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Lena Waithe's religion is 'The Wizard of Oz.' Here's what she learned from it.

Lena Waithe on Wild Card Vivien Killilea/Getty hide caption

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Vivien Killilea/Getty

Wild Card with Rachel Martin

Lena Waithe's religion is 'The Wizard of Oz.' Here's what she learned from it.

At 40, Lena Waithe already has an impressive legacy, with dozens of writing, acting and production credits. She was the first Black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing (for Master of None). And she's also the creator of The Chi, which is just wrapping its sixth season. She tells Rachel one of her core beliefs is a lesson from The Wizard of Oz. They also discuss being bad at being wrong.

Lena Waithe's religion is 'The Wizard of Oz.' Here's what she learned from it.

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Lily Gladstone's 'Fancy Dance' is a road trip worth taking

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Apple TV+

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Lily Gladstone's 'Fancy Dance' is a road trip worth taking

The new film Fancy Dance offers something all-too-rare on screen: contemporary Indigenous perspectives, front and center. Lily Gladstone plays a woman trying to keep it together under stressful circumstances. Her sister's gone missing, and she steps in to look after her young niece (Isabel Deroy-Olson). The pair take what turns out to be a rocky road trip and a unique bonding experience.

Lily Gladstone's 'Fancy Dance' is a road trip worth taking

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Can't stop the (classical) music

Johann Sebastian Bach and Nina Simone Hulton Archive/Getty Images, hide caption

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Hulton Archive/Getty Images,

It's Been a Minute

Can't stop the (classical) music

It's Black Music month! This week, Host Brittany Luse invites Howard University professor and trombonist Myles Blakemore to talk about how classical music influenced some of our favorite musicians. They look at how the counterpoint technique of Johann Sebastian Bach may have inspired Nina Simone, and how a love of Ginuwine can turn into a career in classical music.

Can't stop the (classical) music

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Will they or won't they? Unpacking TV's eternal question

Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White in season two of The Bear. Chuck Hodes/FX hide caption

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Chuck Hodes/FX

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Will they or won't they? Unpacking TV's eternal question

Jim and Pam. Mulder and Scully. Janine and Gregory. Carmy and Sydney. Meredith and McDreamy. You know how it goes: two television characters with obvious chemistry who fight or look at each other longingly. You know that there's only one question: will they, or won't they? Today, we break down the different types of will-they-won't-they couples and discuss some of the best and worst couples in television, including Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Cheers, Grey's Anatomy, Dawson's Creek, and more.

Will they or won't they? Unpacking TV's eternal question

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Is 'The Acolyte' a Star Wars Force to be reckoned with?

Amandla Stenberg as Mae in The Acolyte. Lucasfilm Ltd./Disney+ hide caption

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Lucasfilm Ltd./Disney+

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Is 'The Acolyte' a Star Wars Force to be reckoned with?

The new Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte is a murder mystery. Someone is killing great Jedi masters, and while we learn the killer's identity early on, the real mystery driving the series is why they're doing it. It stars Amandla Stenberg as Force-sensitive twins Osha and Mae, and Squid Game's Lee Jung-jae as Osha's former Jedi master. By the time it's finished its eight-episode run, The Acolyte may shed new light on the nature of the Force, and the hidden history of the Jedi.

Is 'The Acolyte' a Star Wars Force to be reckoned with?

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Blind mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer talks news bloopers and TV movies
Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for for National Ge

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

Blind mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer talks news bloopers and TV movies

Erik Weihenmayer was the first blind person to summit Mt. Everest, but may be best known for a viral news blooper in 2006. He joins us to talk about a very specific kind of fame, plus what life is like as a blind adventurer.

Blind mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer talks news bloopers and TV movies

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June Squibb's 'Thelma' is the wrong grandma to mess with

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Magnolia Pictures

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

June Squibb's 'Thelma' is the wrong grandma to mess with

Financial scams are an unfortunate phenomenon, but what happens when a fraudster messes with the wrong grandma? The very fun action-comedy Thelma imagines exactly this scenario. The movie stars June Squibb as a woman scammed by someone pretending to be her grandson. She then enlists her old friend (the late Richard Roundtree) to help get her money back.

June Squibb's 'Thelma' is the wrong grandma to mess with

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Fouling Caitlin Clark; plus, a shoplifting panic!

Caitlin Clark. Deodorant locked up in a drugstore. Elsa/Getty Images; Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images hide caption

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Elsa/Getty Images; Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images

It's Been a Minute

Fouling Caitlin Clark; plus, a shoplifting panic!

First up, there has been a media frenzy around the fouls made against rising basketball star and Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark. Commentators and fans have called her fellow WNBA players bullies, jealous, and catty. But Code Switch co-host Gene Demby and Defector's Maitreyi Anantharaman say a lot of the people commenting misunderstand the WNBA. Host Brittany Luse learns what the new fans might be missing and how racism, sexism and homophobia could be fanning the flames of the latest hot takes. Brittany also leads Gene and Maitreyi through a game of "But Did You Know."

Fouling Caitlin Clark; plus, a shoplifting panic!

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Taylor Tomlinson's mom died young. This is how she stays connected to her memory

Taylor Tomlinson on Wild Card Monica Schipper/Getty hide caption

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Monica Schipper/Getty

Wild Card with Rachel Martin

Taylor Tomlinson's mom died young. This is how she stays connected to her memory

Taylor Tomlinson has found the kind of success many comedians dream about, with multiple Netflix specials and a late-night hosting gig — After Midnight on CBS. She tells Rachel that part of the secret to her success is fear. They also swap stories about their Christian upbringings, the search for validation and getting things stuck up their noses.

Taylor Tomlinson's mom died young. This is how she stays connected to her memory

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HBO's 'Fantasmas' is new and different and uniquely itself

Julio Torres stars in Fantasmas. HBO hide caption

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HBO

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

HBO's 'Fantasmas' is new and different and uniquely itself

The brilliant and idiosyncratic new HBO series Fantasmas has a simple plot. Creator and star Julio Torres searches New York City for an earring he lost at a club. In the execution, that quest gets transformed into something epic and surreal and queer in every sense of the word. He keeps bumping into random New Yorkers whose stories play out in a series of sketch-like vignettes. They are played by actors including Emma Stone, Bowen Yang, and Tilda Swinton.

HBO's 'Fantasmas' is new and different and uniquely itself

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The history of trans misogyny is the history of segregation

Author Jules Gill-Peterson poses next to her book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny Headshot by Kadji Amin and book cover design by Angela Lorenzo for Verso hide caption

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Headshot by Kadji Amin and book cover design by Angela Lorenzo for Verso

Code Switch

The history of trans misogyny is the history of segregation

As anti-trans legislation has ramped up, historian Jules Gill-Peterson turns the lens to the past in her book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny. This week, we talk about how panics around trans femininity are shaped by wider forces of colonialism, segregation and class interests.

The history of trans misogyny is the history of segregation

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Carvell Wallace searches for 'Another Word for Love'

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Carvell Wallace

It's Been a Minute

Carvell Wallace searches for 'Another Word for Love'

In his new memoir, Another Word for Love, Carvell Wallace lays out his journey to find self-acceptance after a childhood colored by instability. Host Brittany Luse sits down with Carvell to talk about how he built new language around love and his new perspectives on recovery and healing.

Carvell Wallace searches for 'Another Word for Love'

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'Bridgerton' closes out a crowded third season

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Liam Daniel/Netflix

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Bridgerton' closes out a crowded third season

The second half of Bridgerton's latest season just dropped on Netflix, and naturally the course of true love continues to not run smoothly. Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) may have finally declared their feelings for each other, but there's still a lot left to figure out. We previously talked about the first part of the third season in May, so today, we're diving in everything that happens in the conclusion.

'Bridgerton' closes out a crowded third season

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We debate the sweatiest movie of all time

Is Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing the sweatiest movie of all time? Anthony Barboza/Getty hide caption

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Anthony Barboza/Getty

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

We debate the sweatiest movie of all time

Whether they're lightly perspiring, gently glowing, or soaked through from sweltering, people in the movies sweat a lot. But what movie has had people sweat the very most? With summer underway, we are debating what is the sweatiest movie of all time — including Do the Right Thing, Dog Day Afternoon, Y tu mamá también, and Body Heat.

We debate the sweatiest movie of all time

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Michelle Williams turns Millennium Park into a gospel choir
Nykieria Chaney/Getty Images

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

Michelle Williams turns Millennium Park into a gospel choir

On this week's episode, actor and singer Michelle Williams talks growing up in the church, auditioning for Destiny's Child, and how to get an NPR audience to sing a hymn. Plus, panelists Alonzo Bodden, Helen Hong, and Paula Poundstone talk flags.

Michelle Williams turns Millennium Park into a gospel choir

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'Inside Out 2' is a Pixar sequel worth celebrating

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Pixar

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Inside Out 2' is a Pixar sequel worth celebrating

Pixar's Inside Out introduced us to the core emotions inside an 11-year-old girl named Riley. We met Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), and Anger (Lewis Black). In Inside Out 2, Riley is experiencing puberty and a whole new crop of emotions have popped up. Most notably Anxiety (Maya Hawke) who has literally bottled up Riley's original core emotions and sent them hurtling into the back of her mind, where they plot to get back and set things right.

'Inside Out 2' is a Pixar sequel worth celebrating

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Conservatives want to burn flags too; plus, the power of a singing POTUS

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Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images/Getty Images

It's Been a Minute

Conservatives want to burn flags too; plus, the power of a singing POTUS

Flags have been making a lot of headlines lately, and it's not because today is National Flag Day. The upside down flag that was flown outside of Justice Samuel Alito's house after January 6th is back in the headlines again. Plus the Colorado Republican Party has been making news for their post on X to "burn all the #pride flags this June." Host Brittany Luse is joined by Nick Capodice and Hannah McCarthy - hosts of NHPR's Civics 101 - to get into why both liberals and conservatives get so riled up by a piece of fabric.

Conservatives want to burn flags too; plus, the power of a singing POTUS

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David Lynch says he 'died a death' over the way his 'Dune' film turned out

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Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty

Wild Card with Rachel Martin

David Lynch says he 'died a death' over the way his 'Dune' film turned out

David Lynch doesn't do a lot of interviews. The Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive creator usually just lets his work speak for itself. But he was excited to talk to Rachel about his new album coming out this summer, Cellophane Memories. And he also was game to dive into his love for transcendental meditation, a fateful childhood psychosomatic illness and a memorable encounter with a Buddha statue.

David Lynch says he 'died a death' over the way his 'Dune' film turned out

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Jake Gyllenhaal's 'Presumed Innocent' updates a legal thriller

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Apple TV+

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Jake Gyllenhaal's 'Presumed Innocent' updates a legal thriller

Presumed Innocent was a blockbuster legal thriller as a novel, and then a hit movie starring Harrison Ford. Now, Apple TV+ brings back the story of the accuser turned defendant as a limited series. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the lead this time, as a prosecutor who is accused of the murder of the colleague he'd had an affair with. David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies, The Practice, Ally McBeal) created the show.

Jake Gyllenhaal's 'Presumed Innocent' updates a legal thriller

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Cole Escola literally changes history in 'Oh, Mary!'

Cole Escola as Mary Todd Lincoln in 'Oh, Mary!' Emilio Madrid hide caption

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Emilio Madrid

It's Been a Minute

Cole Escola literally changes history in 'Oh, Mary!'

Cole Escola is the star and creator of Oh Mary!, an upcoming Broadway play about Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln. But there's a twist: Mary is reimagined as a raging alcoholic with cabaret dreams and Lincoln is portrayed as an evil closeted gay man plotting on her misery. On the cusp of the show's Broadway debut, Brittany chats with Cole about the inspiration behind Oh Mary!, their favorite joke and why it's fun to play older women.

Cole Escola literally changes history in 'Oh, Mary!'

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Our favorite graduation moments in pop culture

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Jens Schlueter/Getty Images

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Our favorite graduation moments in pop culture

This is the time of year when so many students graduate. Whether it's graduation episodes of our favorite TV series, high school songs, or movies about the last wild night of high school, we're revisiting our episode about the best moments about graduation in pop culture.

Our favorite graduation moments in pop culture

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