Pop Culture Happy Hour

The new Netflix series Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials centers on lesser known mystery solving protagonist Lady Eileen Brent (Mia McKenna-Bruce). It’s got all the familiar cozy mystery trappings like a manor house, snobby suspects, stiff upper lips and lots of secrets. Based on an early Christie novel, the show also features Martin Freeman and Helena Bonham-Carter.To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Idris Elba is in full action hero mode in the Apple TV series Hijack. He stars as a corporate business negotiator onboard an airplane that is taken hostage by an eclectic bunch of assailants with mysterious motives. The series is very fun and very silly. Hijack just came back for a second season, so we thought it was the perfect time to revisit our conversation about the series.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

There have been many TV crossovers over the years, but it’s a tricky balance to get right — for every mashup that feels organic, there are plenty more that amount to little other than weird stunts. So we decided to dream up the ultimate TV crossovers: Gilmore Girls and Nashville, Abbott Elementary and The Leftovers, Only Murders in the Building and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Bear and Happy Endings.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new Netflix rom-com People We Meet On Vacation is about best friends Poppy (Emily Bader) and Alex (Tom Blyth) who have gone on annual trips together since meeting in college. But there's always been something between them that's not quite platonic, and reconnecting at a wedding just might bring it to the surface. Based on the beloved Emily Henry novel, the movie’s got travel, banter, and even kissing in the rain. But does it capture the charm of the book?Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

What's it like to date a man? Ask Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Dean, or your friends, and you might hear it's a struggle. Today we’re bringing you an episode of NPR’s It’s Been a Minute. Host Brittany Luse and NPR Music Editor Hazel Cills break down a phenomenon called “heteropessimism.”Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

No Other Choice is a new bleak comedy about a man (Lee Byung-hun) at a crossroads. After losing his job at a paper company, he resorts to desperate, unhinged measures to get a new job. He tracks down the other candidates and eliminates the competition, one by one. Directed by Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden), it’s filled with great performances and truly masterful action set pieces.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

After five seasons and almost ten years, the saga of Netflix’s Stranger Things has reached its end. In a two-hour finale, we found out what happened to our heroes (including Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard) when they set out to battle the forces of evil. The final season had new faces and new revelations, along with moments of friendship and conflict among the folks we've known and loved since the night Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) first disappeared. But did it stick the landing?To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hope springs eternal, and that is nowhere more true than in the realm of New Year’s Resolutions. Today, we give ourselves goals for 2026. And because we believe in accountability, we’ll tell you how well we stuck to our resolutions for 2025.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

What does 2026 have in store for pop culture? Today, we’re back for another year of pop culture predictions. We’ll touch on A.I., the future of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and what’s to come for the Law & Order Universe. Plus, we check in on our prognosticating for 2025 and see how things worked out.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

If you’re anything like us, you spend a fair amount of your screen time playing video games. Whether you like combat, horror, or peacefully going over archival research, NPR’s roundup of best games of 2025 is a helpful guide to find something that’s just right for you. Today we’re talking about some of the best video games featured including Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hades II, Silent Hill f, Butcher’s Creek and The Roottrees Are Dead.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

NPR’s Books We Love is a roundup of the best books from the past year, sorted and tagged to help you find exactly what you’re looking for. This year we’ve got hundreds of book recommendations, so today, we’re highlighting some of our favorites – including Actress of a Certain Age by Jeff Hiller, The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers, and Cannon by Lee Lai. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new Anaconda movie is a meta reimagining in which Jack Black and Paul Rudd play aspiring filmmakers who attempt to make… a meta reimagining of Anaconda. It’s not quite a reboot, it’s not quite a sequel, and it’s played for laughs.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new movie Marty Supreme asks, can Timothée Chalamet play a supremely annoying character and still keep us interested from beginning to end? He stars as a working-class heel aiming to become a table tennis champion in the 1950s and features an eclectic supporting cast that includes Gwyneth Paltrow and Tyler, the Creator. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

What's the best Christmas gift you ever received? You probably didn't have to think about it; you knew it in your bones. Today, in this encore episode, we're talking about the actual, tangible gift you found waiting for you under the tree and still think about it from time to time.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The twisty thriller The Housemaid stars Sydney Sweeney as a newly hired live-in housekeeper to Amanda Seyfried’s wealthy housewife. Both women have dark secrets, and their dynamic goes downhill real fast. It’s directed by Paul Feig of Bridesmaids and A Simple Favor, so you know it’s going to be a bizarre, fun ride.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In Avatar: Fire and Ash, James Cameron’s saga continues in a visually stunning movie full of epic battles, uneasy alliances, human assimilation, and debates with whales. The film follows the Na’vi (aka blue guys) as they’re chased by a human military that seeks both resources and revenge. The cast includes Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldaña, and Sam Worthington. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new show Heated Rivalry is a very sexy and very queer hockey romance streaming on HBO Max–and it’s a phenomenon. It follows archrival players Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) as they carry on a clandestine affair off the ice. And since it’s based on a whole series of interconnected romance novels by Rachel Reid, it may be with us for a very long time.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Fallout is based on a hugely successful video game series known for blending a sardonic, very dark comedic sensibility, and violence. The series is set in the game's post-apocalyptic world – an America divided into factions wrestling for control of an irradiated wasteland. When the hopeful Lucy (Ella Purnell) steps out of the comfortable life she's known in an underground vault, the world she's confronted with is harsh, brutal, merciless – and kinda funny. Fallout just returned for a second season on Prime Video, so today we’re revisiting our conversation about the show.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Every year, we like to take a moment to look back and spotlight a few favorite films we didn’t have time to talk about. Today, we're making recommendations for great movies we missed in 2025 including The Secret Agent, Come See Me In the Good Light, Cactus Pears, and 100 Nights of Hero.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Aisha and Stephen answer a mailbag question! Send in your own questions at [email protected], and we may answer it in a future bonus episode.This usually would be a bonus episode just for Pop Culture Happy Hour+ supporters, but this being the season of giving, we're sharing this one with everyone! To hear more bonus content like this every month and to support NPR and public radio, sign up for Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happyLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy