AI is changing video games — and striking performers want their due
Performers are on strike against major video game companies, and AI is the sticking point. Here’s how game development has evolved since early animation.
Pop Culture
$#@*! we're talking profanity in pop culture
We've got dirty words on the brain, and we're chatting about the use and functions of profanity in entertainment. In this encore episode from 2013, we cover everything from Anchorman to South Park to Shakespeare.
Hunter Schafer's 'Cuckoo' serves up Alpine horror
In the new, stylishly odd horror film Cuckoo, Hunter Schafer plays an American teenager who reluctantly moves with her family to a mysterious resort in the German Alps. Her rebellious spirit clashes with the resort's creepy proprietor, played by Dan Stevens. When weird stuff starts happening, long-buried family secrets come to light and the resort's true nature stands revealed.
The trailer for Disney’s live-action ‘Snow White’ remake has some people very Grumpy
The film, set to be released in March 2025, has been mired by a string of controversies on everything from its new “woke” messaging to its depiction of dwarfism.
What's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing and reading
Each week, guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Blue Ribbon Baking Championship on Netflix, Lev Grossman's novel The Bright Sword, and more.
These Olympic medals don’t exist — so we made them up
What if there were Olympic medals for audience participation, or the best use of an accessory? NPR’s pop culture critic doles them out.
The most pressing question about Tim Walz and JD Vance: Who should play them on SNL?
Steve Martin has said he turned down an offer from SNL to play Walz. Our critic offers some alternatives.
'It Ends With Us' is a melodrama with serious undertones
The 2016 Colleen Hoover novel It Ends With Us was a massive bestseller. And now that book is a movie. Blake Lively stars as Lily Bloom, a woman who falls for a hot neurosurgeon played by Justin Baldoni — who also directs the film. But their relationship is complicated by the return of her old flame (Brandon Sklenar). She also has to reckon with her feelings about her abusive father and the mother who stayed with him.
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Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour
Soccer legend Abby Wambach says she's okay with being forgotten on 'Wild Card'
U.S. soccer legend Abby Wambach draws a question from the Wild Card deck. She tells NPR's Rachel Martin why she's okay with the idea of being forgotten.
Carhartts and camo: What Tim Walz's folksy fashion sense says
The Democratic vice presidential candidate's taste for down-home Carhartt workwear and a camo cap have been getting a lot of media attention lately.