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Pop Culture Happy Hour: Twitter And Subtitled Television

NPR
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On this week's show, we are lucky enough to be visited in the absence of our buddy Glen by the lovely Audie Cornish, who, in her spare time, is one of the hosts of a little afternoon show called All Things Considered. Audie took some time away from the Actual Hard News beat to chat with us about a few things and to gracefully accept a surprising comparison to Ron Burgundy. (It's a long story.)

We kick things off by chatting about Twitter in the wake of its recent IPO and the book about its history: what it's for, who's using it well (whether for journalism hashtag games or NSFW jokes aimed at Walmart or just straight-up weirdness) and who's struggling. And if you haven't ever seen the entire Bryant Gumbel clip excerpted and discussed in this episode, you really owe it to yourself. (There's also a little more context for her absolutely correct reference to rap and hashtags, which we didn't entirely get at the time.) And, of course, if you don't believe me about the Justin Bieber thing, it's real, at least as a list.

We then talk, jumping off of Sundance's new series The Returned, about the use of subtitles and dubbing in television and film, and what our barriers are when it comes to checking out art in languages we don't speak.

And finally, we close with what's making us happy this week. Stephen is happy, after a fashion, about letting his heart warm over and over to videos of returning veterans. (I encourage him not to forget the ones with dogs.) Trey is happy about some stage news, and also about a show he recently saw that involves Barbra Streisand's basement. Audie is happy about stage news as well! And also about an interview between two comedy showrunners who always have plenty to say. As for me, I recently read a terrific book I recommend highly.

Find us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter: me, Stephen, Trey, Audie, absent pal Glen producer Nick Fountain, 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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