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Martin Short and Zach Galifianakis in the fourth season of Only Murders in the Building. Eric McCandless/Hulu/Disney hide caption

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Eric McCandless/Hulu/Disney

When celebrities portray themselves

August 27, 2024 • It's practically a tradition for famous people to portray a really offbeat version of themselves in TV and movies. The latest season of Only Murders in the Building features Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, and Eva Longoria all playing fictional versions of themselves. So we thought it would be the perfect time to talk about about the many ways actors portray themselves on screen, and why it does and doesn't work.

When celebrities portray themselves

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Jon Hamm attends the premiere of FOX's Lucy In The Sky at Darryl Zanuck Theater at FOX Studios on September 25, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images hide caption

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Jon Hamm

August 27, 2024 • Jon Hamm is an actor with a lot of range. He can do serious, and he can definitely do funny. When he last joined us on the show, he had just starred in a comic noir called Maggie Moore(s). A film with a perfect mix of serious and funny. He chatted with us about that film, how he landed his memorable role on Mad Men, and much more.

Listen to this Epsiode

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Food Network

Review

The reality TV shows we'd actually win

August 21, 2024 • Part of the fun of reality TV is putting yourself in the shoes of the people you're watching. Maybe you'd make a great Real Housewife. Maybe you could win The Amazing Race. Maybe you could even win the fickle hand of The Bachelor. We're not here to make friends, but we are here to pick the reality shows that we think could thrive on.

The reality TV shows we'd actually win

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The physical media we still treasure

August 19, 2024 • The vinyl record, the CD, the DVD, the VHS tape — even the paper book has been the subject of debate and concern over its future. But we haven't given up our collections just yet. Today, we're revisiting our conversation about the physical media we still treasure.

The physical media we still treasure

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Jackie Lay

Race, Romance and Reality TV

August 14, 2024 • Reality TV has been referred to as a funhouse mirror of our culture. But even with its distortions, it can reflect back to us what we accept as a society – especially when it comes to things like gender, sexuality and race.

Race, Romance and Reality TV

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$#@*! we're talking profanity in pop culture

August 14, 2024 • 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.

$#@*! we're talking profanity in pop culture

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'House Of The Dragon' season 2 makes it Rhaen(yra)

Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon. Theo Whiteman/HBO hide caption

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Theo Whiteman/HBO

Review

'House Of The Dragon' season 2 makes it Rhaen(yra)

August 1, 2024 • The second season of HBO's House of the Dragon is almost over. The war between two rival factions of the Targaryen dynasty is fully underway, complete with stealth missions, palace intrigue, battle scenes and hot dragon-on-dragon action. But now that the Dance of the Dragons is in full swing, has the Game of Thrones prequel finally hit its stride?

'House Of The Dragon' season 2 makes it Rhaen(yra)

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'Time Bandits' maps contemporary vibes over a cult classic

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Apple TV+

Review

'Time Bandits' maps contemporary vibes over a cult classic

July 31, 2024 • The dryly funny new Apple TV+ series Time Bandits reimagines the 1981 Terry Gilliam film of the same name. A squad of inept thieves — including their sort-of leader, played by Lisa Kudrow — have stolen a map of the universe. They use it to jump through portals to various time periods to steal stuff. One jump takes them into the bedroom of a British kid (Kal-El Tuck), who tags along as they're chased by Taika Waititi's Supreme Being and Jemaine Clement's Pure Evil.

'Time Bandits' maps contemporary vibes over a cult classic

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Quality chills and feel good content on Dropout

Sam Reich is the CEO of Dropout, a streamer which has fresh takes on the gameshow format and has been updating the content business model. Kate Elliott/Dropout hide caption

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Kate Elliott/Dropout

Quality chills and feel good content on Dropout

July 30, 2024 • It seems like there are countless streamers these days – there's Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, Max, Peacock, Roku, just to name a few. Still, success and profit remain elusive to even some of the biggest in the biz. However there is one smaller streamer that seems to have found a path to prosperity: Dropout. In this encore episode, IBAM host Brittany Luse sat down with Dropout CEO Sam Reich earlier this year to find out how his company is forging a path to success in a successful market, all while revamping the gameshow format. The pair also play a little gameshow game.

Quality chills and feel good content on Dropout

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In 'The Decameron,' the Black Death makes for black comedy

Zosia Mamet and Saoirse-Monica Jackson in The Decameron. Giulia Parmigiani/Netflix hide caption

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Giulia Parmigiani/Netflix

Review

In 'The Decameron,' the Black Death makes for black comedy

July 25, 2024 • In Netflix's weirdly compelling dark comedy The Decameron, the bubonic plague is ravaging Florence in 1348. A group of rich nobles and their servants decide to retreat to a picturesque villa in the country to wait it all out. The large ensemble includes Tony Hale and Zosia Mamet. Every character is hiding something, and those secrets get revealed — and more than a few uglies get bumped.

In 'The Decameron,' the Black Death makes for black comedy

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'Sunny' is a robot buddy comedy about loss

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Apple TV+

Review

'Sunny' is a robot buddy comedy about loss

July 22, 2024 • In the new Apple TV+ series Sunny, Rashida Jones stars as a woman living in Kyoto, whose husband and young son go missing in a plane crash. To help console her, her husband's electronics company gives her a robot companion. The show is an interesting mix of styles and genres – it's a buddy comedy, a crime thriller and a drama about loss. But at the center of it all is the mystery of what happened to her husband and son – and why.

'Sunny' is a robot buddy comedy about loss

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LeVar Burton has portrayed the Black experience "from our enslavement to the stars"

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Etienne Laurent/Getty Images

LeVar Burton has portrayed the Black experience "from our enslavement to the stars"

July 18, 2024 • LeVar Burton has three roles he'll forever be known for: Kunta Kinte on the TV series Roots, Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation and host of Reading Rainbow. Those roles have had profound impacts on people and he now understands, as he puts it, "my job is to be LeVar Burton." He talks to Rachel about the tension of that job, his changing definitions of success and learning to embrace the chaos.

LeVar Burton has portrayed the Black experience "from our enslavement to the stars"

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We unpack the 2024 Emmy nominations

July 17, 2024 • The nominations the Emmy Awards were just announced, and it was a good day for The Bear, which set a new record in the comedy category. And plenty of our favorites also got Emmy nods, including Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Shōgun, Reservation Dogs and What We Do in the Shadows. We'll help you unpack this year's the notable nominees and snubs.

We unpack the 2024 Emmy nominations

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'Exploding Kittens' turns a simple card game into a wild cartoon

Tom Ellis as Godcat and Ally Maki as Greta in Netflix's Exploding Kittens. Netflix hide caption

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Netflix

Review

'Exploding Kittens' turns a simple card game into a wild cartoon

July 16, 2024 • The best-selling card game Exploding Kittens has been adapted into a new Netflix animated series. It does plenty of its own world-building: God (Tom Ellis) and the devil (Sasheer Zamata) are sent to earth, where they take the form of talking cats — and meddle in the lives of a struggling family.

'Exploding Kittens' turns a simple card game into a wild cartoon

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We recommend three great sports documentaries

Lance Armstrong celebrates during the Tour de France in 2004. He is the subject of the documentary The Armstrong Lie. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images hide caption

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Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Review

We recommend three great sports documentaries

July 11, 2024 • Sports aren't just games. They're intertwined with epic stories about struggle, human behavior, historic greatness and grand emotions. In other words, sports make for great documentaries. And if you're looking for some good ones, we've got recommendations: Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, The Armstrong Lie, and Athlete A.

We recommend three great sports documentaries

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Ted Danson has embraced the light, but he's still grateful for the dark

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Jesse Grant/Getty

Ted Danson has embraced the light, but he's still grateful for the dark

July 4, 2024 • Ted Danson has mastered the role of the happy-go-lucky guy with a quick wit and a quicker smile – who nevertheless has a few cracks in his sunny demeanor. It's there in Sam Malone on Cheers, in Hank Larsson on Fargo and in Michael on The Good Place. And that same duality is there in Ted's real life. He goes deep with Rachel on the light and dark sides of aging, marriage and what he calls "karmic poo."

Ted Danson has embraced the light, but he's still grateful for the dark

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Bowen Yang thinks being present is overrated

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Mike Coppola /Getty

Bowen Yang thinks being present is overrated

July 4, 2024 • The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today, so we're bringing you an episode of the NPR podcast Wild Card with Rachel Martin. This episode is an interview with Bowen Yang. He is the first Chinese American cast member on SNL, the co-host the podcast Las Culturistas, and he starred in the rom-com Fire Island. He talks to Rachel about living too much in the present, hard truths from Tina Fey, and why the afterlife should have a rollercoaster.

Bowen Yang thinks being present is overrated

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Yes, chef: 'The Bear' has a lot going on in its third season

Jeremy Allen White in The Bear. FX/Hulu hide caption

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FX/Hulu

Review

Yes, chef: 'The Bear' has a lot going on in its third season

July 2, 2024 • The Bear just returned for its third season and it's still one of the most stressful and most interesting shows on TV. Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) are launching their new fine dining restaurant, but he's estranged from some of the people who are closest to him just as he sneaks up on a new level of success. The series is streaming now on Hulu.

Yes, chef: 'The Bear' has a lot going on in its third season

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Could 3 Body Problem's aliens exist? The science behind Netflix's new hit

Discovered in 2016, a roughly Earth-sized planet orbiting our nearest neighboring star might be habitable. This artist's impression shows a view of the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the solar system. ESO/M. Kornmesser hide caption

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ESO/M. Kornmesser

Short Wave

Could 3 Body Problem's aliens exist? The science behind Netflix's new hit

July 2, 2024 • Before the '3 Body Problem' became a bestselling book and a smash TV show ... it was a physics concept, with big implications for how we understand planetary orbits. In this episode, we learn about the science behind the screen. Plus, why it's plausible a nearby, mysterious planet could hold life.

Could 3 Body Problem's aliens exist? The science behind Netflix's new hit

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Lena Waithe's religion is 'The Wizard of Oz.' Here's what she learned from it.

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Vivien Killilea/Getty

Wild Card with Rachel Martin

Lena Waithe's religion is 'The Wizard of Oz.' Here's what she learned from it.

June 27, 2024 • At 40, Lena Waithe already has an impressive legacy, with dozens of writing, acting and production credits. She was the first Black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing (for Master of None). And she's also the creator of The Chi, which is just wrapping its sixth season. She tells Rachel one of her core beliefs is a lesson from The Wizard of Oz. They also discuss being bad at being wrong.

Lena Waithe's religion is 'The Wizard of Oz.' Here's what she learned from it.

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Will they or won't they? Unpacking TV's eternal question

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Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Will they or won't they? Unpacking TV's eternal question

June 25, 2024 • Jim and Pam. Mulder and Scully. Janine and Gregory. Carmy and Sydney. Meredith and McDreamy. You know how it goes: two television characters with obvious chemistry who fight or look at each other longingly. You know that there's only one question: will they, or won't they? Today, we break down the different types of will-they-won't-they couples and discuss some of the best and worst couples in television, including Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Cheers, Grey's Anatomy, Dawson's Creek, and more.

Will they or won't they? Unpacking TV's eternal question

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Is 'The Acolyte' a Star Wars Force to be reckoned with?

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Lucasfilm Ltd./Disney+

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Is 'The Acolyte' a Star Wars Force to be reckoned with?

June 24, 2024 • The new Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte is a murder mystery. Someone is killing great Jedi masters, and while we learn the killer's identity early on, the real mystery driving the series is why they're doing it. It stars Amandla Stenberg as Force-sensitive twins Osha and Mae, and Squid Game's Lee Jung-jae as Osha's former Jedi master. By the time it's finished its eight-episode run, The Acolyte may shed new light on the nature of the Force, and the hidden history of the Jedi.

Is 'The Acolyte' a Star Wars Force to be reckoned with?

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HBO's 'Fantasmas' is new and different and uniquely itself

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HBO

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

HBO's 'Fantasmas' is new and different and uniquely itself

June 20, 2024 • The brilliant and idiosyncratic new HBO series Fantasmas has a simple plot. Creator and star Julio Torres searches New York City for an earring he lost at a club. In the execution, that quest gets transformed into something epic and surreal and queer in every sense of the word. He keeps bumping into random New Yorkers whose stories play out in a series of sketch-like vignettes. They are played by actors including Emma Stone, Bowen Yang, and Tilda Swinton.

HBO's 'Fantasmas' is new and different and uniquely itself

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'Bridgerton' closes out a crowded third season

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Liam Daniel/Netflix

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Bridgerton' closes out a crowded third season

June 18, 2024 • The second half of Bridgerton's latest season just dropped on Netflix, and naturally the course of true love continues to not run smoothly. Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) may have finally declared their feelings for each other, but there's still a lot left to figure out. We previously talked about the first part of the third season in May, so today, we're diving in everything that happens in the conclusion.

'Bridgerton' closes out a crowded third season

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