Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'Captain America' And The Russo Brothers

This week's show finds Stephen Thompson, Glen Weldon and Gene Demby (Gene Demby, that is, of NPR's coming-soon Code Switch podcast, and this is where I would insert a praise-hands emoji if we did that in blog posts around here) chatting about Captain America: Civil War. They talk about the action, the Bucky situation, the Tony situation, the kissing, and much, much more.

And in our second segment, we thought we'd bring you some of the conversation I had last week with Joe and Anthony Russo, who, in addition to having directed episodes including the pilots of Community, Arrested Development and Happy Endings, are now halfway through a commitment to four Marvel Cinematic Universe films. We chat about humor and tonal balance, about how they work, and about the future of film and television as methods of distribution change almost faster than anyone knows how to adapt.

As always, we close the show with what's making us happy this week. I am happy about a great essay from an NPR colleague that avoids about a million pitfalls into which it could have stumbled. Glen is, rather ridiculously, happy about four whole things, including a podcast, another podcast (he thought it was under Slate's Spoiler Specials; it's actually in their TV Club feed, I think), a list he's updated, and a mention that made him and me both very, very excited. Gene is happy about that podcast I mentioned, plus a piece that Kat Chow wrote that all of us can heartily recommend, plus reading Glen's book(s), plus a piece from The Guardian. (We had a week full of appreciating colleagues, I admit. It was ... planets aligning.) And Stephen is happy about battling an onslaught of sudden album drops that, on the one hand, are sudden, but on the other hand, are album drops.

Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: the show, me, Stephen, Glen, Gene, and producer Jessica.