Linda Holmes
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.
Holmes was a writer and editor at Television Without Pity, where she recapped several hundred hours of programming — including both High School Musical movies, for which she did not receive hazard pay. Her first novel, Evvie Drake Starts Over, will be published in the summer of 2019.
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Sit down with pop culture critic Linda Holmes as she watches the 2026 Winter Games. She is exhausted by cross-country, says "ow ow ow" during moguls, and makes the case, once and for all, for curling. -
The first season of The Pitt was about acute problems. The second is about chronic ones. -
Up First Winter Games brings you the latest news and culture from the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. -
Sinners landed a record number of nods, while Avatar: Fire and Ash and Wicked: For Good fell short of their franchise predecessors. -
A TV version of The Rainmaker is out this week, which gave critic Linda Holmes as good a reason as any to rank the on-screen adaptations of John Grisham's legal novels. -
For a night with relatively few surprises but some very enjoyable winners, it was a solid show that honored an awful lot of good movies, and movies that drew significant audiences. -
Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: You're the Worst, 60 Songs that Explain the '90s, and Little Moon wins the Tiny Desk. -
Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: The Menu, dancer Kim Hale, "Girlfriend" by Matthew Sweet, Drink Masters and more. -
Sunday night's Emmy Awards, which featured neither a large crowd nor a red carpet, managed to achieve a charming intimacy as Watchmen, Schitt's Creek andSuccession all won major awards. -
Thursday night's special may not have been a narrative necessity, but it was a welcome joy to visit with Leslie Knope, Ron Swanson and the rest of our old pals.
