Current:Home > FinanceWhat's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing, reading and listening-DB Wealth Institute B2 Reviews & Ratings
What's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing, reading and listening
lotradecoin advanced analytics dashboard View Date:2024-12-25 16:55:42
This week, Mickey Mouse became a murderous freak, and Disney couldn't do anything about it; someone finally "beat" Tetris; and Katt Williams accused Steve Harvey of plagiarism and referred to him as "Mr. Potato Head" – amidst many, many other bold and brash proclamations.
Here's what the NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.
Fad Camp podcast
Fad Camp is a podcast hosted by comedians Conor Dowling and Grace Mulvey, both of whom have struggled with body acceptance and diet culture. In each episode, they look at a topic related to fatness or anti-fatness, and they dissect it and laugh at it. They've done episodes on The Biggest Loser, wedding diets, Revenge Body with Khloé Kardashian and, of course, fat camps for children. What I love about Fad Camp is that Conor and Grace are intellectually certain about how anti-fatness is damaging — and yet they're still vulnerable enough to admit that they sometimes struggle with their own body acceptance. It's information mixed with vulnerability and humor. It always makes me laugh and think. — Kristen Meinzer
Silver Nitrate, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia came out in July 2023. It's about two best friends living in Mexico City in the early '90s. They work in and around the film and television industry, and they get wrapped up in a spooky mystery involving a Nazi occultist and a secret film that was never released and might contain all sorts of untold dark powers. Because it's the '90s, there's no Internet or smartphones; the two characters have to get to the bottom the mystery by doing research in dusty film archives and looking in the phone book. It has a nostalgic, Nancy Drew quality to it that I loved. If you like The Vampire Diaries TV series this will scratch that itch. — Wailin Wong
The monologue in Barbie
This is the much-discussed moment in Barbie when America Ferrera's character, Gloria, holds forth for a couple of minutes about the contradictions of the expectations that are placed on women. Plenty of people I respect have dismissed it as eye-rolling, and cringe, and Feminism 101, and too basic, and a gross oversimplification, and a dumbing down of important issues and ideas.
I spent a couple days over the holiday break with a friend of ours: She's in her 60s. She would never consider herself a feminist; she calls herself "a tough broad." The minute she saw me, she asked me about Barbie, which was odd because she doesn't watch movies. I have known this person 20 years — we have never talked about pop culture.
She said she rewound and rewatched that speech three times. She quoted it to me at length. She had never heard her life expressed in such a stark, and succinct, and, yes, simplified way. This was a reminder for me that critics can get jaded. For a moment, my friend felt like her experiences weren't unique to her. And given the success of Barbie there must be a lot of people who had an experience like that. And I just think it's myopic to dismiss it. — Glen Weldon
More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter
by Aisha Harris
I care about Travis Kelce as much as I care about football, which is to say: not at all. But this New York Times article gives an interesting peek into the well-oiled machine behind his ascendance into the zeitgeist, and is a necessary reminder that in the entertainment world, some things, like dating the biggest pop star in the world, happen [allegedly] by chance. Others are carefully crafted plans years in the making.
Speaking of carefully crafted plans, multi-level marketing schemes are the worst, right? And yet, many of us can't get enough stories about them, be they exposés, documentaries, or podcasts, myself included. If this sounds like you, definitely check out the latest season of The Dream, hosted by Jane Marie. It's about the insidiousness of MLMs, but also includes a deep dive into the history of "bootstrap" mentality.
And finally, Dan Levy's feature directorial debut Good Grief is streaming on Netflix this weekend. It's a melancholy, wintry rom-com-dramedy that features a standout performance by Ruth Negga as one of his character's B.F.F.s. Will go down pleasingly enough with a warm blanket and a glass of red or a hot cocoa.
Beth Novey adapted the Pop Culture Happy Hour segment "What's Making Us Happy" for the Web. If you like these suggestions, consider signing up for our newsletter to get recommendations every week. And listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
veryGood! (38)
Related
- Don't be fooled by the name and packaging: Fruit snacks are rarely good for you. Here's why.
- New Hampshire AG’s office to play both offense and defense in youth center abuse trials
- Eric Carmen, 'All By Myself' singer and frontman of the Raspberries, dies at 74
- The Best Easter Basket Gifts for Kids, Teens & Adults (That’s Not Candy)
- Meta kills off misinformation tracking tool CrowdTangle despite pleas from researchers, journalists
- Dog kills baby boy, injures mother at New Jersey home, the latest fatal mauling of 2024
- Fifth body found shot near West Virginia house fire where four people died
- What Biden told then-special counsel Robert Hur in their 5-hour interview, according to the transcript
- Head of Theodore Roosevelt National Park departs North Dakota job
- The Daily Money: Trader Joe's tote goes viral
Ranking
- What Conservation Coalitions Have Learned from an Aspen Tree
- 5 missing skiers found dead in Swiss Alps, search for 6th continues: We were trying the impossible
- U.S. military airlifts embassy staff from Port-au-Prince amid Haiti's escalating gang violence
- Lawsuit accuses Columbia of singling out 2 pro-Palestinian groups by suspending them after protest
- Streamer stayed awake for 12 days straight to break a world record that doesn't exist
- Proof Channing Tatum Is Already a Part of Zoë Kravitz’s Family
- Princess Kate's edited photo carries lessons about posting on social media
- A trial begins in Norway of a man accused of a deadly shooting at a LGBTQ+ festival in Oslo
Recommendation
-
As Baltimore’s Sewer System Buckles Under Extreme Weather, City Refuses to Help Residents With Cleanup Efforts
-
Double-swiping the rewards card led to free gas for months — and a felony theft charge
-
Wife pleads guilty in killing of UConn professor, whose body was left in basement for months
-
Robert Hur defends special counsel report at tense House hearing on Biden documents probe
-
How a small group of nuns in rural Kansas vex big companies with their investment activism
-
Princess Kate admits photo editing, apologizes for any confusion as agencies drop image of her and her kids
-
Trump, Biden could clinch 2024 nomination after today's Republican and Democratic primaries in Washington, Georgia, Mississippi
-
Georgia restricted transgender care for youth in 2023. Now Republicans are seeking an outright ban