What's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend reading and listening

This week, Alec Baldwin's trial for involuntary manslaughter began, we learned some disturbing details about the late Alice Munro, and, in less depressing news, country artist Shaboozey matched a Beyoncé Billboard record.

Here's what NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.

All Fours by Miranda July

I just finished Miranda July's new novel, All Fours, and I was reminded of why she is one of the most original artists and writers of our time. The story follows a woman in her 40s who embarks on a cross-country road trip. But within 30 minutes, our protagonist pulls over and things go in a very different direction. What I love about July's writing is that element of surprise in everything — not just on the plot level. So many of her sentences feel as though they're leading to one place, and then they end up in a completely different place. Yet it always works. It's always exciting. There's oddness and weirdness in her writing, but it also feels incredibly human. It's touching on things that are taboo, things that are embarrassing, things that are just part of the human experience. — Kristen Meinzer 

Mikolton (Dat’s My Dawg)

This week, the Internet is bringing me joy in the form of a song called “Mikolton (Dat’s My Dawg).” It’s from Dear Silas, a rapper from Jackson, Miss. You hear that title and think: “Dat’s My Dawg.” That's my friend, my homie. But this song is actually about his pet dog named Mikolton. It's got old-school, ‘90s, Dirty South vibes. The video on his social media has a very Windows 95 looking screensaver background with Dear Silas rapping and Mikolton looking cute as hell with these little outfits. — Aisha Harris

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

In 2020 Karla Cornejo Villavicencio published The Undocumented Americans — part memoir, part investigation about undocumented communities in the U.S. Now, Villavicencio has her first novel coming out in July — it's called Catalina. Catalina is undocumented and she's just finishing up her senior year of college. She's trying to figure out: What do I do now? She has a degree from a prestigious university, but without a green card, it's incredibly challenging to find work in the U.S. The story is funny, original, and one of my favorite novels I've read in many years. — Jeffrey Masters

More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter

by Aisha Harris

Barbie-fever may have come and gone for most of us, but Lagueria Davis’ Netflix film Black Barbie: A Documentary is worth seeking out. Davis nabs insightful interviews with three Black women who were instrumental in Mattel’s creation of Black dolls, including her aunt Beulah Mae Mitchell. They all speak quite fondly of their time with the company, so much so that it can sometimes seem like a Mattel love fest. (It’s produced by Shonda Rhimes, who’s had a couple of Barbie dolls made in her own likeness). But Davis herself admits to having little emotional attachment to the doll as a kid, and the latter part of the doc brings in outside perspectives more critical of the company’s progressive efforts. It ends up being a fair, balanced and engaging history lesson.

Currently on repeat this summer: Kaytranada’s new album Timeless. Works equally great as music to work to or music to jam out to at a cookout or a dark club, and my favorite track might be his banger of a collaboration with Channel Tres, “Drip Sweat.”

I’m a taxonomy girlie, and one of my current favorite podcasts is Pop Pantheon, a show where DJ Louie XIV invites guests to “completely overanalyze all your favorite pop stars, then rank them.” (Full disclosure: I had the absolute privilege of chatting with Louie last year about Mariah’s Daydream-through-Glitter era.) By pretty much all accounts, this is officially a Pop Girl Year, so he recently had on Ira Madison III to rank all the pop girl albums that have dropped so far in 2024 from some of our biggest artists, including Ariana, Taylor, and Charli XCX. It’s a fun, spicy conversation that had me laughing out loud to myself quite a bit.

Beth Novey adapted the Pop Culture Happy Hour segment "What's Making Us Happy" for the Web. If you like these suggestions, consider signing up for our newsletter to get recommendations every week. And listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.