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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13886679/watch-marc-maron-having-the-same-existential-crises-as-you-only-funnier\">Marc Maron\u003c/a> drops the 1,686th and final episode of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13976978/marc-maron-end-wtf-podcast-last-episode\">his \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> podcast\u003c/a> Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show began with the comic and actor mainly interviewing stand-up comedians. Maron would go on to talk to legends of music and Hollywood, and a sitting president.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a look at seven essential episodes from the 16-year history of the pioneering longform interview podcast.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Robin Williams\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episode No. 67, April 26, 2010\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fairly famous names had come on Maron’s podcast from its 2009 debut, but Robin Williams, the Oscar, Emmy and Grammy winner and luminary of the stand-up stage, was a huge get just seven months into the show. Maron made the most of it with an unforgettable interview that constantly shifted between comedy and tragedy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Discussions of death,” Williams said after going on one long riff in his improv style. “It’s very freeing.” He delved into his past thoughts of suicide in a discussion that felt all the more important after Williams killed himself in 2014. Maron re-aired the episode, framed by his own tearful thoughts and memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13976978']It later earned a place in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. Maron, who almost never listens to his recorded episodes, heard a clip from it for the first time last month when \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> superfan \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13869727/after-comic-garry-shandlings-death-judd-apatow-found-zen-in-his-diaries\">Judd Apatow\u003c/a> came on and played his favorite show moments for the host.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You get his whole life story,” Maron said, “you get his weird improvisational genius, and you get a real sense of struggle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Louis CK\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episodes No. 111 and No. 112, Oct. 4 and 7, 2010\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The earliest episodes of \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> were largely devoted to Maron working out his long-simmering beefs with other stand-up comics. His last question to them often was, “Are We Good?” (The line would become a catchphrase and is the title of a new documentary about him.) Most listeners and Maron himself agree the phenomenon peaked with his epic, two-part peace negotiation with his fellow stand-up and former best friend Louis CK. It took the show, and the medium, to another level. Maron recently said their salvaged friendship did not survive \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923161/louis-c-k-a-list-of-10-horrible-things-he-has-done\">CK facing accusations\u003c/a> in 2017 of sexual misconduct involving several comedians.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Todd Glass\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episode No. 245, Jan. 16, 2012\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Comedian Todd Glass used the podcast to come out publicly as gay. It was an indicator that the show could be a place for personal revelations. In later years, comic Maria Bamford and actor Mandy Moore would share details on abusive relationships. Comedian and actor Pete Davidson would discuss, for the first time publicly, his diagnosis with borderline personality disorder. And actor Andrew Garfield would open up about his anxiety and the grief of losing his mother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLFT2yJFMdM\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Barack Obama\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episode No. 613, dropped on: June 22, 2015\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a crowning moment for both Maron and for podcasting when then-\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/barack-obama\">President Barack Obama\u003c/a> appeared on \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> for a long interview. With the Secret Service in tow, Obama went through the regular guest ritual of going to the modest Los Angeles home Maron dubbed “The Cat Ranch” and sat in the dirty garage studio where the first nine years of the show were based. A relaxed Obama used the talk to reflect on his two terms as president as they were coming to an end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13973145']“I’ve been through this, I’ve screwed up, I’ve been in the barrel tumbling down Niagara Falls, and I emerged and I lived,” Obama said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wow. I don’t think I realized how truly present and somewhat vulnerable he was,” Maron told Apatow when he listened back. “Also, I’m always amazed at my fearlessness to go ahead and finish even the president’s sentences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lynn Shelton\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episode No. 627, Aug. 10, 2015\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When filmmaker Lynn Shelton appeared on \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> in August of 2015, it was a good but unremarkable episode. When it re-aired in 2020, its significance had grown wildly. The interview was the first meeting of Maron and Shelton, who began dating and became long-term life partners and collaborators. After her sudden and unexpected death, Maron, his voice quivering, poured out his feelings in an introduction to the old interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t even know if I should be out in public talking,” Maron said. “But this is what I do and this is where I’m at and there’s no right or wrong with grief.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lorne Michaels\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episode No. 653, Nov. 9, 2015\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years on the podcast, Maron obsessed over \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> mastermind Lorne Michaels and his power over the comedy world, in part because Maron never managed to make it on to the show. So it was a big moment when Michaels finally became a \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> guest, and Maron gave him a blow-by-blow of his tryout for \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> two decades earlier. “God, you REALLY remember this,” Michaels said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To this day, Maron has never appeared on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Mavis Staples\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episode No. 1026, June 10, 2019\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Music would become increasingly important to \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> as years passed. Maron’s guitar playing and collecting hobby became an essential part of the show, which he would end with his riffing. Musical guests would eventually become as important as comedians and actors, as he had sit-downs with Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger and Neil Young. But his 2019 talk with singer Mavis Staples may be his best of the bunch. The two discussed making music with her family in the Jim Crow South and her shift from gospel great to funk-and-soul legend.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13886679/watch-marc-maron-having-the-same-existential-crises-as-you-only-funnier\">Marc Maron\u003c/a> drops the 1,686th and final episode of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13976978/marc-maron-end-wtf-podcast-last-episode\">his \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> podcast\u003c/a> Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show began with the comic and actor mainly interviewing stand-up comedians. Maron would go on to talk to legends of music and Hollywood, and a sitting president.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a look at seven essential episodes from the 16-year history of the pioneering longform interview podcast.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Robin Williams\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episode No. 67, April 26, 2010\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fairly famous names had come on Maron’s podcast from its 2009 debut, but Robin Williams, the Oscar, Emmy and Grammy winner and luminary of the stand-up stage, was a huge get just seven months into the show. Maron made the most of it with an unforgettable interview that constantly shifted between comedy and tragedy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Discussions of death,” Williams said after going on one long riff in his improv style. “It’s very freeing.” He delved into his past thoughts of suicide in a discussion that felt all the more important after Williams killed himself in 2014. Maron re-aired the episode, framed by his own tearful thoughts and memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It later earned a place in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. Maron, who almost never listens to his recorded episodes, heard a clip from it for the first time last month when \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> superfan \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13869727/after-comic-garry-shandlings-death-judd-apatow-found-zen-in-his-diaries\">Judd Apatow\u003c/a> came on and played his favorite show moments for the host.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You get his whole life story,” Maron said, “you get his weird improvisational genius, and you get a real sense of struggle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Louis CK\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episodes No. 111 and No. 112, Oct. 4 and 7, 2010\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The earliest episodes of \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> were largely devoted to Maron working out his long-simmering beefs with other stand-up comics. His last question to them often was, “Are We Good?” (The line would become a catchphrase and is the title of a new documentary about him.) Most listeners and Maron himself agree the phenomenon peaked with his epic, two-part peace negotiation with his fellow stand-up and former best friend Louis CK. It took the show, and the medium, to another level. Maron recently said their salvaged friendship did not survive \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923161/louis-c-k-a-list-of-10-horrible-things-he-has-done\">CK facing accusations\u003c/a> in 2017 of sexual misconduct involving several comedians.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Todd Glass\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episode No. 245, Jan. 16, 2012\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Comedian Todd Glass used the podcast to come out publicly as gay. It was an indicator that the show could be a place for personal revelations. In later years, comic Maria Bamford and actor Mandy Moore would share details on abusive relationships. Comedian and actor Pete Davidson would discuss, for the first time publicly, his diagnosis with borderline personality disorder. And actor Andrew Garfield would open up about his anxiety and the grief of losing his mother.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/KLFT2yJFMdM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/KLFT2yJFMdM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch2>Barack Obama\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episode No. 613, dropped on: June 22, 2015\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a crowning moment for both Maron and for podcasting when then-\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/barack-obama\">President Barack Obama\u003c/a> appeared on \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> for a long interview. With the Secret Service in tow, Obama went through the regular guest ritual of going to the modest Los Angeles home Maron dubbed “The Cat Ranch” and sat in the dirty garage studio where the first nine years of the show were based. A relaxed Obama used the talk to reflect on his two terms as president as they were coming to an end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I’ve been through this, I’ve screwed up, I’ve been in the barrel tumbling down Niagara Falls, and I emerged and I lived,” Obama said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wow. I don’t think I realized how truly present and somewhat vulnerable he was,” Maron told Apatow when he listened back. “Also, I’m always amazed at my fearlessness to go ahead and finish even the president’s sentences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lynn Shelton\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episode No. 627, Aug. 10, 2015\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When filmmaker Lynn Shelton appeared on \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> in August of 2015, it was a good but unremarkable episode. When it re-aired in 2020, its significance had grown wildly. The interview was the first meeting of Maron and Shelton, who began dating and became long-term life partners and collaborators. After her sudden and unexpected death, Maron, his voice quivering, poured out his feelings in an introduction to the old interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t even know if I should be out in public talking,” Maron said. “But this is what I do and this is where I’m at and there’s no right or wrong with grief.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lorne Michaels\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episode No. 653, Nov. 9, 2015\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years on the podcast, Maron obsessed over \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> mastermind Lorne Michaels and his power over the comedy world, in part because Maron never managed to make it on to the show. So it was a big moment when Michaels finally became a \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> guest, and Maron gave him a blow-by-blow of his tryout for \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> two decades earlier. “God, you REALLY remember this,” Michaels said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To this day, Maron has never appeared on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Mavis Staples\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘WTF’ episode No. 1026, June 10, 2019\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Music would become increasingly important to \u003cem>WTF\u003c/em> as years passed. Maron’s guitar playing and collecting hobby became an essential part of the show, which he would end with his riffing. Musical guests would eventually become as important as comedians and actors, as he had sit-downs with Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger and Neil Young. But his 2019 talk with singer Mavis Staples may be his best of the bunch. The two discussed making music with her family in the Jim Crow South and her shift from gospel great to funk-and-soul legend.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://isanaka.com/about\">Isa Nakazawa\u003c/a> has a gift for making guests feel seen when they sit down for an astrological reading on her podcast, \u003ca href=\"https://futurostudios.org/podcasts/stars-and-stars/\">\u003ci>Stars and Stars With Isa\u003c/i>\u003c/a>. In a wide-ranging 2024 conversation that covered mutual aid, Desi futurism and channeling ancestors for guidance, R&B singer Raveena told Nakazawa, “You know what this show feels like? It feels like a spiritual \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@nardwuar\">Nardwuar\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Nardwuar, the music journalist known for shocking artists with his hyper-specific insights, Nakazawa carefully studies her guests’ birth charts and creative output to ask uncanny, poignant questions. Her vulnerable conversations zoom out from the interview subjects’ inner emotional landscape to their life’s purpose and contributions to broader culture and social movements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/XGv5WZ_lcoA?si=7eKjuk1sDYTp2JOx\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, \u003ci>Stars and Stars With Isa\u003c/i> is back for a second season on all podcast platforms and YouTube through Futuro Studios, the production company founded by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. The debut episode features author, trans activist and \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/7216395/raquel-willis-gender-rights/\">\u003ci>TIME\u003c/i> woman of the year Raquel Willis\u003c/a>, and forthcoming guests include rapper and activist Vic Mensa and \u003ci>New York Times Magazine\u003c/i> journalist J Wortham.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I intentionally book people who are both very vulnerable and are open and have been cracked open by these direct experiences, whether it’s falling in love, whether it’s loss — grief is a huge throughline in my show,” Nakazawa says. “But they’re also going to keep it real about the struggles that they’ve been through and how those experiences are racialized and classed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The daughter of an Uruguayan immigrant mother and Japanese American father, Nakazawa grew up in Boston and New York before relocating to the Bay Area almost two decades ago. She immersed herself in San Francisco and Oakland’s artist-activist scenes, first as a mentor at the youth development and poetry nonprofit Youth Speaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13981685\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13981685\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-2000x2667.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Isa Nakazawa and W. Kamau Bell, who appeared as a guest on the first season of ‘Stars and Stars With Isa.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Isa Nakazawa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Early on, when she discovered the work of Afrofuturists like Sun Ra, and the writings of Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, Nakazawa became inspired by Black American artists’ use of imagination to transcend the limitations society placed on them. She sees a similar power in astrology to help people see beyond their struggles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Thank goodness astrology is here to say, ‘No matter what you are, you in this state today are connected to the cosmos,’” she says. “And I hope that that would make someone say, ‘Wow, maybe I should consider that I’m inherently worthy and that I’m more than anyone could ever say.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13981684\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13981684\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/TimeSquareBillboard.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1055\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/TimeSquareBillboard.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/TimeSquareBillboard-160x84.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/TimeSquareBillboard-768x405.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/TimeSquareBillboard-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A ‘Stars and Stars With Isa’ billboard in New York’s Times Square in 2024. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Isa Nakazawa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nakazawa believes one’s astrological chart is a roadmap, not a destiny. Rather than fixating on planetary placements that might pose challenges to one’s love or professional life, she embraces them as sources of resilience and even humor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been really amazing to connect with people I admire and could easily project they have it easy,” she says of her guests. “And we end up going there and having a lot of conversations that are pretty real about our love lives not being linear, about the ways in which direct lived experience has made us uniquely positioned to talk about these things publicly.” [aside postid='arts_13981646']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than a lens for understanding personal struggles, \u003ci>Stars and Stars With Isa\u003c/i> makes a convincing case that astrology can also prompt us to grapple with global questions. In this age of rising authoritarianism and war, Nakazawa says that even though astrology isn’t frontline work, it can still play an important role in leading us towards a better world. Much like art, astrology can feed the soul of activism, injecting movements with hope and possibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to create seductive, sustainable, compelling, adaptive, spacious social movements that are political and spiritual,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Astrology is the space of meaning making,” she adds. “And it’s also the space where we have to tap our imagination, which is very hard because our imaginations have been colonized. So that’s where you confront that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>New episodes of ‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.futuromediagroup.org/stars-and-stars/.\">Stars and Stars With Isa\u003c/a>’ come out every Tuesday. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://isanaka.com/about\">Isa Nakazawa\u003c/a> has a gift for making guests feel seen when they sit down for an astrological reading on her podcast, \u003ca href=\"https://futurostudios.org/podcasts/stars-and-stars/\">\u003ci>Stars and Stars With Isa\u003c/i>\u003c/a>. In a wide-ranging 2024 conversation that covered mutual aid, Desi futurism and channeling ancestors for guidance, R&B singer Raveena told Nakazawa, “You know what this show feels like? It feels like a spiritual \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@nardwuar\">Nardwuar\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Nardwuar, the music journalist known for shocking artists with his hyper-specific insights, Nakazawa carefully studies her guests’ birth charts and creative output to ask uncanny, poignant questions. Her vulnerable conversations zoom out from the interview subjects’ inner emotional landscape to their life’s purpose and contributions to broader culture and social movements.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/XGv5WZ_lcoA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/XGv5WZ_lcoA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>This week, \u003ci>Stars and Stars With Isa\u003c/i> is back for a second season on all podcast platforms and YouTube through Futuro Studios, the production company founded by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. The debut episode features author, trans activist and \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/7216395/raquel-willis-gender-rights/\">\u003ci>TIME\u003c/i> woman of the year Raquel Willis\u003c/a>, and forthcoming guests include rapper and activist Vic Mensa and \u003ci>New York Times Magazine\u003c/i> journalist J Wortham.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I intentionally book people who are both very vulnerable and are open and have been cracked open by these direct experiences, whether it’s falling in love, whether it’s loss — grief is a huge throughline in my show,” Nakazawa says. “But they’re also going to keep it real about the struggles that they’ve been through and how those experiences are racialized and classed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The daughter of an Uruguayan immigrant mother and Japanese American father, Nakazawa grew up in Boston and New York before relocating to the Bay Area almost two decades ago. She immersed herself in San Francisco and Oakland’s artist-activist scenes, first as a mentor at the youth development and poetry nonprofit Youth Speaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13981685\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13981685\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-2000x2667.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/WKamauBell-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Isa Nakazawa and W. Kamau Bell, who appeared as a guest on the first season of ‘Stars and Stars With Isa.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Isa Nakazawa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Early on, when she discovered the work of Afrofuturists like Sun Ra, and the writings of Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, Nakazawa became inspired by Black American artists’ use of imagination to transcend the limitations society placed on them. She sees a similar power in astrology to help people see beyond their struggles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Thank goodness astrology is here to say, ‘No matter what you are, you in this state today are connected to the cosmos,’” she says. “And I hope that that would make someone say, ‘Wow, maybe I should consider that I’m inherently worthy and that I’m more than anyone could ever say.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13981684\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13981684\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/TimeSquareBillboard.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1055\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/TimeSquareBillboard.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/TimeSquareBillboard-160x84.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/TimeSquareBillboard-768x405.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/TimeSquareBillboard-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A ‘Stars and Stars With Isa’ billboard in New York’s Times Square in 2024. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Isa Nakazawa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nakazawa believes one’s astrological chart is a roadmap, not a destiny. Rather than fixating on planetary placements that might pose challenges to one’s love or professional life, she embraces them as sources of resilience and even humor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been really amazing to connect with people I admire and could easily project they have it easy,” she says of her guests. “And we end up going there and having a lot of conversations that are pretty real about our love lives not being linear, about the ways in which direct lived experience has made us uniquely positioned to talk about these things publicly.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than a lens for understanding personal struggles, \u003ci>Stars and Stars With Isa\u003c/i> makes a convincing case that astrology can also prompt us to grapple with global questions. In this age of rising authoritarianism and war, Nakazawa says that even though astrology isn’t frontline work, it can still play an important role in leading us towards a better world. Much like art, astrology can feed the soul of activism, injecting movements with hope and possibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to create seductive, sustainable, compelling, adaptive, spacious social movements that are political and spiritual,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Astrology is the space of meaning making,” she adds. “And it’s also the space where we have to tap our imagination, which is very hard because our imaginations have been colonized. So that’s where you confront that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>New episodes of ‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.futuromediagroup.org/stars-and-stars/.\">Stars and Stars With Isa\u003c/a>’ come out every Tuesday. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Comic and actor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/10679651/terry-gross-to-marc-maron-life-is-harder-than-radio\">Marc Maron\u003c/a> announced Monday that he’s ending his popular and influential podcast “WTF with Marc Maron” after nearly 16 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maron said on a newly released episode that the last of the nearly 2,000 episodes he has hosted will be released later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sixteen years we’ve been doing this, and we’ve decided that we had a great run,” Maron said. “Now, basically, it’s time, folks. It’s time. ‘WTF’ is coming to an end. It’s our decision. We’ll have our final episode sometime in the fall.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='news_12028651']The 61-year-old Maron said he and producing partner Brendan McDonald are “tired” and “burnt out” but “utterly satisfied with the work we’ve done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maron was a veteran stand-up comic who had dabbled in radio when he started the show in 2009, at a time when stand-ups were trying out the form in big numbers, and many listeners still downloaded episodes on to iPods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show early on was often about Maron talking through his beefs with fellow comedians, but it soon stood out and became a widely heard and medium-defining show with its thoughtful, probing longform interviews of cultural figures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It became a key stop on press tours for authors, actors and musicians and reached a peak when then- President Barack Obama visited Maron’s makeshift Los Angeles garage studio for an episode in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maron used a simple interview style to get guests to share stories they’d rarely told elsewhere. Seeking to know the biggest influences on their lives and careers, Maron would ask, “Who are your guys?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other memorable episodes include a 2010 personal and emotional interview with Robin Williams that was re-posted and widely listened to after Williams’ death in 2014. The episode earned a place in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maron kept doing standup specials and expanded his acting career while the show aired, including a three-season run on the Netflix series \u003cem>GLOW\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_10679651']The show’s guitar-rock theme song opened with a clip of Maron shouting, “Lock the gates!” in his role as a promoter in the film \u003cem>Almost Famous\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The solo episode openings became a confessional space for Maron where he talked about his life, relationships, years of doing stand-up comedy and struggles with drug addiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maron gave tearful tribute to his girlfriend, director Lynn Shelton, in the episode after her death in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People who listen to the podcast know me pretty well, and it’s all good. They have a relationship with me that’s one-sided, but it’s real and I try to be as gracious about that as possible,” Maron told the Associated Press in 2019. “My particular little slice of the show business world is very me specific, and it’s very personal, and usually that’s a good thing. But I’ve had to learn how to balance how much of my life I reveal and what I keep to myself, and try to find a little space.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>When \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13916721/sucka-free-history-with-dregs-one\">Dregs One\u003c/a> finally met \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/too-short\">Too Short\u003c/a> face-to-face this past February, during NBA All-Star weekend in San Francisco, the two weren’t exactly strangers. Short, of course, is a Bay Area rap icon, now 22 albums deep in the game — and he’d definitely noticed Dregs’ work to tell the stories of the region’s hip-hop producers, graffiti artists and rap pioneers on his \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/historyofthebay/\">History of the Bay\u003c/a>\u003c/em> podcast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was only fitting, then, that Too Short be the guest on the landmark 100th episode of \u003cem>History of the Bay\u003c/em> — an appearance that Dregs tells KQED has been a longtime goal. Short’s been “very supportive since the beginning, in terms of commenting, sharing and engaging on social media,” allowing for what’s usually an hour- or hour-and-a-half-long conversation on the podcast to last for more than two hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13916721']It’s the culmination of a long road for \u003cem>History of the Bay\u003c/em>, which began in early 2022 as short TikToks. Onscreen, Dregs would summarize entire careers or scenes in in 60 seconds or less. (The first two? Graffiti spot Psycho City and Tupac Shakur.) Some blew up with as many as half a million views, and six months later, the podcast was born — a way to stretch out beyond TikTok’s time limitations and hear from the artists themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Dregs is expanding yet again. Episode No. 101 will feature actor Danny Glover, and Dregs wants to host more actors, activists, journalists and musicians of different genres on \u003cem>History of the Bay\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d actually be interested in like, regular people. School teachers!” Dregs says. “I want to get this podcast to where it doesn’t really matter who I have on, the audience is strong enough to trust me to know that whatever story gets told will be interesting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13973907']It’s also been a time of literal expansion for the podcast, which recently moved to the office of record label EMPIRE, whose sponsorship comes with a small production team, including videographer Trevor Potter and production manager Jazmin Ontiveros. Having the support of EMPIRE’s CEO Ghazi Shami “really means a lot to me,” Dregs says. “This culture is important to him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while reporting on said culture can involve egos, beef and grudges, Dregs has enough street knowledge to sidestep them (“it’s really served me well by going out of my way to not be messy,” he says). He intersperses interviews of rappers like Philthy Rich, Messy Marv and LaRussell with graphic designers like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZErUFFA8SR0\">Shemp\u003c/a> or personal injury billboard queen \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc531VHZUN4\">Anh Phoong\u003c/a>. And, for October, he’s already planning a return of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931387/photos-history-of-the-bay-day-party-dregs-one-review\">\u003cem>History of the Bay\u003c/em> live event\u003c/a> at the Midway in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for what the podcast might look like another 100 episodes from now, Dregs says he just wants to continue pushing Bay Area culture to an international audience, “so they learn about the Bay and start appreciating it more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘History of the Bay’ drops new episodes weekly, and can be found on \u003ca href=\"https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/historyofthebay/\">podcast platforms\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrcnRVZo1Y9S-8xIlv8knxRcYwCqsu1OC\">YouTube\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13916721/sucka-free-history-with-dregs-one\">Dregs One\u003c/a> finally met \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/too-short\">Too Short\u003c/a> face-to-face this past February, during NBA All-Star weekend in San Francisco, the two weren’t exactly strangers. Short, of course, is a Bay Area rap icon, now 22 albums deep in the game — and he’d definitely noticed Dregs’ work to tell the stories of the region’s hip-hop producers, graffiti artists and rap pioneers on his \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/historyofthebay/\">History of the Bay\u003c/a>\u003c/em> podcast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was only fitting, then, that Too Short be the guest on the landmark 100th episode of \u003cem>History of the Bay\u003c/em> — an appearance that Dregs tells KQED has been a longtime goal. Short’s been “very supportive since the beginning, in terms of commenting, sharing and engaging on social media,” allowing for what’s usually an hour- or hour-and-a-half-long conversation on the podcast to last for more than two hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It’s the culmination of a long road for \u003cem>History of the Bay\u003c/em>, which began in early 2022 as short TikToks. Onscreen, Dregs would summarize entire careers or scenes in in 60 seconds or less. (The first two? Graffiti spot Psycho City and Tupac Shakur.) Some blew up with as many as half a million views, and six months later, the podcast was born — a way to stretch out beyond TikTok’s time limitations and hear from the artists themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Dregs is expanding yet again. Episode No. 101 will feature actor Danny Glover, and Dregs wants to host more actors, activists, journalists and musicians of different genres on \u003cem>History of the Bay\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d actually be interested in like, regular people. School teachers!” Dregs says. “I want to get this podcast to where it doesn’t really matter who I have on, the audience is strong enough to trust me to know that whatever story gets told will be interesting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It’s also been a time of literal expansion for the podcast, which recently moved to the office of record label EMPIRE, whose sponsorship comes with a small production team, including videographer Trevor Potter and production manager Jazmin Ontiveros. Having the support of EMPIRE’s CEO Ghazi Shami “really means a lot to me,” Dregs says. “This culture is important to him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while reporting on said culture can involve egos, beef and grudges, Dregs has enough street knowledge to sidestep them (“it’s really served me well by going out of my way to not be messy,” he says). He intersperses interviews of rappers like Philthy Rich, Messy Marv and LaRussell with graphic designers like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZErUFFA8SR0\">Shemp\u003c/a> or personal injury billboard queen \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc531VHZUN4\">Anh Phoong\u003c/a>. And, for October, he’s already planning a return of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931387/photos-history-of-the-bay-day-party-dregs-one-review\">\u003cem>History of the Bay\u003c/em> live event\u003c/a> at the Midway in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for what the podcast might look like another 100 episodes from now, Dregs says he just wants to continue pushing Bay Area culture to an international audience, “so they learn about the Bay and start appreciating it more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘History of the Bay’ drops new episodes weekly, and can be found on \u003ca href=\"https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/historyofthebay/\">podcast platforms\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrcnRVZo1Y9S-8xIlv8knxRcYwCqsu1OC\">YouTube\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Next Tuesday, April 15, marks two years since the start of the war in Sudan, which has led to what the UN calls “\u003ca href=\"https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160161#:~:text=The%20UN%20refugee%20agency%2C%20UNHCR,limited%20access%20to%20essential%20services.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the most devastating humanitarian and displacement crisis in the world\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The war has destroyed lives, demolished cultural institutions and \u003ca href=\"https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/sudansituation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">forced over 12 million people from their home country\u003c/a>. Meanwhile, throughout the Sudan diaspora, people are doing what they can to preserve their heritage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Oakland, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/2024-01-11/preserving-the-music-of-sudan-in-oakland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one Sudanese American woman is digitizing old cassette tapes\u003c/a> to preserve her country’s music. And in San Francisco, a \u003ca href=\"https://zzoulcafe.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorqqdNIzI2lKKOSOiRgvdPVv7OHL7boQCdwVFkgNp_OofUmXZzE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">restaurant\u003c/a> is working to ensure the next generation knows about Sudanese cuisine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13974183\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13974183\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/download-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a green top with a matching necklace stands near a shoreline. \" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/download-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/download-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/download-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/download.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Award-winning journalist Hana Baba wants to ensure people know about Sudan beyond war and conflict through a series of stories called ‘Folktales from Sudan.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hana Baba)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Union City-based award-winning journalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.hanababa.org/bio\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hana Baba\u003c/a>, it’s about preserving culture through her latest podcast venture, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.folktalesfromsudan.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Folktales from Sudan\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baba, the host of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/podcast/crosscurrents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KALW’s \u003cem>Crosscurrents\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and co-host of \u003ca href=\"https://www.thestoop.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Stoop\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, is using her audio storytelling talents to bring listeners folk stories from her home country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With a sound-designed mix of Sudanese music and Baba’s radio-friendly voice, the series features children’s tales like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbeSW5vQv4M&t=1s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Lolaba and the Eagle\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es8f_wYP0ww\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Father and Three Sons\u003c/em>\u003c/a> — stories with messages about the downfall of greed and the importance of familial love.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='forum_2010101909488']Additionally, \u003ca style=\"color: #41a62a\" href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hanaradio/p/DH9Jye5SJ6i/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">from mid-May through early June\u003c/a>, Baba will perform these stories in person at seven different Oakland Public Library locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During each 45-minute session, she’ll share three stories while hibiscus tea and “a little taste of something from Sudanese culture” is served, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’ll be accompanied by Ahmed Alejail, who plays a small, pear-shaped wooden guitar called an oud. As part of the interactive experience, audience members will learn Sudanese-Arabic sayings and participate in sing-alongs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13974171\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13974171\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-800x802.jpg\" alt=\"An illustrated image of a father and three sons standing with each other.\" width=\"800\" height=\"802\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-800x802.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-1020x1022.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-768x770.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-1533x1536.jpg 1533w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-2044x2048.jpg 2044w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-1920x1924.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustrated image of ‘The Father and Three Sons’ from the ‘Folktales from Sudan’ series. \u003ccite>(Waddah El-Tahir)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m just excited to show people something positive about Sudan,” says Baba, who views storytelling as a way to combat negative stereotypes. “Preserving culture preserves people, and heritage is such a huge part of identity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After so many headlines about the current war, and the destruction of cultural institutions — the national radio station, musical archives and multiple museums — Baba began to feel as if her very culture was being attacked. So she asked herself what could be done to assist those in need, beyond sending financial resources. She landed on folktales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='news_12032046']“My aunties and my uncles who have preserved these folktales are now refugees in other countries,” Baba laments. “They’ve had to flee the very homes where I heard these stories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She credits her uncle, who kept “hundreds and hundreds of folktales in his head,” as the first person to share them with her. Baba recalls sitting in a room full of her cousins, all gathered at their elder’s feet as he spoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was an incredible experience and it lived with me for decades,” says Baba, adding that throughout her career as a journalist she’s wanted to do something with this form of storytelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve always felt like our stories — our African folktales — deserved a global stage,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\" Lolaba and the Eagle ✨\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/XbeSW5vQv4M?start=1&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she was younger, Baba was exposed to stories with European foundations, like \u003cem>Hansel & Gretel\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Cinderella\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s different,” she says of the princes and princesses of Nubian descent in Sudanese stories. There were witches, but they’d appear as ghouls and goblins. “The stories were not rated PG- 13,” she says, laughing, “some of them were scary as hell.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she became a parent, she watered the stories down a bit, so as not to be frightening. But that’s no different from what Disney does, she notes. “Come to realize,” Baba says, “these seven dwarfs in \u003cem>Snow White\u003c/em> were actually seven child slaves working in the mines of Germany.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So now she’s on a mission to share the stories with the kids born of Sudanese heritage who will never get to see their home country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most generous estimates say 20 years until this place will be rebuilt,” Baba says of Sudan. For the thousands of people who’ve had to leave, specifically children, culture is what keeps them attached to home, Baba says: “It helps them preserve who they are, and where they came from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Hana Baba’s \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.folktalesfromsudan.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Folktales from Sudan\u003c/a>\u003c/em> is available now \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@FolkTalesfromSudan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on YouTube\u003c/a> and multiple podcast platforms. More details about her in-person storytelling events \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hanaradio/\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Next Tuesday, April 15, marks two years since the start of the war in Sudan, which has led to what the UN calls “\u003ca href=\"https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160161#:~:text=The%20UN%20refugee%20agency%2C%20UNHCR,limited%20access%20to%20essential%20services.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the most devastating humanitarian and displacement crisis in the world\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The war has destroyed lives, demolished cultural institutions and \u003ca href=\"https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/sudansituation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">forced over 12 million people from their home country\u003c/a>. Meanwhile, throughout the Sudan diaspora, people are doing what they can to preserve their heritage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Oakland, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/2024-01-11/preserving-the-music-of-sudan-in-oakland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one Sudanese American woman is digitizing old cassette tapes\u003c/a> to preserve her country’s music. And in San Francisco, a \u003ca href=\"https://zzoulcafe.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorqqdNIzI2lKKOSOiRgvdPVv7OHL7boQCdwVFkgNp_OofUmXZzE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">restaurant\u003c/a> is working to ensure the next generation knows about Sudanese cuisine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13974183\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13974183\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/download-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a green top with a matching necklace stands near a shoreline. \" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/download-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/download-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/download-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/download.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Award-winning journalist Hana Baba wants to ensure people know about Sudan beyond war and conflict through a series of stories called ‘Folktales from Sudan.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hana Baba)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Union City-based award-winning journalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.hanababa.org/bio\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hana Baba\u003c/a>, it’s about preserving culture through her latest podcast venture, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.folktalesfromsudan.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Folktales from Sudan\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baba, the host of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/podcast/crosscurrents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KALW’s \u003cem>Crosscurrents\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and co-host of \u003ca href=\"https://www.thestoop.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Stoop\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, is using her audio storytelling talents to bring listeners folk stories from her home country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With a sound-designed mix of Sudanese music and Baba’s radio-friendly voice, the series features children’s tales like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbeSW5vQv4M&t=1s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Lolaba and the Eagle\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es8f_wYP0ww\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Father and Three Sons\u003c/em>\u003c/a> — stories with messages about the downfall of greed and the importance of familial love.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Additionally, \u003ca style=\"color: #41a62a\" href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hanaradio/p/DH9Jye5SJ6i/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">from mid-May through early June\u003c/a>, Baba will perform these stories in person at seven different Oakland Public Library locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During each 45-minute session, she’ll share three stories while hibiscus tea and “a little taste of something from Sudanese culture” is served, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’ll be accompanied by Ahmed Alejail, who plays a small, pear-shaped wooden guitar called an oud. As part of the interactive experience, audience members will learn Sudanese-Arabic sayings and participate in sing-alongs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13974171\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13974171\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-800x802.jpg\" alt=\"An illustrated image of a father and three sons standing with each other.\" width=\"800\" height=\"802\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-800x802.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-1020x1022.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-768x770.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-1533x1536.jpg 1533w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-2044x2048.jpg 2044w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/SALT-SQUARE-1920x1924.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustrated image of ‘The Father and Three Sons’ from the ‘Folktales from Sudan’ series. \u003ccite>(Waddah El-Tahir)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m just excited to show people something positive about Sudan,” says Baba, who views storytelling as a way to combat negative stereotypes. “Preserving culture preserves people, and heritage is such a huge part of identity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After so many headlines about the current war, and the destruction of cultural institutions — the national radio station, musical archives and multiple museums — Baba began to feel as if her very culture was being attacked. So she asked herself what could be done to assist those in need, beyond sending financial resources. She landed on folktales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“My aunties and my uncles who have preserved these folktales are now refugees in other countries,” Baba laments. “They’ve had to flee the very homes where I heard these stories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She credits her uncle, who kept “hundreds and hundreds of folktales in his head,” as the first person to share them with her. Baba recalls sitting in a room full of her cousins, all gathered at their elder’s feet as he spoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was an incredible experience and it lived with me for decades,” says Baba, adding that throughout her career as a journalist she’s wanted to do something with this form of storytelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve always felt like our stories — our African folktales — deserved a global stage,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\" Lolaba and the Eagle ✨\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/XbeSW5vQv4M?start=1&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she was younger, Baba was exposed to stories with European foundations, like \u003cem>Hansel & Gretel\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Cinderella\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s different,” she says of the princes and princesses of Nubian descent in Sudanese stories. There were witches, but they’d appear as ghouls and goblins. “The stories were not rated PG- 13,” she says, laughing, “some of them were scary as hell.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she became a parent, she watered the stories down a bit, so as not to be frightening. But that’s no different from what Disney does, she notes. “Come to realize,” Baba says, “these seven dwarfs in \u003cem>Snow White\u003c/em> were actually seven child slaves working in the mines of Germany.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So now she’s on a mission to share the stories with the kids born of Sudanese heritage who will never get to see their home country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most generous estimates say 20 years until this place will be rebuilt,” Baba says of Sudan. For the thousands of people who’ve had to leave, specifically children, culture is what keeps them attached to home, Baba says: “It helps them preserve who they are, and where they came from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Hana Baba’s \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.folktalesfromsudan.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Folktales from Sudan\u003c/a>\u003c/em> is available now \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@FolkTalesfromSudan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on YouTube\u003c/a> and multiple podcast platforms. More details about her in-person storytelling events \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hanaradio/\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "In ‘You Didn’t Hear This From Me,’ Kelsey McKinney Wants You to Reconsider Gossip",
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"content": "\u003cp>Kelsey McKinney bookends her new collection of essays on gossip with a word from Emily Dickinson: “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the co-creator of the runaway hit podcast \u003cem>Normal Gossip\u003c/em>, McKinney was well aware of gossip’s need for a PR makeover. But what started as a project to liberate the act from its designation as sin, villainized and demeaned as “women’s talk,” turned into something much more slippery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In interrogating the longstanding contradictions of gossip, Dickinson’s line proves instructive: Which parts are true, which parts are slant, and who gets to do the telling?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13968576']\u003cem>You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip\u003c/em> is a whirlwind inquiry into one of society’s oldest practices. McKinney writes about gossip with an intellectual rigor that borders on reverence, explaining how a raunchy Doja Cat lyric exemplifies the theory of mind and how the notorious burn book from \u003cem>Mean Girls\u003c/em> actually helped teenagers avoid a predatorial teacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In each essay, McKinney unpacks new facets of gossip with a colorful cast of sources, ranging from the Apostle Paul, ChatGPT, philosopher John Stuart Mill, celebrity gossip account DeuxMoi and Town Tattle, an about-town magazine that was “essentially the Roaring Twenties’ Gossip Girl.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McKinney, both a reporter and critic, is perhaps best known for her role as podcast host. On each episode of “Normal Gossip,” before she passed the baton to new host Rachelle Hampton late last year, McKinney would relay “an anonymous morsel of gossip from the real world.” After introducing each guest, she would ask them a simple question: What is your relationship with gossip?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13971000']It’s a question that lies underneath each of McKinney’s essays. From teenagers who use gossip as a way to beat down school rivals to women who warn coworkers to avoid office creeps, McKinney paints a complicated portrait of how gossip’s virtues and vices are directly intertwined with power and who wields it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps some confusion about gossip comes from the fact that it is itself difficult to define. Often conflated as slander or libel or even hate speech, gossip’s definition is nebulous, existing according to McKinney “in a kind of transitory, imaginary space between events and their codifying.” It’s this tentative quality that makes gossip a prime “tool for the less privileged” and an annoyance for those in authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In seeking to at least approach a definition, McKinney argues that gossip is distinguished not by its tone but rather by its point of view. The orators who relayed ancient tales like “The Epic of Gilgamesh” and the group chat dishing about who’s dating who have something in common: Their tales are always second-hand, meaning every juicy detail is an interpolation of the truth. And yet it’s the slant itself that makes gossip so delectable, and dangerous.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Kelsey McKinney bookends her new collection of essays on gossip with a word from Emily Dickinson: “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the co-creator of the runaway hit podcast \u003cem>Normal Gossip\u003c/em>, McKinney was well aware of gossip’s need for a PR makeover. But what started as a project to liberate the act from its designation as sin, villainized and demeaned as “women’s talk,” turned into something much more slippery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In interrogating the longstanding contradictions of gossip, Dickinson’s line proves instructive: Which parts are true, which parts are slant, and who gets to do the telling?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cem>You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip\u003c/em> is a whirlwind inquiry into one of society’s oldest practices. McKinney writes about gossip with an intellectual rigor that borders on reverence, explaining how a raunchy Doja Cat lyric exemplifies the theory of mind and how the notorious burn book from \u003cem>Mean Girls\u003c/em> actually helped teenagers avoid a predatorial teacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In each essay, McKinney unpacks new facets of gossip with a colorful cast of sources, ranging from the Apostle Paul, ChatGPT, philosopher John Stuart Mill, celebrity gossip account DeuxMoi and Town Tattle, an about-town magazine that was “essentially the Roaring Twenties’ Gossip Girl.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McKinney, both a reporter and critic, is perhaps best known for her role as podcast host. On each episode of “Normal Gossip,” before she passed the baton to new host Rachelle Hampton late last year, McKinney would relay “an anonymous morsel of gossip from the real world.” After introducing each guest, she would ask them a simple question: What is your relationship with gossip?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It’s a question that lies underneath each of McKinney’s essays. From teenagers who use gossip as a way to beat down school rivals to women who warn coworkers to avoid office creeps, McKinney paints a complicated portrait of how gossip’s virtues and vices are directly intertwined with power and who wields it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps some confusion about gossip comes from the fact that it is itself difficult to define. Often conflated as slander or libel or even hate speech, gossip’s definition is nebulous, existing according to McKinney “in a kind of transitory, imaginary space between events and their codifying.” It’s this tentative quality that makes gossip a prime “tool for the less privileged” and an annoyance for those in authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In seeking to at least approach a definition, McKinney argues that gossip is distinguished not by its tone but rather by its point of view. The orators who relayed ancient tales like “The Epic of Gilgamesh” and the group chat dishing about who’s dating who have something in common: Their tales are always second-hand, meaning every juicy detail is an interpolation of the truth. And yet it’s the slant itself that makes gossip so delectable, and dangerous.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "NPR's Year in Review: 50 Wonderful Things From 2023",
"headTitle": "NPR’s Year in Review: 50 Wonderful Things From 2023 | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>I’ve been making annual lists of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1221652903&live=1\">50 Wonderful Pop Culture Things\u003c/a> since 2010. They include things you’ve probably heard of and things you might not have, things that are meaningful and things that are hilarious, things that matter and things that don’t at all. In this year in which TV and film were both interrupted for months as a result of labor disputes, there was plenty to admire even as production ground to a halt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13939862']The usual caveats apply: These are not objectively the best things; they are just wonderful things. There were far more than 50 wonderful things to admire this year, and there is far (far) more that I never saw or read or heard at all. But it never hurts to look back on the year and realize that in fact, delight was upon you over and over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1. The best podcast I started listening to this year was\u003ca href=\"https://www.ifbookspod.com/\"> \u003cem>If Books Could Kill\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>hosted by Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri. The premise is that they dive into “airport books” from self-help to political posturing to investigate their claims. It’s very funny and deeply researched, and in a world where it’s easy to feel like you’re losing your grip, it’s a good reminder: your grip is fine. You’re just being handed a lot of slippery things. Start with their January episode \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897?i=1000596707945\">about John Gray’s \u003cem>Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. You never forget an episode that makes you cackle in your car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2. It’s hard to pick a single moment from the scorching fourth and final season of \u003cem>Succession. \u003c/em>But the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH55hmX0-Uo&ab_channel=HBO\">balcony fight between Shiv and Tom\u003c/a> that went on and on and got worse and worse, more and more painful, encapsulated exactly what has worked so well about the show. It was a years-long story reaching its inevitable nuclear meltdown, and Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen played it brilliantly. “I think you are incapable of love.” Yikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH55hmX0-Uo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>3. Rarely has a show come back from a truly great first season and made a truly great second season. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13930853/the-bear-deftly-turns-the-corner-into-season-2\">\u003cem>The Bear\u003c/em>\u003c/a> managed to do it with the help of an exquisite cast, both regulars and guest stars. There are enough powerful performances on that show to make five more just like it. When pastry chef Marcus went off to Copenhagen and studied with Luca, played by Will Poulter, the fact that the focus was far away from Carmy did nothing to detract from the episode’s power and its thematic connections to the season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>4. The changes to Amy’s (Ali Wong) hair over the course of \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13927211/ali-wong-steven-yeun-serve-up-epic-feud-in-netflixs-beef\">Beef\u003c/a> —\u003c/em> long and straight, blond and bobbed and parted on the side, dark and bobbed with bangs — are really effective at underscoring her struggle with who she is and wants to be. Hair department head Nicole Venables was clearly working at the top of her game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939915\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1866px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939915\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM.png\" alt=\"The same attractive Asian woman is seen with her hair worn in a black bob with bangs, a white bob and long and flowing.\" width=\"1866\" height=\"1060\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM.png 1866w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM-800x454.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM-1020x579.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM-160x91.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM-768x436.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM-1536x873.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1866px) 100vw, 1866px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A look back at Amy’s hairstyles in ‘Beef.’ \u003ccite>(Andrew Cooper/ Netflix )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>5. Michael Schulman’s book \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/02/22/1158513159/oscar-wars-michael-schulman-academy-awards-controversies\">\u003cem>Oscar Wars\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is a great education in Hollywood history, but it’s also dishy as all get out. My highlight? A story about Joan Fontaine (supposedly!) telling people that she was considered for the role of Melanie in \u003cem>Gone With the Wind\u003c/em>, but was told she wasn’t plain enough, so she recommended her sister (and frenemy at best), Olivia de Havilland. That is so ice-cold, you could wrap it up and use it on your swollen ankle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>6. Greta Lee should be and likely will be in every awards conversation for her stellar work in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13930006/past-lives-is-a-gorgeous-meditation-on-love-chance-and-the-choices-we-make\">\u003cem>Past Lives\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. But even on Apple’s inconsistent \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/09/13/1198991146/the-morning-show-season-3-review\">\u003cem>The Morning Show\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> she’s always a standout as Stella, a young entertainment executive who faced some terrible choices in the show’s third season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>7. Had I been involved in the making of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931753/allan-doll-michael-cera-greta-gerwig-barbie-movie-review\">\u003cem>Barbie\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, I would have cared about nothing so much as exactly what song all the Kens should play when they, soaking in a bath of toxic masculinity, attempt to impress and win over the Barbies. Whatever I settled on would have been nowhere near as perfect as “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJLgKXp375I&ab_channel=AtlanticRecords\">Push\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Y57NWv5m0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>8. The bright romantic comedy \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/30/1166717149/rye-lane-review\">\u003cem>Rye Lane\u003c/em>\u003c/a> has a lot to recommend it. But perhaps nothing stuck with me as much as its stunning colors — deep golds and yellows, bright pinks and reds, rich greens and blues. From director Raine Allen-Miller, it would be a stunner even with the sound off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>9. Whatever your feelings about the franchise, there is nothing to fault in the sequence in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/1185129902/mission-impossible-is-back-but-will-you-accept-it-or-will-it-self-destruct\">\u003cem>Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One\u003c/em>\u003c/a> in which Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell are struggling to survive in a train that’s dangling off a cliff. A gas line, vats of oil, and a ratz-a-fratzin \u003cem>grand piano \u003c/em>all play into the gloriously silly, tooth-grindingly tense scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939901\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939901\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/shrinking_photo_010402_wide-42f66da259a6934d5edc408a57896cea18f00257-scaled-e1703838143772.jpg\" alt=\"A man in his seventies sits in a leather chair, his glasses propped on his forehead, looking concerned.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harrison Ford in ‘Shrinking.’ \u003ccite>(Apple TV+)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>10. Harrison Ford hasn’t made a lot of straight-up comedy in this stage of his career, so what a joy to see him in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/31/1152527309/shrinking-review-harrison-ford-jason-segel\">\u003cem>Shrinking\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, alongside Jason Segel and Jessica Williams. All three play therapists who work together, and Ford deploys his brutal deadpan to make completely ordinary dialogue feel like punchline after punchline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>11. About five minutes into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938143/may-december-movie-review-netflix-mary-kay-letourneau-julianne-moore\">\u003cem>May December\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, Julianne Moore, seen in profile, opens the refrigerator in her sunny kitchen. The foreboding piano of the score (by Marcelo Zarvos, adapting a 1971 score by Michel Legrand for the film \u003cem>The Go-Between\u003c/em>) suddenly sounds loudly, and she stares into the refrigerator, as if she’s seeing the Ark of the Covenant. The camera pushes in. And then she says, “I don’t think we have enough hot dogs.” Is this a comedy? A drama? A horror movie? In that early moment, it is, as it will remain, hard to say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939902\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1424px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939902\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2549_fp_00298-1920x802-e909bc9_wide-342797280c20ccc911b09410342a0d34778da180.jpg\" alt=\"A crazed bear, howls in the woods, its tongue sticking out.\" width=\"1424\" height=\"801\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2549_fp_00298-1920x802-e909bc9_wide-342797280c20ccc911b09410342a0d34778da180.jpg 1424w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2549_fp_00298-1920x802-e909bc9_wide-342797280c20ccc911b09410342a0d34778da180-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2549_fp_00298-1920x802-e909bc9_wide-342797280c20ccc911b09410342a0d34778da180-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2549_fp_00298-1920x802-e909bc9_wide-342797280c20ccc911b09410342a0d34778da180-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2549_fp_00298-1920x802-e909bc9_wide-342797280c20ccc911b09410342a0d34778da180-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1424px) 100vw, 1424px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The title ‘Cocaine Bear’ says it all, and the film delivers on that promise in 95 minutes. \u003ccite>(Universal Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>12. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13925388/cocaine-bear-is-here-to-strike-a-blow-to-staid-hollywood\">\u003cem>Cocaine Bear\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. The fact that they made it, the fact that they gave it that title, the fact that it’s so gory and gleeful and comfortable being what it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>13. There is a scene near the end of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938358/saltburn-review-emerald-fennell-shocking-scenes-jacob-elordi\">\u003cem>Saltburn\u003c/em>\u003c/a> in which an elaborate lunch table full of wealthy people trying desperately to act normal under bizarre circumstances is plunged into haunting red light by the closing of the curtains. Emerald Fennell, who wrote and directed, simply doesn’t do anything halfway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939897\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/gro-09769_r-1-_wide-e73d26bb40e8b60f639bffe967b22f0abb2b2ba5-scaled-e1703838474386.jpg\" alt=\"Three women stand and gaze upwards. They are wearing superhero uniforms.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L-R): Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau in ‘The Marvels.’ \u003ccite>(Laura Radford/ Marvel Studios)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>14. Iman Vellani’s performance as Kamala Khan in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/10/1197956743/the-marvels-is-a-light-comedy-about-light-powers\">\u003cem>The Marvels\u003c/em>\u003c/a> bubbles with energy, and a scene where she and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) keep switching places, disappearing and reappearing in her parents’ house, is a kinetic, rambunctious delight. If you were put off by the talk about \u003cem>The Marvels \u003c/em>falling flat at the box office, don’t let that keep you from checking it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>15. My favorite food host of the year is a three-way tie. Sohla El-Waylly and her husband Ham have been doing the series \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVLIdFk-8no&list=PLYG6O_GQCZwikXIXw5p0vFQBif-RxUpHy&ab_channel=NYTCooking\">“Mystery Menu”\u003c/a> for the NYT cooking channel for a while now, but if you haven’t seen it — their experimentation with durian, for instance — check it out immediately. \u003cem>Also\u003c/em>: an equally good way to approach the NYT cooking channel is to watch absolutely anything \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyv6lO1SBS0&list=PLYG6O_GQCZwgKmY38LuycalANW67g_yYV&ab_channel=NYTCooking\">featuring Eric Kim\u003c/a>, who is enchanting. \u003cem>Also also\u003c/em>: Anything on the Epicurious channel with chef Saul Montiel will brighten your day. \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjyyDCPXy7k&list=PLz3-p2q6vFYWi_e0AWEkj2h22l0u1bqER&index=29&ab_channel=Epicurious\">Here he is making calzones.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939903\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1798px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939903\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2.jpg\" alt=\"A tall young man and a shorter, older man with a mustache stand side by side in a snowy field. \" width=\"1798\" height=\"1078\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2.jpg 1798w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2-1020x612.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2-768x460.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2-1536x921.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1798px) 100vw, 1798px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dominic Sessa, left, and Paul Giamatti in ‘The Holdovers.’ \u003ccite>(Focus Features)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>16. All of the performances in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13937046/alexander-payne-keeps-real-emotion-at-bay-in-the-coyly-comic-holdovers\">\u003cem>The Holdovers\u003c/em>\u003c/a> are top-notch, but it was especially promising to discover Dominic Sessa, a young actor on the screen for the first time. Playing Angus Tully, a high school kid who’s both smart and foolish (as so many are), he offers exquisite touches of both swagger and insecurity, enough to keep up with towering performances from Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. All three leads deserve many award nominations; he may be the one who loses out. But bet on him in the future. He’ll be back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>17. The tense final moments of the suspense thriller \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935443/fair-play-review-netflix-gender-phoebe-dynevor#:~:text=Fair%20Play%20is%20visually%20moody,gray%20of%20their%20austere%20office.\">\u003cem>Fair Play\u003c/em>\u003c/a> had me unsure what I even \u003cem>wanted\u003c/em> to happen, and what actually happened was better than what I would have come up with anyway. That is exactly the ending you want from a psychologically complex story like this one, about a couple torn asunder by a promotion at work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939904\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939904\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/platonic_photo_010403_wide-a74509800a306a1af17583f3735bdaa794cf2065-scaled-e1703838852943.jpg\" alt=\"A 30-something man sits confidently at an office desk, smiling at someone somewhat awkwardly.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1079\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luke Macfarlane in ‘Platonic.’ \u003ccite>(Apple TV+)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>18. Luke MacFarlane is a veteran of holiday love stories (it’s probably adequate to note he was in films called both \u003cem>Sense & Sensibility & Snowmen \u003c/em>and \u003cem>A Shoe Addict’s Christmas\u003c/em>), and he made a splash with Billy Eichner in \u003cem>Bros\u003c/em> in 2022. This year, he was very funny in \u003ca href=\"https://tv.apple.com/us/show/platonic/umc.cmc.y7bc18x7co813l8i2tlsyb4l\">\u003cem>Platonic\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, playing the loving husband of a woman (Rose Byrne) whose friendship with an old pal (Seth Rogen) takes off anew. The part could be a real nothing; he makes it sing. (\u003cem>Platonic \u003c/em>runner-up: the scene, featuring Guy Branum, in which he throws electric scooters like a track star throws a discus is a sport. As it should be.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>19. There was nothing like the go-for-broke madness of Peacock’s\u003ca href=\"#1170610821\"> \u003cem>Mrs. Davis\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>an action-adventure comedic thriller about a nun who’s trying to resist the intrusions of an all-knowing AI who is suddenly in everyone’s ear. (Said AI is called Mrs. Davis, you see.) Betty Gilpin played Simone, the nun, with such control and flexibility that the wild plot developments around her didn’t distract from the character work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939905\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 776px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939905\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/nup_197587_00171_wide-5aaca6d0f9b84408cb67b0d3276fcda1a9256137.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with long shaggy blond hair stares worried into a phone screen. \" width=\"776\" height=\"436\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/nup_197587_00171_wide-5aaca6d0f9b84408cb67b0d3276fcda1a9256137.jpg 776w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/nup_197587_00171_wide-5aaca6d0f9b84408cb67b0d3276fcda1a9256137-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/nup_197587_00171_wide-5aaca6d0f9b84408cb67b0d3276fcda1a9256137-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Natasha Lyonne in ‘Poker Face.’ \u003ccite>(Phillip Caruso/ Peacock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>20. Rian Johnson created the episodic mystery show \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13924192/no-lie-natasha-lyonne-is-unforgettable-in-poker-face\">\u003cem>Poker Face\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, in which Natasha Lyonne played Charlie, a woman on the run who encounters a new mystery in every new town. Yes, the writing sparkled, and yes, the roster of guest stars — Judith Light! Lil Rel Howery! Hong Chau! Adrien Brody! — was top-tier. But at the center was Lyonne. From the minute she emerges from a trailer into the hot Nevada sun, sinks into a lawn chair, and grabs herself a beer and a smoke, the character already feels like an icon, and the show like a classic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>21. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/15/1149054904/the-traitors-review-alan-cumming\">\u003cem>The Traitors\u003c/em> \u003c/a>is a fun reality competition show. But what set it apart was host Alan Cumming, whose pronunciation of “murrrrrder” and succession of impossibly debonair suits made him host of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>22. I had a spectacular time — spectacular! — watching the Philadelphia Phillies this fall. How do you not love Bryce Harper \u003ca href=\"https://www.mlb.com/video/harper-sprints-first-to-home\">running through a sign\u003c/a> from the third-base coach, scoring, and popping up on his toe?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939907\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939907\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/71nzsmfyhwl._sl1500__custom-1bdc6680756a679edab8654b3a8629a5f434f87d.jpg\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a cat in a suit.\" width=\"200\" height=\"308\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/71nzsmfyhwl._sl1500__custom-1bdc6680756a679edab8654b3a8629a5f434f87d.jpg 200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/71nzsmfyhwl._sl1500__custom-1bdc6680756a679edab8654b3a8629a5f434f87d-160x246.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Starter Villain.’ \u003ccite>(Tor Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>23. I dare you not to giggle at least once as the weird world of John Scalzi’s novel, \u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#year=2023&book=232\">\u003cem>Starter Villain\u003c/em>\u003c/a> unwinds in front of you. Is there a labor dispute? Yes. Does it involve dolphins? Yes. Is there a volcano, and are there supervillains? Yes and yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>24. Sometimes it’s fun to just have something scare your socks off, and that’s what happened with \u003ca href=\"https://www.hulu.com/movie/9e96f51e-6806-4306-9773-e96b68d25305\">\u003cem>No One Will Save You\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, an eerie, almost dialogue-free “locked in the house and something terrible is happening” story starring Kaitlyn Dever. She hears a noise. She hides under the bed. She sees a pair of very upsetting feet go by. From there, she’s on her own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>25. Podcasts diving extra-deep into a particular film or show are of wildly differing quality. But\u003ca href=\"https://50mphpodcast.com/\"> \u003cem>50MPH\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> a planned 50-part (!!) series about the making of \u003cem>Speed\u003c/em>, has offered choice moments for the movie’s fans. Try \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/50-mph/id1691020723?i=1000625961446\">episode 12\u003c/a>, about the script development, which includes a detour into the involvement of one Joss Whedon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>26. Emma Cline’s novel \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/05/25/1178300477/in-the-guest-a-sex-worker-wreaks-havoc-on-the-glitzy-social-scene-at-the-hampton\">\u003cem>The Guest\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is about a woman whose boyfriend kicks her out and leaves her adrift in the Hamptons to survive with nothing. She imposes upon one person, then another, and Cline builds a sense of dread amid all the wealth: “No one on the shore noticed her, or looked twice. A couple walked past, heads bent, studying the sand for shells … Surely, if Alex had been in any real danger, someone would have reacted, one of these people would have stepped in to help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939908\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939908\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ap091207034728_wide-a1a2587a9eee11ca90b5d981b831f43c13702513-e1703839359528.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a grey suit and red bowtie gestures wildly, mouth agape.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul Reubens, better known as Pee-wee Herman, died in July at age 70. \u003ccite>(Danny Moloshok/ AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>27. Paul Reubens, who created the character Pee-wee Herman, died on July 30, and was warmly and appropriately appreciated. What a delightful surprise, then, to see him in a cameo appearance in the affable comedy\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/08/1197956693/sandra-oh-and-awkwafina-are-perfect-opposites-in-quiz-lady\"> \u003cem>Quiz Lady\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>playing himself as the baffled target of a fan’s affections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13938757']28. I had trouble following the plot of the drama series \u003ca href=\"https://www.max.com/shows/full-circle/8996a19c-8e8b-4d8b-8f1a-fa146751d544\">\u003cem>Full Circle\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> which starred Claire Danes and Timothy Olyphant as a couple that learns their son has been kidnapped, which is only the very beginning of their problems. I did, however, greatly appreciate Vulture’s Kathryn VanArendonk \u003ca href=\"https://www.vulture.com/article/dennis-quaid-full-circle-braid-explained.html\">making a thorough investigation\u003c/a> of why on earth Dennis Quaid ended up wearing a braid. It involves a last-minute dash to a wig shop. It’s quite a tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>29. Yes, Maureen Ryan is one of my very good friends and colleagues in the writing-about-television industry. But plenty of people agreed that as hard as it was to read, her book \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/03/1180008736/beloved-tv-show-lost-wasnt-immune-to-industrys-pervasive-toxic-culture\">\u003cem>Burn It Down\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, about abuse in Hollywood and the systems that enable it, was a tremendous example of dogged journalism that does what it sets out to do. Pleasant to read? No. Wonderful to know that this kind of work is still being done, and done so well? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kes2P4IC2bQ&t=3s\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>30. The Tiny Desk at NPR has been growing and growing in the breadth of its offerings, the devotion of its audience, and the vibrancy of its innovation. This year, nothing landed quite like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kes2P4IC2bQ&t=3s&ab_channel=NPRMusic\">appearance by Juvenile\u003c/a>, which is irresistible even to people who don’t necessarily think they’re “Back That Azz Up” people. Trombone Shorty was there! Jon Batiste flew in from London! What a wondrous thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13938881']31. Jimmy Tatro appeared in the comedy \u003ca href=\"https://www.hulu.com/watch/2e9ba993-a6a8-46e6-b2ac-6705badd7503\">\u003cem>Theater Camp\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, playing a character not dissimilar to the doofus jock he played in \u003cem>American Vandal\u003c/em>. Not to pigeonhole Tatro, but some actors have an eerily perfect touch with a particular kind of role, and Tatro is perhaps our foremost lovably lunkheaded bro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>32. Sam Sanders juggled two podcasts for much of the year: \u003ca href=\"https://www.vulture.com/into-it/\">\u003cem>Into It \u003c/em>\u003c/a>at Vulture and \u003ca href=\"https://www.stitcherstudios.com/shows/vibe-check\">\u003cem>Vibe Check\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>which he does with his friends Saeed Jones and Zach Stafford. Disappointingly, \u003cem>Into It \u003c/em>was a victim of cutbacks, but \u003cem>Vibe Check \u003c/em>continues, and it provided \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/life-has-been-lifing-lately/id1637476174?i=1000620850273\">one of the most moving episodes of the year\u003c/a> in a discussion of grief following the death of Sam’s mother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>33. There is a long history of shows making baffling choices when forced to replace a beloved host. When Padma Lakshmi decided to step away from \u003cem>Top Chef\u003c/em>, a lot of us thought, “They should pick somebody like [\u003cem>Top Chef \u003c/em>champion] Kristen Kish, but they won’t.” And then they did! Welcome the Kish era!\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939909\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939909\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man and a white man sit side-by-side in a jury box.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1078\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83-800x449.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83-768x431.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83-1536x862.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ishmel Sahid, left, and James Marsden play alternate jurors in the series ‘Jury Duty.’ \u003ccite>(Amazon Freevee)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>34. \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Jury-Duty-Season-1/dp/B0B8JM2BBS\">\u003cem>Jury Duty\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is the Amazon Freevee series in which a man named Ronald is called for jury duty, and he doesn’t know that everyone else from the judge to the other jurors to the lawyers and parties, is an actor. At the end, all is revealed to him — that he’s been sitting on a fake jury of a fake trial — and it could have been so, so painful to watch. But Ronald has a good sense of humor, and he chooses not to feel let down, even by his new pal, James Marsden (who plays himself in the fake scenario). They lucked out with Ronald, for sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>35. There were some impressive videos of striking actors advocating for themselves and their colleagues as their strike (and the WGA strike) wore on. One of the best \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/LisaCullen/status/1656337549495762951?s=20\">came from Mandy Patinkin\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/LisaCullen/status/1656337549495762951?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>36. John Mulaney’s Netflix special\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13928322/baby-j-john-mulaney-stand-up-review-netflix\">\u003cem> Baby J\u003c/em>\u003c/a> was deeply uncomfortable to watch, as he recounted his experiences with addiction, intervention and rehab. But the story of having an intervention with a room full of comedians sparkled. “Do you know what it’s like to have 12 people save your life?” he asks in a discussion of his indebtedness. “It’s too many people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37. Last year in this space, I saluted Karina Longworth’s excellent podcast series \u003cem>You Must Remember This\u003c/em>, and its miniseries \u003cem>Erotic ’80s\u003c/em>. What happened this year? \u003cem>Erotic ’90s\u003c/em>, of course, and it was perhaps even better. Try the \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/you-must-remember-this/id858124601?i=1000607274568\">Julia Roberts episode\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939911\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939911\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rev-1-tcp-05246_high_res_jpeg_wide-5c0544d47d9f6bbc91455c849ba94e8d7f075681-scaled-e1703839832634.jpe\" alt=\"One Black woman leans on the shoulder of another, outdoors in the sun.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Danielle Brooks and Fantasia Barrino in ‘The Color Purple.’ \u003ccite>(Eli Adé/ Warner Bros. Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>38. Danielle Brooks gives only one of several excellent performances in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13939793/the-color-purple-successfully-squeezes-popular-entertainment-out-of-art\">\u003cem>The Color Purple\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. (What a joy to see Fantasia Barrino thriving, having watched her on \u003cem>American Idol \u003c/em>so many years ago.) But Brooks’ work is emotional and haunting and also tremendously funny — she plays Sofia, played in the Spielberg movie by Oprah Winfrey — and she never misses a step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13939793']39. I don’t spend as much time dunking on terrible things as I used to, but there’s a particular pleasure to be found in an evisceration of something you very much disliked. Thus, please enjoy \u003ca href=\"https://buttnews.substack.com/p/fat-suit-fart-attack-the-whale\">Lindy West’s piece\u003c/a> on \u003cem>The Whale\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>40. In \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13936363/anatomy-of-a-fall-movie-review-sandra-huller-palme-dor-france\">\u003cem>Anatomy of a Fall\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, Sandra Hüller plays a woman who might — or might not — have done something terrible. In effect, to sustain the uncertainty, she has to play two women simultaneously: one who is covering up guilt, and one who is being unfairly accused. It’s a remarkable trick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>41. It has sometimes been hard to remember, as Twitter becomes unusable for me, that it could be a genuine source of friendly small talk. As a salute to that particular piece of its history, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lindaholmes/status/1633277824906797058\">enjoy this thread\u003c/a> in which a thousand people answered the call for pictures of their pets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939912\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939912\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/american-fiction-f_03320_r_rgb_custom-9c4efdd6045ee9b2208c20de69d920421838c08b-scaled-e1703840068351.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman and man walk down a grassy path, surrounded on both sides by tall shrubs and plants. They are smiling.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1279\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Erika Alexander and Jeffrey Wright in ‘American Fiction.’ \u003ccite>(Claire Folger/ Orion Releasing LLC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>42. Jeffrey Wright’s performance in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938160/american-fiction-based-on-erasure-jeffrey-wright-cord-jefferson-ross\">\u003cem>American Fiction\u003c/em>\u003c/a> as an intellectual convinced that he’s at the mercy of a foolish literary establishment (which is … probably right) is part of the movie’s appeal. But maybe even better is the part of the performance that focuses on the character’s complex, fractured relationships with his family. Wright is one of our very best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932204']43. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931577/in-oppenheimer-christopher-nolan-builds-a-thrilling-serious-blockbuster-for-adults\">\u003cem>Oppenheimer\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is a category of movie we’ve seen before, in that it’s an examination of a very famous man with a complicated legacy. But director Christopher Nolan is a master of capturing the unthinkably enormous, so it’s unsurprising that his approach to presenting the detonation of a nuclear bomb is inventive and meticulously done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>44. The crime thriller \u003cem>Sharper \u003c/em>sort of came and went (\u003ca href=\"https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/sharper/umc.cmc.5ud0ivpwgqw2st0u4z73gwpar\">you can find it on Apple TV+\u003c/a>); it stars Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan and Justice Smith as three of the people tied up in a complicated (really complicated) plot that involves con artists, guns, money and a lot of beautiful people. There’s a kind of pleasure in twisty thrillers that you can’t quite get anywhere else, and the closing chapter of this one delivered it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939913\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939913\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/the_diplomat_s1_e4_-native-_00_38_18_16r_wide-4e9514c2c795b64e9326a8f746d70853f47cd2b6-scaled-e1703840309929.jpg\" alt=\"An attractive middle-aged woman holds a telephone to her ear. She looks concerned.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Keri Russell in ‘The Diplomat.’ \u003ccite>(Netflix)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>45. After \u003cem>The Americans \u003c/em>and \u003cem>Felicity \u003c/em>(and, sure, \u003cem>Cocaine Bear\u003c/em>), nobody needs to prove the versatility of Keri Russell. But playing a new ambassador named Kate in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/04/19/1170685432/the-diplomat-review-keri-russell\">\u003cem>The Diplomat\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, the way she moves from one room to another, the way she picks up and puts down various objects, even the way she squirms as someone puts makeup on her, all contribute to a vision of Kate as a superbly competent and capable person, which makes her spy-thriller adventures much easier to care about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13939092']46. The level of difficulty in Emma Stone’s performance in Yorgos Lanthimos’ \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938158/poor-things-movie-review-emma-stone-bella-baxter-mark-ruffalo-willem-dafoe\">\u003cem>Poor Things\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is extraordinary: she’s playing a woman who is, sort of, a child. But she rapidly grows emotionally and intellectually older, more and more independent and lustful. Stone makes it all seem like one performance, one character.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>47. I very much liked \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.bff6d26e-9aa3-47b3-9bbb-92acb9942cdb?autoplay=0&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb\">\u003cem>Deadloch\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, an Australian comedy-crime series that is both a small-time crime series in the tradition of \u003cem>Broadchurch \u003c/em>and a send-up of those very shows. I didn’t know the actors, I didn’t know much about the show until I watched it, and I was delighted to discover it. Most of those things are also true of runner-up Australian comedy \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/12/04/1197958569/colin-from-accounts-deserves-a-raise\">\u003cem>Colin From Accounts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which is also worth a watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>48. I was slow to get attached to \u003cem>Only Murders in the Building\u003c/em>, which focused this season on the production of a musical. But Steve Martin’s delivery of the patter song \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piv19tK4lH4&t=2s&ab_channel=Hulu\">“Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did it?”\u003c/a> was the best reason of all to get on board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piv19tK4lH4&t=2s&ab_channel=Hulu\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>49. Hopefully, I can be forgiven for sneaking some older stuff in here by talking about a project that was great for me this year: The Criterion Collection continues to be a wonderful source for classic movies, and I used its collection of some of the films from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/sight-sound-s-greatest-films-of-all-time\">Sight & Sound poll\u003c/a> as a way into movies including \u003cem>The Passion of Joan of Arc\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Black Orpheus\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Cleo from 5 to 7\u003c/em>, and the film that topped the list: \u003cem>Jean Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>50. This was the year I got (deeply) into \u003cem>The Flop House\u003c/em>, a podcast that’s been around since late 2007 (what? I was busy) and passed its 400th episode. Each week, hosts Dan McCoy, Stuart Wellington and Elliott Kalan talk about a movie that’s either a commercial or critical disappointment. There are guest hosts sometimes, there is a longstanding fixation on the more disposable work of Nicolas Cage (whom they rightly revere as an actor), and you can start right at the beginning of January with \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-flop-house/id263585537?i=1000594413409\">their consideration of \u003cem>Black Adam\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. From the not-so-wonderful, the wonderful can sometimes emerge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+year+in+review%3A+50+wonderful+things+from+2023&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>I’ve been making annual lists of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1221652903&live=1\">50 Wonderful Pop Culture Things\u003c/a> since 2010. They include things you’ve probably heard of and things you might not have, things that are meaningful and things that are hilarious, things that matter and things that don’t at all. In this year in which TV and film were both interrupted for months as a result of labor disputes, there was plenty to admire even as production ground to a halt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The usual caveats apply: These are not objectively the best things; they are just wonderful things. There were far more than 50 wonderful things to admire this year, and there is far (far) more that I never saw or read or heard at all. But it never hurts to look back on the year and realize that in fact, delight was upon you over and over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1. The best podcast I started listening to this year was\u003ca href=\"https://www.ifbookspod.com/\"> \u003cem>If Books Could Kill\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>hosted by Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri. The premise is that they dive into “airport books” from self-help to political posturing to investigate their claims. It’s very funny and deeply researched, and in a world where it’s easy to feel like you’re losing your grip, it’s a good reminder: your grip is fine. You’re just being handed a lot of slippery things. Start with their January episode \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897?i=1000596707945\">about John Gray’s \u003cem>Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. You never forget an episode that makes you cackle in your car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2. It’s hard to pick a single moment from the scorching fourth and final season of \u003cem>Succession. \u003c/em>But the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH55hmX0-Uo&ab_channel=HBO\">balcony fight between Shiv and Tom\u003c/a> that went on and on and got worse and worse, more and more painful, encapsulated exactly what has worked so well about the show. It was a years-long story reaching its inevitable nuclear meltdown, and Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen played it brilliantly. “I think you are incapable of love.” Yikes.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/KH55hmX0-Uo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/KH55hmX0-Uo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>3. Rarely has a show come back from a truly great first season and made a truly great second season. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13930853/the-bear-deftly-turns-the-corner-into-season-2\">\u003cem>The Bear\u003c/em>\u003c/a> managed to do it with the help of an exquisite cast, both regulars and guest stars. There are enough powerful performances on that show to make five more just like it. When pastry chef Marcus went off to Copenhagen and studied with Luca, played by Will Poulter, the fact that the focus was far away from Carmy did nothing to detract from the episode’s power and its thematic connections to the season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>4. The changes to Amy’s (Ali Wong) hair over the course of \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13927211/ali-wong-steven-yeun-serve-up-epic-feud-in-netflixs-beef\">Beef\u003c/a> —\u003c/em> long and straight, blond and bobbed and parted on the side, dark and bobbed with bangs — are really effective at underscoring her struggle with who she is and wants to be. Hair department head Nicole Venables was clearly working at the top of her game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939915\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1866px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939915\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM.png\" alt=\"The same attractive Asian woman is seen with her hair worn in a black bob with bangs, a white bob and long and flowing.\" width=\"1866\" height=\"1060\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM.png 1866w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM-800x454.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM-1020x579.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM-160x91.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM-768x436.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-29-at-8.10.47-AM-1536x873.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1866px) 100vw, 1866px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A look back at Amy’s hairstyles in ‘Beef.’ \u003ccite>(Andrew Cooper/ Netflix )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>5. Michael Schulman’s book \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/02/22/1158513159/oscar-wars-michael-schulman-academy-awards-controversies\">\u003cem>Oscar Wars\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is a great education in Hollywood history, but it’s also dishy as all get out. My highlight? A story about Joan Fontaine (supposedly!) telling people that she was considered for the role of Melanie in \u003cem>Gone With the Wind\u003c/em>, but was told she wasn’t plain enough, so she recommended her sister (and frenemy at best), Olivia de Havilland. That is so ice-cold, you could wrap it up and use it on your swollen ankle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>6. Greta Lee should be and likely will be in every awards conversation for her stellar work in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13930006/past-lives-is-a-gorgeous-meditation-on-love-chance-and-the-choices-we-make\">\u003cem>Past Lives\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. But even on Apple’s inconsistent \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/09/13/1198991146/the-morning-show-season-3-review\">\u003cem>The Morning Show\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> she’s always a standout as Stella, a young entertainment executive who faced some terrible choices in the show’s third season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>7. Had I been involved in the making of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931753/allan-doll-michael-cera-greta-gerwig-barbie-movie-review\">\u003cem>Barbie\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, I would have cared about nothing so much as exactly what song all the Kens should play when they, soaking in a bath of toxic masculinity, attempt to impress and win over the Barbies. Whatever I settled on would have been nowhere near as perfect as “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJLgKXp375I&ab_channel=AtlanticRecords\">Push\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/x8Y57NWv5m0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/x8Y57NWv5m0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>8. The bright romantic comedy \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/30/1166717149/rye-lane-review\">\u003cem>Rye Lane\u003c/em>\u003c/a> has a lot to recommend it. But perhaps nothing stuck with me as much as its stunning colors — deep golds and yellows, bright pinks and reds, rich greens and blues. From director Raine Allen-Miller, it would be a stunner even with the sound off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>9. Whatever your feelings about the franchise, there is nothing to fault in the sequence in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/1185129902/mission-impossible-is-back-but-will-you-accept-it-or-will-it-self-destruct\">\u003cem>Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One\u003c/em>\u003c/a> in which Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell are struggling to survive in a train that’s dangling off a cliff. A gas line, vats of oil, and a ratz-a-fratzin \u003cem>grand piano \u003c/em>all play into the gloriously silly, tooth-grindingly tense scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939901\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939901\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/shrinking_photo_010402_wide-42f66da259a6934d5edc408a57896cea18f00257-scaled-e1703838143772.jpg\" alt=\"A man in his seventies sits in a leather chair, his glasses propped on his forehead, looking concerned.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harrison Ford in ‘Shrinking.’ \u003ccite>(Apple TV+)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>10. Harrison Ford hasn’t made a lot of straight-up comedy in this stage of his career, so what a joy to see him in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/31/1152527309/shrinking-review-harrison-ford-jason-segel\">\u003cem>Shrinking\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, alongside Jason Segel and Jessica Williams. All three play therapists who work together, and Ford deploys his brutal deadpan to make completely ordinary dialogue feel like punchline after punchline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>11. About five minutes into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938143/may-december-movie-review-netflix-mary-kay-letourneau-julianne-moore\">\u003cem>May December\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, Julianne Moore, seen in profile, opens the refrigerator in her sunny kitchen. The foreboding piano of the score (by Marcelo Zarvos, adapting a 1971 score by Michel Legrand for the film \u003cem>The Go-Between\u003c/em>) suddenly sounds loudly, and she stares into the refrigerator, as if she’s seeing the Ark of the Covenant. The camera pushes in. And then she says, “I don’t think we have enough hot dogs.” Is this a comedy? A drama? A horror movie? In that early moment, it is, as it will remain, hard to say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939902\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1424px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939902\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2549_fp_00298-1920x802-e909bc9_wide-342797280c20ccc911b09410342a0d34778da180.jpg\" alt=\"A crazed bear, howls in the woods, its tongue sticking out.\" width=\"1424\" height=\"801\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2549_fp_00298-1920x802-e909bc9_wide-342797280c20ccc911b09410342a0d34778da180.jpg 1424w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2549_fp_00298-1920x802-e909bc9_wide-342797280c20ccc911b09410342a0d34778da180-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2549_fp_00298-1920x802-e909bc9_wide-342797280c20ccc911b09410342a0d34778da180-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2549_fp_00298-1920x802-e909bc9_wide-342797280c20ccc911b09410342a0d34778da180-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2549_fp_00298-1920x802-e909bc9_wide-342797280c20ccc911b09410342a0d34778da180-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1424px) 100vw, 1424px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The title ‘Cocaine Bear’ says it all, and the film delivers on that promise in 95 minutes. \u003ccite>(Universal Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>12. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13925388/cocaine-bear-is-here-to-strike-a-blow-to-staid-hollywood\">\u003cem>Cocaine Bear\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. The fact that they made it, the fact that they gave it that title, the fact that it’s so gory and gleeful and comfortable being what it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>13. There is a scene near the end of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938358/saltburn-review-emerald-fennell-shocking-scenes-jacob-elordi\">\u003cem>Saltburn\u003c/em>\u003c/a> in which an elaborate lunch table full of wealthy people trying desperately to act normal under bizarre circumstances is plunged into haunting red light by the closing of the curtains. Emerald Fennell, who wrote and directed, simply doesn’t do anything halfway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939897\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/gro-09769_r-1-_wide-e73d26bb40e8b60f639bffe967b22f0abb2b2ba5-scaled-e1703838474386.jpg\" alt=\"Three women stand and gaze upwards. They are wearing superhero uniforms.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L-R): Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau in ‘The Marvels.’ \u003ccite>(Laura Radford/ Marvel Studios)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>14. Iman Vellani’s performance as Kamala Khan in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/10/1197956743/the-marvels-is-a-light-comedy-about-light-powers\">\u003cem>The Marvels\u003c/em>\u003c/a> bubbles with energy, and a scene where she and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) keep switching places, disappearing and reappearing in her parents’ house, is a kinetic, rambunctious delight. If you were put off by the talk about \u003cem>The Marvels \u003c/em>falling flat at the box office, don’t let that keep you from checking it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>15. My favorite food host of the year is a three-way tie. Sohla El-Waylly and her husband Ham have been doing the series \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVLIdFk-8no&list=PLYG6O_GQCZwikXIXw5p0vFQBif-RxUpHy&ab_channel=NYTCooking\">“Mystery Menu”\u003c/a> for the NYT cooking channel for a while now, but if you haven’t seen it — their experimentation with durian, for instance — check it out immediately. \u003cem>Also\u003c/em>: an equally good way to approach the NYT cooking channel is to watch absolutely anything \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyv6lO1SBS0&list=PLYG6O_GQCZwgKmY38LuycalANW67g_yYV&ab_channel=NYTCooking\">featuring Eric Kim\u003c/a>, who is enchanting. \u003cem>Also also\u003c/em>: Anything on the Epicurious channel with chef Saul Montiel will brighten your day. \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjyyDCPXy7k&list=PLz3-p2q6vFYWi_e0AWEkj2h22l0u1bqER&index=29&ab_channel=Epicurious\">Here he is making calzones.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939903\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1798px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939903\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2.jpg\" alt=\"A tall young man and a shorter, older man with a mustache stand side by side in a snowy field. \" width=\"1798\" height=\"1078\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2.jpg 1798w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2-1020x612.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2-768x460.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/holdovers_fp_00406_r_custom-6ade333ddba964cced852124fceb3e7c742a81a2-1536x921.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1798px) 100vw, 1798px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dominic Sessa, left, and Paul Giamatti in ‘The Holdovers.’ \u003ccite>(Focus Features)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>16. All of the performances in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13937046/alexander-payne-keeps-real-emotion-at-bay-in-the-coyly-comic-holdovers\">\u003cem>The Holdovers\u003c/em>\u003c/a> are top-notch, but it was especially promising to discover Dominic Sessa, a young actor on the screen for the first time. Playing Angus Tully, a high school kid who’s both smart and foolish (as so many are), he offers exquisite touches of both swagger and insecurity, enough to keep up with towering performances from Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. All three leads deserve many award nominations; he may be the one who loses out. But bet on him in the future. He’ll be back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>17. The tense final moments of the suspense thriller \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935443/fair-play-review-netflix-gender-phoebe-dynevor#:~:text=Fair%20Play%20is%20visually%20moody,gray%20of%20their%20austere%20office.\">\u003cem>Fair Play\u003c/em>\u003c/a> had me unsure what I even \u003cem>wanted\u003c/em> to happen, and what actually happened was better than what I would have come up with anyway. That is exactly the ending you want from a psychologically complex story like this one, about a couple torn asunder by a promotion at work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939904\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939904\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/platonic_photo_010403_wide-a74509800a306a1af17583f3735bdaa794cf2065-scaled-e1703838852943.jpg\" alt=\"A 30-something man sits confidently at an office desk, smiling at someone somewhat awkwardly.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1079\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luke Macfarlane in ‘Platonic.’ \u003ccite>(Apple TV+)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>18. Luke MacFarlane is a veteran of holiday love stories (it’s probably adequate to note he was in films called both \u003cem>Sense & Sensibility & Snowmen \u003c/em>and \u003cem>A Shoe Addict’s Christmas\u003c/em>), and he made a splash with Billy Eichner in \u003cem>Bros\u003c/em> in 2022. This year, he was very funny in \u003ca href=\"https://tv.apple.com/us/show/platonic/umc.cmc.y7bc18x7co813l8i2tlsyb4l\">\u003cem>Platonic\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, playing the loving husband of a woman (Rose Byrne) whose friendship with an old pal (Seth Rogen) takes off anew. The part could be a real nothing; he makes it sing. (\u003cem>Platonic \u003c/em>runner-up: the scene, featuring Guy Branum, in which he throws electric scooters like a track star throws a discus is a sport. As it should be.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>19. There was nothing like the go-for-broke madness of Peacock’s\u003ca href=\"#1170610821\"> \u003cem>Mrs. Davis\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>an action-adventure comedic thriller about a nun who’s trying to resist the intrusions of an all-knowing AI who is suddenly in everyone’s ear. (Said AI is called Mrs. Davis, you see.) Betty Gilpin played Simone, the nun, with such control and flexibility that the wild plot developments around her didn’t distract from the character work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939905\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 776px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939905\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/nup_197587_00171_wide-5aaca6d0f9b84408cb67b0d3276fcda1a9256137.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with long shaggy blond hair stares worried into a phone screen. \" width=\"776\" height=\"436\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/nup_197587_00171_wide-5aaca6d0f9b84408cb67b0d3276fcda1a9256137.jpg 776w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/nup_197587_00171_wide-5aaca6d0f9b84408cb67b0d3276fcda1a9256137-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/nup_197587_00171_wide-5aaca6d0f9b84408cb67b0d3276fcda1a9256137-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Natasha Lyonne in ‘Poker Face.’ \u003ccite>(Phillip Caruso/ Peacock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>20. Rian Johnson created the episodic mystery show \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13924192/no-lie-natasha-lyonne-is-unforgettable-in-poker-face\">\u003cem>Poker Face\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, in which Natasha Lyonne played Charlie, a woman on the run who encounters a new mystery in every new town. Yes, the writing sparkled, and yes, the roster of guest stars — Judith Light! Lil Rel Howery! Hong Chau! Adrien Brody! — was top-tier. But at the center was Lyonne. From the minute she emerges from a trailer into the hot Nevada sun, sinks into a lawn chair, and grabs herself a beer and a smoke, the character already feels like an icon, and the show like a classic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>21. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/15/1149054904/the-traitors-review-alan-cumming\">\u003cem>The Traitors\u003c/em> \u003c/a>is a fun reality competition show. But what set it apart was host Alan Cumming, whose pronunciation of “murrrrrder” and succession of impossibly debonair suits made him host of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>22. I had a spectacular time — spectacular! — watching the Philadelphia Phillies this fall. How do you not love Bryce Harper \u003ca href=\"https://www.mlb.com/video/harper-sprints-first-to-home\">running through a sign\u003c/a> from the third-base coach, scoring, and popping up on his toe?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939907\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939907\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/71nzsmfyhwl._sl1500__custom-1bdc6680756a679edab8654b3a8629a5f434f87d.jpg\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a cat in a suit.\" width=\"200\" height=\"308\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/71nzsmfyhwl._sl1500__custom-1bdc6680756a679edab8654b3a8629a5f434f87d.jpg 200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/71nzsmfyhwl._sl1500__custom-1bdc6680756a679edab8654b3a8629a5f434f87d-160x246.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Starter Villain.’ \u003ccite>(Tor Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>23. I dare you not to giggle at least once as the weird world of John Scalzi’s novel, \u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#year=2023&book=232\">\u003cem>Starter Villain\u003c/em>\u003c/a> unwinds in front of you. Is there a labor dispute? Yes. Does it involve dolphins? Yes. Is there a volcano, and are there supervillains? Yes and yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>24. Sometimes it’s fun to just have something scare your socks off, and that’s what happened with \u003ca href=\"https://www.hulu.com/movie/9e96f51e-6806-4306-9773-e96b68d25305\">\u003cem>No One Will Save You\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, an eerie, almost dialogue-free “locked in the house and something terrible is happening” story starring Kaitlyn Dever. She hears a noise. She hides under the bed. She sees a pair of very upsetting feet go by. From there, she’s on her own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>25. Podcasts diving extra-deep into a particular film or show are of wildly differing quality. But\u003ca href=\"https://50mphpodcast.com/\"> \u003cem>50MPH\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> a planned 50-part (!!) series about the making of \u003cem>Speed\u003c/em>, has offered choice moments for the movie’s fans. Try \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/50-mph/id1691020723?i=1000625961446\">episode 12\u003c/a>, about the script development, which includes a detour into the involvement of one Joss Whedon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>26. Emma Cline’s novel \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/05/25/1178300477/in-the-guest-a-sex-worker-wreaks-havoc-on-the-glitzy-social-scene-at-the-hampton\">\u003cem>The Guest\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is about a woman whose boyfriend kicks her out and leaves her adrift in the Hamptons to survive with nothing. She imposes upon one person, then another, and Cline builds a sense of dread amid all the wealth: “No one on the shore noticed her, or looked twice. A couple walked past, heads bent, studying the sand for shells … Surely, if Alex had been in any real danger, someone would have reacted, one of these people would have stepped in to help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939908\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939908\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ap091207034728_wide-a1a2587a9eee11ca90b5d981b831f43c13702513-e1703839359528.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a grey suit and red bowtie gestures wildly, mouth agape.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul Reubens, better known as Pee-wee Herman, died in July at age 70. \u003ccite>(Danny Moloshok/ AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>27. Paul Reubens, who created the character Pee-wee Herman, died on July 30, and was warmly and appropriately appreciated. What a delightful surprise, then, to see him in a cameo appearance in the affable comedy\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/08/1197956693/sandra-oh-and-awkwafina-are-perfect-opposites-in-quiz-lady\"> \u003cem>Quiz Lady\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>playing himself as the baffled target of a fan’s affections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>28. I had trouble following the plot of the drama series \u003ca href=\"https://www.max.com/shows/full-circle/8996a19c-8e8b-4d8b-8f1a-fa146751d544\">\u003cem>Full Circle\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> which starred Claire Danes and Timothy Olyphant as a couple that learns their son has been kidnapped, which is only the very beginning of their problems. I did, however, greatly appreciate Vulture’s Kathryn VanArendonk \u003ca href=\"https://www.vulture.com/article/dennis-quaid-full-circle-braid-explained.html\">making a thorough investigation\u003c/a> of why on earth Dennis Quaid ended up wearing a braid. It involves a last-minute dash to a wig shop. It’s quite a tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>29. Yes, Maureen Ryan is one of my very good friends and colleagues in the writing-about-television industry. But plenty of people agreed that as hard as it was to read, her book \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/03/1180008736/beloved-tv-show-lost-wasnt-immune-to-industrys-pervasive-toxic-culture\">\u003cem>Burn It Down\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, about abuse in Hollywood and the systems that enable it, was a tremendous example of dogged journalism that does what it sets out to do. Pleasant to read? No. Wonderful to know that this kind of work is still being done, and done so well? Yes.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/kes2P4IC2bQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/kes2P4IC2bQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>30. The Tiny Desk at NPR has been growing and growing in the breadth of its offerings, the devotion of its audience, and the vibrancy of its innovation. This year, nothing landed quite like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kes2P4IC2bQ&t=3s&ab_channel=NPRMusic\">appearance by Juvenile\u003c/a>, which is irresistible even to people who don’t necessarily think they’re “Back That Azz Up” people. Trombone Shorty was there! Jon Batiste flew in from London! What a wondrous thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>31. Jimmy Tatro appeared in the comedy \u003ca href=\"https://www.hulu.com/watch/2e9ba993-a6a8-46e6-b2ac-6705badd7503\">\u003cem>Theater Camp\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, playing a character not dissimilar to the doofus jock he played in \u003cem>American Vandal\u003c/em>. Not to pigeonhole Tatro, but some actors have an eerily perfect touch with a particular kind of role, and Tatro is perhaps our foremost lovably lunkheaded bro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>32. Sam Sanders juggled two podcasts for much of the year: \u003ca href=\"https://www.vulture.com/into-it/\">\u003cem>Into It \u003c/em>\u003c/a>at Vulture and \u003ca href=\"https://www.stitcherstudios.com/shows/vibe-check\">\u003cem>Vibe Check\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>which he does with his friends Saeed Jones and Zach Stafford. Disappointingly, \u003cem>Into It \u003c/em>was a victim of cutbacks, but \u003cem>Vibe Check \u003c/em>continues, and it provided \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/life-has-been-lifing-lately/id1637476174?i=1000620850273\">one of the most moving episodes of the year\u003c/a> in a discussion of grief following the death of Sam’s mother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>33. There is a long history of shows making baffling choices when forced to replace a beloved host. When Padma Lakshmi decided to step away from \u003cem>Top Chef\u003c/em>, a lot of us thought, “They should pick somebody like [\u003cem>Top Chef \u003c/em>champion] Kristen Kish, but they won’t.” And then they did! Welcome the Kish era!\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939909\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939909\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man and a white man sit side-by-side in a jury box.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1078\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83-800x449.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83-768x431.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/ishmel-sahid-l-and-james-marsden_custom-90be34d67efc99b6446f46e8d096d995dd66cf83-1536x862.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ishmel Sahid, left, and James Marsden play alternate jurors in the series ‘Jury Duty.’ \u003ccite>(Amazon Freevee)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>34. \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Jury-Duty-Season-1/dp/B0B8JM2BBS\">\u003cem>Jury Duty\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is the Amazon Freevee series in which a man named Ronald is called for jury duty, and he doesn’t know that everyone else from the judge to the other jurors to the lawyers and parties, is an actor. At the end, all is revealed to him — that he’s been sitting on a fake jury of a fake trial — and it could have been so, so painful to watch. But Ronald has a good sense of humor, and he chooses not to feel let down, even by his new pal, James Marsden (who plays himself in the fake scenario). They lucked out with Ronald, for sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>35. There were some impressive videos of striking actors advocating for themselves and their colleagues as their strike (and the WGA strike) wore on. One of the best \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/LisaCullen/status/1656337549495762951?s=20\">came from Mandy Patinkin\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>36. John Mulaney’s Netflix special\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13928322/baby-j-john-mulaney-stand-up-review-netflix\">\u003cem> Baby J\u003c/em>\u003c/a> was deeply uncomfortable to watch, as he recounted his experiences with addiction, intervention and rehab. But the story of having an intervention with a room full of comedians sparkled. “Do you know what it’s like to have 12 people save your life?” he asks in a discussion of his indebtedness. “It’s too many people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37. Last year in this space, I saluted Karina Longworth’s excellent podcast series \u003cem>You Must Remember This\u003c/em>, and its miniseries \u003cem>Erotic ’80s\u003c/em>. What happened this year? \u003cem>Erotic ’90s\u003c/em>, of course, and it was perhaps even better. Try the \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/you-must-remember-this/id858124601?i=1000607274568\">Julia Roberts episode\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939911\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939911\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rev-1-tcp-05246_high_res_jpeg_wide-5c0544d47d9f6bbc91455c849ba94e8d7f075681-scaled-e1703839832634.jpe\" alt=\"One Black woman leans on the shoulder of another, outdoors in the sun.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Danielle Brooks and Fantasia Barrino in ‘The Color Purple.’ \u003ccite>(Eli Adé/ Warner Bros. Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>38. Danielle Brooks gives only one of several excellent performances in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13939793/the-color-purple-successfully-squeezes-popular-entertainment-out-of-art\">\u003cem>The Color Purple\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. (What a joy to see Fantasia Barrino thriving, having watched her on \u003cem>American Idol \u003c/em>so many years ago.) But Brooks’ work is emotional and haunting and also tremendously funny — she plays Sofia, played in the Spielberg movie by Oprah Winfrey — and she never misses a step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>39. I don’t spend as much time dunking on terrible things as I used to, but there’s a particular pleasure to be found in an evisceration of something you very much disliked. Thus, please enjoy \u003ca href=\"https://buttnews.substack.com/p/fat-suit-fart-attack-the-whale\">Lindy West’s piece\u003c/a> on \u003cem>The Whale\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>40. In \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13936363/anatomy-of-a-fall-movie-review-sandra-huller-palme-dor-france\">\u003cem>Anatomy of a Fall\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, Sandra Hüller plays a woman who might — or might not — have done something terrible. In effect, to sustain the uncertainty, she has to play two women simultaneously: one who is covering up guilt, and one who is being unfairly accused. It’s a remarkable trick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>41. It has sometimes been hard to remember, as Twitter becomes unusable for me, that it could be a genuine source of friendly small talk. As a salute to that particular piece of its history, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lindaholmes/status/1633277824906797058\">enjoy this thread\u003c/a> in which a thousand people answered the call for pictures of their pets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939912\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939912\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/american-fiction-f_03320_r_rgb_custom-9c4efdd6045ee9b2208c20de69d920421838c08b-scaled-e1703840068351.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman and man walk down a grassy path, surrounded on both sides by tall shrubs and plants. They are smiling.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1279\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Erika Alexander and Jeffrey Wright in ‘American Fiction.’ \u003ccite>(Claire Folger/ Orion Releasing LLC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>42. Jeffrey Wright’s performance in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938160/american-fiction-based-on-erasure-jeffrey-wright-cord-jefferson-ross\">\u003cem>American Fiction\u003c/em>\u003c/a> as an intellectual convinced that he’s at the mercy of a foolish literary establishment (which is … probably right) is part of the movie’s appeal. But maybe even better is the part of the performance that focuses on the character’s complex, fractured relationships with his family. Wright is one of our very best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>43. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931577/in-oppenheimer-christopher-nolan-builds-a-thrilling-serious-blockbuster-for-adults\">\u003cem>Oppenheimer\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is a category of movie we’ve seen before, in that it’s an examination of a very famous man with a complicated legacy. But director Christopher Nolan is a master of capturing the unthinkably enormous, so it’s unsurprising that his approach to presenting the detonation of a nuclear bomb is inventive and meticulously done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>44. The crime thriller \u003cem>Sharper \u003c/em>sort of came and went (\u003ca href=\"https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/sharper/umc.cmc.5ud0ivpwgqw2st0u4z73gwpar\">you can find it on Apple TV+\u003c/a>); it stars Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan and Justice Smith as three of the people tied up in a complicated (really complicated) plot that involves con artists, guns, money and a lot of beautiful people. There’s a kind of pleasure in twisty thrillers that you can’t quite get anywhere else, and the closing chapter of this one delivered it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939913\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939913\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/the_diplomat_s1_e4_-native-_00_38_18_16r_wide-4e9514c2c795b64e9326a8f746d70853f47cd2b6-scaled-e1703840309929.jpg\" alt=\"An attractive middle-aged woman holds a telephone to her ear. She looks concerned.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Keri Russell in ‘The Diplomat.’ \u003ccite>(Netflix)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>45. After \u003cem>The Americans \u003c/em>and \u003cem>Felicity \u003c/em>(and, sure, \u003cem>Cocaine Bear\u003c/em>), nobody needs to prove the versatility of Keri Russell. But playing a new ambassador named Kate in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/04/19/1170685432/the-diplomat-review-keri-russell\">\u003cem>The Diplomat\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, the way she moves from one room to another, the way she picks up and puts down various objects, even the way she squirms as someone puts makeup on her, all contribute to a vision of Kate as a superbly competent and capable person, which makes her spy-thriller adventures much easier to care about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>46. The level of difficulty in Emma Stone’s performance in Yorgos Lanthimos’ \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938158/poor-things-movie-review-emma-stone-bella-baxter-mark-ruffalo-willem-dafoe\">\u003cem>Poor Things\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is extraordinary: she’s playing a woman who is, sort of, a child. But she rapidly grows emotionally and intellectually older, more and more independent and lustful. Stone makes it all seem like one performance, one character.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>47. I very much liked \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.bff6d26e-9aa3-47b3-9bbb-92acb9942cdb?autoplay=0&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb\">\u003cem>Deadloch\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, an Australian comedy-crime series that is both a small-time crime series in the tradition of \u003cem>Broadchurch \u003c/em>and a send-up of those very shows. I didn’t know the actors, I didn’t know much about the show until I watched it, and I was delighted to discover it. Most of those things are also true of runner-up Australian comedy \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/12/04/1197958569/colin-from-accounts-deserves-a-raise\">\u003cem>Colin From Accounts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which is also worth a watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>48. I was slow to get attached to \u003cem>Only Murders in the Building\u003c/em>, which focused this season on the production of a musical. But Steve Martin’s delivery of the patter song \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piv19tK4lH4&t=2s&ab_channel=Hulu\">“Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did it?”\u003c/a> was the best reason of all to get on board.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Piv19tK4lH4'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Piv19tK4lH4'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>49. Hopefully, I can be forgiven for sneaking some older stuff in here by talking about a project that was great for me this year: The Criterion Collection continues to be a wonderful source for classic movies, and I used its collection of some of the films from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/sight-sound-s-greatest-films-of-all-time\">Sight & Sound poll\u003c/a> as a way into movies including \u003cem>The Passion of Joan of Arc\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Black Orpheus\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Cleo from 5 to 7\u003c/em>, and the film that topped the list: \u003cem>Jean Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>50. This was the year I got (deeply) into \u003cem>The Flop House\u003c/em>, a podcast that’s been around since late 2007 (what? I was busy) and passed its 400th episode. Each week, hosts Dan McCoy, Stuart Wellington and Elliott Kalan talk about a movie that’s either a commercial or critical disappointment. There are guest hosts sometimes, there is a longstanding fixation on the more disposable work of Nicolas Cage (whom they rightly revere as an actor), and you can start right at the beginning of January with \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-flop-house/id263585537?i=1000594413409\">their consideration of \u003cem>Black Adam\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. From the not-so-wonderful, the wonderful can sometimes emerge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+year+in+review%3A+50+wonderful+things+from+2023&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>I was strolling up a busy street in Austin, Texas recently, deep in thought about the changes there in the last few years. The city is gentrifying, dealing with a population boom and very much in flux. Still, the liberals, artists and weirdos hang on tight to the fringes. Austin and San Francisco, I thought, are starting to look more and more alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was until a Planned Parenthood volunteer appeared on the horizon, clipboard in hand, and I realized that, for the very first time, I was casually wandering around a place where abortion is illegal. The thought was jarring: How could two places that seemed so similar have such wildly different healthcare policies?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13915289']For most of us living in California — especially in the Bay Area — worrying about abortion access is still largely theoretical. For most of us, abortion certainly isn’t a daily preoccupation. But in the 26 states where abortion is now either banned or extremely restricted, no such oblivion exists — not for the tens of millions of women, transgender and nonbinary folks affected by the Dobbs decision, and not for the thousands of healthcare providers shackled by the ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, two Bay Area doctors want to take us inside the daily realities of physicians around the country who are almost entirely immersed in post-Dobbs chaos. Dr. Emily Silverman — a doctor at SF General and an assistant professor of medicine at UCSF — and abortion provider Dr. Ali Block are dedicating Season 6 of their podcast \u003ca href=\"https://thenocturnists.com/post-roe-america-series\">\u003cem>The Nocturnists\u003c/em>\u003c/a> exclusively to the issue of abortion access in America. (The series usually tells a range of stories from the world of medicine.) Together, they visit the places where Dobbs has crushed choice, as well as those where abortion is still legal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As physicians, Silverman and Block’s ability to convey the stresses on abortion providers is key to this seven-part series. On one side, the doctors in states with bans want only to do their jobs without risk of arrest and prison time. (“Oh my god,” one physician recalls thinking as a patient bled out from an unviable pregnancy. “I’m committing a felony \u003cem>and\u003c/em> she’s going to die.”) On the other side, the doctors in states where abortion is still legal are often working around the clock, knowing full well they’ll never be able to see all of the patients who need their assistance now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Nocturnists\u003c/em> is careful to also give props to the nurses and other medical staff trying to navigate the havoc left in Dobbs’ wake. Episode 3 takes us to \u003ca href=\"https://trustwomen.org/clinics/wichita/home\">Trust Women\u003c/a>, an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas, where Block sometimes works. There, two front desk employees are tasked with trying to field about 16,000 calls per day — two-thirds of which are from people in Texas trying to access abortion care as close to home as possible. The clinic typically sees between 30 and 60 patients a day — all of whom must pass an angry wall of protesters outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is also these on-the-ground health workers’ stories that best impart the physical and emotional impacts of abortion bans and restrictions on the pregnant individuals that pass through their doors every day. Though always told in tones that are measured and resigned, the scenarios that many of them present are nothing short of heart-wrenching. Some veer headlong into the horrific.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13923560']\u003cem>The Nocturnists:\u003c/em> \u003ci>Post-Roe America \u003c/i>is bleak but essential listening, then — especially for those of us who live in states where abortion is still legal. The podcast tears apart the notion that abortion access is guaranteed anywhere, noting that a federal ban is likely on the way. By the end of the series, you’ll feel compelled to act, to donate to the cause and to view reproductive healthcare professionals for what they really are — heroes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Weekly\u003c/em> \u003cem>episodes of\u003c/em> ‘\u003ca href=\"https://thenocturnists.com/post-roe-america-episodes/2023/09/21/ep1-the-day-roe-fell\">\u003cem>The Nocturnists: \u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://thenocturnists.com/post-roe-america-episodes/2023/09/21/ep1-the-day-roe-fell\">Post-Roe America\u003c/a>’ begin on Sept. 21, 2023. \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>I was strolling up a busy street in Austin, Texas recently, deep in thought about the changes there in the last few years. The city is gentrifying, dealing with a population boom and very much in flux. Still, the liberals, artists and weirdos hang on tight to the fringes. Austin and San Francisco, I thought, are starting to look more and more alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was until a Planned Parenthood volunteer appeared on the horizon, clipboard in hand, and I realized that, for the very first time, I was casually wandering around a place where abortion is illegal. The thought was jarring: How could two places that seemed so similar have such wildly different healthcare policies?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For most of us living in California — especially in the Bay Area — worrying about abortion access is still largely theoretical. For most of us, abortion certainly isn’t a daily preoccupation. But in the 26 states where abortion is now either banned or extremely restricted, no such oblivion exists — not for the tens of millions of women, transgender and nonbinary folks affected by the Dobbs decision, and not for the thousands of healthcare providers shackled by the ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, two Bay Area doctors want to take us inside the daily realities of physicians around the country who are almost entirely immersed in post-Dobbs chaos. Dr. Emily Silverman — a doctor at SF General and an assistant professor of medicine at UCSF — and abortion provider Dr. Ali Block are dedicating Season 6 of their podcast \u003ca href=\"https://thenocturnists.com/post-roe-america-series\">\u003cem>The Nocturnists\u003c/em>\u003c/a> exclusively to the issue of abortion access in America. (The series usually tells a range of stories from the world of medicine.) Together, they visit the places where Dobbs has crushed choice, as well as those where abortion is still legal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As physicians, Silverman and Block’s ability to convey the stresses on abortion providers is key to this seven-part series. On one side, the doctors in states with bans want only to do their jobs without risk of arrest and prison time. (“Oh my god,” one physician recalls thinking as a patient bled out from an unviable pregnancy. “I’m committing a felony \u003cem>and\u003c/em> she’s going to die.”) On the other side, the doctors in states where abortion is still legal are often working around the clock, knowing full well they’ll never be able to see all of the patients who need their assistance now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Nocturnists\u003c/em> is careful to also give props to the nurses and other medical staff trying to navigate the havoc left in Dobbs’ wake. Episode 3 takes us to \u003ca href=\"https://trustwomen.org/clinics/wichita/home\">Trust Women\u003c/a>, an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas, where Block sometimes works. There, two front desk employees are tasked with trying to field about 16,000 calls per day — two-thirds of which are from people in Texas trying to access abortion care as close to home as possible. The clinic typically sees between 30 and 60 patients a day — all of whom must pass an angry wall of protesters outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is also these on-the-ground health workers’ stories that best impart the physical and emotional impacts of abortion bans and restrictions on the pregnant individuals that pass through their doors every day. Though always told in tones that are measured and resigned, the scenarios that many of them present are nothing short of heart-wrenching. Some veer headlong into the horrific.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cem>The Nocturnists:\u003c/em> \u003ci>Post-Roe America \u003c/i>is bleak but essential listening, then — especially for those of us who live in states where abortion is still legal. The podcast tears apart the notion that abortion access is guaranteed anywhere, noting that a federal ban is likely on the way. By the end of the series, you’ll feel compelled to act, to donate to the cause and to view reproductive healthcare professionals for what they really are — heroes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Weekly\u003c/em> \u003cem>episodes of\u003c/em> ‘\u003ca href=\"https://thenocturnists.com/post-roe-america-episodes/2023/09/21/ep1-the-day-roe-fell\">\u003cem>The Nocturnists: \u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://thenocturnists.com/post-roe-america-episodes/2023/09/21/ep1-the-day-roe-fell\">Post-Roe America\u003c/a>’ begin on Sept. 21, 2023. \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "New Podcast Charts One Man's Journey From Chinatown Gangs to Hollywood",
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"content": "\u003cp>In 2015, journalist and video editor \u003ca href=\"https://www.mayasugarman.com/\">Maya Lin Sugarman\u003c/a> lost her uncle \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0950724/?ref_=tt_ov_wr\">Galen Yuen\u003c/a> to a blood infection. To Lin Sugarman, Yuen had been a lovable goofball — a man fond of donuts, offbeat restaurants and \u003cem>Big Brother\u003c/em> marathons. It was only when her beloved “popo” (Cantonese for maternal grandmother) died five years later that Lin Sugarman discovered a box of her uncle’s writing that revealed a different picture — a nefarious past she didn’t know he’d had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13914487']Lin Sugarman’s journey to uncover Yuen’s true story is now a podcast titled \u003cem>Magnificent Jerk. \u003c/em>Across seven engrossing episodes, we find out that Yuen had been a member of notorious Chinese-American gangs in the Chinatowns of both San Francisco and Oakland. He had acted as a pimp, served time in prison and survived serious drug addiction. Yuen started innumerable street brawls, attempted to extort a family, and was not averse to brandishing guns to make a point. And, in a remarkable twist, when he finally left his criminal past behind, he used his street knowledge to start a career in Hollywood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yuen’s experience in Hollywood, as told by Lin Sugarman in the Apple Original podcast, is a startling reflection of the racism that was rife in the entertainment industry in the 1990s. Yuen’s biggest project, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_c-xagWUGk\">\u003cem>Crazy Six\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, started as a script he wrote about Asian American gangs and a drug deal set in Oakland. (The “Crazy Six” of the title was named after a Chinese American gangster Yuen knew.) By the time Hollywood was done with the project, it was a movie set in Eastern Europe starring Rob Lowe, Burt Reynolds, Ice-T and exactly zero Asian American actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lin Sugarman’s deep frustration about the fate of her uncle’s movie here is plain to hear. Still, she jumps at the chance to watch it on a big screen when the opportunity presents itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933209\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933209\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"A young, slender Chinese American man with chin length hair stands in a living room wearing a black and white floral shirt, his hands in his pockets.\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000-1020x1021.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000.jpg 1815w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Galen Yuen in the 1970s, the same era he was involved with the Suey Sing gang. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Yuen family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After the whitewashing of \u003cem>Crazy Six\u003c/em>, Yuen decided to use the gumption and tenacity that once made him an effective gangster to help other Asian Americans in the movie industry. He set up an agency called Asian Talent Force and attempted to negotiate better roles and more money for his clients. Still, Yuen’s own acting career consisted largely of bit parts and small, often stereotypical roles in movies like \u003cem>Kindergarten Cop\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Cyborg 2\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Crank: High Voltage\u003c/em>. Yuen was offered very few opportunities to write. One exception was \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120021/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_2_wr\">\u003cem>Riot\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a four-part TV movie about the unrest in LA that followed the Rodney King verdict in 1992. Yuen was hired to write the Asian American perspective. The fact that he was not of Korean descent — as most of the Asians caught up in the riots were — did not matter to the producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yuen’s story is peppered with grief, misadventure, ambition and, by the end of his life, attempts at redemption. Lin Sugarman explores her uncle’s history with a keen curiosity that occasionally lapses into anxiety and trepidation. Still, she doggedly pursues Yuen’s truth even as she worries her family will harbor resentments towards her for doing so. (Some of the most engrossing conversations in the podcast happen between Lin Sugarman and her worried aunties.) As she explore’s Yuen’s past, Lin Sugarman must also contend with the fading memories of those who knew her uncle, as well as the fears of gang violence victims too scared to speak on the record, even 50 years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Magnificent Jerk\u003c/em> would have benefited from more detail about the history of gangs in San Francisco and Oakland’s Chinatown districts. We are offered only cursory information about the Suey Sing crew that her uncle was a part of, and few mentions of the other gangs that were also active at the time. We get some sense of the gang members’ motivations — anti-Asian discrimination certainly played a part — but extra background about the whens, hows and whys of the Chinatowns’ criminal underworld would have given the podcast sturdier ground to stand on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13923980']The beating heart at the center of each episode of \u003cem>Magnificent Jerk\u003c/em> is Lin Sugarman. The rollercoaster of emotions she experiences as she finds things out about her uncle that she would rather not lends an engaging intimacy to the proceedings. And though Lin Sugarman ultimately uncovers many of her uncle’s darkest secrets, one gets the impression that Yuen would probably enjoy the final impression of him left by \u003cem>Magnificent Jerk.\u003c/em> It is, after all, the first chance Galen Yuen — a complex, multifaceted, talented person — has had to exist in public without the stereotyping that dogged him in life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Magnificent Jerk,’ an Apple Original podcast, premieres on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Lin Sugarman’s journey to uncover Yuen’s true story is now a podcast titled \u003cem>Magnificent Jerk. \u003c/em>Across seven engrossing episodes, we find out that Yuen had been a member of notorious Chinese-American gangs in the Chinatowns of both San Francisco and Oakland. He had acted as a pimp, served time in prison and survived serious drug addiction. Yuen started innumerable street brawls, attempted to extort a family, and was not averse to brandishing guns to make a point. And, in a remarkable twist, when he finally left his criminal past behind, he used his street knowledge to start a career in Hollywood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yuen’s experience in Hollywood, as told by Lin Sugarman in the Apple Original podcast, is a startling reflection of the racism that was rife in the entertainment industry in the 1990s. Yuen’s biggest project, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_c-xagWUGk\">\u003cem>Crazy Six\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, started as a script he wrote about Asian American gangs and a drug deal set in Oakland. (The “Crazy Six” of the title was named after a Chinese American gangster Yuen knew.) By the time Hollywood was done with the project, it was a movie set in Eastern Europe starring Rob Lowe, Burt Reynolds, Ice-T and exactly zero Asian American actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lin Sugarman’s deep frustration about the fate of her uncle’s movie here is plain to hear. Still, she jumps at the chance to watch it on a big screen when the opportunity presents itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933209\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933209\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"A young, slender Chinese American man with chin length hair stands in a living room wearing a black and white floral shirt, his hands in his pockets.\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000-1020x1021.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Galen-03751000.jpg 1815w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Galen Yuen in the 1970s, the same era he was involved with the Suey Sing gang. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Yuen family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After the whitewashing of \u003cem>Crazy Six\u003c/em>, Yuen decided to use the gumption and tenacity that once made him an effective gangster to help other Asian Americans in the movie industry. He set up an agency called Asian Talent Force and attempted to negotiate better roles and more money for his clients. Still, Yuen’s own acting career consisted largely of bit parts and small, often stereotypical roles in movies like \u003cem>Kindergarten Cop\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Cyborg 2\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Crank: High Voltage\u003c/em>. Yuen was offered very few opportunities to write. One exception was \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120021/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_2_wr\">\u003cem>Riot\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a four-part TV movie about the unrest in LA that followed the Rodney King verdict in 1992. Yuen was hired to write the Asian American perspective. The fact that he was not of Korean descent — as most of the Asians caught up in the riots were — did not matter to the producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yuen’s story is peppered with grief, misadventure, ambition and, by the end of his life, attempts at redemption. Lin Sugarman explores her uncle’s history with a keen curiosity that occasionally lapses into anxiety and trepidation. Still, she doggedly pursues Yuen’s truth even as she worries her family will harbor resentments towards her for doing so. (Some of the most engrossing conversations in the podcast happen between Lin Sugarman and her worried aunties.) As she explore’s Yuen’s past, Lin Sugarman must also contend with the fading memories of those who knew her uncle, as well as the fears of gang violence victims too scared to speak on the record, even 50 years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Magnificent Jerk\u003c/em> would have benefited from more detail about the history of gangs in San Francisco and Oakland’s Chinatown districts. We are offered only cursory information about the Suey Sing crew that her uncle was a part of, and few mentions of the other gangs that were also active at the time. We get some sense of the gang members’ motivations — anti-Asian discrimination certainly played a part — but extra background about the whens, hows and whys of the Chinatowns’ criminal underworld would have given the podcast sturdier ground to stand on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The beating heart at the center of each episode of \u003cem>Magnificent Jerk\u003c/em> is Lin Sugarman. The rollercoaster of emotions she experiences as she finds things out about her uncle that she would rather not lends an engaging intimacy to the proceedings. And though Lin Sugarman ultimately uncovers many of her uncle’s darkest secrets, one gets the impression that Yuen would probably enjoy the final impression of him left by \u003cem>Magnificent Jerk.\u003c/em> It is, after all, the first chance Galen Yuen — a complex, multifaceted, talented person — has had to exist in public without the stereotyping that dogged him in life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Magnificent Jerk,’ an Apple Original podcast, premieres on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"radiolab": {
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"reveal": {
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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"snap-judgment": {
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"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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