Glen Weldon
Glen Weldon is a host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. He reviews books, movies, comics and more for the NPR Arts Desk.
Over the course of his career, he has spent time as a theater critic, a science writer, an oral historian, a writing teacher, a bookstore clerk, a PR flack, a completely inept marine biologist and a slightly better-ept competitive swimmer.
Weldon is the author of two cultural histories: Superman: The Unauthorized Biography and The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Atlantic, Slate, McSweeney's and more; his fiction has appeared in several anthologies and other publications. He is the recipient of an NEA Arts Journalism Fellowship, an Amtrak Writers' Residency, a Ragdale Writing Fellowship and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Fiction.
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Wallace the Brave is a new daily comic strip, which is getting attention, award recognition and increasing readership. It's about a boy who's less depressed than Peanuts character Charlie Brown and kinder than Calvin & Hobbes.
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A four-minute fake movie trailer created by the Trump administration for Kim Jong Un is decidedly odd. Culture critic Glen Weldon asks National Security Correspondent David Welna what it all means.
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At last, we take a deep, overdue dive into the sweet, tangy jars of emotional marmalade that are the Paddington films.
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Movie trailers are a thing unto themselves, but can you really trust them? Linda Holmes and Glen Weldon of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour explain how manipulative and sneaky movie trailers can be.
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They're the major MacGuffins of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — but there's a lot of them, and you need a scorecard to keep track of which does what. We're here for you.
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TV and movie producers are looking to the shelves for inspiration: a number of popular shows and films this year started as books.
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The first Harry Potter book came out 20 years ago today. One year later, in 1998, was the first time we mentioned the book, on All Things Considered. Here's Margot Adler's piece in its entirety.
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NPR's resident Bat-scholar Glen Weldon offers a personal remembrance of the late Adam West, explains how the actor rescued the character of Batman from oblivion, and explores his enduring legacy.
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Silvers co-founded the journal with Barbara Epstein in 1963. It quickly became a leading forum where authors and critics grappled with cultural issues — and with each other.
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We review the 11 categories we got "wrong" and explore reasons why. But we're not being defensive. Maybe you're the one who's being defensive, ever thought of that?
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An ad in a March 1852 edition of The New York Times led Zachary Turpin on an electronic search that uncovered a rags-to-riches novella that Whitman published anonymously.
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The 2017 Academy Award nominations were announced this morning. La La Land, as widely predicted, racked up the most, while Moonlight made a strong showing, as did Hell or High Water.