.

Comedian Guy Branum joins NPR's Sam Sanders to talk about his new book My Life As A Goddess and the many challenges presented by a mostly white, hetero-normative comedy scene.By NPR.

What's warm and fuzzy, emotionally manipulative, and desperate for attention almost every hour of every day? Linda's dog, sure. But also the Hallmark Channel's endless supply of holiday movies and the competitors nipping at their heels.By NPR.

You can't have an abundance of Christmas songs without also having an abundance of opinions about Christmas songs — songs we love, songs we hate, songs we love when they're sung by one person, but hate when they're sung by another. This week on Pop Culture Happy Hour, we've convened a special panel to tackle our favorite songs for the season.…