0:04

In previous John Wick films, Keana

0:06

Reeves played a retired hitman out for

0:08

revenge. In John Wick chapter

0:10

four, he decides to go after the international

0:13

criminal organization that's put a price on his

0:15

head for an even simpler reason he

0:17

wants to be left

0:18

alone. His quest for freedom takes

0:20

him around the world through endless

0:22

waves of would be assassins through busy

0:24

traffic of the a little out of stairs,

0:27

and finally to a showdown against a

0:29

sadistic French aristocrat. I'm

0:31

Ayesha

0:32

Harris. And I'm Glenn Weldon, and today

0:34

we're talking about John Wick. Chapter four on pop

0:36

culture happy hour from NPR. Here

0:38

with me and Ayesha is writer and critic Walter

0:40

Chow. Hey, Walter. Hey, good morning, everybody.

0:42

Good morning to you and making her pop culture

0:44

happy hour debut is Whelan Wong,

0:47

she's cohost of NPR's daily economics

0:49

podcast, the indicator from planet money

0:51

heard of

0:51

it. Hi, Whelan.

0:52

Hello. I will serve. I will be of

0:54

service. Yes, you will. Welcome. Welcome.

0:57

So in John Wick, chapter four, Kiana

0:59

Reeves is back. Yeah. I think I'm back

1:01

as the Laconic ASSESS who's targeted

1:03

for assassination by the high table and

1:05

international cabal of powerful criminals.

1:07

This time out, the high table tasks, the Marquee,

1:10

played by a sinister Bill Skarsgard

1:13

redundant to kill John

1:15

Wick. The Marquis throws a lot of money and

1:17

even more bodies at the problem enlisting the help

1:19

of Wick's former colleague and friend, Kane,

1:21

played by the great Donny yen. Wickes

1:23

got some help of his own in the form of the gently

1:26

paternal Winston played by Ian Macshane

1:28

and the Sardonic Bowery king

1:30

played by Lawrence Fishburn. Other

1:32

allies include Hirooki Sonata

1:34

as Shimazu who manages the

1:36

Osaka branch of the world's deadliest

1:39

hotel chain, and pop star Rina

1:41

Sawayala as Akira, one of

1:43

only two women in this film. Who

1:46

speak. Also in the mix, the unaffiliated

1:48

tracker played by Shamir Anderson, whose allegiance

1:51

shifts as the price on John

1:53

Wick's head increases. And returning

1:55

to the franchise is Sharon played

1:57

by Lance Reddick. Reddick died suddenly

1:59

last week of natural causes. He was only

2:02

sixty years old. John Wick, chapter

2:04

four is in theaters now, Ayesha, what do

2:06

you think?

2:06

Well, I found myself asking,

2:10

why do I keep coming back to these

2:12

movies? And I mean that in the sense

2:14

that, like, I am not, by any means,

2:16

in action, movie, aficionado. I've

2:18

seen many of them I've followed

2:21

a couple of franchises including Mission

2:23

Impossible and, of course,

2:25

the fast series. But it's not

2:27

something that I naturally gravitate toward

2:29

necessarily. This is the fourth movie.

2:31

I've loved a lot of this

2:33

franchise. I especially love the first

2:35

one. I think the second one is great. And

2:36

then the third one is kind of starting to feel

2:38

a little bit of the, okay, where we go in with this.

2:41

But what I found is

2:43

that in this film, it kind of proved to

2:45

me again why I keep coming back to these movies.

2:47

One, the action sequences, they just

2:49

remain truly impressive.

2:52

I realized that we, in so many of

2:54

these films, We're getting lots of

2:56

things rushed and hurried by and

2:58

you can't even always see the action. I'm looking

3:00

at you Marvel movies. It's confusing. No

3:03

matter what's happening, even though there might be

3:05

hundreds of bodies on the screen, and

3:08

shots going off and knives being thrown

3:10

in various other objects being

3:12

hurled at each other. I can always

3:14

tell what's going on. And I can also

3:16

always feel what's happening because you

3:18

can hear them exasperating and

3:20

say, like you

3:22

get all of that very visceral feel

3:25

to these fight scenes. And so

3:27

the repetitiveness for me work because

3:29

I still feel in it, I feel affected

3:32

by them. The other thing I think that keeps

3:34

me coming back to these films are the moments

3:36

of levity. In between when they

3:38

aren't fighting. And, you know, those moments

3:41

are often fulfilled by the other characters

3:43

that aren't John Wick, although I will say

3:45

John Wick in this movie probably says

3:47

maybe two hundred and fifty words

3:50

and most of them are yeah and I'm

3:52

going to kill them all. And

3:55

I love it. And I think that this film,

3:58

better than the third one, kind of goes

4:00

back to its roots, and I think also is a little

4:02

bit sillier and knows it's silly.

4:04

I loved this movie. It was a little too long,

4:07

but I forgive it because there

4:09

were several sequences that I'm sure we'll get into

4:11

that were just like mind blowing and fantastic

4:13

thick. And all I'm gonna say is, like,

4:15

frogger on steroids. That was

4:17

that was a great moment. It certainly

4:20

was. Yeah. We we have a macro

4:22

here at culture happy hour. A little too long, and I

4:24

think we just plug that into everything.

4:26

It's I'm sorry, but it's it's true. But

4:28

wait minute, maybe you don't think so. You're a wick

4:30

person. What'd you

4:31

think?

4:32

I am a whack person. I did find this too long.

4:34

I think everything should be ninety minutes. This was

4:36

not

4:36

ninety minutes. To speak in my language. But

4:39

I had a marvelous time

4:41

at this movie. I'm very bought into this franchise,

4:43

been a fan since the beginning. I should

4:45

mention that when I saw the first one, I went in

4:47

so unspoiled that I turned to my husband

4:49

into I hope nothing happens to the dog.

4:51

Oh, wow. That was rough. That was

4:54

rough. But It was rough. But I've

4:56

I've since enjoyed my time in this world

4:58

And I think what I really like about

5:00

this series is that with each

5:02

installment, they try to give you action

5:04

that you've never seen before. This

5:07

really delivered on that. There were sequences in

5:09

here that I was like, wow, I don't

5:11

think I've ever seen anything like this in

5:13

any action movie, and it was just

5:16

so incredible and bombastic and

5:18

really memorable. So I love that.

5:20

I think where the series is starting

5:23

to lose me a little bit is with the world

5:25

building because they've opted for this

5:27

particular kind of world building that

5:29

just involves layering on

5:31

more rules and bureaucracy of the

5:33

high table. And so you

5:35

are getting away from the simplicity of the first

5:37

one, which is a very simple revenge story, which I like.

5:40

It's very pure. And now it's like

5:42

once John Wick solves a problem, he encounters

5:44

some high table by law, and now things

5:46

are complicated. And I'm oh,

5:48

I don't really enjoy the rules. Like, they're just starting

5:50

to feel a bit tedious to me. I'm

5:53

really in it for the action and for

5:55

the visuals. That's my caveat

5:57

that I really liked it, but if you're not into

5:59

rules, this unfortunately is a little

6:01

heavy on the rules.

6:02

Yeah. I love I love that. That he goes up against

6:04

all these assessments and and also ultimately bylaws.

6:07

That's it. Can he win against the

6:09

bylaws? Walter, what'd you think? Where'd he come down? Yeah.

6:12

You know, I mean, I think people have pretty

6:14

much said it all so far. It's very

6:16

long. It's just very soggy in

6:18

the lore. It's a lot. And

6:20

I think, really, the charm of the first one was

6:23

the little people. It wasn't the high table.

6:25

It was, you know, the cop that comes to the house after

6:27

he's killed the whole household people. And you expect

6:29

a big shootout with the cop, but really it's like, Hey,

6:32

John. Hey, Jimmy. You're

6:34

back. I just cleaning up some stuff.

6:36

And he talks to bartenders. They talk to, like,

6:38

the janitor, the cleaner. They're the people that

6:40

clean up in the stadium afterwards. And increasingly

6:42

after the first one it becomes about, you know,

6:44

the Marquee and the Bowery King

6:47

and the high table. It's like, well,

6:49

I'm kind of more interested in the guy that is the canine

6:52

and the quiet simplicity with the rest

6:54

of the world. How does this world actually interact

6:56

with the rest of the world? One of the charms for

6:58

me about this fantasy world that they've created is that

7:01

there were actually rules when they

7:03

toast each other, they they say consequences.

7:05

And what a huge, amazing,

7:08

satisfying wish fulfillment fantasy

7:10

John Wick now becomes of the world in which

7:12

we actually live in. In which, you know, the the

7:15

prospect of justice has dangled in

7:17

front of us for decades. It feels

7:19

like and, you know, everyone that should go to jail doesn't

7:21

go to jail. They just get Richard in front of us

7:23

it's so frustrating. The world feels so frustrating,

7:26

but here's John Wick. It's like you killed my

7:28

dog. I'm gonna kill a hundred and sixty seven

7:30

of you, you know. And there's there's a real simplicity

7:32

to this kind of world of culture

7:34

of consequences and accountability that

7:36

you do something bad and you get a marker and

7:39

you get something goes wrong immediately

7:41

even though you're a good guy. You're ex Kimi

7:43

Ocado. It's so simple and so

7:46

beautiful and that simplicity. And, you know, to

7:48

Whelan's point, everyone's point, really, that

7:50

oh, you start blocking it down with lore and that's really

7:52

the danger of all these franchises. You have to do this homework

7:55

now. It's like, it it just becomes a lot

7:57

of work 4 no real

7:59

purpose. It's like if singing in the rain had

8:01

thirty movies of Lord in front of it.

8:03

But just just do the dancing and singing because

8:05

that's what it appeared for. And it's awesome when

8:08

you do it. And it's like a musical. Right? When John

8:10

Wick is really good. It's like, you know, all of a sudden

8:12

the dance breaks out and everyone on the street knows the dance.

8:14

It's awesome. I love it. Yeah. That's a fantasy.

8:17

Yeah, I think the further you get away from that, the

8:19

more you blow it down with all this really kind of self

8:21

important

8:21

stuff, it gets you farther and farther away of the simplicity

8:24

of this fantasy. Yeah. It will help. For

8:26

you to remind yourself a little bit of some of that lore,

8:28

though, because I had completely forgotten about the magic

8:30

Kevlar suit thing. So

8:32

with is I I couldn't figure out why there's so much

8:35

violence without Visor. I mean, it feels Visor role

8:37

as to Ayish's point. That's because he

8:39

can just lift his jacket up

8:41

around his eyes like he's Dracula and boom.

8:43

Nothing nothing happens. And let

8:45

me get these out of the way real quick at the top.

8:47

This movie is two hours and forty eight minutes long.

8:50

John Wick, more like John Fuze

8:52

because Wickes is longer than a Fuze. This

8:54

movie is so long that this time his dog dies

8:57

of old age. Last

9:00

one, this movie is so long that this

9:02

time when he says, yeah, I think I'm back. It's because

9:04

you literally can't remember because of all the meds he's

9:06

on. Okay. That's it. I'm done. Thanks for indulging

9:08

me. This delivered 4 me, but it kept

9:10

on delivering, and then it over delivered, and then was ready

9:12

to return some of it. When it comes to

9:15

ROI in your entertainment dollar, You got kids.

9:17

You need to hire a sitter. You need to pay for dinner.

9:19

You need to pay for parking. This

9:21

is a good ROI on your entertainment dollar.

9:24

It's a good deal. Mhmm. But to put that in

9:26

context, we've all touched on

9:28

the magic of that first film back in

9:30

twenty fourteen. If you remember, the

9:32

trailers made that thing look pretty cheesy, eighties,

9:35

Charles Bronsonville. Mhmm. But I

9:37

remember the phenomenon of John

9:39

Wick the first. Kind of bubbling up.

9:41

I mean, I think it's a less true sleeper hit

9:43

that I I remember. It's just people

9:46

talking about how, oh, you gotta check this out.

9:48

Even if you didn't know that the director, Chad

9:50

Stahills, made his bones as

9:52

a stunt performer and then later a stunt coordinator,

9:55

the film's commitment to practical

9:57

studs, to to wowing you with what

9:59

the human body is capable of, what

10:01

it can do, and what how it can be punished,

10:03

That was clearly paramount because you

10:06

felt those set pieces hung

10:08

along a story that if

10:10

you're feeling generous, You could say it was streamlined.

10:13

It was uncluttered. If you're not feeling generous, you could

10:15

say it was thin as hell because what is

10:17

this whole movie? Why is he doing it? They killed

10:19

his dog. Simple, clean,

10:21

and as the films have gone on, as we all have said,

10:23

layers of of world building markers and blood oaths

10:26

and execute on Ocado, and I fight with this

10:28

movie because I love the look

10:30

and feel of it. I love the switchboard operators. I

10:32

love the chalkboards. I love the bakelite

10:34

phones. But uncluttered is not

10:36

a word you can use anymore. And the

10:39

layering on of so much has changed how

10:41

the fight scenes play out. The fight scenes

10:43

used to have their own stories

10:45

that they told. They were clear narrative structure

10:48

that you could feel in your bones with beginning rising

10:50

action climax Daniel Ma here and

10:52

this was also true of the last film to a lesser extent.

10:54

We get beginning rising action

10:57

long plateau of kind

10:59

of undifferentiated action than

11:01

end. I kind of came away

11:03

from this feeling differently than I did with the other

11:06

movies because I felt those fight scenes

11:08

were pummeling me just as much as they were pummeling the main

11:10

character.

11:11

Interesting. I didn't

11:13

quite get that feeling, but I can

11:15

also see how you

11:17

would feel that way, especially with

11:19

the sequence towards the ends

11:22

involving a staircase. Very long staircase.

11:25

And that one definitely I think

11:27

4 me. It took a little bit longer

11:29

to reach the peak, I guess,

11:32

pun intended. The peak of the staircase, like,

11:34

because you kind of get what you would expect

11:36

of a staircase and then I don't know,

11:38

maybe two, three minutes in, you finally get, like,

11:40

this is what we're here for, which is, like, people

11:42

sliding down staircases and shooting

11:45

each other and and pummeling each other.

11:47

But I do think that this is what happens

11:49

so often with franchises is that each one

11:51

has to get bigger and bigger and bigger. Not

11:54

to bring up fast again, but I I do think

11:56

that that's a similar thing that's happened with the fast

11:58

series where when you go back and watch those

12:00

first couple of films, they're very, very

12:02

simple. They are just like hot

12:04

girls, cars, racing,

12:07

and that's it. And then by the current

12:09

phase of the franchise, we've got people

12:11

go into space in cars and

12:14

giant like things blowing up and all these

12:16

other things. I think there's good and bad

12:18

about that. I think you do have to kind of ramp

12:20

things up in these kinds of franchises

12:22

because the stakes have to

12:24

sensibly get bigger. It is to

12:26

a point where I do wonder we don't

12:29

need to talk about the the way it ends, but it

12:31

did. The movie itself, there's a

12:33

kind of a recurring motif where people

12:35

keep asking John Wick So have you

12:37

gotten any thought to how this ends? Like,

12:39

how does this end, John? Like, and

12:41

you really really sense that in this film, but

12:43

they're just like, okay, we're trying to give you

12:45

an ending you might love and,

12:47

you know, your mileage may vary on that. I think

12:49

it ends in a way that think it shouldn't,

12:51

but I also understand how people could just

12:54

be

12:54

like, oh my god. By the end of the movie, I'm

12:56

so tired. What's

12:58

interesting about Fast and Furious is that

13:00

they did about four films of

13:02

racing of like fast cars.

13:05

And then with five, they decided to basically

13:07

make the series into something else, which was

13:09

they turned it into a heist movie. So then

13:12

now they're like international men and

13:14

women of mystery solving crimes around the world

13:16

using cars. To me, that's an interesting

13:19

analog to John Wick. Like, if they've taken

13:21

the high table stuff and John

13:23

Wick's kind of motivations as far

13:25

as it can go, then

13:28

does John would do something else now in retirement?

13:30

Does he solve crimes? Does

13:32

he pull off a heist? It seems wildly improbable.

13:35

And and yet if you watch the first fast

13:37

and a furious movie. You would never have guests that

13:39

buy number five, they would be

13:42

doing a ban heist in

13:43

Brazil. You know? I mean, I kinda think

13:45

John Wick fast crossover. I

13:48

wouldn't mind seeing that.

13:49

Okay.

13:51

Go ahead's rolling his eyes, but that's

13:53

how I feel. No. From your lips to God's ears,

13:55

I would watch I would watch that. I

13:57

I think that there's a real level of comfort in

13:59

movies like John Wick ultimately, and that's what kills

14:01

franchises. Right? Is that what was fresh

14:04

and exciting becomes comfortable.

14:07

Either that cold porter song, an olden day is

14:09

a glimpse of stocking. We're seeing something shocking,

14:11

but now anything goes, you have to escalate continually

14:14

because your kink gets more and more kinky. And so,

14:16

yeah, I don't wanna give too much away. But if it ends the

14:18

way that we think that it ends, it makes

14:20

a little bit of sense because then it feels like this

14:22

sort of triumphal march through

14:25

all of the highlights of the WIC series,

14:27

you know, the highlights and the things we love the best,

14:29

the characters, the places, the things we visit,

14:32

Even a nightclub scene from the first movie is

14:34

replicated in this movie. If we're doing

14:36

a triumphal march, a quick revisit. And you

14:38

know so much of this movie is about exhaustion.

14:41

He looks exhausted. He says he's

14:43

tired. Oh, man. And Kiana is a

14:45

full ten years older than me. I can't imagine.

14:47

If I fall, I have to go a hospital. I can't

14:49

imagine how he's doing something. So there's

14:51

something about this movie. I think that's really

14:53

about aging out, about saying,

14:56

hey, Donny, you and I are both sixty years old.

14:58

Almost six years old or fifty nine fifty. We're

15:00

pushing sixty. It's maybe retirement

15:02

age for action heroes. Okay. Maybe it's time

15:05

for Rita to take over. Maybe it's time for

15:07

Anna to Armisty to take over. Maybe it's time for this

15:09

next generation of people in

15:11

what are we gonna pass the baton in the movie?

15:13

We already changed the guard, but now we're gonna change

15:15

the guard again and say, okay.

15:17

We've done the Arctic trail. We've run

15:20

up two hundred and fifty stairs or however many

15:22

it was. When there's that really funny thing that happens

15:24

in the stair

15:25

sequence, you guys know what I'm talking about that that

15:27

goes on. It is so funny. I

15:29

really laughed more than it was actually

15:31

funny because I think I really needed the release

15:33

of it. Like, you know, this has been so dire.

15:36

And kinda sort it down and and repetitive

15:38

in a

15:38

way. By the time that that happens, I'm like,

15:40

oh, this is really funny. Yeah.

15:42

It's like a looney tune's moment. Yes. Absolutely.

15:44

Yeah. Or or police squad. I should work

15:47

together. Like, it's so funny. And I

15:49

think it's because we need that. We need that kind of relief.

15:51

After four movies of this. But

15:53

I think really what it had on its mind is to do kind

15:55

of a victory march.

15:57

Endings aren't bad. Endings

15:59

can be good. Good. We've

16:01

kind of barely talked about Donnie Anne, but I

16:03

think even though he is kind of a wait addition

16:06

to the game, I really liked him

16:08

here. His character is blind.

16:11

And the way they choreograph

16:13

those scenes and his fight scenes, I think

16:16

is a good example of the franchise elevating

16:18

it or, like, going, like, to the tenth degree,

16:21

making it bigger, yet also making

16:23

it in a way kind of simpler because

16:26

there's a great sequence where he's fighting

16:28

and he can't tell where people are coming

16:30

from. So he has these like sensor tags,

16:32

like the type of things where if you walk in front of it, it's

16:34

gonna like go off. And he leaves a

16:36

trail of them on, like, various objects

16:38

and on the walls so that he can hear them

16:40

coming and then, like, kill them whatever. And think

16:42

those little details are just really

16:45

fun, and those are the types of things that I haven't

16:47

seen in other films. And being able to

16:49

sort of play with this idea of

16:51

someone having not having access

16:53

to one of those senses that is you would think is

16:55

very crucial to be in this asset and to fight

16:57

off all of these people. I really

17:00

liked that touch. And I think even

17:02

if there are some similar things, they're they

17:04

are still giving us other new things. And I think

17:06

those new things in many ways are additive

17:09

and less

17:09

reductive. To me, I'm intrigued by

17:11

this idea of exhaustion and,

17:13

you know, like, if John Wick is tired, Is

17:16

this a good time to just like

17:18

call it and let him let

17:20

him be? Like, maybe go get some therapy

17:23

and retire for real? Because I what

17:25

struck me is that, you know, not

17:27

that much time has elapsed. Well, between the first

17:29

one and the third one, I think it's actually a pretty

17:31

short amount of time that's covered and then this

17:34

fourth one, I think I think takes place some amount

17:36

of time after the third one. But the amount

17:38

of time since his wife died is actually very

17:40

short, So I was thinking about the

17:42

character of John Wick and not given a ton of information

17:44

about him, but I was thinking about him as

17:47

a man who is deeply deeply

17:49

in mourning and I'm like,

17:51

is this whole thing? This whole

17:53

series just a radical manifestation

17:56

of his grief over his wife dying?

17:58

And that's kind of interesting to me. But

18:00

I think that if now he's gotten

18:03

revenge and that feels satisfying, then

18:06

maybe it's time to call it because if

18:09

he keeps killing people after

18:11

this, then he is just

18:13

the death dealing sociopath

18:16

that he's sometimes accused of of being in the

18:18

film. Right? Like, oh, you don't know how to do anything

18:20

else besides kill, and it's like no, no, because

18:22

he's on like a righteous path. But

18:24

if like he seems to have maybe

18:26

accomplished what he needs to accomplish and this

18:29

there's another movie where he's still

18:30

killing, then I'm like, well, maybe he is a monster and

18:32

then I don't wanna root for that, you know. Sure. Yeah.

18:35

I kept thinking about personality.

18:37

Why did why are these guys

18:39

friends with John Wick who has the

18:41

personality of what cardboard? And then,

18:44

wait, then you actually know that I think it's grief.

18:46

Like, I love that reading because that

18:48

explains to me how all these can be you or my brother.

18:50

It's like, really this guy. You're

18:54

gonna put your life in line for this dude. Okay.

18:56

Well, tell us what you think about John Wick chapter

18:59

4, find us at facebook at facebook dot

19:01

com slash PCHH up

19:03

next. What is making us happy this

19:05

week? Now it is

19:07

time for our favorite segment of this week and every

19:09

week what is making us happy this

19:11

week. Whelan, tell me

19:13

what is making you happy this week. Well, I

19:15

recently revisited one of my favorite documentaries.

19:18

It is spellbound, which came out in

19:20

two thousand and two. It

19:22

follows a bunch of kids who are competing

19:24

in the National Spelling Bee. I think it's the nineteen ninety

19:26

nine Spelling Bee. And we actually

19:29

have it on DVD because this is a movie that

19:31

I like to revisit. And I was

19:33

a competitive speller as a child,

19:35

and I now have a kid who's old enough to

19:37

do spelling b's and just qualified for her

19:39

first school by spelling bee, so we decided

19:42

to watch it as a family. And,

19:44

man, this movie is like perfect. It's

19:46

like perfectly structured. There's

19:49

the right amount of tension. It's

19:51

so emotionally resonant. You really

19:53

get to know the kids and their families and

19:55

you feel the stakes. And I notice

19:58

new things every time I watch

20:00

it. And it makes me think so much

20:02

about class in America and

20:05

social mobility and race

20:07

and parenting and what success

20:09

looks like in America especially for children

20:11

of immigrants which I am and It's

20:14

got it all. I cried. I laughed.

20:16

I could watch this movie I think every week.

20:18

I never get sick of it. Mhmm. So that is

20:20

spellbound. We watched it on DVD,

20:22

LLP. Social media, but but

20:25

you can rent it, you can also stream it through

20:27

Canopy with a k if your public library

20:29

has that service. Oh,

20:30

that's great. That's a great wreck. That movie came out

20:32

a while ago, so there might be generation of folks who haven't

20:34

seen it and man. They should go out and get

20:36

it as soon as they

20:37

can. Walter, what is making you

20:39

happy this week? Well, I'm a little slow to the game

20:41

here, but I've been really binging hard

20:44

on Black Thought and Danger Mouse's two thousand

20:46

twenty two album Cheekoots. Okay. It

20:48

is extraordinary. And my son is the one who's

20:51

really into hip hop culture,

20:53

and and he knows so much about it. He's really

20:55

self taught he's sixteen. And the way

20:57

that we really can bond we found

20:59

is by listening to his music together,

21:02

and all the callouts, all the samples, all the

21:04

little Easter eggs that are in these really,

21:07

really, restructured songs. He's able

21:09

to say, hey, dad, what's Harlem Heights? What's

21:11

Billy Baffett? What's called Porter, in the

21:13

Curacura style, all of these people, our

21:15

name dropped. And so that to me has been

21:17

extraordinary, but we together, you

21:19

know, learned about the last poets. And

21:21

the Watts prophets because that's sort of name

21:23

dropped in this album. And I was able to

21:25

look up all these poets and we read their poetry and we talked

21:28

about the situation at the end of the sixties

21:30

that caused a rise of this artistic

21:32

expression. All of this be based on

21:35

a brilliant tight set done by

21:37

the producer danger amounts of black thought

21:39

from the roots. And it brings me closer to my

21:41

son and anything that helps me be

21:43

more cool and less tedious

21:46

for my kid is great. And also it makes me

21:48

smarter. It's like we are able

21:50

to talk about stuff that we're both passionate about. We

21:53

both expand our words a little bit. So, you

21:55

know, the power of music and the power of art. Right? So

21:57

anyway, Black Thor and Danger Mouse's

21:59

cheat

21:59

codes. It's a instant masterpiece.

22:01

That's a great rack. Also, a great rack is

22:04

just the notion of parenthood turning

22:06

you into the giver.

22:07

Basically. Kinda

22:09

like that. Thank you very much, Walter. Ayesha

22:11

Harris, what is making you happy this week? This

22:13

is pop is a Canadian series

22:16

I aired in twenty twenty one on CTV

22:18

and has since dropped on Netflix so you can find

22:20

it there. It's this, like, fairly

22:23

light and sometimes aesthetically inconsistent

22:25

docu series about various

22:27

pop phenomenons. Some episodes

22:30

have a host scenario there. Others don't

22:32

There's also some, like, cheesy aesthetic choices,

22:34

including actors acting out

22:36

the song, Leader of the Pack by Shankary Laws,

22:39

which is, like, a classic song, the visuals

22:41

that they added to it, little cheesy.

22:43

Overall, I found it really enjoyable

22:46

and informative. It takes

22:48

these various phenomenons and

22:50

tries to bring a little bit more context

22:52

in Nuance to things that we're

22:54

all familiar with, but maybe haven't thought too much

22:56

about. Some of my favorite episodes include

22:59

one on boy's to men's influence on

23:02

the boy band culture of the late nineties. And

23:04

it really breaks down how they were kind of in

23:06

many ways directly responsible for

23:08

all of these white boy bands who got

23:10

even bigger and came after them including in

23:13

sync and and backstreet Boys. And

23:15

it features use with actually three

23:17

of the boys to men, the remaining numbers of the

23:19

group. And I found that really fun in nostalgic.

23:22

And there's also one about auto tune

23:24

and t pain, which is really interesting. And

23:26

another favorite of mine is about the Brit Pop

23:29

scene, which is probably one of the epic as

23:31

I knew the least about going into it, but

23:33

they really cover this sort of oasis blur

23:35

moment that was happening in the nineties. So

23:38

that's this is pop. It's on Netflix.

23:40

And, yeah, just check it out if you're

23:42

into anything kind of

23:44

music, nostalgia related, especially

23:46

when it comes to the nineties. That sounds great.

23:48

Thank you very much. What is making me

23:50

happy this week? You know, I played a lot of

23:52

the video game, Eldon Ring, when it came out

23:55

talked about it before. I played it a lot, which

23:57

meant I died a lot. That's the game.

23:59

You die a lot. That's what the game is known for.

24:02

It's also known for what happens to you when

24:04

you die. You see your crumpled body

24:06

in this amazing fantasy setting. And

24:08

then these big, blood red,

24:10

capital letters, just the words, you

24:12

died, come up on the screen. The

24:15

Twitter account noun verb an

24:18

exercise in simplicity. It

24:20

just takes a screenshot of Eldon Ring.

24:22

But instead of you died, it takes

24:24

a random combination of nouns and verbs

24:27

and puts them in the same blood

24:29

red all caps the dead fuck. Now,

24:31

it is an algorithm, so it's random. So

24:34

they're not all gonna be winners. Don't expect it.

24:36

Plurality, locked. That's nothing. Stansa,

24:38

hoped. What does that mean? That's nothing. It's word salad.

24:41

Carciery, state, jogged. That's

24:43

like you're wasting my time, but then sometimes, Only

24:45

sometimes you get something that just It's got a bit

24:47

of something and can't explain

24:50

why I love it, but like narration sucked.

24:53

Intercourse, 4. Spoons,

24:56

cheers. Noodle

24:59

loved. I can't explain it, but this

25:01

little jolt of randomness

25:03

popping up in my feed. I

25:05

don't know why, but I find it kind of weirdly

25:07

heartening is the word I would use, and I don't

25:09

know why, but that's the way I feel. So that is

25:12

at noun verbs on

25:14

Twitter. And that, for whatever reason,

25:16

is what's making me happy this week. And if you want

25:18

links For what we recommended plus some

25:20

more recommendations, sign up for our newsletter

25:23

at NPR dot orgpop culture

25:25

newsletter and that brings us to the end of our show.

25:27

Ayesha Harris, Whalen Wong, and Walter Chao.

25:29

Thanks so much for being here. Thank you. you so great.

25:32

Thank you so so fun. This episode was produced

25:34

by HubSpotuma and edited by Mike

25:36

Katz of our podcast awardnett is

25:38

Brendan Crump and our supervising producer

25:40

is Jessica Reidy. Hello, Kamen

25:42

provides our theme music. The theme music,

25:45

provide Thanks for listening to Pop Culture

25:47

Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Glenn Weldon, and

25:49

we'll see you all next week.

25:59

Coriographer Ryan Hevington wants

26:01

you to put dance into everything you

26:03

do. Imagine your fingers are typing, your

26:05

shoulders are typing, and then, like, wiggle your butt,

26:07

you know, maybe your butt is

26:08

typing, you know, on your seat. Everything

26:11

could be dancing, no one is dance.

26:13

It's part two of our series mind

26:15

body spirit on the Ted Radio

26:18

Hour from NPR.