Public Media for Central Pennsylvania
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Pop Culture Happy Hour: Pop Culture Summer Stories And 'Playing House'

Jessica St. Clair as Emma Crawford and Lennon Parham as Maggie Caruso in USA's Playing House.
Michael Yarish
/
USA Network
Jessica St. Clair as Emma Crawford and Lennon Parham as Maggie Caruso in USA's Playing House.

This week's show starts off with a segment from our recent live show at the Bell House in Brooklyn, in which we talked about some of the ways pop culture has intersected with our summers and our summer vacations. You'll find out about Audie's history as a server, you'll hear Glen rant about sand, and you'll hear about a very special photograph of Stephen that I'm honored you can see for yourself.

Stephen Thompson, circa 1990.
/
Stephen Thompson, circa 1990.

In our second segment, Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham, the stars and creators of the comedy Playing House, talk about their partnership and explain how St. Clair's breast cancer diagnosis made it into this season's storyline.

We wouldn't be ourselves if we didn't bring you a bit of what's making us happy this week, so we invited Sam Sanders, host of the new podcast It's Been A Minute, to go around the table. Stephen is happy about NPR Music's beautiful mid-year compilation, Glen is happy about a Netflix special presentation of a limited-run Broadway show, Sam is happy about an album he admires for its excesses, and I am happy about a new podcast that brings you the lowdown on interviewing.

As always, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: the show, me, Stephen, Glen, Audie, Sam, producer Jessica, also producer Thomas, and producer emeritus and pal for life Mike.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.