#npr's pop culture happy hour podcast
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My media this week (24-30 Dec 2023)
*delighted* this show went straight to full musical episode in only the second season. amazing.
📚 STUFF I READ 📚
🥰 Hither, Page (Page & Summers #1) (Cat Sebastian, author; Joel Leslie, narrator) - reread; christmas-set post WW2 cozy mystery (vibes are basically 'agatha christie but queer')
🥰 The Missing Page (Page & Summers #2) (Cat Sebastian, author; Joel Leslie, narrator) - reread; the further adventures of Leo & James
😍 We Could Be So Good (Cat Sebastian, author; Joel Leslie, narrator) - reread; this was one of my fave books of the year tbh; loved the setting and the characters and the vibe
😍 Bells Are Ringing (A We Could Be So Good Holiday epilogue) (Cat Sebastian) - so grateful that Cat S gifts us a holiday epilogue every year!
🥰 The Things We Hide (ThePirateStorm) - 109K, stucky no powers omegaverse/accidental mpreg with fantastic amounts of pining and a great cast of fully realized supporting characters; I fucked up my sleep schedule to finish reading this and had zero regrets.
🥰 I'd Swing With You for the Fences (nontoxic) - 86K, Schitt's Creek AU with MLB player Patrick and David (who's still mostly canon David) - very warm and sweet and absolutely DELIGHTFUL
🥰 Third Eye (Felicia Day, author; full voice cast) - comedy fantasy audio drama about Laurel, who 15 yrs ago was the Chosen One and who…failed. Now her life is sad but she gets a 2nd chance when a terrible teen (who may also be the Chosen One) cannonballs into her life. Had a lot of fun listening to this, great voice cast featuring FD, Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, London Hughes
💖💖 +186K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖
[PODFIC] A Nativity of Oranges (Tanouska) - MCU: stucky, 9K - great podfic, reread, great Stucky holiday fic
How The Elf-King Stole Khuzmus (DeHeerKonijn, PointlesslyPoetic) - LOTR: 1.3K - a The Hobbit/Dr. Seuss mashup, very clever, great art
[Podfic of] Spaceships & Laserswords (blackglass, klb, luvtheheaven (VioletEmerald), reena_jenkins, Shmaylor, silverandblue, wordsaremyfaith) - Star Wars: finnpoe, 4K - great podfic of a short but hilarious & very sweet fic - modern AU where weirdo hermit Luke joins the (college-age) 'kids' D&D game & volunteers his sister to DM
[Podfic] Mission Impossible (quietnight) - MCU: shrunkyclunks, 20K - hilarious shrunkyclunks fic, great podfic version of it
flow through (rainbow_nerds) - Stranger Things: steddie, 6K - a gift for me! I requested @rainbow-nerdss continue in the universe created by sharp temporary walls and it was everything I could have wanted!!!! 💜
📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺
Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2023
The Legendary Rick Perry and the Art of Dimension 20
D20: Fantasy High: Sophomore Year - s4, e21-22
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - s1, e7-10; s2, e1-10
Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road (2023 special #4)
Midsomer Murders - s24, e1-2
🎧 PODCASTS 🎧
⭐ Hit Parade - Second-Chance Hits Edition
Vibe Check - 2023, Don’t Let The Door Hit You…
Ologies with Alie Ward - Alieology (YOUR HOST): an Ask-Me-Anything Goofy Hang
It's Been a Minute - Why grief sometimes looks like a hyphy party
One Year - The Making of One Year: 1990
⭐ Code Switch - The Fallout of a Callout
Hit Parade - The Posthumous Hits Edition, Live from Seattle
Pop Culture Happy Hour - 2024 Pop Culture Predictions
🎶 MUSIC 🎶
Fun Christmas Oldies
my Dolly Parton Christmas playlist
Swingin' Christmas
Presenting Lindsey Stirling
Power Ballads Forever
#sunday reading recap#bookgeekgrrl's reading habits#bookgeekgrrl's soundtracks#i just decided to sink into cat sebastian's warm '(almost) no plot only vibes' stuff for this holiday season#i am having zero regrets#dropout tv#dimension 20#star trek: strange new worlds#midsomer murders#christmas music#lindsey stirling#hit parade podcast#vibe check podcast#npr's code switch podcast#npr's pop culture happy hour podcast#one year podcast#it's been a minute podcast#ologies podcast
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listening to npr pop culture happy hour on good omens have the most insanely bad takes. ‘do you ship it?’ ‘I think they’re better as friends,’ ‘I agree’ ‘platonic friendship is underrepresented’ ‘what would a romance between them even look like? they don’t have genitals.’ ‘I think aziraphale has a crush but crowley is aware of that and ignoring it bc he likes the attention’. now that’s an insulting lack of media literacy. fire these people from their podcast jobs
#they hadn’t seen episode 6. very funny.#good omens spoilers#bad news npr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#kira for ts
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journalists/commentators and the squad
BTW, I only came across those tweets because they have been RT'd by Kristen Meinzer, a pop culture and royal correspondent that 99.9% of the time defends the Sussexes. Meinzer contributes to NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour regularly and used to be on the Newsweek Royals podcast.
Meinzer isn't super influential, but she has professional work agreements with larger media sources like NPR and is tweeting stuff from the hateful Sussex stans and accounts.
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4 and 21 for the book ask, please!
4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?
Answered this differently in another ask, but I really liked Piranesi by Susanna Clark and would definitely read more by them!
21. Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?
Apologies for a boring response but I actually don't follow anyone on any platform for books lol. Most of the books I've been reading I've been introduced to through NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. Another I came to through Getting Curious, another podcast. Giovanni's Room I read because it was a significant motif in Swimming in the Dark and I was curious. A few others I came to by other means that weren't recs.
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Podcasts are such a weird medium.
They're so hermetic and isolated. You can listen to a show for years and have no idea if it's popular or not, depending on whether the hosts ever talk about that.
Like a decade ago, I got a hot tip from some article that there was this neat little podcast on NPR called Pop Culture Happy Hour. The rare show from them with no radio equivalent, it was just some bloggers that were getting together to chat, essentially.
Eventually, the format shifts, and I don't really like it as much, but I keep listening. Then, just recently, I learn that it is like an absolute juggernaut in podcast rankings. Massively popular, millions of listeners. This is why it's now a five day a week show with a rotating panel. They want to provide content and spread out exposure and advertise other shows.
Other shows, I deeply love, but they never really broke out. I'm one of hundreds or dozens of listeners.
Success is a complicated thing in the age of social media, and with art under capitalism. Attention can be dangerous, tempt people into making decisions out of fear and anxiety.
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New story on NPR: What's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing and listening https://ift.tt/LjJcVus
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“The Town” Podcast With Matt Belloni: Nerding Out On The Entertainment Business
The word “Hollywood” has different meanings for people. For many, Hollywood means movies, TV, stars, celebrities, a lavish sometimes dissolute lifestyle, creativity, genius, and eccentricity.
For Matt Belloni, host of the Ringer podcast The Town, Hollywood means big business with profit targets, talent management, HR issues and much more on the development and strategic side.
You may have heard Belloni’s voice before on the KCRW podcast The Business with Kim Masters, which is built on the template for “the business of Hollywood” podcasts. On The Business, Belloni “batters” with podcast host Kim Masters in the first part of the podcast about the latest news in Hollywood — Disney Plus streaming subscriber growth, movie box office numbers, executive firings and hiring, and TV ratings.
Ringer, the parent of The Town, is a podcast network started in 2016 by sportswriter Bill Simmons, who sold out, sorry, sold it, to Spotify in 2020.
The marketing copy for The Town reads as such: “Puck founding partner Matthew Belloni takes you inside Hollywood, using exclusive reporting and insight to explain the backstories on everything from Marvel movies to ‘The Bachelor.’ Multiple times each week, Matt will touch on what is getting made and why, who is winning and losing, and what people in show business are actually talking about.”
Belloni spent 14 years as a writer and editor at The Hollywood Reporter (THR). He joined in 2006 and in 2017, Belloni was promoted to the top position of Editorial Director, which he held until his May 2020 exit.
A frequent entertainment pundit on TV and radio, Belloni has served as an instructor on entertainment journalism at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication.
So what kind of content will you find on The Town?
Since its first episode in March, The Town podcast has covered “Hollywood” topics that range from Netflix’s password crackdown, the death of original action movies, the waning popularity of late night talk shows, the Depp-Heard trial to NBA ratings, price hikes at Disney parks, and the new CNN.
Belloni’s eclectic intellect enables loyal listeners to expand their parallax view of entertainment industry topics. Consequently, listeners are consequently delighted by his latest foray. Belloni has held a fake “draft” of streaming services, given out half-year awards, and pitted streaming TV shows — like Stranger Things and Obi-Wan Kenobi — against one another in value propositions.
As a host, Belloni is likeable with a strong, deeper voice that resonates with the wisdom gained from experience. He is opinionated with being objectionable. He’s a solid interviewer, although I’ll note, at the risk of being accused of pettiness, that Belloni can occasionally cut off and interrupt his guests.
On the production side of the podcast, give producer Craig Horlbeck credit for solid sound design and quality and kudos to composer Devon Renaldo for a theme song that grooves with a fusion-pop tune that is a terrific sonic appetizer for the main course — Belloni and his primary topic.
The Town podcast isn’t for everyone. If you are a “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” person and simply care about the finished product that Hollywood produces via movies, streaming, and TV, listen to NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour or Slate’s Culture Gabfest.
But if you’re an entertainment nerd and love the backstage drama involved in conceiving, developing, producing, financing, and marketing TV, streaming, and movie content, don’t miss The Town.
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I'm one of the guests on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, talking about "Squid Game." Things I mentioned: My distaste for the guest stars on Episode 7, why the non-ending is typical of many K-dramas and how I want to see more of Hwang Jun-ho (played by Wi Ha-joon) IF there is a season two of the Netflix series.
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This is a great listen! "Ready Player One and What's Making Us Happy". On Podcoin, you get paid to listen! https://podcoin.app.link/kkOce0KGhZ
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My media this week (31 Dec 2023-6 Jan 2024)
📚 STUFF I READ 📚
😊 The PostScript Murders (Harbinder Kaur #2) (Elly Griffiths, author; Nina Wadia, narrator) - entertaining cozy mystery (even tho Harbinder is an actualfax police officer). Though it's nominally Harbinder's series, she's just one of the characters, not the main character per se. Anyway, I enjoyed!
💖💖 +366K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved (YULETIDE, BABEY!) 💖💖
Put to Their Books (ribbons) - Sotherans twitter acct; KJ Charles' England & WDA series: archie/daniel, fen/pat, 2K - v clever modern social media AU feat Southerns, cameo by AZ Fell
A Particular Force (TwoWeevils) - The Will Darling Adventures (KJ Charles): will/kim, 5K - Yuletide 2023
It was of this that he had been dreaming (ExceptMaybeYou) - We Could Be So Good (Cat Sebastian): andy/nick, 4K - Yuletide 2023
Permanent Residence (Nabielka) - The Cabots (Cat Sebastian): peter/caleb, 1.7K - Yuletide 2023, 'on staying in California'
Finest of the Flavors (whetherwoman) - Lilywhite Boys Series (KJ Charles): jerry/alec, 5K - Yuletide 2023
I love you--all I can (goseaward) - England Series (KJ Charles): bill/jimmy, 5K - Yuletide 2023, Bill & Jimmy across 30 years
The Alternatives of Summer (iberiandoctor (jehane)) - Call Me By Your Name: oliver/elio, 8K - Yuletide 2023, 8 yrs later Elio & Oliver meet at Fire Island
The Matrimonial State (beautifulduckweed) - The Cabots (Cat Sebastian): tommy/everett, 4K - Yuletide 2023, "Being a short account of three different weddings in Massachusetts attended by Thomas Cabot and Everett Sloane."
📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺
Zarna Garg: One in a Billion
Midsomer Murders - s24, e3-4
Dirty Laundry - s3, e9
D20: Escape From The Bloodkeep - e1-5
🎧 PODCASTS 🎧
Hit Parade - The Bridge: Moguls Can’t Be Choosers
Desert Island Discs - Marina Abramović, performance artist
Overinvested - Ep. 291: Doctor Who 2023 specials
Welcome to Night Vale - The Haunting of Night Vale
Vibe Check - My Spiritual Finger Is Wagging
Today, Explained - Israel’s next move
Films To Be Buried With - Chelsea Peretti
Pop Culture Happy Hour - Books We Love: No Biz Like Showbiz
What Next: TBD - Why the New York Times Sued OpenAI
Up First - Trump's Pardon Promise, The Islamic State's Iran Attack, Jeffrey Epstein Conspiracies
Endless Thread - This episode is a sign from the universe
Dear Prudence - I Don’t Want to Cancel My Retirement Plans to Babysit. Help!
Cautionary Tales - DANGER: Rocks Ahead!
Our Opinions Are Correct - New mini episode! All about our cats
You're Dead to Me - Catherine the Great
What Next: TBD - Tesla's Cybertruck Problem
Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - WWDTM: Now With Real Journalists!
Up First - Jan. 6 Insurrection Revisited, Blinken to Israel, COVID Resurgence.
Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Disappearing Acts: When Popular Brands Are Discontinued
🎶 MUSIC 🎶
The Essential REO Speedwagon {2004}
I Wanna Know What Love Is
Soft Rock Ballads
Relaxing '80s Rock
Merengue Mix
AM In The A.M.: '70s Pop Morning
"Beach Baby" [First Class] radio
'70s Mellow Gold
'80s Slow Dance
#sunday reading recap#bookgeekgrrl's reading habits#bookgeekgrrl's soundtracks#fanfic ftw#yuletide‚ babey!#dropout tv#dimension 20#midsomer murders#the vibes were very chill for this week's music#hit parade podcast#vibe check podcast#desert island discs#overinvested podcast#you're dead to me podcast#cautionary tales podcast#welcome to night vale#npr's pop culture happy hour podcast#endless thread podcast#what next: tbd podcast#under the influence podcast#films to be buried with podcast#today‚ explained podcast#up first podcast#wait wait... don't tell me!#dear prudence podcast#our opinions are correct podcast
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hope you'll appraise us of what that npr podcast says when they watch ep 6 and talk about it (??)
oh no it’s just pop culture happy hour they a) don’t care and b) are not gonna revisit that until s3, if they even still exist in… 2026
#bleak.#kira for ts#ask#anonymous#but I’ll see if there are any other well known podcasts with Takes#part of the joy of ted lasso s3 was podcasters being so unintentionally homophobic about trent#good omens spoilers
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NPR's Kat Chow joins us to talk about the show she says has gotten all the way under her skin, and we talk about the temptation to look for a sweet spot in a dangerous monster as well as the fact that Sandra Oh should, quite frankly, star in everything, as far as we're concerned. We like this show a lot, so tune in for lots of analysis about what makes the execution of a formula so strong that it becomes a terrific piece of television.
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“Curmudgeon is skin deep, but gay is to the bone”
- Glen Weldon, NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour
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As someone who tried for a long time to get on the show and finally did, I can confirm that everyone up there is terrified of making stupid mistakes and embarrassing ourselves. At least until the game starts, then you’re brain is moving too fast to think about anything else but the damn buzzer.
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Top 10 Podcasts of 2017
Although I’ve been listening to podcasts in some shape or form since 2005, in 2017 the genre really matured. I can honestly say that some of the most innovative work in many genres - politics, certainly, but also cultural commentary, investigative reporting, and SF fiction - is being done in podcast form. I spend more time each week listening to podcasts than consuming any other kind of media, and I had a very, very hard time picking a Top 10. But, here it goes:
1. Pod Save America
Yeah, no shit, right? I don’t know how I would have gotten through 2017 without these boys putting things in perspective, making me laugh, and giving actionable advice on how to affect change. I’m not sure how to recommend an episode, as they’re all wonderful and topical. The newest one, I suppose!
Note: I didn’t include the other Crooked Media podcasts, because that wouldn’t be fair to all the other wonderful podcasts I loved this year, but LOLI, Crooked Convos, Majority 54, and Pod Save the World should all be on here, too
2. Reply All
I’ve been a huge fan of Reply All since the beginning (it was my #1 in 2016), and I will admit that this season wasn’t as good as the 2016 season. However, Alex and PJ never cease to make me laugh and, more importantly, amaze me. I never finish an episode without a completely new way of looking at the technological world. Favorite episodes: The Secret Life of Alex Goldman, Long Distance
3. The Bright Sessions
The Bright Session is, by far, my favorite fictional podcast our there. In an infamous weekend in June, I caught up on the entire thing, and now I wait for each new episode with bated breath. I originally started listening for the real, thoughtful, respectful gay relationship - and that’s still my favorite part - but have stayed for the plot and how reflective all the characters are. Favorite episodes: start at the beginning
4. S-Town
I know S-Town will be on everybody’s lists, but it was, honestly, one of the best miniseries I’ve ever listened to/watched. The in-depth, ultra-personal biographical series had such an effect on me and everyone else around me - it was like having watercooler TV again, and I really loved that. Favorite episodes: watch them all, but Chapter 3 is the ep when everything changes
5. Heavyweight
Heavyweight hit me like a freight train towards the end of 2017. I caught up on the whole thing in just a couple days, because I was so enthralled with each of these characters. It’s amazing what Jonathan Goldstein can do in 40 minutes. Favorite episodes: Jesse
6. The Truth
Although I find The Truth to be hit or mess, when it’s on, it’s one of the best podcasts out there. An audio version of Black Mirror, it twists technology on its head and very rarely ends where I think it’s going to. Favorite episodes: The Dark End of the Mall, The Decider, Possible Side Effects
7. Revisionist History
Malcolm Gladwell is still one of the best audio storytellers. He uncovers truths that I talk about months and months later. I’m still talking about my favorite episode: A Good Walk Spoiled
8. Flashforward
I’ve loved Flashforward for awhile now - it’s the podcast I download and listen to the moment it’s available. I love the explorations of futures dystopian and utopian. I always find myself thinking about them days later. Favorite episodes: Mons Voyage, California Dreaming
9. 36 Questions
This 3-part musical podcast was spot-on. The songs were professional and the cast was magnificent. Although I didn’t love the ending, I still recommend it highly. Start at the beginning
10. The Heart
The ‘No’ season was incredible. I listened to it while biking home, and ended up stopping in a field so that I could lie still and listen as carefully as I could. I felt a heavy, impossible thing in my chest with each episode. I think all women can relate to at least part of it. Again, start at the beginning
#2017 in review#podsa#reply all#there are a lot of gimlet podcasts on here#not many npr ones#but pop culture happy hour almost made the cut
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