Accessibility links
Culture Art and entertainment commentary plus interviews, book reviews, movie reviews, music reviews, comedy, and visual art. Subscribe to podcasts and follow trends in music, painting, art, architecture, photography, and design.

Culture

Target scales back on its LGBTQ+ merchandise ahead of Pride Month 2024

Target confirmed that it won't be carrying its LGBTQ+ merchandise for Pride month this June in some stores after the discount retailer received backlash last year. Here, Pride month merchandise is displayed at a Target store in Nashville, Tenn, in May 2023. George Walker IV/AP hide caption

toggle caption
George Walker IV/AP

Pride Month

Target scales back on its LGBTQ+ merchandise ahead of Pride Month 2024

In a statement to NPR, a spokesperson for the retail giant says it is committed to supporting the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not only during the month of June.

Looking to the past and future of Black Twitter

Stand-up comic W. Kamau Bell is featured in Black Twitter: A People's History. Hulu/Disney hide caption

toggle caption
Hulu/Disney

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Looking to the past and future of Black Twitter

For years, Black Twitter was the watering hole. It was where we could pop off jokes about Olivia and Fitz on Scandal. It's also where you could call out social injustices. It was both a state of mind and a state of being online. A new Hulu docuseries called Black Twitter: A People's History puts the massive global reach of that space into perspective. But what's changed now that it's owned by Elon Musk?

Looking to the past and future of Black Twitter

Listen · 22:09
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1197964557/1251430038" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
How this Girl Scout troop offers community to migrant children

The girls excitedly raise their hands during an activity at Girl Scout Troop 6000's weekly meeting at the Row Hotel on Wednesday evening. Lexi Parra/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Lexi Parra/NPR

Consider This from NPR

How this Girl Scout troop offers community to migrant children

The Girl Scouts have been part of American childhood for generations. And now that quintessential experience is helping young girls, who are new to the United States get a sense of belonging. It comes through a Girl Scout troop based in one of New York City's largest migrant shelters.

How this Girl Scout troop offers community to migrant children

Listen · 9:19
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198912268/1251418523" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The miracle of middle age with Miranda July

Author Miranda July poses next to her novel, "All Fours" Elizabeth Weinberg/Amazon hide caption

toggle caption
Elizabeth Weinberg/Amazon

It's Been a Minute

The miracle of middle age with Miranda July

Our culture is full of stories about what it's like to be young: to find yourself, to fall in love, to leave home. But there aren't nearly as many scripts for what middle age might look like, especially for women. This week, host Brittany Luse is joined by author and filmmaker Miranda July, whose new novel 'All Fours' dives deep into the mystery and miracle of being a middle aged woman.

The miracle of middle age with Miranda July

Listen · 21:21
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1197956401/1251381066" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Alice Munro, Nobel Prize-winning short story author, dies at 92

Canadian author Alice Munro as she receives a Man Booker International award at Trinity College Dublin, in Dublin, Ireland, on June 25, 2009. Peter Muhly/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Peter Muhly/AFP via Getty Images

Obituaries

Alice Munro, Nobel Prize-winning short story author, dies at 92

The Canadian writer was known for her masterfully crafted short stories. Throughout her long career, she earned a number of prestigious awards including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013.

Alice Munro, Nobel Prize-winning short story author, dies at 92

Listen · 2:50
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1251314790/1251408194" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
From child star to 'Abbott,' Tyler James Williams pays it forward to the kids on set

Tyler James Williams and Quinta Brunson co-star as teachers on Abbott Elementary. ABC hide caption

toggle caption
ABC

Television

From child star to 'Abbott,' Tyler James Williams pays it forward to the kids on set

Fresh Air

Williams was young when he was thrust into the public eye as the star of Everybody Hates Chris. Now a teacher on Abbott Elementary, he works to help his child actor colleagues feel comfortable.

From child star to 'Abbott,' Tyler James Williams pays it forward to the kids on set

Listen · 38:05
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1251274735/1251341523" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'Evil Does Not Exist' — or does it? — in this mysterious Japanese eco-drama

Ryô Nishikawa plays Hana in Evil Does Not Exist. via Janus Films hide caption

toggle caption
via Janus Films

Review

Movie Reviews

'Evil Does Not Exist' — or does it? — in this mysterious Japanese eco-drama

Fresh Air

The residents of a bucolic woodland community face off against a developer with big plans for the land in a film that will leave you rapt — and profoundly unnerved.

'Evil Does Not Exist' — or does it? — in this mysterious Japanese eco-drama

Listen · 6:17
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1251252064/1251334893" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Fallout continues from the Miss USA resignations as a runner-up declines the crown

Noelia Voigt (L) and UmaSofia Srivastava (R) attend a charity event in New York City on May 8, the week that they stepped down as Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. Rob Kim/Getty Images for Smile Train hide caption

toggle caption
Rob Kim/Getty Images for Smile Train

National

Fallout continues from the Miss USA resignations as a runner-up declines the crown

After a pair of resignations rocked the pageant world, organizers have found a replacement for Miss USA but not Miss Teen USA. Last year's runner-up said this week that she turned down the crown.

System of a Down's Serj Tankian on his memoir, why a new album hasn't come since 2005

Serj Tankian, singer for System of a Down Travis Shinn/Hachette Books hide caption

toggle caption
Travis Shinn/Hachette Books

Author Interviews

System of a Down's Serj Tankian on his memoir, why a new album hasn't come since 2005

System of a Down singer Serj Tankian covers fleeing the Lebanese Civil War as a child, advocating for recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and why his band hasn't made a new album since 2005.

System of a Down's Serj Tankian on his memoir, why a new album hasn't come since 2005

Listen · 6:57
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1250973443/1251200158" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'I Saw the TV Glow' is weird and transfixing

Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine in I Saw The TV Glow. A24 hide caption

toggle caption
A24

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'I Saw the TV Glow' is weird and transfixing

I Saw the TV Glow is a strange and pleasantly unsettling new film from writer and director Jane Schoenbrun. It's about two teenagers (Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine) who bond so strongly over a cult monster-of-the-week TV show that it becomes their entire identities. When the show gets canceled, their bond dissolves – until years later, when one of the teens sweeps back into the other's life, bearing secret knowledge that could change everything.

'I Saw the TV Glow' is weird and transfixing

Listen · 23:21
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1197964549/1251087907" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'Brotherless Night,' an ambitious novel about Sri Lankan civil war, wins $150K prize
Random House

Book News & Features

'Brotherless Night,' an ambitious novel about Sri Lankan civil war, wins $150K prize

The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction is a relatively new literary award given to women and nonbinary authors. This year's winner is V.V. Ganeshananthan for her book Brotherless Night.

'Brotherless Night,' an ambitious novel about Sri Lankan civil war, wins $150K prize

Listen · 2:31
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1250945116/1251200152" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Have the new weight-loss drugs changed what it means to be body positive?

Weight-loss drugs like Semaglutide have skyrocketed in popularity among Americans. Douglas Cliff/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Douglas Cliff/Getty Images

Consider This from NPR

Have the new weight-loss drugs changed what it means to be body positive?

America is a land of contradictions; while we're known as a nation that loves to eat, we also live within a culture that has long valued thinness as the utmost beauty standard.

Have the new weight-loss drugs changed what it means to be body positive?

Listen · 11:14
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198912257/1251084136" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Kathleen Hanna on life as a 'Rebel Girl,' and the joy of expressing anger in public

"When I first started being in Bikini Kill, I thought of myself as a feminist performance artist who was in a punk band," Kathleen Hanna says. Rachel Bright/Ecco hide caption

toggle caption
Rachel Bright/Ecco

Music Interviews

Kathleen Hanna on life as a 'Rebel Girl,' and the joy of expressing anger in public

Fresh Air

The Bikini Kill frontwoman pioneered the "riot grrrl" movement in the 1990s. "I thought of myself as a feminist performance artist who was in a punk band," Hanna says.

Kathleen Hanna on life as a 'Rebel Girl,' and the joy of expressing anger in public

Listen · 37:12
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1250507900/1250983400" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Claire Messud's sweeping novel borrows from her own 'Strange Eventful History'
W. W. Norton & Company

Review

Book Reviews

Claire Messud's sweeping novel borrows from her own 'Strange Eventful History'

Fresh Air

Messud draws from her grandfather's handwritten memoir as she tells a cosmopolitan, multigenerational story about a family forced to move from Algeria to Europe to South and North America.

Claire Messud's sweeping novel borrows from her own 'Strange Eventful History'

Listen · 7:22
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1250448800/1250983629" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Browse archive or search npr.org