Pop Culture

One month into the TV season, NPR TV critic Eric Deggans says diversity is winning and rom-coms are losing as new shows battle for viewers.

Sir Ian McKellen made a special appearance at an English school. What special magical message did he impart? Do your homework!

In the time since the first simple coin purse was sold in Japan back in 1974, Hello Kitty has become a multibillion-dollar empire. A retrospective in Los Angeles celebrates the beloved cartoon cat.

The newspaper's heartfelt column about a political cartoon that was widely criticized as racist raises a question: Did editors learn the right lessons from the uproar?

On this week's show, NPR's Ari Shapiro joins us to chat about the Amazon show Transparent and about lots of different pop culture debuts.

The comedian says she often forgets that as an Indian-American woman who's not pencil thin, she's kind of a new thing for broadcast TV. But, she says, "I refuse to view myself in such terms."

It seems like Neil Patrick Harris has always hosted everything, but in fact, his February 2015 outing hosting the Oscars will be his first time in that particular job.

Pop Culture Happy Hour pal Petra Mayer just got back from New York Comic-Con, so we got her to update us briefly on Gillian Anderson, fandom and very big crowds.

HBO has announced that beginning in 2015, it will offer what many have long wanted: access to HBO without having cable.

The actor says he's been able to do a lot of different things in his life, including his role as Doogie Howser. So when he sat down to write a memoir, he made it a "Choose Your Own Adventure."

NBC's new romantic comedy Marry Me may wind up joining a frustrating group of shows that struggle to survive on broadcast, where appealing to everyone is key.

Nerd-about-town Glen Weldon explains to a non-comics-reading guy exactly what is up with the impending death of Wolverine. (That's not a spoiler; the miniseries is actually called Death of Wolverine.)