Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'Ms. Marvel' And Regrettable Television

This week, we had the pleasure of welcoming Petra Mayer of NPR Books to our fourth chair for a chat about the comic Ms. Marvel. We must admit, we were more in agreement than we often are, so if you like arguing, you won't find all that much: we really love this series. We talk about Ms. Marvel herself, a/k/a Kamala Khan, from her exploration of identity to her friends and family, and we get into why the book's lively sense of humor hit such a sweet spot for us.

And then it's time for one of our favorite semi-regular segments, the Regrettable Television Pop Quiz. We bring in some TV clips of the current and past landscape that we would argue are, in at least some way if not many ways, regrettable, and we challenge each other to identify them. There is some classic Weldonian close reading of an unexpected television personality here, so buckle in.

As always, we close the show with what's making us happy this week. First of all, as I'm writing this, we're hours away from tickets going on sale for our Halloween show with the wonderful Audie Cornish and [drum roll] Fred Armisen! As you read this, there may or may not be tickets left, but take a look! We'd love to see you.

Stephen is happy about the meetup he and I had in L.A. this past weekend, and updates to his Spotify playlists. Glen is happy about a book he admits you may have heard of elsewhere. Petra is happy about a show she absolutely thinks you should watch that may be inspiring her costume at the end of this month. And I am happy about, among other things, the return of one of my favorite shows and a wonderful listener gift you can see a photo of if you like. Thanks, Suzanne!

Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: the show, me, Stephen, Glen, Petra, producer Jessica, and pal and producer emeritus Mike.