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Pop Culture Happy Hour: Too Old For Youth Culture And Toys

NPR
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Stephen Thompson and I are joined this week by our blog siblings Gene Demby and Kat Chow of NPR's Code Switch, which always puts us in an upbeat and playful mood. Fittingly, we take a couple of listener questions this week about youth and play.

First, is it possible to be too old for youth culture? We approach this from a couple of angles: can you be too old for the content itself? Can you be too old for the experience of swooning over cultural experiences the way you did when you were younger? And what is it, exactly, that makes people feel old and tell you how old they feel?

Then we'll transition into a chat about toys. We reminisce about some of the ones we had (and some of the ones we wanted and didn't get). I fret about the way video games could have devoured me as a little kid, Stephen tells a truly amazing story about Hot Wheels cars, and Kat wisely draws the straight line from toys to Horseland. (That's right: Horseland.)

As always, we close the show with what's making us happy this week. Stephen is happy about a lovely piece of writing dealing with sad situations with wisdom and compassion. Kat is happy about two books she managed to gobble down on vacation, and mostly about having enough time to do some challenging reading. Gene is happy about a writer whose work on Dave Chappelle, Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar lit up his week. And I am very happy that a very fine documentary has arrived at last.

Oh! And Stephen is also happy about some big news regarding the fact that we're going to Comic-Con, so don't forget to check that out.

We're always happy to hear from you, so find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: me, Stephen, Gene, Kat, producers Jessica and Lauren, and our pal Mike Katzif.

Copyright 2022 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.