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'Artists, Weirdos, Hellriders And Homies:' Thrasher Magazine Turns 40
Courtesy of Thrasher Magaine

Arts & Life

'Artists, Weirdos, Hellriders And Homies:' Thrasher Magazine Turns 40

Thrasher magazine was founded 40 years ago in San Francisco to cover skateboarding. Over the next four decades, the black-and-white newsprint magazine grew into a full color cultural arbiter.

'Artists, Weirdos, Hellriders And Homies:' Thrasher Magazine Turns 40

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Book Concierge: Great Books About America
Becky Harlan/NPR

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

Book Concierge: Great Books About America

Every year, NPR brings together some of the best books of the year in a searchable, explorable guide called the Book Concierge. Today, we're highlighting books about the United States from this year's guide.

Book Concierge: Great Books About America

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After Missing Last Year, 2021 Kennedy Center Honors Are Announced

Clockwise from upper left: Debbie Allen, Garth Brooks, Dick Van Dyke, Joan Baez and Midori Goto. Uarian Langerston, Joseph Llanes, Andy Gotts, Dana Tyan, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders/Kennedy Center hide caption

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Uarian Langerston, Joseph Llanes, Andy Gotts, Dana Tyan, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders/Kennedy Center

Performing Arts

After Missing Last Year, 2021 Kennedy Center Honors Are Announced

COVID cancelled the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2020. Today the Center announced that the show will go on in May 2021, honoring five extraordinary performers.

Need A Break? The Pets And Vets Of 'All Creatures Great And Small' Might Hit The Spot

James Herriott (played by Nicholas Ralph) gets up in a lot of animals' business in the new All Creatures Great And Small. Matt Squire/Playground Television/PBS hide caption

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Matt Squire/Playground Television/PBS

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

Need A Break? The Pets And Vets Of 'All Creatures Great And Small' Might Hit The Spot

A new adaptation of James Herriot's books about life as a Yorkshire vet in the 1930s has gorgeous landscapes, majestic animals, and a welcome focus on home and work.

You Don't Know 'Dickinson'

Hailee Steinfeld stars in Dickinson on Apple TV . Apple TV hide caption

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Apple TV

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

You Don't Know 'Dickinson'

Despite its preponderance of bustles and bonnets, the Apple TV+ series Dickinson is not some fusty old biopic. It casts Hailee Steinfeld as a young Emily Dickinson: a feminist free-thinker and iconoclast, chafing against the rigid social and sexual mores of her time.

You Don't Know 'Dickinson'

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'Sylvie's Love' Will Make You Swoon

Nnamdi Asomugha and Tessa Thompson star in Amazon's new romantic drama Sylvie's Love. Courtesy of Amazon Studios hide caption

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Courtesy of Amazon Studios

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Sylvie's Love' Will Make You Swoon

Sylvie's Love follows a relationship that blossoms in the late 1950s between a spirited young woman who loves television and a gifted saxophone player. Written and directed by Eugene Ashe, Sylvie's Love has all the swoon and the style of old Hollywood but this time, it places a Black couple at its center.

'Sylvie's Love' Will Make You Swoon

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Great 2020 Movies You May Have Missed

Dylen Gelula and Cooper Raiff, who wrote, directed and starred in the film S***house. IFC Films hide caption

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IFC Films

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

Great 2020 Movies You May Have Missed

We spent a lot of time watching movies in 2020. Plenty of our favorites ended up on this show, but with release schedules scrambled and publicity scattered, there are still things that manage to slip through the cracks. Today we are recommending a few of the films we really think you should see.

Great 2020 Movies You May Have Missed

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Sweater Design? Gin Rummy? Typing? These Are The Mario Games You've Never Heard Of

Super Mario no Sweater let you design a sweater and send away to have it made for real. Screenshot by Brittany Vincent/Royal Industries Co. Ltd hide caption

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Screenshot by Brittany Vincent/Royal Industries Co. Ltd

Join The Game

Sweater Design? Gin Rummy? Typing? These Are The Mario Games You've Never Heard Of

Everyone who's ever played a video game knows Super Mario Brothers — but did you know Nintendo's iconic goofy plumber also taught typing, dealt gin rummy and even helped program sewing machines?

Revisiting 'Showgirls', 25 Years Later

Elizabeth Berkley as Nomi, on the set of 1995's Showgirls. Murray Close/Sygma via Getty Images hide caption

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Murray Close/Sygma via Getty Images

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

Revisiting 'Showgirls', 25 Years Later

In 1995, critics howled and self-appointed guardians of good taste were horrified at the release of Showgirls. Directed by Paul Verhoeven with a screenplay by Joe Eszterhas, the NC-17 film was a notorious flop at the time but is now considered a camp classic and a window into a moment of moral panic.

Revisiting 'Showgirls', 25 Years Later

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Eric Jerome Dickey, Bestselling Author Whose Novels Focused On Black Life, Dies At 59

Writer Eric Jerome Dickey poses at the 12th Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on the UCLA campus in 2007 in Los Angeles. Dickey died Jan. 3 after a long illness. He was 59. Charley Gallay/Getty Images hide caption

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Charley Gallay/Getty Images

Books

Eric Jerome Dickey, Bestselling Author Whose Novels Focused On Black Life, Dies At 59

Much of Dickey's work, including 1996's Sister, Sister, was centered on strong Black female characters. He wrote 29 books and sold more than 7 million copies worldwide.

'Bridgerton' Is All About Gossip, Marriage and Butts

Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor star in Netflix's Bridgerton. Liam Daniel/Netflix hide caption

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Liam Daniel/Netflix

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Bridgerton' Is All About Gossip, Marriage and Butts

What if you took Gossip Girl and set it in Regency-era London, where members of the aristocracy plot to find love, sex and spouses? You'd have Bridgerton. Created by Chris Van Dusen, Bridgerton is the first project to emerge from Shonda Rhimes' production company under a lucrative Netflix deal.

'Bridgerton' Is All About Gossip, Marriage and Butts

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Does Joel McHale Take 'Card Sharks' Higher Or Lower?

Host Joel McHale (right) with two contestants from Card Sharks. Eric McCandless/ABC hide caption

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Eric McCandless/ABC

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Does Joel McHale Take 'Card Sharks' Higher Or Lower?

The game show Card Sharks has lived many lives: It's been on NBC, on CBS, in syndication, and now it's on ABC, in prime time, hosted by Joel McHale. The game seems simple — you're guessing whether a card will be higher or lower than the one before it. But it's also complicated. And now, in its latest iteration, there's big money involved.

Does Joel McHale Take 'Card Sharks' Higher Or Lower?

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Advice For Making (And Succeeding At) Your New Year's Resolution

The ball drops to ring in the new year in a mostly empty Times Square in New York City on Friday. Corey Sipkin/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Corey Sipkin/AFP via Getty Images

Consider This from NPR

Advice For Making (And Succeeding At) Your New Year's Resolution

Back in November, comedian Robyn Schall found an old list of her goals for 2020. She shared the list in a video that went viral — because it turned out a lot of people could relate to a year that didn't go as planned.

Advice For Making (And Succeeding At) Your New Year's Resolution

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Party Like It's 1925 On Public Domain Day (Gatsby And Dalloway Are In)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Franz Kafka and many more authors and artists have 1925 works entering the public domain on January 1. Above, a first edition of The Great Gatsby at the London International Antiquarian Book Fair in London in 2013. Oli Scarff/Getty Images hide caption

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Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Arts & Life

Party Like It's 1925 On Public Domain Day (Gatsby And Dalloway Are In)

Every year on January 1, the copyright on thousands of books, songs, films and other creative works expires. Law professor Jennifer Jenkins says 2021 is "a bumper crop."

Our 2021 Pop Culture Resolutions

It's been a year like no other, but here at Pop Culture Happy Hour, we're sticking with tradition by revisiting our 2020 resolutions and making new ones for next year. Kristin Lee/Getty Images/Tetra images RF hide caption

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Kristin Lee/Getty Images/Tetra images RF

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Our 2021 Pop Culture Resolutions

It's the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, as much as it seemed like we might never get here. That means we're looking back, and we're looking ahead. What did we resolve to do in 2020, did we accomplish them and what do we want to do in the year ahead? We've still got goals, plans and the willingness to look back at our ambitious plans and wonder what in the world happened to all of them.

Our 2021 Pop Culture Resolutions

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