Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'Pitch Perfect 2' And Summer Movies

NPR

This week's show came to you a little late, because that's how much we wanted to drag our pal Petra Mayer of NPR Books to see Pitch Perfect 2 with us before we taped. We have a chat at the top of the show about the Barden Bellas' new adventures, the good stuff (the musical numbers, mostly), the less good stuff (the uncomfortable undertone of one-note jokes that, as I mentioned, Alison Willmore wrote about here), and the cameos that we strain to avoid spoiling (some of which are spoiled in that piece, so beware). We also chat about a piece I once wrote about the importance of Beca's manicure — really.

And then it's on to a much broader conversation about summer movies. We talk about the big ones, the less big ones, the ones we expect to love, the ones we kind of dread, and many, many sequels to come.

As always, we close the show with what's making us happy this week. Stephen is happy about a charming video that came to his attention. Glen is happy about a movie that made him happy and then — stay with us — a piece that didn't make him happy followed by a response that did. Petra is very happy about a book that you can read an excerpt from right at our own books site. And I am happy about a book, too, although I'm specifically happy about an audiobook.

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