Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'The Mindy Project' And Romantic Comedies

On this week's show, Stephen Thompson takes the week off to tend to his house full of cats while both All Things Considered host Audie Cornish and superlibrarian and Two Bossy Dames co-writer Margaret H. "Hulahoop" Willison join me and Glen Weldon to talk about romantic comedy.

In our first segment, we concentrate on The Mindy Project, which both is a romantic comedy and comments on the tropes of romantic comedy, and which has just returned from a midseason break over on Hulu. We talk about how Mindy's early days gave way to a more mature show, about the surprisingly dark first half of this season, and about how we feel about her relationship status and her future.

In our second segment, we broaden out to talk about romantic comedy in general. Glen names the entire list of films in this genre that he's ever liked (it doesn't take long), Margaret and I offer different but perhaps compatible thoughts on When Harry Met Sally, and Audie explains how romantic comedy might be a little like playing with Barbies. (It makes sense, don't worry.)

Glen is happy about a Netflix series he likes a lot, one episode of which he says will work for you if, for instance, you've ever been even "art-world-adjacent." He's also happy — as I hope you are, too — about Audie's interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates about Black Panther, the extended version of which we put in the podcast feed earlier this week. Audie is happy about an Instagram feed she says could be called "So Many Knives." Margaret is happy about a movie we also spoke about on our Oscars show, a book that's scratching an itch for her, and a band she's freshly into. And I am happy about one of my favorite shows coming back, and I hope it will make you laugh as well.

Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: me, Glen, Audie, Margaret, producer Jessica, and producer emeritus Mike.