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June Pop Culture Round Up

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June has been a whirlwind! From graduations to baseball, the start of professional softball in Hillsboro, and a trip to visit family go to Yellowstone, it’s been a great month! Here’s the pop culture that has helped me get through it all…

Reading

I’m about to finish Under the Influence which I am really enjoying. If you liked Yesteryear and wonder what it would be like to work for her, this is the book for you. I also read Wild Dark Shore which people have raved about since it came out. It was a great book, BUT as many of you know, I have a wildly irrational fear of whales (I blame Jonah) and I wasn’t expecting my deepest fears to come to life as I read “just one more chapter before bed” and proceeded to toss and turn for an hour. If you don’t have a fear of whales, it was a great story.

I’m halfway through Jenny Hagel’s memoir Advice No One Asked For and I am loving it! Hagel is a writer on Seth Meyers who I have enjoyed for years, especially her Jokes Seth Can’t Tell set, and this book is very funny. As always, a celebrity memoir is best listened to as an audiobook so you can get their tone and inflection.

Listening

Road trips with my nephews will always include a lot of Earth Wind & Fire (we’re taking them to their first concert in September to see EWF!) I also am enjoying Dave Grohl’s Summer Cookout Jams, it’s a great playlist for driving through Yellowstone, or hosting a summer cookout.

Colman Domingo and Greta Lee have been my two favorite episodes of Good Hang this month. Besides that there hasn’t been a good podcast to jump out at me lately.

Watching

It was a busy month of good TV shows wrapping up! I enjoyed the second season of Your Friends and Neighbors, and think we need more James Marsden in shows. If you haven’t watched Widow’s Bay it’s worth getting Apple TV to binge this horror comedy show. We absolutely loved it and I am THRILLED it’s getting a second season. That finale was almost perfect, and Ruth is amazing (he made a pass at me, she made a pass at me) it was a show I didn’t know I needed.

I blew right through The Four Seasons second season and then went right back and did a rewatch of both seasons. Tina Fey can do no wrong in my book, and she nails it with adult friendships, marriage, and that time of life. I love this show, even baby Gino. We also really enjoyed Office Romance, which was the light weekend rom com movie we needed. Brett Goldstein is so smart and hilarious.

Documentary wise, we really enjoyed Marty which I wasn’t honestly expecting. Martin Short isn’t my favorite but this documentary was wonderful, he is an awesome dad and a wonderful friend (and spouse). Highly recommend if you have ever laughed at his jokes, and bonus: Catherine O’Hara. In a completely different tone – I did watch Maternal Instinct and that woman is horrible. Someone on Threads mentioned if you like it you should watch/listen to Scamanda which I was enthralled with a while back and recommended on the blog. And yes, if you enjoyed the Scamanda podcast/documentary series, this is in that same vain of horrible young woman doing unthinkable things.

Okay, off to the coast for a few days with a large stack of books and a Roku stick to catch up on a few shows, I’ll be back with that recap in July!

May Pop Culture Round Up

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May was a busy month but I am grateful for the warmer weather, baseball, and a 3 day weekend at the coast! There has been some great pop culture this month, a sad farewell to Colbert, and some decent reading has happened (finally!) Here’s what I’m loving…

Reading

Like every other woman these days, I FINALLY read Yesteryear. It was un-put-down-able. I freaking loved it. I know people have a love/hate with it, but I thought it was super smart and had THE most unlikeable and unreliable narrator and I loved it. We all secretly loathe influencers and this one was at the top of her chaos. If you liked this and haven’t yet read Everyone is Lying to You, get on that right away, I thought about it a lot while reading this.

I really enjoyed the oral history of Parks and Rec, it took me back to my happy place and all time favorite show. I didn’t love how the author inserted herself into the story on occasion, I get that she’s a TV journalist, but it kept feeling forced to me. If Lil’ Sebastian is also your spirit animal, this book is for you. I’d heard great things about These Summer Storms and thought it might be a good weekend getaway read and it WAS. I love rich people behaving badly, AND I evidently really need to go to Rhode Island (despite RHORI) so this book checked all the boxes for me.

Listening

I finished The Secret World of Roald Dahl and it was great. He was a fascinating person and this podcast was a good help in understanding him. Somewhere along the way Girlscamp was recommended to me (by my dad I think?) and I’ve caught a couple of episodes so far from this ex-Mormon woman talking about pop culture and leaving the church. It checks a very specific niche for me.

Paula Pell was my favorite guest this month on Good Hang and on the drive back from the coast I listened to a new to me podcast – Under the Influence (the host is the author of Everyone is Lying to You!) She did a great episode “We Need to Talk About Spencer Pratt.” I know no one wants to, but it was a fascinating deep dive with a NYT reporter about how fame is the new politician and how smartly Pratt has been at being famous for being famous, and how it got him to where we are today. If you care at all about local/regional politics (and we all know I do!) this was a fascinating conversation…

Watching

Like a lot of folks, I spent the last few weeks being sad about the loss of Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show. Having grown up with Letterman it was great to see him on the show one more time, and for all the folks who came through to wish Stephen well. I can’t wait for what’s next, but in the mean time, this was pretty great.

There’s a new season of Pop Culture Jeopardy on Netflix this season and I am really enjoying being smarter than people (occasionally) but also it’s just the right amount of fun and escapism because the Real Housewives of Rhode Island isn’t cutting it for me.

Top Chef continues to be fantastic, EVEN with the latest elimination challenge and resulting drama. I am not ready to say goodbye to Hacks. I am also loving this season of Your Friends and Neighbors, James Marsden is PERFECT for his role. Also if you didn’t catch Running Point it’s time to catch up this fun sports family comedy on Netflix!

I was late to Widow’s Bay and I am sorry about that. I kept hearing it was a horror comedy and so I finally checked it out, and my husband and I mentioned how it was creepy but also had a Parks and Rec vibe that we thought was interesting. Then we realized that the creator worked on Parks & Rec, which I realized because I was reading the P&R book and had just read the creators name. What a small pop culture world. It’s for sure a creepy show (maybe don’t watch it in an old creaky house when you’re home alone) but it’s also very funny and clever, and the cast is FABULOUS.

Okay, that’s what I’m loving lately, what’s getting you in the mood for summer?

April Pop Culture Round Up

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april pop culture round up 2026

April has flown right by! Hops baseball season began at the beginning of the month in our brand new stadium (it’s amazing, come join us for a game!) and the weather is starting to get warm enough that Cliff and I can spend more time outside running around the yard, reading, and enjoying some free vitamin D for a change. Here’s a few things that got me through the month…

Reading

I picked up Lake Effect at the library at the beginning of the month and really enjoyed it. It’s about a neighborhood of families in the 70’s and how their lives are all intertwined. It was a good spring read. Like everyone else I finally read The Correspondent and it is as great as everyone said it was! I love a good curmudgeon and this one does not disappoint!

I just finished The Heir Apparent which showed up on my library holds list last week, and it was the perfect weekend read while traveling. I may have stayed up too late last night finishing this book, it was that good!

I also listened to Strangers a memoir from Belle Burden about her 20+ year marriage that dissolves at the beginning of the pandemic. I watch a LOT of “rich people behaving badly” tv (and books for that matter), so this memoir wasn’t as shocking to me as it seems to be to the rest of the book world. If you like to read about rich New Yorkers problems, you would enjoy this one.

Listening

Adults in the Room was a fantastic podcast, and incredibly hard to listen to. It’s insane how our parents just trusted teachers and school administration in the 90’s. I then zipped right through The Idiot from Serial Podcasts and it was wild. The reporter is right, his cousin is an idiot every step of the way. Just listen.

I am now half way through The Secret World of Roald Dahl and it’s fascinating! I remember hearing at some point that he was more like the bullies in his books than the children, but YOWZA, his story is bonkers and I still can’t figure out if I feel sad for him or if he’s an ass.

Watching

I know what you’re thinking – now that Shrinking is done for the season what will I watch? The answer is easy: Rooster. First off, that was an amazing season of Shrinking, and I am curious where the next season start. Rooster is by the same creator (Bill Lawrence who also did Ted Lasso) and it’s about Steve Carell as a visiting author at a college that his daughter also teaches at. It’s so funny and smart and sweet. Someone on Threads the other day mentioned that Alice (on Shrinking) needs to go to the college on Rooster so we can have the cross over series we all need. They are correct.

Hacks is back for it’s final season and I am so happy to have these insane characters back in my life. I am also loving the new season of Your Friends and Neighbors, and James Marsden was an EXCELLENT choice to bring to the neighborhood drama this season. I have started The Testaments and loving it so far, even though it’s always hard to be back in Gilead.

This season of Top Chef is really great and fascinating to watch Kristin Kish host with such humanity for the contestants. There was a great story in the New York Times this weekend about the show and its humanity. Gift link here for you. Finally, if you aren’t watching SNL UK, this is your sign to do so. This past weekend had Nicola Coughlan and Foo Fighters and it was so funny, even if Jimmy Fallon showed up.

What pop culture have you been enjoying lately? what are you looking forward to as we head into the warmer months and a holiday weekend?