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Pop Culture Happy Hour: Lupita Nyong'o, 'TV: The Book,' 'Take My Wife'

First-time film actress Madina Nalwanga (left) says she often copied co-star Lupita Nyong'o's warm-up exercises on the set of <em>Queen of Katwe</em>.
Edward Echwalu
/
Disney Enterprises Inc.
First-time film actress Madina Nalwanga (left) says she often copied co-star Lupita Nyong'o's warm-up exercises on the set of Queen of Katwe.

The regular Pop Culture Happy Hour team is gearing up for our west coast tour, which kicks off Monday, October 17 in Seattle, continues on October 19 in Portland (the only date with tickets still available), October 21 in San Francisco with Mallory Ortberg, and October 23 in Los Angeles with Kumail Nanjiani. Then on Saturday, October 29, we're part of a dauntingly great lineup at the Now Hear This podcast festival in Anaheim, where the long-awaited meeting between our show and Pop Rocket will happen when Guy Branum appears as our fourth chair. There are still tickets for that, too. (Seriously, that lineup is awesome. Take a look.)

While we're preparing, we're lucky enough to have three special segments we can bring you, all of which are really nice treats for what's been a long week. We have two extended cuts of talks that our friend Ari Shapiro did for All Things Considered. First, Lupita Nyong'o and Madina Nalwanga, both from the film Queen Of Katwe, chat with Ari about the film, acting, red carpets and more. Then Ari talks with Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher about their new Seeso comedy Take My Wife. (Which, by the way, I strongly endorse, because it is great. Seeso is a streaming service you can get in a variety of ways.)

And right in between those two segments, Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz, both fine TV critics and friends of mine, come in to talk with me about TV (The Book), their new tome in which they attempt to rank the 100 best American television dramas and comedies of all time. They'll talk about their number-one pick, about how they got to their conclusions, and some of the fights they got into while wrestling with the list.

Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: me, Stephen, Glen, Ari, producer Jessica, and executive producer and music director Mike. And special thanks to the indispensable Alex McCall, who's been helping not only with this episode, but with keeping us running while we have all these adventures.

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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