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Pop Culture Happy Hour: The Retail And Science Edition

NPR
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Happy Friday, PCHH-ers. This weekend brings us all Free Comic Book Day, and we take that opportunity in this episode to talk about how changes in brick-and-mortar retail are affecting pop culture. Do you need a bookstore guy to tell you what to buy? Do you need a bookstore so you can be around other book people? And what happens to in-store events without stores? All this and more as we think through what physical spaces gave us and what we do without them.

We then turn our attention, in celebration of (among other things) the tenth anniversary of Mythbusters, to the presentation of science in popular culture. From the educational shows to the explode-y shows to the science-minded adventurers, we try to wrap our minds around how science is served to both kids and adults.

And as always, we close with what's making us happy this week. Glen is sad about a change to the comics ecosystem, but happy to remember all it contributed. Stephen is happy about something that's very personally special to him that preserved suspense, and also about a remake of an old song by a couple of singers he's pretty fond of anyway. Trey is happy about an article he swears is really funny, and about a journal he enjoys gazing upon. And I'm happy about a unique moment that only a select few were lucky enough to witness.

Find us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter: me, Stephen, Glen, Trey, Jess, and our esteemed producer emeritus and music director, Mike Katzif.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.

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