Mickey 17 And What's Making Us Happy

Summary

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Mickey 17 And What's Making Us Happy" – Episode Summary

Released on March 7, 2025

Introduction

In this episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour, hosted by NPR's Glen Weldon and Aisha Harris, the team delves into the recent sci-fi film "Mickey 17," directed by Bong Joon Ho, renowned for his critically acclaimed film "Parasite." Joined by cultural critic Jeff Yang and podcast co-host Kristen Meinzer, the discussion offers a multifaceted analysis of the movie's themes, performances, and overall execution. Additionally, the hosts share what’s bringing them joy in their personal lives during the "What's Making Us Happy This Week" segment.

Discussion on "Mickey 17"

Mickey 17 is Bong Joon Ho's latest venture, starring Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, and Toni Collette. The film presents a dystopian future where a spaceship is en route to colonize a remote ice planet. Robert Pattinson plays Mickey, an anxious pastry chef who becomes an expendable worker for the spaceship’s mission, subject to repeated deaths and reprints into new bodies—a concept that forms the core of the film's exploration of mortality and humanity.

Jeff Yang on Bong Joon Ho's Mastery

Jeff Yang praises Bong Joon Ho's ability to intertwine various themes seamlessly. He remarks, "If you're the same [fan], you're gonna absolutely love this film because it's kind of this super convergence of themes and ideas..." (02:45) Yang highlights the film's intricate details, such as the human printer that produces Mickey clones, which added layers of humor and technological satire. His enthusiasm is palpable as he notes, "I watched it twice, and I actually enjoyed it even more the second time." (02:45)

Aisha Harris on Performances and Themes

Aisha Harris commends Robert Pattinson's performance, particularly his unique accent inspired by characters like Steve Buscemi's in Fargo and Ray Liotta's Henry Hill in Goodfellas. She observes, "He has a very, very thick accent here...," emphasizing how Pattinson effectively conveys the film’s themes of death and fear. However, Harris expresses some reservations about the film's latter parts, stating, "the first act and this setup is much stronger, and then it kind of loses. It kind of lost me in the second," (04:39) but still appreciates the visual storytelling.

Kristen Meinzer's Critical Perspective

Kristen Meinzer offers a more critical viewpoint, citing the film's length and perceived heavy-handedness in addressing multiple societal issues simultaneously. She asserts, "it was too long. It was too heavy handed... trying to say so much against oligarchs, against entertainers as rulers, against white supremacy..." (04:50) Meinzer felt that the film's ambitious scope resulted in a lack of focus, making it difficult to follow and less impactful than Bong's previous works.

Glen Weldon on Directorial Techniques

Glen Weldon discusses Bong Joon Ho's unique shooting style, which eschews traditional coverage in favor of meticulously storyboarding every shot. He notes, "Bong Joon Ho keeps saying to her and to Mark Ruffalo, okay, just think of it like you're in a different movie..." (06:00) Weldon appreciates how this method contributes to the film’s chaotic and over-the-top nature, likening it to "a pair of fuzzy handcuffs" compared to the precise "steel trap" of Parasite.

Jeff Yang on Robert Pattinson’s Performance

Jeff Yang underscores Pattinson's dedication, describing his role as a "double" that demands versatility and commitment. He praises how Pattinson navigates the character's absurdity and emotional depth, stating, "it's clearly going to be divisive. In a lot of ways... it's a tour de force." (08:34) Yang also highlights the film's capacity to spark political and existential conversations through its sci-fi narrative.

Aisha Harris on Character Development

Aisha Harris critiques the limited character development, particularly for the antagonist played by Mark Ruffalo. She mentions, "I both appreciated and also just wanted a little bit more, I don't know, character development..." (15:03) Harris felt that while the film excels in visual and thematic elements, it falls short in providing depth to its supporting characters, which could have enhanced the overall narrative.

Glen Weldon on Empathy and Expenditure

Glen Weldon explores the film's treatment of empathy, particularly how the expendable nature of Mickey's character evokes sadness and horror despite the film's comedic elements. He reflects, "I was so invested in Mickey. I felt empathetic towards him..." (16:39) Weldon discusses how the film balances humor with genuine emotional weight, avoiding a cynical or thin portrayal of its heavy themes.

Naomi Ackee's Strong Characterization

Both Yang and Meinzer commend Naomi Ackee's portrayal of Nasha, the ship's space cop. They describe her character as the only fully developed persona in the film, bringing nuance and depth that contrast with the more caricatured roles of others. Ackee's strength and charisma are highlighted as anchors that provide emotional balance to Mickey's turbulent existence.

Conclusion on "Mickey 17"

The discussion concludes with an acknowledgment of Mickey 17 as a film that, despite its flaws, offers significant thematic richness and performances worthy of attention. The hosts agree that Bong Joon Ho's film is both a personal and societal mirror, prompting viewers to reflect on themes of expendability, empathy, and humanity within a sci-fi framework.

What's Making Us Happy This Week

Following the main discussion, the hosts transition to their favorite segment, sharing personal picks for happiness:

• Kristen Meinzer recommends Dolly Parton's Behind the My Life in Rhinestones, a visually rich and engaging book that offers an immersive experience when read alongside its audiobook version. She appreciates the delightful conversations and the visual storytelling that complements Dolly's anecdotes.

• Jeff Yang expresses his enthusiasm for the TV series Reacher on Prime Video, highlighting Alan Ritchson's portrayal of the titular character as a source of joy and stability amidst life's chaos. He describes Reacher as "this rectangular justice machine," emphasizing his admiration for the character's relentless pursuit of good.

• Aisha Harris introduces listeners to Sema, a London-based singer-songwriter whose music evokes Mariah Carey vibes with a unique twist. She recommends Sema's 2019 EP Ribbons and Bows and singles like "Bittersweet," "Honeycomb," and "Salty Now" for their sonic warmth and engaging melodies.

• Glen Weldon shares his appreciation for the indie game Dredge, a fishing simulator with a twist of eldritch horror. He encourages listeners to explore its creepy yet enjoyable narrative, appealing to fans of immersive and atmospheric gaming experiences.

Final Thoughts

Mickey 17 And What's Making Us Happy offers a deep dive into Bong Joon Ho's ambitious film, balances critical insights with personal reflections, and highlights the hosts' diverse interests that bring them joy. Whether you're a fan of sci-fi, cultural critiques, or simply looking for new media to enjoy, this episode provides a comprehensive and engaging overview of contemporary pop culture phenomena.

Notable Quotes

• Jeff Yang: "If you're the same [fan], you're gonna absolutely love this film because it's kind of this super convergence of themes and ideas..." (02:45)

• Aisha Harris: "He has a very, very thick accent here..." (04:39)

• Kristen Meinzer: "it was too long. It was too heavy handed..." (04:50)

• Glen Weldon: "This film feels like a pair of fuzzy handcuffs. It's just big, right? It's over the top." (06:00)

• Jeff Yang: "it's clearly going to be divisive... it's a tour de force." (08:34)

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This summary captures the essence of the "Mickey 17 And What's Making Us Happy" episode, highlighting key discussions, insights, and perspectives from the hosts and guests. For more in-depth conversations and updates, listeners are encouraged to tune into Pop Culture Happy Hour on NPR.

Transcript

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[Glen Weldon]

Mickey, 17, is writer director Bong Joon Ho's follow up to Parasite, which won him a raft of oscars back in 2020, including Best Picture and best director. It stars Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo and.

[Aisha Harris]

Toni Collette in this sharply satirical sci fi film. Pattinson is a manual laborer on a spaceship who just keeps dying, but each time he also gets reprinted, his memories get downloaded into a new body. What could go wrong? I'm Aisha Harris.

[Glen Weldon]

And I'm Glen Weldon. And today we're talking about Mickey, 17 on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining us today is Jeff Yang. He's a cultural critic and author of the golden the Movies that Made Asian America. Hey, Jeff.

[Jeff Yang]

Hey, Glenn. Hey, Aisha. Hey.

[Glen Weldon]

Also with us is Kristen Meinzer. She co hosts the Daily Fail, a podcast that does comedic close readings of the tabloid. Hey, Kristen. Hey.

[Kristen Meinzer]

Thanks for having me back.

[Glen Weldon]

Of course. So let's get to it. In the future, a spaceship bound for a remote ice planet is loaded with folks loyal to a failed politician played by Mark Ruffalo and some disturbingly white veneers. He runs the ship with his wife, a die hard foodie played by Toni Collette, and together they hope to found a space colony. Helping them in this endeavor is Robert Pattinson's Mickey, an anxious, traumatized pastry chef so desperate to escape a violent loan shark on Earth that he agrees to sign on as an expendable, a worker who does dangerous jobs for the ship. If he dies, he just gets reprinted into a new body. And die he does like a lot. When we meet him, Mickey's on his 17th body. The best thing about his miserable existence is his relationship with Nasha, one of the ship's space cops. She's played by Naomi Acke, complicating The mission to col colonize the planet are the planet's indigenous life forms. They're kind of a cross between a pill bug and a yak. Mickey 17 is in theaters now. Jeff, kick us off. What'd you make of this very hard to make of movie?

[Jeff Yang]

Well, okay, I loved it, but admittedly, I love anything that Bong Joon Ho breathes on. So if you're the same, I mean, you're gonna absolutely love this film because it's kind of this super convergence of themes and ideas and even plot devices that he's explored in the Host and Okja and Snowpiercer and Parasite. I mean, you could almost hear Bong shouting in the background, like, assemble Voltron. Right. And it's full of all these little details that Bong is so good at. Like, I mean, I just obsess over this because it actually did cause the entire audience to burst out laughing. The human printer that pumps out Mickey clones, how it kind of advances and then pulls back a little bit, you know, just like printers do. So it's such a hilarious detail for me, and I watched it twice, and I actually enjoyed it even more the second time.

[Glen Weldon]

All right, Aisha, how about you?

[Aisha Harris]

I'm also a big Bong Joon Ho fan, and like Jeff said, it's got something for every one of his fans. It's all mixed in there. I especially think that Robert Pattinson here is doing such an interesting. An interesting job, especially because he has a very, very thick accent here. I think he said he was inspired by Steve Buscemi's character in Fargo, but I was a lot of, like, the Ray Liotta Henry Hill character in Goodfellas. Like, it's funny, it's quirky, but then he has this, like, weird kind of, I don't know, American accent in a way. I think he does a really good job of sort of conveying the themes that this movie is exploring, especially around this idea of death and being afraid of death and wondering what death may feel like. So overall, I found it very enjoyable. I feel like the first act and this setup is much stronger, and then it kind of loses. It kind of lost me in the second, but visually, it's stunning, and I think people are gonna overall, really enjoy this.

[Glen Weldon]

Okay, thank you very much. Kristen, you were nodding your head when Aisha was mentioning the third act. A little pill bug tells me you maybe weren't as hot on this as we were.

[Kristen Meinzer]

Well, first, I just want to preface this by saying I usually do, like, Bong Joon Ho's Work a bit. I do. But this one, it was too long. It was too heavy handed. And at the same time, it was heavy handed. It was very imprecise because it was trying to say so much against oligarchs, against entertainers as rulers, against white supremacy, against colonization, against class stratification, against treating the lowest among us as disposable again and again and again. I could go on and on and on. You know, we all know his greatest hits of things that he's fighting against, and he's trying to fight against all of them all at the same time in this movie. And it just feels like it's all over the place, unfortunately. And Aisha, I'm so sorry, I have to disagree with you about Robert Pattinson's performance in this.

[Aisha Harris]

That's fair. We're friends here.

[Glen Weldon]

We'll polarize. Okay.

[Kristen Meinzer]

I know you're a Disney adult, so maybe this is part of it, but I felt like he was playing like Forrest Gump through the lens of a scared Mickey Mouse through most of this.

[Glen Weldon]

Oh, wow.

[Aisha Harris]

Oh, interesting. That is.

[Glen Weldon]

It's a very precise critique.

[Aisha Harris]

That is a visual.

[Kristen Meinzer]

I just had a very different take of things. I need to know, Glenn, what you thought of this.

[Glen Weldon]

Okay. I hear what you're, Kristen, I really am, because I love this film. But I agree, it is Shaggy, it is messy, it is chaotic, and it does synthesize a lot of the themes and satiric targets he's played with before. You see a lot of Oakjaw and Snowpiercer mostly, but I've seen all this stuff, but I was coming out of Parasite. I love Parasite, but there was something kind of cold and surgical and precise about Parasite. That film felt like a steel trap. This film feels like a pair of fuzzy handcuffs. You know what I mean? It's just. It's big, right? It's over the top. It's sci fi farce, which means there are some slapstick elements, some work, some don't. Big performances. I think they all worked. I think tonally, this doesn't really hang together in the same way that Parasite does because it's not all hanging from the same kind of narrative infrastructure. It feels kind of smushed together. And in interviews, Toni Collette has said that Bong Joon Ho kept saying to her and to Mark Ruffalo, okay, just think of it like you're in a different movie. And I was like, well, that story checks out. There we go. That explains at least some of it.

[Kristen Meinzer]

Mission accomplished.

[Glen Weldon]

Yeah. But the interesting thing is that Bong Joon Ho famously does not shoot what's called coverage. Right? He doesn't shoot the entire scene and then go in and do mini shots just to make sure. It's called coverage. Because you're covering your butt. You want to make sure you have the shots you want. When you get into the editing room and can kind of basically recreate the scene from scratch, he storyboards completely, thoroughly, every single shot, every moment. He only shoots what he knows he's going to need, which is why it's so hard for me to figure out. And that's very hard for actors, by the way, because you are shooting in tiny increments, you know, shot by shot. You're not getting this kind of holistic sense that a lot of stage actors, especially kind of need. But given that kind of level of precision, I am amazed that this film feels as I think I liked, the kind of looseness, the shagginess, the weirdness, the organic quality of it. I'm amazed at how he got there using that technique, but he got there.

[Jeff Yang]

For me because Bong shoots that way. It both complicates, I think, the central performance in this and also really underscores what a tour de force it is. Like, Robert Pattinson is playing a double, and he's doing so in a way where there isn't a lot of margin for error. And frankly, I kind of love this for him, just because as goofy and weird and over the top as his performance is, like, he's very clearly on his Daniel Radcliffe arc right now, you know, and it's just like. It's just. It's so impressive how committed he is to these roles, Right. In all their absurdity and contrasting demands.

[Aisha Harris]

I did wonder about the Naomi Acke character because she is a cop at the beginning of the film. And then, like, I don't think it's a spoiler to say, like, eventually she finds her way onto the other side of the resistance. But I don't know if that arc quite worked for me. And that's, I think, Kristen, to your point where things got a little bit too kind of. The tentacles were kind of in all these different directions and not really landing on a strong enough point for me in terms of, like, what are we trying to say here? Yes, obviously, the Mark Ruffalo character is. He's bad and he's. Weirdly, he looks like Desi Arnaz now, but he's giving Trump meets Elon meets Bezos and all these other things. At one point, we see that his character, Kenneth Marshall, also has his Own late night talk show. He's giving this very, very broad performance. And I really enjoyed that broad performance in the first half. It doesn't hang together for me. And when I think about this and compare it to something like the Host, which I recently watched for the first time, somehow look, the CGI effects, we've come a long way, baby. Like this monster here. These creepers in Mickey 17 are actually kind of cute, but ugly and very, very well drawn. And then the monster in the Host, obviously. Cause it's like the mid 2000s. It looks like the mid 2000s, but I feel like that movie in a way works for me better in terms of having the slap. There are slapstick moments, there are terrifying moments, but then it also settles at the end in a way that's very profound. Not a quite happy ending. And it balances those tones and the politics around this virus that is coming. And it balanced all those things in a way that I couldn't quite wrap my hands around with Mickey 17. And maybe to your point, Jeff, I need to go back and rewatch this again and maybe it'll hang together a little bit better, but I don't know. Kristin, is that kind of where you were at with this, too?

[Kristen Meinzer]

Yeah. And I also want to make clear I went into this very hopeful, not just because I like Bong Joon Ho, but I thought the trailers looked fantastic. I love the premise of it. And if they would have really just stuck with what you liked about the first third of the movie, Aisha, focusing on Mickey and his humanity and what does it mean to be disposable? I think if they would have stuck with those kinds of themes, it would have been a much better movie. Instead, it just goes wild and all over the place. And as the movie goes on, Mark Ruffalo's character gets more and more ridiculous. Almost like he's on a children's TV show on Nickelodeon or something. It's like a different universe he's in, which apparently he was directed to do that. But I thought those creepers were so cute. I agree with you.

[Aisha Harris]

They were so cute, but also kind of gross.

[Kristen Meinzer]

They look like tardigrades. Like big, cuddly tardigrades. Like, if I am laying in a crevasse and one of those wants to crawl on top of me, I would welcome that.

[Jeff Yang]

I would let them eat me. I'm okay with that. My meat is good. I just wanted a top off the conversation on Ruffalo's performance because I think it's clearly going to be divisive. In a lot of ways, and not just because the performance itself is so broad. I mean, he's chewing all the scenery around him, like, you know, just eating every piece of facade around him. But there's something kind of amazing that Bong decided to craft this performance. There are just bits and pieces that pop up in the course of the film that stagger me a little bit, like they feel weirdly prescient. I think there are going to be people who take the political interpretation of this and decide to get very angry about it. And that's totally fine. Because in many ways, that's sort of, to me, what science fiction does so well. It allows us to talk about issues that are provocative in the real world and that maybe, I don't know, mainstream media, news media does not really want to tangle with and bring them into the surface and force people to have conversations about it.

[Aisha Harris]

Well, Bong Joon Ho knows what he's doing, right? Like, Kenneth Marshall's acolytes wear red hats and shirts that say one and only. But also clearly, like, you do wonder, did the director think, like, we were gonna be in a different time now? Because again, the premise of this is that Kenneth Marshall's campaign failed, and so now he's taking everyone with him to colonize a new planet. And that's clearly not the reality we live in right now.

[Glen Weldon]

Mark Ruffalo has said he wasn't sure about taking this role. Cause he's never played any role like this before. And I didn't know what to do. Well, apparently you didn't see poor things.

[Aisha Harris]

I was gonna say he's on a streak right now.

[Glen Weldon]

Exactly. This is the next phase of Mark Ruffalo. Puffed up blowhard.

[Aisha Harris]

Also in the cut.

[Glen Weldon]

Yep. Absolutely. I loved Pattinson in this only because I love it when an actor with leading man bone structure and cheekbones gets to give a character actor performance. And here he gets to give two. And Kristen, to your point, that thin, reedy voice, that very wounded aspect that's close to the line for me. And, like, he was a little annoying. But this is why I think as good as Pattinson is, I love Naomi Ackee in this. And I'm gonna stick up for Nasha the space cop because I love what Bong Joon Ho is doing with her because she is so much more confident and charismatic and strong than Mickey is. And it's not a coincidence that we get a few shots of her going off to work while he waves goodbye from the apartment door. I mean, Mickey, 17, right, is coded as Sensitive and empathetic to the creatures on the planet, which is to say playing the historically feminine role. Nasha is coded more masculine. And I'm like, I want to see more relationships like this on screen. I love this. This is. She goes for it just as strong as Pattinson goes for it. She gets a scene where she could, toward the end of the film where she curses somebody out. And it's a very funny instance of cursing somebody out. And if you're going for it, as hard as Pattinson is, that is saying something because that guy. That guy does not hold back.

[Kristen Meinzer]

I also just want to second what you're saying about Naomi Ackey. I think she does a great job in this role. She brings a lot of nuance. In a lot of ways, she's the only real three dimensional character of this whole movie because the other ones are kind of caricatures and in some cases, not kind of, but just full blown caricatures. But she's a fully formed character and at certain points wondered, why is she even with Mickey 17?

[Glen Weldon]

Because, well, I think that's the. That's the fun thing.

[Kristen Meinzer]

At times it almost felt like she's dating a child and she is so fully formed.

[Jeff Yang]

He's kind of hot, though.

[Aisha Harris]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Jeff Yang]

I mean, I do think that Naomi Aki's character made it feel like Bong expected that we'd be having, like, a black woman president about now, you know?

[Aisha Harris]

Yes.

[Jeff Yang]

So there is some sense of that for sure.

[Aisha Harris]

Yeah. I mean, look, I think Naomi Acke is great in this. I just kind of wish it felt like, of course the black woman's gonna be like the one who kind of really actually saves the planet. Or like, at least saves solves everything. I both appreciated and also just wanted a little bit more, I don't know, character development. Not in her depiction of the character, but in just what we know about her. But we also don't really know much about any of these characters. Like, even Mickey 17, we get one sort of little flashback to suggest why he feels like he can be an expendable. We get a couple, but one to his childhood. And I don't know, I kind of wanted a little bit more.

[Glen Weldon]

Well, to Kristen's point, Nasha is a 3D character and Mickey is 3D printed. So it's not the same thing. I have a tone question for y'all. Because Mickey dies a lot. One of the points he makes in the film, that the film makes over and over again is that it is always terrible, it's always scary. It's always painful, even if he knows he's coming back. And those deaths are played for laughs, but they're also legit, horrifying. I was thinking back to a film we saw recently called the Monkey, another film where the deaths are played all for laughs. And while I found that film and its approach to those deaths kind of cynical and thin and cartoonish, I was so invested in Mickey. I felt for him. So what is Bong Joon Ho doing to keep this film from feeling cynical, arch, thin?

[Jeff Yang]

I mean, I think a lot of it, honestly, is Robert Pattinson. And how he is able to. Again, that commitment he invests in the role where you feel that urgency, that sense of, like, this life as thin and small as it is, is something that I cherish. And I actually do feel like the disregard people have for the Mickeys. Right. The more we actually see that, the more I felt empathetic towards him, especially as he became resigned increasingly to death. And an example of how sometimes when you play things against expectation, where you have somebody who's just sort of saying, all right, here I am dying again. And yet seeing it again and again should make us feel inured to it. It almost, I think, amplifies our sense of sadness and horror at what he's losing.

[Glen Weldon]

That's the sense I got too. Yeah.

[Aisha Harris]

I think that's so crucial is the fact that the Mickey character is a literal space guinea pig. And they're like, okay, you're gonna go step outside now and you're gonna take off your mask. And then you gotta tell us everything that's happening, especially. Especially the moment. And it's just so, like, matter of fact to them and very callous in a way. And I think that callousness really makes you feel like as an outsider looking in, make you feel for the Mickey character. And can you really become immune to dying over and over again? Again goes to all of sort of Bong Joon Ho's, his films and how he's always trying to reach for humanity in ways even in the most, like, bleakest of situations.

[Kristen Meinzer]

The humanity that Mickey brings to things versus the callousness he's treated with is really. It's really demonstrated so much by the fact that he's not treated like a human ever in this movie by anybody except his girlfriend. He is treated like a freak or really just an object that, you know, is printed out. And so it doesn't matter. Oh, he's in the crevasse. Oh, it's gonna take a lot of work to pull him out of the Crevasse. Let's just print out a new one. As he lays there freezing.

[Jeff Yang]

The rope only goes this far.

[Kristen Meinzer]

Yeah.

[Glen Weldon]

The rope only goes this far. Yeah.

[Kristen Meinzer]

And moments like that where it's like, it's really the equivalent of me dropping a hair tie on the ground, like, oops, oh, well, I'll just get another one out of the drawer. It's fine. And then to hear his heartache being left behind, like, oh, okay, I guess that's fine. I understand. And that is heartbreaking.

[Jeff Yang]

I do feel like this is a movie we need for this moment. Science fiction is a bit of a safe zone to address provocative and controversial stuff. And these are topics and issues that are being treated as third rails in reality. In many ways, you know, we're in a world where expendability is a very big thing that we should contend with. And a lot of the expendables don't look like Robert Pattinson. Right. So I'm hoping this movie does prompt serious conversations. And at the same time, look, I also hope people just watch this because it's a fun as hell sort of space escapade that happens to deal with some very big existential issues.

[Aisha Harris]

Hear, hear, hear.

[Glen Weldon]

I mean, this is where we are in 2025. The subject of empathy is the subject of a science fiction film. Basic empathy toward other humans and to other creatures on the planet. Like, let's make that. Let's take that into the realm of sci fi. Well, tell us what you think about Mickey 17. Are you a Kristen? Are you a Jeff? Are you Miranda? Are you a Carrie? Find us on [e-mail] PCHH and on [e-mail] NPRpopculture we'll have a link in our episod episode description. Up next, what is making us happy this week?

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[Glen Weldon]

Retail now it's time for our favorite segment of this weekend. Every week, what is making us happy this week? Kristen, kick us off. What's making you happy this week?

[Kristen Meinzer]

Nobody at home can see this, but hopefully you all can. This is Dolly Parton's behind the My Life in Rhinestones. Our beloved Dolly sadly lost her husband this week after 60 years and I took that as a chance to reread this book while listening to it. And I highly recommend that's how people consume this book. It gave me that book on tape experience I had as a little child paging through picture books while listening to the story. This book in particular works so well that way cause the book is so visual. There are hundreds of costumes. Dolly tells the story of several of the costumes. She talks with her stylist, with her designers, with her costume archivist. And the conversations are so delightful when you get to hear them while looking at the images. You can hear Dolly giggling at points. I highly recommend simultaneously reading with your eyes and listening with your ears to behind the My Life in Rhinestones by Dolly Parton.

[Glen Weldon]

That's a great pick and also a great title. What a great title. Jeff, what is making you happy this week?

[Jeff Yang]

Sir, I'm just gonna say it. Reacher is making me happy. It's just a joy to watch. Alan Ritchson, this human iceberg crashing through bad guys and doing things that are just like ridiculous for people his size to do, like capering around on windowsills. He's basically like this rectangular justice machine, sort of the human spongebob if spongebob were made of solid rippling muscle. Right. And he's kind of become an anchor for me in a world that is constantly being rocked by tsunamis.

[Glen Weldon]

That's another great pick. That's Reacher streaming on Prime Video. And we should note that Amazon supports NPR and pays to distribute some of our content. Aisha, what is making you happy this week?

[Aisha Harris]

Well, if you are like me and you love Mariah Carey. But look, Mariah's been busy. She's been busy mostly promoting her Christmas song that's 30 plus years old now. And she's not making as much new music as I would like. So instead I have recently discovered a newish artist named Sema. She's a London based singer songwriter who gives so many Mariah Carey vibes, but puts her own spin on it. Her 2019 EP Ribbons and Bows is definitely worth checking out. It features There's a really great song called Bittersweet.

[Glen Weldon]

Okay, I hear it.

[Aisha Harris]

Yeah, you hear it, right? Yes. Yeah, it is kind of impossible not to hear it. She is definitely playing into it as well. In 2024, she released two songs called Honeycomb and Salty Now. Honeycomb Honey. Mariah Carey. There's a lot of like great sonic warmth goodness going on here and I just think she's so fun. And again, that's Sema. And you should check out her 2019 EP Ribbons and Bows.

[Glen Weldon]

Thank you so much, Aisha. What's making me happy this week? Dredge is an indie game available on several platforms. You are a fisherman in an archipelago. You go out in your fishing trawler during the day to fish. You bring them back to port, you sell them, you upgrade your equipment, you go back out. So you can go out further now, Aisha, I see your face. You're looking at me and you're saying.

[Aisha Harris]

No, this sounds fun.

[Glen Weldon]

You're saying to me, glenn, are you seriously recommending a fishing simulator? I am. However, it's clear from the jump that something is up because the creepy townsfolk keep warning you to return to dock before the fog rolls in at night. And if you are still out there at night, when the night comes on very swiftly, you start to see things in the fog. You get disoriented, you start to panic. If you choose to risk it and stay out fishing at night, what you pull up is strange and sinister. It is creepy, it is fun. It's for anyone who ever read A Perfect Storm and thought, you know, this is fun, but it really needs more unnameable eldritch horror that is dredge and it is available on several platforms. And that is what is making me happy this week. And we've got one last thing before we go. You heard us talk about Pop Culture Happy Hour plus many times in this podcast. And starting this weekend, we're going to be releasing monthly bonus episodes. These are going to be mailbag style. In the first episode, Stephen and Linda and answer the questions, what's more fun to discuss, something you love or something you hate? And do you like it when your feelings conflict with those of other hosts or panelists? Well, not today. So if you want to get these monthly bonus mailbag episodes, subscribe now to pop culture happy hour [e-mail] happy we'll also have a link in our episode description. That brings us to the end of our show. Kristen Meinzer, Jeff Yang, Aisha Harris, thank you so much for being here.

[Kristen Meinzer]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. This has been so fun.

[Glen Weldon]

This episode was produced by Liz Metzger and Lennon Sherburne and edited by Jessica Reedy and Mike Katsif. And hello, Come in provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from npr. I'm Glenn Weldon and we'll see you all next week.

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