Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'Creed,' Crying And Other Visceral Reactions

This week's show brings Gene Demby to our fourth chair to talk with us about Creed, the Rocky sequel that really makes a pretty satisfying film on its own. Directed by Fruitvale Station's Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan as the son of Rocky's nemesis/buddy Apollo Creed, it not only shows off how good Jordan is, it gets marvelous work from Sylvester Stallone. We talk about the acting, the style, some of the history, and how much Gene loves some authentic Philadelphia facial hair. (I also recommend PCHH regular Chris Klimek's fine review of Creed.)

Because a lot of people talked about crying during Creed, we pivoted for our second segment to a chat about weeping and other visceral reactions. What makes us cry? Why is anything you do to an eyeball almost too much to watch? We're all about gut-level responses this week, and about trying to get to the bottom of them.

As always, we close the show with what's making us happy this week. Stephen is happy about a potential Oscar nominee that he enjoyed very much. Glen is happy about NPR's great book concierge as well as a Tumblr he really thinks you should just subscribe to already. Gene is happy about a likely Oscar nominee he really liked and a video that has been viewed, no fooling, over 75 million times. And I am happy about marathoning one of the most classic marathon shows you will ever see in your life.

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