Accessibility links
Television Television

Television

Atsuko Okatsuka

"I love looking like an art gallery owner," Atsuko Okatsuka says of her eye-catching style. Hulu hide caption

toggle caption
Hulu

Growing up, comic Atsuko Okatsuka felt like 'a freak' -- now she's owning it

Okatsuka is known for her bowl haircut — and for finding humor in the dysfunction of her immigrant family. Her standup special Father is about her dad, who reappeared in her life after decades away.

Growing up, comic Atsuko Okatsuka felt like 'a freak' -- now she's owning it

Listen · 43:30
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5425325/g-s1-71592" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Ricardo Darín as Juan.

Ricardo Darín as Juan. Mariano Landet/Netflix hide caption

toggle caption
Mariano Landet/Netflix

Review

TV Reviews

Netflix's 'The Eternaut' makes a haunting series of an esteemed Argentine comic

El Eternauta has acquired near-mythic status in Argentina since it was first published in 1957.

REVIEW - THE ETERNAUT

Listen · 4:18
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5422356/nx-s1-5484874-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Gen Z awkwardly transitions into 'Adults'

Owen Thiele and Jack Innanen in Adults. Rafy/FX hide caption

toggle caption
Rafy/FX

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Gen Z awkwardly transitions into 'Adults'

Every generation gets its versions of a "20-somethings hang out and make mistakes" sitcom, such as Living Single, Friends, New Girl and Broad City. Now Gen Z's got the FX/Hulu series Adults. The silly new series is about a group of friends cohabitating in Queens, New York and it makes for fun and possibly all-too-relatable TV fodder.

Gen Z awkwardly transitions into 'Adults'

Listen · 19:57
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1253616108/1269415130" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Alexander Skarsgård

Alexander Skarsgård attends the Calvin Klein Collection fashion show during February 2025 New York Fashion Week on February 07, 2025 in New York City. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Alexander Skarsgård

Alexander Skarsgård joins us to talk about the new Apple TV + sci-fi series Murderbot. He also gets into his upbringing and what it was like growing up around different artists and performers. Plus, he'll chat with us about some of his most memorable red carpet outfits.

Listen to this Episode

Listen · 32:37
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1253552411/1269409592" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
'Mountainhead' is very funny nightmare fuel for an age of billionaires

Steve Carell in Mountainhead. Macall Polay/HBO hide caption

toggle caption
Macall Polay/HBO

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Mountainhead' is very funny nightmare fuel for an age of billionaires

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong is back with Mountainhead, a new movie with characters who are just as wealthy, powerful, and insecure as the Roy family. Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Ramy Youssef and Cory Michael Smith star as four tech moguls gathering for a low-key guys' weekend of poker. But business and unchecked, overinflated egos quickly lead them all down a very dark path.

'Mountainhead' is very funny nightmare fuel for an age of billionaires

Listen · 20:11
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1253552394/1269406905" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Husband and wife team Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball co-starred in I Love Lucy from 1951 until 1957.

Husband and wife team Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball co-starred in I Love Lucy from 1951 until 1957. AP hide caption

toggle caption
AP

Author Interviews

With 'I Love Lucy' and beyond, Desi Arnaz helped shaped TV as we know it

The success of I Love Lucy is often credited to Lucille Ball's comedic talent, but biographer Todd Purdum says Arnaz was more than just "second banana" to Lucy. He also helped shape the modern sitcom.

With 'I Love Lucy' and beyond, Desi Arnaz helped shaped TV as we know it

Listen · 37:45
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5417932/g-s1-70092" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The ultimate social experiment? This group of friends recreates 'Survivor' every year

All Things Considered producer Mia Venkat holding up the "buff" her friends made for their Survivor games. Dave Maser hide caption

toggle caption
Dave Maser

The ultimate social experiment? This group of friends recreates 'Survivor' every year

As 'Survivor' celebrates 25 years, this group of friends recreate their own version of the reality TV show — complete with cutthroat competition and brutal blindsides.

Joining a group of 'Survivor' enthusiasts for a simulated competition

Listen · 5:42
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5408002/nx-s1-5476444-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Mountainhead actors (l-r) Ramy Youssef, Cory Michael Smith, Steve Carell and Jason Schwartzman

Mountainhead actors (l-r) Ramy Youssef, Cory Michael Smith, Steve Carell and Jason Schwartzman Macall Polay/Warner Bros. Discovery hide caption

toggle caption
Macall Polay/Warner Bros. Discovery

Movies

'Succession' creator's new moguls are tech gods gazing down from 'Mountainhead'

Following his HBO series Succession, Jesse Armstrong's latest project, Mountainhead, is a film about four tech billionaires whose mountain retreat is disrupted by a global catastrophe.

'Succession' creator’s new moguls are tech gods gazing down from 'Mountainhead'

Listen · 6:53
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5355073/nx-s1-5461064-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Age gaps & wage gaps: unpacking our Belichick-Hudson obsession

Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson pose for a photo backstage at the 14th Annual NFL Honors at Saenger Theatre on February 06, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images

It's Been a Minute

Age gaps & wage gaps: unpacking our Belichick-Hudson obsession

After 8 trips to the Super Bowl, 73 year-old former NFL coach Bill Belichick is ready to start a new phase in his career: mentor, college football coach, and now doting boyfriend to 24-year-old Jordon Hudson. But as Hudson also takes an increasingly important role in Belichick's professional life, people are speculating about the motivations behind their union. Why do we care?

Age gaps & wage gaps: unpacking our Belichick-Hudson obsession

Listen · 15:34
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1253382241/1269400375" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Sarah Silverman: PostMortem. Sarah Silverman at the Beacon Theatre in New York. Cr. Clifton Prescod/Netflix © 2025

"This whole tour was so cathartic," Sarah Silverman says of her PostMortem comedy special. Clifton Prescod/Netflix hide caption

toggle caption
Clifton Prescod/Netflix

Her parents died 9 days apart, but Sarah Silverman gets the last laugh in 'PostMortem'

Silverman's father and stepmother are buried under one tombstone that reads: "Janice and Donald, who loved to laugh." The loss was a starting point for Silverman's "cathartic" Netflix comedy special.

Her parents died 9 days apart, but Sarah Silverman gets the last laugh in 'PostMortem'

Listen · 44:36
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5409086/g-s1-69576" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Pop culture has a 'bean soup problem'

Pop culture has a media literacy problem. Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Getty Images

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Pop culture has a 'bean soup problem'

Online discourse has become a fun part of enjoying and dissecting big pop culture events. But after seeing all the commentary around Ryan Coogler's Sinners, our pal Brittany Luse has one question: are we in a media literacy crisis? Difference of opinion is one thing, but it feels like some viewers are missing important clues or misreading the film entirely - and it doesn't stop with Sinners. Today we've got an episode of the podcast It's Been A Minute that explores what this could mean for the way we engage with the world at large.

Pop culture has a 'bean soup problem'

Listen · 18:20
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1253312412/1269379328" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Todd and Julie Chrisley pose on a red carpet in 2017.

Trump announced Tuesday that he will grant full pardons to reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, pictured in 2017. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Politics

Trump pardons Todd and Julie Chrisley, the reality TV couple convicted of fraud

Todd and Julie Chrisley, who rose to fame in a reality show highlighting their lavish lifestyle, had been serving yearslong prison sentences after 2022 convictions on bank and tax fraud offenses.

No fun, just fungus: The continuing traumas of 'The Last Of Us' season two

Bella Ramsey in The Last of Us. Liane Hentscher/HBO hide caption

toggle caption
Liane Hentscher/HBO

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

No fun, just fungus: The continuing traumas of 'The Last Of Us' season two

Season two of The Last of Us just ended, and to say the story has gone in some new directions is an understatement. The HBO series starring Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal continues to push forward with its complex story while still and always putting the "ick" in "post-apocalyptic."

No fun, just fungus: The continuing traumas of 'The Last Of Us' season two

Listen · 21:28
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1253247287/1269357485" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Actor George Wendt holds a glass of beer in a barroom in Los Angeles on June 13, 1983.

Actor George Wendt holds a glass of beer in a barroom in Los Angeles on June 13, 1983. Wally Fong/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Wally Fong/AP

Opinion

Simon Says

Opinion: Cheers to a life well lived

Character actor George Wendt was known to a generation as Norm, the beleaguered, lovable everyman on the sitcom Cheers. He died this week at the age of 76.

ESSAY 5-24-25

Listen · 2:22
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5402106/nx-s1-5463351-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Why can't we (or Ms. Rachel) talk about Gaza's children dying?

Why is Ms. Rachel controversial? Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Perspective

It's Been a Minute

Why can't we (or Ms. Rachel) talk about Gaza's children dying?

Children's educator and YouTube star Ms Rachel has used her social media to advocate for the safety of children all over the world - but when she used her platform to call attention to the plight of children in Palestine, she was accused of being paid by Hamas.

Why can't we (or Ms. Rachel) talk about Gaza's children dying?

Listen · 17:03
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1253043769/1269352758" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Pop culture has a "bean soup problem."

Pop culture has a media literacy problem. Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Getty Images

Analysis

It's Been a Minute

Pop culture has a "bean soup problem."

Online discourse has become a fun part of enjoying and dissecting big pop culture events. But after seeing all the commentary around Ryan Coogler's Sinners - one of the biggest cultural juggernauts of the year - Brittany has one question: are we in a media literacy crisis?

Pop culture has a "bean soup problem."

Listen · 18:18
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1263527119/1269342660" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Browse archive or search npr.org