Lifestyle
What’s making us happy: A guide to your weekend reading, listening and viewing

Sheryl Lee Ralph accepts the award for Excellent Supporting Actress In A Comedy Sequence for Abbott Elementary onstage in the course of the 74th Emmy Awards.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Patrick T. Fallon/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

Sheryl Lee Ralph accepts the award for Excellent Supporting Actress In A Comedy Sequence for Abbott Elementary onstage in the course of the 74th Emmy Awards.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
This week, the Nationwide Toy Corridor of Fame introduced its finalists for this 12 months, NPR hosts share what films they’re excited for this fall, and Quinta Brunson made historical past on the Emmys.
This is what the NPR’s Pop Tradition Blissful Hour crew was taking note of — and what you must take a look at this weekend.
Sheryl Lee Ralph successful the Emmy
I completely sobbed watching her speech. She is such a expertise — she’s a type of journeyman actresses who has been round for many years placing within the work, doing unbelievable issues in Black cinema, and never being acknowledged for her work.
To see her rise up on that stage and get her second within the solar was simply unbelievable. I cherished it a lot. — Cate Younger
Kenan and Kel reunion on the Emmys
For each scenario that makes you wish to write off the Emmys fully, like The Underground Railroad not successful a single Emmy, to circle again to Thuso Mbedu and Sheila Atim’s final huge challenge The Girl King, is a second like Kenan and Kel reuniting on the Emmys.
For a teen who type of grew up within the late ’90s and early ’00s, Kenan & Kel on Nickelodeon was a foundational present. You at all times type of heard rumors concerning the potential rifts of their friendship through the years. Like, you understand, have been they speaking? Had been they not speaking?
So to see such an unfiltered, joyful second between them simply felt so pure, and I am type of hoping this could be an indication of them working collectively sooner or later. I do not want a Good Burger 2, it could possibly be something. — Marc Rivers
IAmTonyTweets’ Little Mermaid track on Twitter
The Little Mermaid trailer for the brand new Disney “dwell motion remake” – I do not know the way a lot is definitely going to be dwell motion, however no matter – dropped per week in the past. It stars Halle Bailey, who’s a Black performer, and it is nice to see Ariel being performed in that function.
I’ve some quibbles with the trailer as a result of it is tremendous darkish, you possibly can’t actually see something, and the particular results look horrible. However I’ll say within the wake of that trailer dropping, an outdated clip from earlier this summer season began circulating from a web-based persona creator who goes by @iamtonytweets on Twitter.
It is principally him donning varied wigs to play each Ariel and Ursula within the scene of “Poor Unlucky Souls,” however he remixes it. It simply exhibits the creativity that Black folks have, particularly when taking issues we grew up with that was once tremendous white, making it actually enjoyable and placing in our personal spin on it.
I doubt that the film goes to be nearly as good as this minute-long tweet, however who cares? — Aisha Harris
The 1,000th Tiny Desk Live performance with Angélique Kidjo and discovering musician Madison Cunningham
The closing credit of The Girl King have a track that options visitor vocals from Angélique Kidjo, the nice legend. She is the topic of our 1,000th Tiny Desk Live performance, which we revealed this week.
YouTube
However talking of the Tiny Desk Concert events, I had a discovery myself watching an exquisite singer and guitarist named Madison Cunningham, who put out an album final week referred to as Revealer. It’s so, so, so stunning.
She is such a subtly kickass guitarist, and this report comprises one of the crucial stunning, tear-jerking ballads I’ve heard in a very, actually very long time referred to as “Life In accordance To Raechel.” — Stephen Thompson
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Extra suggestions from the Pop Tradition Blissful Hour e-newsletter
by Linda Holmes
Mandalit del Barco has a brand new NPR sequence on Latinos in Hollywood. Take heed to the primary piece right here. (You too can learn. However I do advocate listening to the audio she gathered!)
It is an uncommon advice, however right here goes: I do not know the way I received on the subject of the 2009 CBS homicide thriller sequence Harper’s Island, however after Twitter helped me bear in mind what it was referred to as, I had a substantial amount of enjoyable visiting its Wikipedia web page and reliving one of the crucial actually bonkers community exhibits I can bear in mind — together with the episode titles.
We received great, great information this week, which is that pricey buddy of PCHH Brittany Luse would be the new host of It is Been A Minute, which after all was the previous area of pricey buddy of PCHH Sam Sanders. We couldn’t be extra excited, and I commend to you the episode through which Brittany and pricey buddy of PCHH Eric Eddings (look, we now have loads of pals, okay?) talked about winding down their important podcast For Coloured Nerds as they start new chapters.
As if that weren’t sufficient inside information, the nice Alt.Latino was relaunched this week with Felix Contreras and new host Anamaria Sayre, who our listeners additionally know from conversations about Unhealthy Bunny and West Facet Story, amongst others.
BUT WAIT. As Stephen talked about above, this was additionally the week that the Tiny Desk celebrated its 1,000th — sure, 1,000th — live performance. They’ve come a great distance, actually.
NPR’s Maison Tran tailored the Pop Tradition Blissful Hour phase “What’s Making Us Blissful” right into a digital web page. Should you like these options, think about signing up for our e-newsletter to get suggestions each week. And hearken to Pop Tradition Blissful Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Lifestyle
Democratic senators rent space at the Kennedy Center to host a Pride event

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, April 2025.
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
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John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
A group of Democratic senators and Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller are hosting a Pride celebration at the Kennedy Center Monday evening. But the Kennedy Center has nothing to do with programming it.
Senators John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin have rented the Justice Forum, a small theater at the REACH, an expansion to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that opened in 2019.

While the group of senators booked the space a few weeks ago, the Pride event, called Love Is Love, was only announced on Monday. A statement from Sen. Hickenlooper’s office says the event is “about standing up for the arts and the progress the LGBTQ community has made. The performance reminds us that our fight for equality — and for democracy — isn’t over. It’s happening right now.” Directed by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley, the show will include songs celebrating gay culture.
Seller, whose credits also include Rent and Avenue Q, told The New York Times, Hickenlooper called him to see if he’d like to engage in some “guerrilla theater.” Seller, who is gay, didn’t hesitate.

After President Trump took over the Kennedy Center in February, Seller and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda canceled a production of the touring show scheduled for the Center in 2026. At the time, Seller wrote on X, “The recent purge by the Trump Administration of both professional staff and performing arts events at or originally produced by the Kennedy Center flies in the face of everything this national center represents.”
Current Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell called the cancelation “a publicity stunt that will backfire.” In a post on X, he wrote that Miranda “is intolerant of people who don’t agree with him politically,” and that Miranda and Seller “don’t want Republicans going to their shows.”
Seller told The New York Times that Monday night’s show is “our way of reoccupying the Kennedy Center.”
The Kennedy Center did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.

Meanwhile, the White House has proposed a major increase to the Kennedy Center’s federal funding, while funds to other cultural institutions have been severely cut. The request of nearly $257 million is “for necessary expenses for capital repair, restoration, maintenance backlog, and security structures of the building and site of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.”

Lifestyle
Selena Gomez Shows Off Bold New Bangs in IG Transformation

Selena Gomez
Wigs Out with Bold New Bangs!!!
Published
Selena Gomez just dropped a bangin’ new look — and fans (plus Selena herself) are losing it… because surprise, surprise, it’s not exactly what it seems.
Check it out… Selena showed off a bold, choppy cut with heavy bangs in a Sunday IG selfie — but don’t get too attached. She made it clear it was a wig, joking in the caption about why she just can’t commit to real bangs.
“I would, but I’d regret it, then get it redone so I simply won’t #bangs,” Selena wrote — making it crystal clear the bang life just ain’t for her.
Plus, bangs aren’t new territory for Selena — she’s rocked the look on and off over the years. So safe to say, no real FOMO here.
Looks like Selena’s keeping the bangs … strictly in fringe territory!
Lifestyle
Space is the place for Pixar's 'Elio' (or so he thinks) : Pop Culture Happy Hour

Elio voiced by Yonas Kibreab in Pixar’s Elio.
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Disney/Pixar
Elio voiced by Yonas Kibreab in Pixar’s Elio.
Disney/Pixar
In the new Pixar film Elio, a lonely kid dreams of being abducted by aliens. And then one day, it happens. Eager to find a place to belong, Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) volunteers to save the aliens from a dangerous enemy. Along the way, he makes a friend and starts to think about Earth a little differently. The film was directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi (Turning Red) and Adrian Molina (Coco).
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