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Two girls and a boy listen to a large valve radio in 1940.

People gather around a large valve radio in 1940. By that point, over 80% of American households owned a radio. FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Word of the week

'Broadcasting' has its roots in agriculture. Here's how it made its way into media

The word 'broadcasting' dates back centuries, and originally described a method of sowing seeds. But it took on a new meaning with the rise of radio in the 1920s.

'Broadcasting' has its roots in agriculture. Here's how it made its way into media

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Andrew Garfield as Hank and Julia Roberts as Alma in After the Hunt.

Andrew Garfield as Hank and Julia Roberts as Alma in After the Hunt. Amazon MGM Studios hide caption

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Amazon MGM Studios

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Julia Roberts shines in the muddled 'After the Hunt'

In the new movie After The Hunt, Julia Roberts plays a Yale professor who finds herself in a hard place when one of her star students (Ayo Edebiri) makes an allegation against another faculty member (Andrew Garfield). Who’s telling the truth? Who’s the victim? Is there a victim? Directed by Luca Guadagnino (Challengers, Call Me by Your Name) the film poses a lot of questions. But are any of them answered?

After the Hunt

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Jennifer Lopez in Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Jennifer Lopez in Kiss of the Spider Woman. Roadside Attractions hide caption

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Roadside Attractions

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Kiss of the Spider Woman' features great drama and meh music

Jennifer Lopez stars in the new film adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman. Set in an Argentine prison, one man (Tonatiuh) tells his cellmate (Diego Luna) the story of his favorite old Hollywood musical, starring the silver screen goddess he worships – that’s J. Lo. The musical is packed with glitz, glamour and songs written by Kander and Ebb, the minds behind Cabaret and Chicago.

Kiss of the Spider Woman

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Greta Lee in TRON: Ares.

Greta Lee in TRON: Ares. Leah Gallo/Disney hide caption

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Leah Gallo/Disney

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Reality bytes in ‘TRON: Ares’

TRON: Ares is the third film in the franchise, and this time flips the script: Instead of humans entering the digital world, this movie sees human-shaped artificial intelligence programs entering our world. Starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee and Evan Peters, is TRON: Ares an upgrade from the previous movies?

TRON: Ares And What's Making Us Happy

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Gwendoline Christie
Photo: Daniel Speer/Maximum Fun

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Gwendoline Christie

This week, it’s Gwendoline Christie! She’s best known for her part as Brienne of Tarth on Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones launched Christie’s career. Before it wrapped, she was cast in two Star Wars movies. She recently earned an Emmy nomination for her part in Severance as the lady who was in charge of all the goats. She talks to Bullseye about art, resilience, and getting ready to wrangle all those goats.

Gwendoline Christie

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America Ferrera and Matthew McConaughey in The Lost Bus.

America Ferrera and Matthew McConaughey in The Lost Bus. Apple TV+ hide caption

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Apple TV+

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Matthew McConaughey drives ‘The Lost Bus’ through a raging fire

In the new movie The Lost Bus, Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera play a bus driver and a teacher who have to transport more than 20 kids to safety when evacuation orders roll in from a wildfire. Based on the 2018 Camp Fire in California, the movie is a harrowing drama, a climate warning, and a disaster film all in one. It’s streaming on Apple TV+.

The Lost Bus

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Taylor Swift’s new album is The Life Of A Showgirl.

Taylor Swift's new album is The Life Of A Showgirl. Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott hide caption

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Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Taylor Swift re-enters her banger era in ‘The Life of a Showgirl’

Taylor Swift just dropped her new album The Life Of A Showgirl. It touches on her relationship with fiancé Travis Kelce while reflecting on fame, normalcy, the Internet, and a simmering beef with a fellow pop star. We’re unpacking the songs, including “Actually Romantic,” “Eldest Daughter,” “CANCELLED!”, and “Ruin The Friendship.”

Taylor Swift The Life Of A Showgirl

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Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham in an early publicity photograph for Gilmore Girls. The show premiered in October 2000, set in the fictional small town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. s

Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham in an early publicity photograph for Gilmore Girls. The show premiered in October 2000, set in the fictional small town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. Getty Images/Hulton Archive hide caption

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Television

25 years after its premiere, 'Gilmore Girls' still draws fans to small town Connecticut

Lorelai and Rory Gilmore's fictional hometown of Stars Hollow was born after Gilmore Girls creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, stayed in northwestern Connecticut. The show premiered in the fall of 2000.

‘Gilmore Girls’ is 25 — and fans are still flocking to small town Connecticut

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Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine.

Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine. Eric Zachanowich/A24 hide caption

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Eric Zachanowich/A24

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

‘The Smashing Machine’ lets ‘The Rock’ cook, and it smells like awards season catnip

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Emily Blunt star in the new sports biopic The Smashing Machine. Johnson plays Mark Kerr, a UFC champion who is reeling from his first major loss in the ring and confronting an addiction to painkillers. Directed by Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems), the wrestling drama pulls out all the classic moves in the awards season playbook. We can smell what The Rock is cooking – but is it a hearty meal?

The Smashing Machine And What's Making Us Happy

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Why Digable Planets' Blowout Comb is one of the greatest albums of all time

Diallo Riddle (left) and LUXXURY (right) at MaxFun HQ. Photographer: Daniel Speer hide caption

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Photographer: Daniel Speer

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Why Digable Planets' Blowout Comb is one of the greatest albums of all time

Canonball is a segment that takes a closer look at albums that should be considered classics. This time around, Diallo Riddle and LUXXURY of the One Song podcast discuss the game changing album Blowout Comb by Digable Planets.

Why Digable Planet’s Blowout Comb is one of the greatest albums of all time

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Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain.

Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain. Focus Features hide caption

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Focus Features

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Looking back at ‘Brokeback Mountain’

This year marks 20 years since Brokeback Mountain hit theaters. The film starred Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two sheep herders who fall in love in a place and time that keeps them apart. Before its release, Hollywood considered it a huge risk. It went on to be a critical and box office success, but it also made a lot of folks so uncomfortable they made cheap jokes about it for years. Today, its legacy is a tough one to untangle.

Brokeback Mountain 20th Anniversary

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Ethan Hawke in The Lowdown.

Ethan Hawke in The Lowdown. Shane Brown/FX hide caption

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Shane Brown/FX

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

We're high up on 'The Lowdown'

The Lowdown is a great new FX series starring Ethan Hawke as a freelance investigative reporter with a knack for sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong and getting that nose punched. He gets drawn into the seedy goings-on of one of Tulsa’s most prominent families. Created by Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs), the modern-day Western noir comedy has an excellent ensemble including Kyle MacLachlan, Keith David, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Killer Mike.

The Lowdown

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Ghostface Killah

Supreme Clientele 2 by Ghostface Killah is out now. Danny Hastings hide caption

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Danny Hastings

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Ghostface Killah

We're joined today by Ghostface Killah, a founding member of the hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. In 1996, Ghost put out Supreme Clientele – that record cemented his legacy. If you pull up one of those 100 best rap albums of all times list, you're bound to see it show up. Ghostface joins us on the latest episode of Bullseye to talk about Supreme Clientele 2, the follow-up nearly 25 years in the making. He also opens up about being responsible for two of his younger brothers with muscular dystrophy.

Ghostface Killah

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Toni Collette as Evelyn Wade in Wayward.

Toni Collette as Evelyn Wade in Wayward. Netflix hide caption

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Netflix

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

A creepy reform school will get under your skin in ‘Wayward’

In the new Netflix series Wayward, Toni Collette plays a deeply creepy woman who runs a facility that promises to fix troubled teens. A cop (Mae Martin) moves to town with his wife, who's a graduate of the facility and an acolyte of its leader. And he starts to think something is very, very wrong. Things are not all they seem in the picturesque town of Tall Pines, but you’ll have to watch to find out why. 

Wayward

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Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a still from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Behind him are Patricia Quinn as Magenta, left, and Richard O'Brien as Riff-Raff.

Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a still from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Behind him are Patricia Quinn as Magenta, left, and Richard O'Brien as Riff-Raff. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Culture

'Rocky Horror' is 50! We propose a toast. (You know what to do)

Rocky Horror aficionados used to attend screenings of the film over and over to take notes on the details. Accurately mirroring every line and dance move has gotten easier over time.

‘Rocky Horror’ is still a refuge for fans, 50 years later

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The Rapture was a bust, but it still feels like doomsday.

Why are so many of us convinced the end is near? Getty Images hide caption

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Getty Images

It's Been a Minute

The Rapture was a bust, but it still feels like doomsday.

The Christian rapture didn't happen as predicted, but a lot of you still feel like we're living in end times. Why is that?

The Rapture was a bust, but it still feels like doomsday.

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Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another.

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Warner Bros. Pictures

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

‘One Battle After Another’ is revolutionary — and revelatory

One Battle After Another is an action-thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor and Sean Penn. DiCaprio plays a washed up ex-revolutionary searching for his missing daughter while raging against the machine. In this case, the machine is unabashedly racist, xenophobic, and corrupt. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the ensemble also includes Regina Hall and Benicio del Toro.

One Battle After Another And What's Making Us Happy

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Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls.

Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls. Murray Close/United Artists/ Supplied by Online USA, INC./Getty Images / Handout hide caption

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Murray Close/United Artists/ Supplied by Online USA, INC./Getty Images / Handout

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Revisiting 'Showgirls', 30 Years Later

Showgirls stars Elizabeth Berkley as a Vegas dancer trying to move up from a seedy club to a glamorous hotel show. Paul Verhoeven’s NC-17 movie was a notorious flop, but it is now considered a camp classic and a window into a moment of moral panic. Showgirls turns 30 this year, so today we’re revisiting our conversation about the film.

Showgirls

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Mark Ruffalo in Task.

Mark Ruffalo in Task. Peter Kramer/HBO hide caption

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Peter Kramer/HBO

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

In ‘Task’, Mark Ruffalo pursues his quarry

The new HBO series Task stars Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey in a grim, but stealthily hopeful drama. From the creator of Mare of Easttown, the show is a cat-and-mouse crime thriller about an FBI agent reluctantly dragged back into the field to investigate a series of drug related crimes. The show offers drugs, stolen money, family drama, kidnapping, shootouts, grief, and forgiveness.

Task

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Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Jimmy Kimmel was suspended and off the air for nearly a week before returning Tuesday night with his late-night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! Randy Holmes/Disney hide caption

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Randy Holmes/Disney

Television

'We have to speak out,' Jimmy Kimmel says in his late-night return

The comedian was suspended for nearly a week by ABC's parent company, Disney, before returning to airwaves on Tuesday night.

Jimmy Kimmel returns to late night after nearly week-long suspension

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