Pop Culture

Explore Nordic forests (okay, and some monsters) in Röki.

Arts

For The Kid In Your Life, 3 Video Games That Play Like Storybooks

7:00am January 14, 2021

by Ana Diaz

Explore alien worlds, Nordic forests, and European countrysides in these point-and-click games — which may not have been designed specifically for kids, but will definitely keep them entertained.

Clockwise from upper left: Debbie Allen, Garth Brooks, Dick Van Dyke, Joan Baez and Midori Goto.

After Missing Last Year, 2021 Kennedy Center Honors Are Announced

5:40pm January 13, 2021

by Elizabeth Blair

COVID cancelled the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2020. Today the Center announced that the show will go on in May 2021, honoring five extraordinary performers.

James Herriott (played by Nicholas Ralph) gets up in a lot of animals' business in the new All Creatures Great And Small.

Arts

Need A Break? The Pets And Vets Of 'All Creatures Great And Small' Might Hit The Spot

5:00am January 13, 2021

by Linda Holmes

A new adaptation of James Herriot's books about life as a Yorkshire vet in the 1930s has gorgeous landscapes, majestic animals, and a welcome focus on home and work.

Super Mario no Sweater let you design a sweater and send away to have it made for real.

Arts

Sweater Design? Gin Rummy? Typing? These Are The Mario Games You've Never Heard Of

7:00am January 07, 2021

by Brittany Vincent

Everyone who's ever played a video game knows Super Mario Brothers — but did you know Nintendo's iconic goofy plumber also taught typing, dealt gin rummy and even helped program sewing machines?

Writer Eric Jerome Dickey poses at the 12th Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on the UCLA campus in 2007 in Los Angeles. Dickey died Jan. 3 after a long illness. He was 59.

Books

Eric Jerome Dickey, Bestselling Author Whose Novels Focused On Black Life, Dies at 59

1:43pm January 06, 2021

by Brakkton Booker

Much of Dickey's work, including 1996's Sister, Sister, was centered on strong Black female characters. He wrote 29 books and sold more than 7 million copies worldwide.

With 'The Great Gatsby' In Public Domain, Artists Riff On Classic Story

5:58am January 06, 2021

A growing online chorus wants a Muppet version of The Great Gatsby. One writer suggested Kermit as Gatsby, Miss Piggy as Daisy and Fozzie Bear as Tom. Even Statler and Waldorf could appreciate that.

Queue Listen Now

Actor Tanya Roberts at the 2006 TV Land awards in Santa Monica, Calif. She died Monday evening.

Arts

Actress Tanya Roberts Dies At 65, After Premature Announcements

9:01pm January 05, 2021

by Ted Robbins

Actress Tanya Roberts died Monday after representatives mistakenly announced she'd died earlier, then retracted their statements.

How Our Entertainment Changed In 2020

5:27pm January 02, 2021

NPR's Michel Martin talks with Aisha Harris, host of the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, and NPR Music's Stephen Thompson, about how the events of 2020 have forever changed the entertainment industry.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Franz Kafka and many more authors and artists have 1925 works entering the public domain on January 1. Above, a first edition of The Great Gatsby at the London International Antiquarian Book Fair in L

Arts

Party Like It's 1925 On Public Domain Day (Gatsby And Dalloway Are In)

12:30pm January 01, 2021

by Neda Ulaby

Every year on January 1, the copyright on thousands of books, songs, films and other creative works expires. Law professor Jennifer Jenkins says 2021 is "a bumper crop."

When nothing else works, you can lose yourself in the simple repetition of a game like Into the Breach.

Arts

Run, Die, Repeat: How Roguelike Games Helped Us Get Through 2020

7:00am December 31, 2020

by Jason Sheehan

Video games can offer immense, immersive open worlds — but for some players, the small-scale grinding repetition of the games known as "roguelikes" is a better way to pass the time.