Bilal Qureshi

Each week, guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week, X-Terminators, The Righteous Gemstones, and the new Gabriels album Angels & Queens.

Sofreh is a new cookbook from celebrated chef and author Nasim Alikhani. "If we as immigrants become stuck in the past, we deprive ourselves of the opportunities our new space has provided," she says.

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer dominated IMAX screens. Only 19 cinemas in the country are showing it in its intended 70mm IMAX film format, leading some fans to several travel hours.

Studios raced to finish summer attractions ahead of the writers strike. So we're back with a great big, filterable guide of what to watch — and where to find it — as the days get hotter and longer.

Back in 2001, Monsoon Wedding was an indie darling turned international success. Now, the stage adaptation is an ambitious experiment in bridging Indian musical styles with a Broadway-style songbook.

The film follows a man who gets a job in a burlesque show and falls in love with a trans woman. This story of queer desire in a traditional Muslim society earned accolades at the Cannes Film Festival.

The pop star has always been an uneasy match for the demands of touring. In the controlled stillness of a Las Vegas theater, she may have finally found her place.

As a kid, Kazuo Ishiguro saw Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film Ikiru. "It made a terrific impact on me," the Nobel prize-winner recalls. His film Living is nominated for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay.

Rushdie submitted the final edits for his 15th novel before he was stabbed onstage in August 2022. It tells the story of a sorceress and poet who dreams a civilization into existence from magic seeds.

New Yorker magazine critic Hilton Als has curated an exhibition on writer Joan Didion. It's titled "What She Means" and is on display at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.