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Pop Culture Happy Hour

The Fantastic Four: First Steps And What's Making Us Happy

Pop Culture Happy Hour

NPR

Books, Music, After Shows, Tv & Film, Film Reviews, News, Tv Reviews, Arts, Entertainment News, Music Commentary

4.510.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Fantastic Four are back again in a new movie--and it's an eye-popping good time. The Fantastic Four: First Steps stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn as the famously fractious family with amazing powers who tangle with a godlike being who wants to eat the Earth. We've seen this story before, but the vibe is different this time. It's a brighter, boldly colored retro-future with flying cars, semi-helpful household robots and lots of talk about the importance of family.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

On Fridays, the 1A podcast is all about helping you cut through the info fog and get to what's important in the news.

0:07.6

Close out the week with us on our Friday News Roundup.

0:10.8

Here from reporters who've been embedded with the biggest news of the week.

0:14.9

Join us every week for the Friday News Roundup.

0:17.2

Listen to the 1A podcast from NPR and WANU.

0:22.0

Hello, thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour.

0:24.5

We'd love to know what you think about this podcast.

0:26.8

Please help us out by telling us what you like and how we could improve by completing a short anonymous survey at npr.org slash PCHH survey.

0:35.8

We'll also have a link in our episode description. Thank you.

0:42.8

The Fantastic Four are back again. Marvel's latest attempt to kick start our franchise around

0:47.7

their OG superhero super team is an eye-popping good time. It stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby,

0:55.9

Evan Moss Backrack, and Joseph Quinn as the famously fractious family with amazing powers who tangle with a godlike being who

1:01.1

wants to eat the earth. Now on a story level we've been here before, this time out though

1:06.2

the vibe is different. A brighter, boldly colored retrofuture with flying cars,

1:11.6

semi-helpful household robots, and more talk about the importance of family than your average

1:16.3

fast and furious movie.

1:18.0

I'm Glenn Weldon, and today we're talking about the Fantastic Four First Steps on Pop Culture

1:22.5

Happy Hour from NPR.

1:24.0

Joining me today is Ronald Young Jr.

1:25.9

He's the host of the film and television review podcast

1:28.2

Leaving the Theater. Hello, Ronald. Hello, Glenn. Great to be here. Great to have you. Also with us is entertainment journalist and contributor Shar Jassel. Welcome back, Shar. Hello. Thank you for having me, Glenn. Ah, great to have you. And rounding out, the panelist, Jordan Morris. He's a writer and the co-host of the podcast's Jordan Jesse Go and Free With Ads. Hey, Jordan.

1:27.6

Hey, hey, it's good to be here to spend some quality clobber in time with you all. It's always clobbering time with you. Well, you know the Fantastic Four. Even if you think you don't, there's Reed Richards, played here by Pedro Pascal. He's a brilliant scientist with a super elastic body.

...

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