2025 Pop Culture Resolutions And What's Making Us Happy

Summary

Episode Summary: "2025 Pop Culture Resolutions And What's Making Us Happy"

Pop Culture Happy Hour returns with an engaging year-end episode where hosts Linda Holmes, Stephen Thompson, Glenn Weldon, and Aisha Harris reflect on their 2024 resolutions, set new goals for 2025, and share what’s currently bringing them joy in the vibrant world of pop culture.

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1. Reflecting on 2024 Resolutions

As 2024 draws to a close, the hosts open the conversation by evaluating their past year's resolutions with a mix of honesty, humor, and encouragement.

Aisha Harris embarked on an ambitious journey with multiple resolutions: writing a novel, establishing a workout routine, reconnecting with friends and family, and diving deep into the genre of folk horror films. While she didn’t complete her novel or fully commit to her fitness goals, she proudly shares her success in becoming a "folk horror completist," having watched around 50 films in the genre. Aisha remarks with a chuckle, “Ask me about that. This is partly why part A did not happen. Because I spent so much time watching a lot of folk horror” ([02:40]-[06:51]).

Glenn Weldon focused his 2024 resolution on experiencing more old movies in theaters, particularly at the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto. Over the year, he watched approximately 10 films, including notable classics like "Mike’s Murder," and even discovered new favorites. Reflecting on his achievement, Glenn enthusiastically declares, “I did it, y'all. I did it” ([09:30]-[12:06]).

Linda Holmes aimed to immerse herself in repertory showings at the AFI and return to live theater, activities she had neglected since 2020. Although she didn’t attend repertory showings, Linda did attend a live performance of "Problems Between Sisters" thanks to an invitation from a friend. She shares, “I did not do a great job on these resolutions this year, but I give myself a little bit of partial credit” ([13:33]-[17:29]).

Stephen Thompson set out to write a children's book with his daughter and take an international vacation. While his trip to Mexico City for a wedding didn’t fully align with his creative aspirations, he made meaningful progress on the book by setting up a collaborative Google Doc with his daughter. Stephen reflects, “I'm giving myself a decent amount of credit here. It's not” ([17:56]-[20:49]).

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2. Setting Resolutions for 2025

Looking ahead, each host shares their fresh set of resolutions, focusing on personal growth and deeper engagement with pop culture.

Aisha Harris shifts her focus from specific genres to a more extensive commitment: tackling long-form movies. She plans to immerse herself in films exceeding four hours, embracing the depth and prolonged engagement they offer. Aisha enthusiastically states, “I'm gonna clear my damn schedule and I'm gonna let 2025 be the year. I let movies take me for an extended ride” ([07:38]-[08:35]).

Glenn Weldon expresses a desire to rekindle his creative side by writing fiction, something he hasn't done since high school. Contemplating a screenplay, Glenn shares, “Preferably. I want to try and write a screenplay” ([12:14]-[13:14]).

Linda Holmes aims to enrich her literary pursuits by reading more nonfiction essays, particularly those from Best American Essays of 2024. Balancing this with her novel writing, she remarks, “I'm going to start with Best American Essays of 2024” ([14:37]-[17:21]).

Stephen Thompson plans to finalize the children’s book project with his daughter and re-engage with social media in a meaningful way. He emphasizes the importance of using social platforms to expand his community while maintaining healthy online habits: “I want to recommit to social media in ways that expand my horizons” ([19:14]-[23:11]).

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3. What's Making Us Happy This Week

Shifting the focus to current joys, the hosts highlight aspects of pop culture that are bringing them happiness.

Aisha Harris shares two sources of joy:

1. Yacht Rock Documentary on Max: A comprehensive look into the Yacht Rock genre, exploring its origins and cultural impact. Aisha appreciates its informative and entertaining nature, saying, “It's informative, it was fun. I enjoyed spending an hour and a half with this movie” ([25:17]-[25:40]).

2. Pentiment Game: A narrative-driven, two-dimensional game set in a 16th-century monastery, blending elements of illuminated manuscripts and mystery. Aisha praises its unique storytelling and artistic design: “It's giving King's Quest vibes... and you learn a hell of a lot about ancient manuscripts” ([28:42]-[29:58]).

Stephen Thompson introduces us to Coloring’s album, "Love to You Mate," inspired by personal family experiences. He describes the album's lush soundscapes and emotional depth, likening it to artists like James Blake and Cigarettes After Sex. Sharing a snippet of the single "Loon," Stephen enthuses, “It's deeply catchy, but it's also just so sweet” ([25:40]-[28:37]).

Linda Holmes discusses her enjoyment of the Netflix action movie "Carry On." While she acknowledges it doesn’t reach the iconic status of classics like Die Hard, she finds it a fun and entertaining watch: “It is a fun action movie... I do think worth your time” ([28:37]-[31:09]).

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4. Conclusion

As the episode wraps up, the hosts encourage listeners to reflect on their own resolutions and share what brings them joy. They express gratitude to their audience and reaffirm their commitment to delivering insightful and entertaining pop culture commentary in the new year.

Notable Quotes:

• Aisha Harris: “I am gonna clear my damn schedule and I'm gonna let 2025 be the year. I let movies take me for an extended ride” ([07:38]-[08:35]).
• Glenn Weldon: “I did it, y'all. I did it” ([09:30]-[12:06]).
• Stephen Thompson: “I want to recommit to social media in ways that expand my horizons” ([19:14]-[23:11]).

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This episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour adeptly balances personal reflections with pop culture insights, offering listeners both relatable content and thoughtful recommendations to inspire their own resolutions and sources of happiness in 2025.

Transcript

[Linda Holmes]

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[Stephen Thompson]

Hey, it's Stephen Thompson. It is almost the end of the year and this is the season when NPR comes to you as a non profit news organization to to ask for your support. Maybe you're already an NPR supporter and if so, thank you so much. But if you've never given to public media before or not in a while, please consider it now because supporting public radio is a great way to express your values. You want to stay informed about what's going on in your community and around the world. You want to know where to turn for information you can trust and to hear perspectives that challenge your opinions. And believe me, I get it. Sometimes you want to tune out from the news and just hear a really cool story. NPR gives you that space to experience a little more joy too. Our team here at Pop Culture Happy Hour has loved bringing you conversations about everything from our favorite YouTube rabbit holes to pop culture pumpkin spice lattes in 2024. And together we can do even more in 2025. The easiest way to support Pop Culture Happy Hour and NPR Network stations across the country is to sign up for npr. It's a recurring donation that gets you special perks from more than 25 n NPR podcasts like sponsor free listening, bonus episodes, behind the scenes content, and even exclusive and discounted items from the NPR Shop and the NPR Wine Club. It only takes a few minutes to sign up and you can do it right [e-mail] we love keeping you company with smart, fun and yes, sometimes deeply silly conversations about all corners of the pop culture universe. And we simply could not do it without you. Thank you again for being a critical part of the public media community. Join [e-mail].

[Linda Holmes]

As a new year arrives it's only natural to have some goals in mind. What you want to achieve, what heights you want to hit, call it what you want. It's still a New Year's resolution.

[Stephen Thompson]

And it's also the perfect, perfect moment to look back on last year's goals and assess our progress with brutal honesty. I'm Stephen Thompson.

[Linda Holmes]

And I'm Linda Holmes. It's resolutions time once again on Pop Culture Happy Hour from npr. Joining us today are our fellow Pop Culture Happy Hour hosts, Aisha Harris. Hello, Aisha.

[Glenn Weldon]

Hello. Hello.

[Linda Holmes]

And always in high resolution, Glenn Weldon. Hello, Glenn.

[Aisha Harris]

Hey, Linda. Why do we need brutal honesty? Can we just be a little easier on ourselves this time?

[Linda Holmes]

Gentle honesty. Gentle honesty. We can agree on kind hearted honesty. I think that's typically what we apply.

[Aisha Harris]

Can we just lie? Maybe just lie.

[Stephen Thompson]

That's true. We can go back and we can resolve to do the things we actually did.

[Linda Holmes]

Well, no, but I think we can all agree, as we all always do, that we root for each other and try to find the ways in which we succeeded, even if we did not entirely succeed.

[Glenn Weldon]

You know, yes, we're supportive here most of the time.

[Linda Holmes]

Partial credit. We are very, very big on partial credit.

[Stephen Thompson]

We are big on partial credit.

[Linda Holmes]

All right, Glenn, we are going to start with you, and we are going to start by looking back at your resolution from last year.

[Aisha Harris]

I am. I will write the novel that I've had outlined for years. I will get back into a workout routine. I will reach out more to friends and family. I'll feel better in my skin because I've spent decades doing intellectualization and compartmentalization and rationalization. Now it is time, finally, for sublimation, for channeling all these feelings into creative action. Because I know what the deal is here. I know exactly what's required. I've written three books. It's not a question of not knowing exactly what's required. So I'm going to shut up and do it. I'm also going to do something else. I'm going to watch pretty much every folk horror film that I can find. I will become a folk horror completist. Let's go part by part. Part A. Nope, didn't do it. Didn't carve out the time. Didn't finish the book. Made some progress, but didn't finish it. Worked out here or there. Didn't get back into a routine. Reached out to some friends, didn't reach out to others. The goal was to channel bad feelings into good, solid creative work. And that happened only haltingly. But you know what did work. Was the folk horror thing all over that? Ask me about that. This is partly why part A did not happen. Because I spent so much time watching a lot of folk horror. And here's the first thing you learn if you set out on that particular endeavor is you're gonna get very familiar with Tubi. Who knows why all these old films and even some old specials are just languishing on Tubi. So get set for the three commercials in 2B's inventory because you're gonna see them a lot. But I watched like 50 films that qualify. I came away with a couple very different recommendations if you wanna hear em.

[Linda Holmes]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Aisha Harris]

First One is a 1967 Soviet horror film called VVIy. This I just love. It has all the earmarks of an old school folk tale. Cause it's this priest who has to spend three nights, not two, not four, but three nights locked in a church with a dead body that keeps coming to life. So that's on Tubi. The other one also on Tubi, Robin redbreast. It's a 1970 episode of a BBC anthology series that was called Play for Today. And it's about this kind of hip woman who goes to a remote cottage and meets, wait for it, quirky townsfolk. And there's this one hot young dude who practices martial arts naked in the woods. And this is my favorite sub, sub genre of folk horror. This is 70s British folk horror. I call Talismans and Turtlenecks. Era of folk horror. And I'm all over it. Cause it's everything I want. It's creepy and silly and sexy. It's very, very British. So that's also on Tubi. That's Robin Redbreast. I'm gonna put a list of the films I watched and make some recommendations on our letterboxd account. You can find [e-mail] nprpopculture we'll have a link in the episode description. But yeah, that's my accomplishment. I watched a lot of movies.

[Glenn Weldon]

I love that.

[Linda Holmes]

Yeah, just keep going. What you're describing is what we all try to do. And I think you absolutely have to credit yourself for keeping it in mind and making progress. Even if it is not everything that you hoped.

[Glenn Weldon]

Yeah.

[Stephen Thompson]

The other thing is these are pop culture resolutions, right? And part A of what you were talking about was sort of like, I'm gonna get in shape. I mean, it's all the kind of standard things that people talk about when they're talking about New Year's resolutions. But then when you knuckled down and made a pop culture specific resolution. You kept it.

[Aisha Harris]

Yeah.

[Stephen Thompson]

And isn't that what's really important? Isn't that more important than keeping in touch with our friends?

[Aisha Harris]

Isn't mental and physical health secondary to watching lots of films? Yes, I agree with you.

[Glenn Weldon]

One can feed into the other and you were nourishing your mind, which is your mental health.

[Aisha Harris]

All right, I'll take that.

[Linda Holmes]

All right. What is your resolution for this year?

[Aisha Harris]

I had a lot of fun exploring that genre of folk horror that I was curious about last year. So I want to do the same this year. I was thinking, what should I do? Should I do screwball comedy or noir or 90s new queer cinema? But problem with all those is that I've seen a lot of those films already. Not like folk horror, which was a niche that I hadn't really explored. So what I'm gonna do is not even a genre, it's a feature of movies. I'm going to watch long movies, movies that you have to sit with. Movies that eat up half the day. Movies you have to crawl inside and live in. Because Lord knows we complain a lot about movies going on too long. But what about most movies that reportedly at least earn their duration? I'm talking about four hour plus movies. I mean, the brutalists kind of loosened the jar, but now I'm gonna dig in. I'm gonna seek out films that I've AV because of their length. Nymphomaniac Carlos, little Dora at happy hour. I'm gonna find these movies, I'm gonna clear my damn schedule and I'm gonna let 20, 25 be the year. I let movies take me for a extended ride.

[Linda Holmes]

You sure you don't wanna do 90s, 80s and 90s rom coms?

[Aisha Harris]

I'm pretty sure. Also a niche I haven't explored, but I'm gonna leave that unexplored.

[Linda Holmes]

That's what I'm saying, though. I feel it would broaden your horizons and it wouldn't take so freaking long.

[Aisha Harris]

Horizons are pretty wide.

[Glenn Weldon]

I've toyed with this idea in. So hats off to you for committing to this. Maybe one day I will have the same will to do it, but I think this is a good one. I like it, I like it.

[Aisha Harris]

I like this. I'm looking forward to this.

[Stephen Thompson]

I'm over here thinking like, well, I need to catch up on the overseas versions of the traitors. And you're like, I think I need to watch a four and a half hour. Like Aisha said, my hat's off to you, buddy.

[Aisha Harris]

We'll see. We'll see if it resolves.

[Linda Holmes]

I love it. Thank you very much, Glen Weldon. All right, Aisha Harris, we are gonna go to your resolution for this past year.

[Glenn Weldon]

I want to see more old movies in theaters. And I miss that. I've realized that I've kind of gotten into a habit since moving out to the Bay and also just being so used to watching things on screeners and not leaving my house as much as I used to not really seeking out the chance to see certain movies, whether I've seen them before or want to watch them for the first time seeing them on a big screen. So I'm looking ahead to 2020. I see some local theaters that I either haven't visited yet that are in my area or that I have and just haven't seen old movies there. And, you know, I just want to be able to do that, see them in scare quotes here, like as they were originally seen in the theater. I just want to enjoy the theatrical experience yet again. And not just for new movies, but also for old movies and revivals and that sort of thing. So that is my 2024 resolution. See more movies in theaters. Specifically the. How'd it go, you guys? I did this. I did. I did see around 10 movies, old movies in theaters. I got to visit for the first time the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto. If it was closer to me, I would absolutely go there because it is a gorgeous theater that includes, depending on when you go, they have an organist who plays ahead of time. So I saw the Bandwagon there. They had a Fred Astaire series there. I also saw Vertigo there. They had a Hitchcock series later in the year. I saw some movies that I'd seen. I'd seen those movies. I also saw some movies that I'd never seen before. I think my favorite that I saw in a theater this year. And it's probably the most underseen. I'd never heard of it until the Alamo was showing it for the 40th anniversary. It's the LA Neo Noir movie Mike's Murder. So it's a neo noir set in la. It stars Debra Winger as a woman who's one time fling, who's also like a tennis instructor, is murdered.

[Linda Holmes]

Vaguely remember this existing.

[Glenn Weldon]

Yeah. And it leads her down this rabbit hole to try to like find out who he was and what happened to him. Like they hooked up like once or twice, but all of a sudden he's dead and she's like, oh my God. It's weird, it's quirky. And Deborah Winger is great. It was just really nice to get to see a bunch of movies on big screens in theaters. I'm glad I did it. It's something I want to keep doing. And if you want to see all the movies that I wound up seeing, the old movies that I wound up seeing in theaters, we actually have a list up there on Letterbo. Yeah. I did it, y'all. I did it.

[Aisha Harris]

Yep.

[Linda Holmes]

Amazing. Congratulations. Absolutely. Wonderful.

[Stephen Thompson]

I'm in awe.

[Linda Holmes]

All right, Aisha, what is your resolution for 2025?

[Glenn Weldon]

Well, I want to write fiction.

[Aisha Harris]

There we go.

[Glenn Weldon]

Yeah. Which is something I've not done since I was in high school. Maybe I just, like, at a certain point, I just stopped, and it was like, okay, no, I'm gonna be a critic, and that's when I'm gonna do. And I'm gonna write nonfiction. And I've realized now that I'm missing that creative outlet, that creative side of me. I've expressed it in other ways through dance and whatever, But I'm missing when I used to write just, like, lots of Baby Seaters club fan fiction and long stories that I would print out and then bind and had, like, a nice little cover and I had illustrations. I'm not gonna be doing all that, but, like, I do.

[Stephen Thompson]

Well, hold on. You could just pick up where you left off.

[Glenn Weldon]

Well, yeah, I'm not gonna be writing Baby Series club fan fiction, but I do have a bunch of ideas that have been swirling in my head, I think from watching so many movies and TV shows where I' this is cool, but I wish it was, like, from this perspective or I feel like there's something missing here. And as they say, if you don't see it, create it.

[Aisha Harris]

Exactly.

[Glenn Weldon]

Preferably. I want to try and write a screenplay. We'll see how that goes.

[Aisha Harris]

Mazel. That's great.

[Linda Holmes]

Love it. Okay, we're going to start with my resolution from this past year. Remember how Aisha gave her resolution, and then I had the same one I wrote in my notes. Get back to a repertory showing at the afi.

[Aisha Harris]

There you go.

[Linda Holmes]

So Aisha needs to come here and come to a movie at the afi. The AFI Silver in Silver Spring, Maryland, is a wonderful place to watch, you know, not just new movies, but also repertory showings. And I do really enjoy going there. And when I kind of stopped going to theaters in 2020, I never really got back into that particular habit. So I want to pick that habit up again. The other thing I want to do that I kind of stopped doing in 2020 is I want to go back and see some live theater, which I used to really love doing and which I haven't done that's a good at all since then, I don't think. And I was sometimes going up to New York to see stuff on Broadway or Off Broadway, but I also was enjoying like some stuff in D.C. and I want to do that again. So I don't ever want to be too much like Aisha. And so I did not do it in terms of seeing a repertory showing at the afi.

[Stephen Thompson]

Congratulations, buddy. That's great job.

[Linda Holmes]

I don't want to be a complete copycat. So I did not do it. Completely forgot I had made this resolution. Did not think about it once during the year.

[Glenn Weldon]

This is why I got to write these things down.

[Linda Holmes]

Just didn't do it. However, thanks to an invitation from friend of the show and former co host Trey Graham, I did go and see live theater this year. Trey took me with him to studio theater in D.C. to see a play called Problems Between Sisters which is a gender swapped take on True West. Basically the Sam Shepard play that you may or may not know that I have seen that I saw on Broadway with Paul Dano and Ethan Hawke. I very much enjoyed seeing that play. I very much enjoyed being in a live audience for theater again. Absolutely would recommend that experience. Hope to do it some more this coming up year. I did not do a great job on these resolutions this year, but I give myself a little bit of partial credit. And more importantly, this is something that I can still do because the AFI Silver still exists. So basically a fail. But with Hope for the Future.

[Glenn Weldon]

I've still never been to the AFI Silver.

[Aisha Harris]

It's fantastic.

[Linda Holmes]

Maybe that's what went wrong.

[Glenn Weldon]

I know next time there's a guest.

[Stephen Thompson]

Room where you could sleep like a mile from the afi.

[Glenn Weldon]

I'm in dc.

[Linda Holmes]

You didn't come down and that's why I didn't go. That's what it is.

[Aisha Harris]

Figured it out.

[Linda Holmes]

So my resolution, I swear I'm not doing this on purpose. I never know what Aisha's picks are. We don't share them in advance.

[Glenn Weldon]

We are one, as we know, as people like to tell us.

[Linda Holmes]

In this case it's more like flippy flip. Because Aisha said that she wanted to write fiction and I decided that I want to read more nonfiction, specifically essays. This year. I want to make that what I'm reading this year because I have a novel coming out in February. It's called Back after this. It takes place in Audio World. So if you're interested in podcasts you can find that. But I am thinking about whether I would like to write some nonfiction, perhaps some essay type things, some criticism type things, therefore want to throw myself into reading a lot of such. So Aisha wants to write fiction because she has been writing nonfiction. I want to write nonfiction because I have been writing fiction. Aisha and I continue to just be absolute soulmates of predictions and resolutions, binary.

[Glenn Weldon]

Stars circling each other. Absolutely.

[Linda Holmes]

So I'm starting with Best American Essays of 2024, which was edited by Wesley Morris this year, which I'm very excited about.

[Glenn Weldon]

Sweet.

[Linda Holmes]

And I'm gonna start there and then jump off from there and see where else I can end up. And so that's what I'm doing. That's my resolution for 2025.

[Aisha Harris]

That's a great project. Love it. Yeah.

[Glenn Weldon]

Yes. That's exciting. If you want any recommendations, I'm happy to give them to you, but if you don't, I'm also happy to.

[Linda Holmes]

Not 100%. And if you need anybody to tell you that you really can write novels or screenplays or fiction in whatever form, I am always happy to provide that encouragement as well. Anyway, all right, so saving the best for last. Stephen Thompson, we're gonna hear your resolution from this past year.

[Stephen Thompson]

So in 2024, I have been batting around an idea for the last couple of years for a children's book that I have been wanting to write with my daughter Grace, who is an art student in college. She's wrapping up her third semester of art school, and I have wanted to work with her on a children's book for the longest time, and I think her artistic skills have only grown. And my idea for this story has kind of taken some shape in the last year. And So I want 2024 to be the year that I actually move forward on writing this book. I'm not saying sign a book deal. I'm not saying get this published. I'm not saying finish it. I'm saying I want to make some serious movement on this collaboration with Grace that I've been wanting to do for the longest time. And I think the second part of this resolution is I want to take an international vacation in which I actually turn off the work part of my brain enough to open the creat part of my brain and really get the ball rolling on sitting down and working on something that is completely unrelated to what I do in my day to day work life, which has a creative component to it, but nothing that is quite as imagination driven as what I would love to be Doing on the side.

[Aisha Harris]

Okay.

[Stephen Thompson]

So I did travel internationally. I went to Mexico City for a wedding. Loved it. Turned off the work part of my brain and played Pokemon Go. Though I did travel internationally in 2024. And though I have booked an international trip, I'm going to Iceland in 2025.

Sweet.

What I pictured a little more was like, I will rent a villa where I'll craft my art. And that, of course, did not happen. I did, however, make some progress on the children's book with Grace. Yay.

[Linda Holmes]

You asked her, she said no.

[Stephen Thompson]

I asked her, she said no. And now I no. I set up a shared Google Doc where I put all my notes. I've written a whole bunch of lines and jokes. I've written an introduction. What I need to do is start storyboarding so she can start actually drawing and painting. So the progress that I had envisioned making, I think it was probably more steps on the path. You'll note I said, I'm not gonna finish it. I'm not gonna sign a book deal. So I did make steps toward making it happen. She and I have talked about it. Ext. We are absolutely planning to do it. We have a short term plan to actually start producing pages instead of talking about it. So I'm giving myself a decent amount of credit here. It's not.

[Aisha Harris]

I'm going to give you full credit. You know why? Because you've made serious movements. Boom.

[Linda Holmes]

I think you get 100%, 100% full credit.

[Glenn Weldon]

If you've got Google Docs. If you've got. That's way more than I have.

[Stephen Thompson]

Those are notoriously difficult to create.

[Glenn Weldon]

I mean, as a notorious procrastinator myself, yeah, they are difficult to create.

[Linda Holmes]

If you have buy in from your own child on a project to work on together, you've made some.

[Aisha Harris]

Take the win. Take the win, Thompson.

[Glenn Weldon]

Yes.

[Linda Holmes]

Yeah.

[Aisha Harris]

Yes.

[Stephen Thompson]

All right. I'm gonna take the win.

[Linda Holmes]

All right. Awesome job. What is your resolution for 2025?

[Stephen Thompson]

Well, I wanted to talk about two things and they kind of fit together. One is in 2024. For reasons that many of you can probably imagine, I mostly took 2024 off from participating in social media. What I' in 2025 is re embrace social media. That bring me some measure of community and joy. I promise I will finally start posting to the letterbox account that we've been promoting at the end of our shows. I have been on Blue sky for the last couple months. I want to lean further into that because I'm really enjoying the parts of that that are still enjoyable. Basically. I want to recommit to social media in ways that expand my hor, increase the number of perspectives I'm receiving, the number of things that are being recommended to me by people I trust, keeping me better informed, making my world feel bigger, less insular, while still finding ways to maintain the healthier Internet hygiene that wasn't always there the last time I was on social media. As much as I'd kind of like to be, what I want to do is find ways to use it to manage my anxiety without exacerbating it, which is a really tricky thing to do with social media. And so Blue sky and letterboxd, I'm committing completely. And the other part of this is, instead of just talking about it, I do intend to actually finish the children's book in 2024, not committing to signing a book deal, not committing to publishing it in 2025. But I do want to actually spend 2025 making art with my daughter, which I cannot think of a more fun thing to promise to do than that. And then I get to eventually annoy all my social media followers by promoting it.

[Aisha Harris]

There you go.

[Glenn Weldon]

I love it. It's the best part. Yeah, you know what? I know no matter what it is, it is gonna be better than Trap.

[Stephen Thompson]

We will make a work that is superior to the movie Trap in every way.

[Linda Holmes]

Cannot finish 2024 without getting in one more dig at Trap, our favorite ridiculous movie of the year. Love it. That just brings my heart, such joy. Okay, well, thank you very much, Stephen Thompson. I love that for you. I look forward to seeing the result. We would love to know what your resolutions are for the new year. You can find us on [e-mail] PCHH Next up, what's making us happy this week?

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[Aisha Harris]

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[Linda Holmes]

For NPR comes from Google this year. Google is celebrating the breakout searches of 2024 that captured the world's attention and shaped our year in ways we never saw coming. Watch the film at G Co urinesearch.

[Aisha Harris]

Google search on this message comes from GiveWell. GiveWell provides rigorous, transparent research about the best giving opportunities so that donors can make informed decisions about high impact giving. To learn more, go to givewell.org and pick podcast and enter NPR at checkout.

[Linda Holmes]

Now it is time for our favorite segment of this week and every week. What's making us happy this week? Aisha Harris, what is making you happy this week?

[Glenn Weldon]

What's making me happy this week is something that I think a lot of people have very different feelings about, very specific feelings about. I think I'm neutral about it. And that is Yacht Rock. So there is now a yacht rock documentary streaming on max. Doc, as in sitting on the dock of the bay because you know, yacht rock, that's how they spell it. So yacht rock a documentary. It's exactly what you think it is. It gets into the coining of the genre, which famously, infamously came from a comedy series from the mid aughts describing a certain type of music and an era of music in the 70s and 80s mostly. Then it goes back and interviews a lot of the guys who had become synonymous with this genre. So Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross, though notably not Steely Dan member Donald Fagan. He has a hilarious audio cameo, but he's not actually participating as a talking head in this. But it also features interviews with people like Questlove and Thundercat. And really connecting how this is a very specific genre. It' mostly white guys, but it comes from black art and a lot of current day black artists really love it and have embraced it. So it was informative, it was fun. I enjoyed spending an hour and a half with this movie. And that is Yacht Rock, a documentary streaming on max.

[Linda Holmes]

All right, thank you very much, Aisha Harris. Stephen Thompson, what is making you happy this week?

[Stephen Thompson]

Well, I'm about to listen to a whole bunch of new 2025 music, but I didn't want to let 2024 pass completely without talking about a record from early in 2024 that I only found within the last few weeks. It's by a guy named Jack Kenworthy who records under the name Coloring. He's from England, so that is spelled Coloring. The album is called Love to you mate and it's inspired by his brother in law's battle with cancer and kind of how his family rallied around that. And that title, Love to you Mate, sums up so much of what love about this record. It's full of deep love and warmth and gratitude. The sound and the style conjures up everything from bands like the Blue Nile to artists like James Blake, bands like Rye or Cigarettes After Sex. There's a smoothness to this music. It's deeply catchy, but it's also just so sweet. Just to give you a sense of the vibe, let's hear a little bit of one of the singles. This is called Loon.

[Linda Holmes]

As long as this, you, this me.

[Glenn Weldon]

O baby, you get me through I need it.

[Linda Holmes]

If I were in a store and.

[Stephen Thompson]

I heard that song, you'd buy so many candles.

[Linda Holmes]

I would think Stephen already knows and loves this music.

[Glenn Weldon]

It's very pretty. It feels very like 2005ish. And I mean that in like a good way. Yeah, it has that vibe to it. I like it.

[Stephen Thompson]

You get a sense, even just in that little clip of the number of interlocking hooks within that song. And so there's this beautiful piano line, but then there are lines over that. I just love it. So that is Loon by Color Ring from a gorgeous record called Love to youo Mate.

[Linda Holmes]

All right, thank you very much. Stephen Thompson. Glenn Weldon. What is making you happy this week?

[Aisha Harris]

Well, it's year end time and I played a lot of games this year, video games. And you'd be thinking I would be going some kind of game of the year declaration. But what is making me happy this weekend? In fact, my favorite game of the year is two years old and it somehow missed me. It's called Pentiment. This game is made for glens. It's a game about illuminated manuscripts. You are an illustrator at a monastery in the 16th century. Someone gets murdered. The story is great. But what I love about this game is the look and feel of it. Because it's basically point and click. You are this two dimensional dude in this two dimensional world. Because the look of the game is very similar to illuminated manuscripts, right? So it's giving King's Quest vibes, if that means anything to anybody. But it also, the story is giving names of the rose. And if you could have told me, teenage me that two of my favorite things would come together in a game, I wouldn't believe you. You just walk around investigating the abbey and you talk to these incredibly gossipy monks and you learn a hell of a lot about ancient manuscripts and the people who do not like this game. And there are many people who don't don't like it because you just it's nothing but reading. You do nothing but reading and it's like don't threaten me with a good time. I have no idea why I've never heard about this game because it made a lot of 2022 best gaming list. It wanted Peabody this game, but on the off chance that somebody out there has not yet played this fantastic and do it pentiment and it's available on a bunch of different platforms. You'll love it.

[Linda Holmes]

I know several people who adore this game. I'm going to have to go and try it. All right, so what is making me happy this week? You know that I like a Netflix action movie sometimes more than other people do. Your red notices and your lifts and the like. The latest one is called Carry On. It is an airport based Die Hard is action movie and it stars Taron Edgerton as a guy who gets a mysterious contact. It's a long story how it happens, but he gets a mysterious contact from a bad guy who wants him while running his TSA line to let through a bag, a carry on bag that has dangerous cargo in it. Blah blah blah. He has to figure out what to do. It's obviously if you don't do what we say, we're going to kill someone that you love, blah blah blah. All that good stuff that you would normally find. Is this an absolutely necessary movie? No, it is not. Listen, when you see a movie that wants to be Die Hard, you are reminded of the many wonderful things that make Die Hard, Die Hard that are very, very hard to imitate. This movie is not as witty as Die Hard by a mile. Jason Bateman I do not think I am breaking ground to say Jason Bateman is not Alan Rickman.

[Glenn Weldon]

He's not Hans Gerber.

[Linda Holmes]

Taron Edgerton is not Bruce Willis. Right. However, however, is this a fun action movie? It is a fun action movie. I thought they did a pretty good job. And Danielle Deadweiler shows up playing the good top, trying to set everything right. So it is a lot of fun, I think worth your time. That is Carry on like a Carry on bag on Netflix now. And that's what's making me happy this week. If you want links for what we recommended plus some additional recommendations, sign up for our [e-mail] popculture newsletter that brings us to the end of our show. Aisha Harris, Stephen Thompson, Glenn Weldon, I am resolved to continue spending good time with you in the new year. Thank you so much for being here.

[Aisha Harris]

Thank you thank you, buddy.

[Glenn Weldon]

Oh, thank you.

[Linda Holmes]

This episode is produced by Mike Catseff, Lennon Sherburn and Liz Metzger and edited by Jessica Reedy. Hello. Come in. Provides our theme music. Year end is always a good time to remind you how much we rely on and appreciate our producers and editors. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from npr. I'm Linda Holmes, and we'll see you all tomorrow.

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