This week, the Olympics got underway, we glimpsed a high-profile attempt to sound like an icon, and Disneyland avoided a strike.
Here's what NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.
GWAR covering “I’m Just Ken”
The A.V. Club was recently acquired by Paste Magazine and they’ve just brought back A.V. Undercover. This is a series where they provide a list of songs that artists can choose to cover. As the season goes on, the list gets smaller and smaller, so if you’re a band near the end of the season, you have fewer and fewer choices. They brought the series back with GWAR covering “I'm just Ken” from the Barbie soundtrack. It brought back memories of GWAR's Tiny Desk Concert. I was the founding editor of The A.V. Club, and I'm just delighted to have the series back and delighted to have The A.V. Club in good hands. — Stephen Thompson
The "Tested" series
Tested is a 6-part series from NPR's Embedded and CBC. The first episode is about Namibian runner Christine Mboma, who was suddenly told by the sporting authority that she had to artificially reduce her testosterone levels in order to compete in women's track events. This series explores a fuller context of sex and gender and sport, which have gotten reduced into binaries in questions about trans athletes. This series tells a fuller, adjacent story — I am so grateful for this context and for the work that went into it. Plus, the show has a lot of joy in it because it’s about athletes — Mboma is soooo excited about running and she’s so beloved in Namibia where she’s from. It's hosted by producer, editor and general audio smarty Rose Eveleth. — Linda Holmes
This Is How You Lose The Time War
If you are into romance, letters, poetry — I have a great book for you. It's called This Is How You Lose the Time War by two authors, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. (El-Mohtar has previously written book reviews for NPR — you can read them here.) Imagine a sentient plant falls in love with a machine and they're traveling through time and they share letters. It's very abstract. But my God, the romance! You will be swept away by the most poetic letters you've ever read. It is epic. It's a short, slim, little read. If you're like me, and you like to annotate books with great quotes, your whole book will be marked up. This is my third time reading it. I'll probably read it a fourth. I'm obsessed. — Joelle Monique
More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter
by Linda Holmes
The Olympics are kicking off this weekend, and NPR is following all of the ways to wrap your mind around the enormous event. Three years ago, when the (delayed) Tokyo Olympics were happening, I reported back on my project of watching at least some of every sport. I'll be watching a lot of those sports again.
Elizabeth Blair rounded up some clips and reactions to the potential appearance of Maya Rudolph's Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live.
I am very late to HBO's Industry, which PCHH host Aisha Harris hosted an episode about in 2022. But just as I was late to Succession and then learned to love it, I am learning to love Industry, and it's absolutely worth catching up on before it comes back for a third season in a couple of weeks.
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.
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