Stephen Thompson

Honestly, I'm still chuckling about Rolling Stone giving The Life Of A Showgirl five stars. Like, it's got a song about Travis Kelce's hog; that's an automatic one-star deduction right there! The moment the phrase "magic wand" leaves her lips, she topples off the pommel horse.

My brilliant colleague is a bit more bullish on The Life Of A Showgirl than I am -- we have a fun, lively discussion about it on Monday's PCHH! -- but this is a terrific, thoughtful, deeply considered review.

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Oh my gosh, hi! That was almost certainly me -- we'll be there tomorrow night, too, if you're still in town!

It feels a lot like the dialogue around Sinners, where there was a ton of pearl-clutching about the risk involved and then it made eleven gazillion dollars and everyone loved it and we're not even to awards season yet.

She Broke Off Two Engagements. She Couldn’t Commit. Now She’s Dating Chatbots Instead. As chatbot romance grows more common, women are redefining what they want from a partner—even if they are just ones and zeros.

This is not a romance. Nobody is "in love" with apps. There are no A.I. boyfriends. You cannot "date" a chatbot. Accepting this framing and treating it as real is tech-industry propaganda. slate.com/technology/2...

I Can't Believe The TV They Make Me Watch I cannot believe the garbage they make me watch on TV these days. Do they think we’re morons or something?

me, fuming as I watch the Badgers rake-stomp their way to a 27-3 deficit:

YouTube video by FiveInchTaint Mr Show - I'll Marry Your Stupid Ass

People praise Mr. Show sketches for having modern-day relevance all the time, like when the "blow up the moon" bit went viral a few weeks ago. To me, THIS remains the show's endlessly resonant, weirdly poignant masterpiece. That closing line is me, every time I piss away an hour getting mad online.

Ed Sheeran: Tiny Desk Concert YouTube video by NPR Music

Hi, everyone. As you probably know, NPR lost its federal funding this year. So NPR Music is trying something new to keep the music playing: Tiny Desk Donations on YouTube.

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About this Florida vaccine story:

When they were little - 1 yr and 3 1/2 - my two older boys, who’d had all their shots, got whooping cough.

We asked their pediatrician what would’ve happened if they hadn’t been vaccinated.

“Oh, they’d have died.”

Packers rookie WR Matthew Golden not feeling pressure of first-round status Matthew Golden isn’t feeling the pressure of being the Packers’ first first-round receiver since Javon Walker in 2002.  “I just feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life to get in the position I’m in ...

I'm a fan of both the Green Bay Packers and KPop Demon Hunters. As a society, I don't think we've prepared ourselves for what a breakout season by rookie receiver Matthew Golden would mean in terms of broadcasters yelling, "He's going up, up, up!" every time the guy leaps for a pass.

Literally an Onion story brought to life, and yet not funny at all.

Sure, you could read the alt text, remember that Max Kennerly is a rascal, or otherwise deploy common sense. But the REAL red flag in this quote is that it spells Warren Buffett's last name correctly.

A box of Fractured Prune donuts with a motto -- YOU CREATE "EM" WE MAKE "EM" -- that demonstrates a truly baffling misunderstanding of how quotation marks work. I've seen quotation marks misused to signify emphasis, or to convey mundane greetings ("Thank you!"), but... what even is this?

Took a lovely little beach vacation with my family last week. Thought I'd revisit my camera roll from the trip, only to discover that I'd taken precisely one (1) photo the entire time. It's of a box of donuts, which I'd documented due to the most egregious misuse of quotation marks I've ever seen.

I was about to ask you to join my edgy alternative to NPR, but I guess the Associated Coalition of Radio Operators for National Youth Media will have to carry on without you.

Saw this post while scrolling, read the text without seeing the image, got as far as “A sitting Republican senator says he is so scared driving in DC,” and thought, “It’s gonna be Markwayne Mullin.”

What's the perfect roadtrip playlist? : All Songs Considered Before summer disappears, we share our favorite songs for your long and winding drives, plus a list of ground rules (does the driver always have final say?), and a breakdown of what works best when. ...

Breaking: It’s still summer! And summer is roadtrip season. This wk’s All Songs Considered from @npr.org shares pro-tips and tunes to make any 10-hour drive feel like 5. ❤️🚗 w/ @idislikestephen.bsky.social @totalvibration.bsky.social

For those not in the DC area: This is like if you got hired as a mall cop, then spent your shift cowering in the break room of the Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Oh, and for me, the moment I gave this movie five stars was when the CROWD sang, "This is what it sounds like." Any moment when a zillion individuals rise up and exercise their power in unison... yeah, that gave me big feelings for some reason!

SAME. Absolutely wrecked me.

Herbie, from the movie The Love Bug. There's a two-digit code somewhere in this photograph that will, if read in order, tell you my age. (For those who rely on alt text -- and no one else, no peeking! -- that number is 53.)

I've decided, with this birthday, that it's time to start obscuring my age behind subtle hints. Here, for example, is a still photo from a movie I loved as a child:

Whatever you do, don't let your teeth get wet!

Came here to say Ghost! My pals at The Reveal made the switch and are really glad they did.

Juuuuuuuuust in case you need this as much as... yeah, you probably need this

Is there a song of the summer in 2025? : Pop Culture Happy Hour Last year was Brat summer and saw the rise of Chappell Roan, Shaboozey, and Sabrina Carpenter. But is there a song of the summer for 2025? Today we're talking about the competing songs of this summer ...

The best thing about "Song Of The Summer" season, given that summer itself is currently very humid: talking to my pal @aishaharris.bsky.social about songs of the summer on Pop Culture Happy Hour.

To be clear, it's not *our* song of the summer; it's just the one that's been No. 1 for most of the summer so far! If you love KPop Demon Hunters, you're way less "officially old" than you'd be if you were like, "Not familiar with KPop Demon Hunters, but I love 'Ordinary' by Alex Warren!"

Though Tom Lehrer rarely did interviews in retirement, he granted a few upon the release of a box set in 2000. I was lucky enough to get one of them for The A.V. Club. We included it in our 2002 book, and when I sent him a copy, he wrote back to let me know he'd already bought it. Just a lovely man.

I promise -- I PROMISE -- it's just pictures of my dumb face, engineered to look as stupid and unnerving as possible

Not gonna lie, the CPAP has *really* upped my boudoir-photo selfie game when one of us is traveling. Anyone who hacked my phone would be so weirded out

I'm also keen on turning/lumbering toward Katie, hose-lamprey and all, and bellowing "HOW 'BOUT A KISS" in my best Darth Vader voice through the great whooshing of it all