What's Making Us Happy: A Guide For Your Weekend Viewing
Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: the show Sort Of, a helpful YouTube channel and more.
Arts & Life
The video game pioneer behind Nintendo's groundbreaking console has died
Masayuki Uemura was the lead architect behind the Nintendo Entertainment System, which dominated the home video game industry and helped launch games like Mario and Donkey Kong.
Golden Globes nominations come out Monday, but Hollywood is still wary of the HFPA
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which awards the Golden Globes, came under fire after investigations showed how it runs. It says it's changing, but Hollywood may not be ready to forgive.
This 19th-century short story might help combat racism against refugees today
India's Rabindranath Tagore was the first nonwhite writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature. His 1892 story, "The Kabuliwala," fostered empathy for migrants and refugees. It still resonates today.
Michael Nesmith — considerably more than a Monkee — dies at 78
Nesmith rose to fame as one of the Pre-Fab Four — but he had a long and influential career after the Monkees. He helped invent the format that became MTV, and produced the cult film Repo Man.
Actors Rita Moreno and George Chakiris remember the original 'West Side Story'
Moreno became the first Latina actor to win an Oscar for her role as Anita in the 1961 film. Chakiris won an Academy Award for his performance as Bernardo. Originally broadcast in 2021 and 2001.
From Steph Curry to 'Squid Game,' this year-end list will surprise and delight you
As the year draws to a close, critic John Powers singles out seven revelatory people or things that made 2021 a little brighter. At the top of his list? Basketball star Steph Curry.
Steven Spielberg's 'West Side Story' will make you believe in movies again
This is the first musical Spielberg's ever made, but he proves a natural: Few other American filmmakers have a more instinctive sense of rhythm and visual flow, or more direct access to your emotions.
New podcast asks whether the novel 'Jane Eyre' is relevant for readers today
The podcast "On Eyre" asks the question: Does 'Jane Eyre' still have something to impart to modern readers? NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with the podcast's hosts, Vanessa Zoltan and Lauren Sandler.
Wayne Shorter and esperanza spalding crack open the old world in new opera
The pair took a close look at the subtexts of Euripides' sad, epic tale of Iphigenia — agency, testosterone, violence, faith — and, through a suite of new music, hold them up to the light.