Here are Bob Mondello’s picks for the year’s best 10 films
In a year when many films didn’t even open in theaters, there were still plenty worth talking about. NPR film critic Bob Mondello celebrates the...
Betty White, a beloved icon and actress since the beginning of TV, has died at age 99
TV favors the young — but Betty White only got more famous as she got older. White’s career began in the earliest days of television,...
What’s making us happy: What to watch, read and listen to this weekend
Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour share what’s bringing them joy. This week: the trailer for The Northman, the...
‘Schmigadoon!’ star Cecily Strong and co-creator Cinco Paul embrace musical satire
The Apple TV+ satire series Schmigadoon! centers on a couple who gets trapped in a town where people burst into song. Originally broadcast Aug. 9...
Winnie-the-Pooh and more works will enter the public domain tomorrow
On January 1, 2022, thousands of creative works will go into the public domain in the U.S., including famous creations like Winnie-the-Pooh, Bambi, and a...
Hundreds of poets will ring in the new year for the Poetry Project
Since 1966, the Poetry Project in New York City has hosted an annual New Year’s Day poetry marathon. Last year, it featured 250 performances, seen...
How a LGBTQ bookstore in Philadelphia reinvented itself and thrived
The oldest LGBTQ bookstore in the country is a shop called Giovanni’s Room in Philadelphia. But when the bookstore almost closed forever in 2014, it...
Remembering some of those we lost in 2021, from literary legends to everyday heroes
2021 was filled with tremendous loss, from staggering COVID deaths to those of leading writers such as Joan Didion and bell hooks to a longtime...
You won’t want to miss the 10 most popular ‘Fresh Air’ stories of 2021
From Dr. Anthony Fauci to Sacha Baron Cohen, the year’s most popular Fresh Air web pages reflect the show’s strength as a place where artists,...
50 wonderful things from 2021: The performances, moments, and laughs we’ll remember
NPR pop culture critic Linda Holmes lists highlights from the year, including Ted Lasso, a TikTok dog, a twisty mystery, some great performances, and a...
‘Life Kit’: How to say sorry
We know you want to be the best you in 2022, so we’re offering a curated selection of excerpts from 2021 Life Kit episodes to...
Here’s what bell hooks’ friends and colleagues want you to remember about her
Since hooks’ passing on December 15, social media has flooded with reflections on her public impact as an author and scholar. Here, her friends remember...
2021’s standout podcasts feature personal stories, and plenty of surprises
Three podcasts with a keen interest in inner lives captured the attention of critic Nick Quah this year. His picks for the best of 2021?...
Fran Lebowitz is your NYC tour guide in ‘Pretend It’s a City’
In the series, Lebowitz talks with Martin Scorsese about getting kicked out of high school, driving a cab in New York City in the 1970s...
Telephone operators of another era gather to reconnect
A reunion of Maine switchboard operators highlights the challenges of making a phone call more than 50 years ago and what it was like to...
Maggie Gyllenhaal explores the difficulty of motherhood in her directorial debut
The new movie The Lost Daughter shows a side of motherhood that Hollywood doesn’t often depict.
Kieran Culkin is having fun with ‘Succession’ — and he hopes you are too
Culkin plays one of three siblings vying for control of a media empire. The character, he says, “doesn’t really know what [it] means to suffer...
Still looking for that picture book you loved as a kid? Try asking Instagram
Some people spend years or longer trying to track down favorite books from childhood. An Instagram account called My Old Books uses crowdsourcing to make...
Jean-Marc Vallée, director of ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ and ‘Big Little Lies,’ dies at 58
The director, born in Montreal, was known for his naturalistic approach to filmmaking and for working with strong female leads.
Life Kit’s most-read stories of 2021
These Life Kit stories about burnout, distraction and making connections resonated with readers, topping the charts as our most popular stories of 2021.
The romantic drama has never been what makes ‘Insecure’ so good
In the series finale, we finally get an answer to the “will they, won’t they” question that’s been surrounding Issa and Lawrence since Season 1—but...
Wayne Thiebaud, known for his colorful depictions of everyday life, dies at age 101
The artist explored everything from pastries to cityscapes in his work. Paintings, he once told NPR, can be “powerful statements about the sort of astounding...
Surviving teenage girlhood takes on a whole new meaning on ‘Yellowjackets’
Elissa Nadworny speaks with Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, creators of the new show about a girls soccer team whose plane crashes en route to...
3 members of K-pop sensation BTS have tested positive for COVID-19
Nearly half of the seven-member band have now tested positive, after returning to South Korea from abroad earlier this month.
Kids need to see themselves reflected in media. Here are some recommendations
We asked children’s media experts to recommend their favorite new books, TV shows and video games with characters and storylines representing the diversity of the...
The rule to making your own game is that there are no rules
Creating your own game can lead to lots of laughs, but it can also help teach people how to bond, work together as a team...
In ‘Parallel Mothers,’ Almodóvar hitches unruly passions to women and family
Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar takes a long, colorful look at motherhood in his melodrama Parallel Mothers, starring Penélope Cruz.
Using poetry to understand grief during a very difficult year
It’s been a difficult year for many people. NPR’s Elissa Nadworny talks with poet Danez Smith about using poetry to understand and process complex emotions...
‘Wait Wait’ for Dec. 25th, 2021: A Stocking Full of Fun
Happy Holidays, one and all! Dig deep in that stocking, because we’ve wrapped up a collection of our favorite moments from this past year, just...
Filmmaker John Waters puts his own spin on Christmas
In 2004, Waters shared music from his album A John Waters Christmas, an anthology of catchy, entertaining and ridiculous holiday songs that reflect his fascination...