Stephen Thompson

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Clone High, the "Thursday Murder Club" mystery series, Mel Mitchell on TikTok, and more.

These songs ache with loss, even as they explode in full-bore rock mayhem, and that loss extends beyond the deaths of loved ones.

The Indonesian artist Nicole Zefanya brings a tiny toy piano and sleek songs to this Tiny Desk debut.

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: You're the Worst, 60 Songs that Explain the '90s, and Little Moon wins the Tiny Desk.

From Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion to Coldplay, here they are: the magnificent, the flawed-but-forceful, the forgettable and the truly, epically misbegotten.

Listening to Kesha's new album, Gag Order, you can't help but think about all she's been through in the past 10 years.

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Jury Duty, The Other Two, Every Frame a Painting and Rutherford Falls.

Weird Al Yankovic has made a name for himself with spot-on song parodies. 40 years into his career, a look at some of his best tunes reveals the expertise and creativity it takes to do what he does.

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Fake Doctors, Real Friends, Bupkis, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and Weird Al Yankovic.

"Weird Al" Yankovic's self-titled debut came out 40 years ago, on May 3, 1983. So our resident super-fan listened to all of his songs and ranked the 40 best.

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: No Borders, Just Flavors! series, You Must Remember This podcast, and Fenne Lily's new album.

Host Elissa Nadworny speaks with NPR music journalist Stephen Thompson about new albums from Feist and Black Thought.

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Murder Mystery 2, If the Shoe Fits, and more.

We keep hearing that Artificial Intelligence is a threat to the creative arts. So we put ChatGPT to the test to see if it can write a decent song.

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Studio Ghibli Fest, Succession, and more.

The difference between song and record of the year at the Grammys can be confusing. So confusing, that we messed it up on a story on npr.org, and had to issue a correction.

Andress writes songs that have a way of digging up clear-headed truths; here, she performs three tracks from across her catalog.

Just one last word about the 2023 Academy Awards, which wrapped Sunday in a manner largely free of catastrophic embarrassment: Here's an unsexy-but-crucial rundown of the mistakes that were avoided.

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: the Willem Dafoe film Inside and the podcast Louder Than A Riot.

Amid dreamy strings and a cloudy swirl of synths, vocalist Charlotte Mundy lends the song a haunted, impressionistic quality.