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Stephen Thompson
Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
In 1993, Thompson founded The Onion's entertainment section, The A.V. Club, which he edited until December 2004. In the years since, he has provided music-themed commentaries for NPR programs such as Weekend Edition, All Things Considered and Morning Edition, on which he earned the distinction of becoming the first member of the NPR Music staff ever to sing on an NPR newsmagazine. (Later, the magic of AutoTune transformed him from a 12th-rate David Archuleta into a fourth-rate Cher.) Thompson's entertainment writing has also run in Paste magazine, The Washington Post and The London Guardian.
During his tenure at The Onion, Thompson edited the 2002 book The Tenacity Of The Cockroach: Conversations With Entertainment's Most Enduring Outsiders (Crown) and copy-edited six best-selling comedy books. While there, he also coached The Onion's softball team to a sizzling 21-42 record, and was once outscored 72-0 in a span of 10 innings. Later in life, Thompson redeemed himself by teaming up with the small gaggle of fleet-footed twentysomethings who won the 2008 NPR Relay Race, a triumph he documents in a hard-hitting essay for the book This Is NPR: The First Forty Years (Chronicle).
A 1994 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Thompson now lives in Silver Spring, Md., with his girlfriend, his daughter, their three cats and a room full of vintage arcade machines. (He also has a large adult son who has headed off to college but still calls once in a while.) Thompson's hobbies include watching reality television without shame, eating Pringles until his hand has involuntarily twisted itself into a gnarled claw, using the size of his Twitter following to assess his self-worth, touting the immutable moral superiority of the Green Bay Packers (who returned the favor by making a22-minute documentary about his life) and maintaining a fierce rivalry with all Midwestern states other than Wisconsin.
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How does Kung Fu Panda 4 stack up against its predecessors in the popular animated movie franchise? Stephen Thompson from NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour brings a group together to review the new film.
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If there's any justice in the world, a Barbie songwriter will take home this statue.
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Host Scott Detrow hears about the Academy Award nominees for best original film score.
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It was a night of football in Las Vegas' first Super Bowl, but also Usher's halftime show, as well as ads featuring celebrities and the conclusion of an NFL season that also starred Taylor Swift.
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Usher headlines the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday. Will it stand up to halftime shows of the past?
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Miley Cyrus, SZA, Billie Eilish and others had a big night. But once again, the music industry found itself in the long shadow of Taylor Swift, who won album of the year and announced a new project.
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If TikTok can't come to an agreement with Universal Music Group about licensing, music by some of the world's most popular artists will no longer be available to use in videos.
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Each week, Pop Culture Happy Hour guests and hosts share what's bringing them joy. This week: The movie The Book of Clarence, the show Lego Masters, Niecy Nash-Betts' Emmy acceptance speech, and more.
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The U.K. singer-songwriter recasts four of her electro-pop songs in fresh arrangements.