This is Ira Glass of This American Life.

Each week on our show, we choose the theme, tell different stories on that theme.

All right, I'm just going to stop right there.

You're listening to an NPR podcast.

Chances are you know our show.

So instead, I'm going to tell you, we've just been on a run of really good shows lately.

Some big, epic emotional stories and some weird funny stuff, too. Download us, This American Life.

Everyone knows what a summer blockbuster is. It's a film that's hugely popular and, as a result, financially successful.

By definition, it's a movie seen by lots and lots of people.

But there've been a lot of summer blockbusters over the years, and not everyone has seen

every last one of them. So we decided to fill some personal blockbuster gaps and finally

see a movie that absolutely everyone saw except us. I'm Stephen Thompson. And I'm Glenn Weldon, and today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we're talking about summer

blockbusters we've never seen until now.

Public media is facing the most serious threat in its history.

Congress is considering a White House proposal that would eliminate federal funding for the corporation for public broadcasting, which helps fund local NPR stations.

This move would immediately threaten many stations' ability to serve their communities and could force some to close.

Take a stand for public media today at goacpr.org. These days, there is a lot of news. It could be

hard to keep up with what it means for you, your family, and your community. Consider this from

NPR as a podcast that helps you make sense of the news. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a

story and provide the context, the

backstory, an analysis you need to understand our rapidly changing world. Listen to the Consider

this podcast from NPR. Before talking to computational social scientist Sandra Matz, I asked her

...