pop culture primer: 4.7.26
It’s been a minute since I did one of these, and since I have no pub news to report, I thought I’d give a quick round-up of some recent pop culture happenings
The moon!
I know what you’re thinking. The moon isn’t pop culture, the moon is culture. And yes, you’re right. Except, it’s also pop culture (this could also go deeper because pop culture is culture etc etc but this is not a thesis, at least not today), because of course, Taylor Swift is involved in the Artemis II launch in several ways.
Members of the crew were wearing friendship bracelets and making heart hands on the cam yesterday, and NASA itself changed its Instagram bio to “in our moon era,” not to mention the NASA reply to the (in)famous Travis Kelce moon tweet from 2010—with a Taylor lyric.
Hello to the Swiftie working socials at NASA, let’s be besties 🫶🏻
That’s a real fucking legacy.
Cinema is back
Ever since Covid, movies have, understandably, taken a huge hit. I haven’t been to the movies a lot, mostly because I have two kids, and have you seen the prices to take a family of four to the theaters—not even counting snacks?
But big things are happening! Times are changing! The first quarter of 2026 has been the biggest since the pandemic started.
We’ve had some big movies come out swinging, namely, Project Hail Mary, Mario Galaxy, and Avatar.
I myself went to the theater last weekend and saw The Drama, an original A24 movie with Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, and while I’m not going to spoil anything (because it’s one you want to go into knowing nothing about the movie, trust me), I had such a good time. It was timely, the dialogue and pacing were perfection, the plot was original, and it sparked some really good conversation. In short, it was everything I wanted in a movie.
It comes down to this: people want to go to movies that make them feel things: love, fear, hope. They want movies written by real people who experience real emotions, who are putting their heart and soul into the work. They don’t want slop. Give people a reason to go to the movies, and they’ll go.
A meeting of the minds
In what was very important to me, Twitter personality Bald Ann Dowd finally got to meet actress Ann Dowd. I don’t know if anyone else cares except me—I couldn’t even find an article on it—but when this popped up on my timeline, I was genuinely moved. I’m so happy for Bald Ann Dowd.
Mormon Wives
The Mormon wife/Bachelorette discourse is over and I’m not touching it with a ten-foot pole, except to say, when I was in NYC last month, I did see Whitney, Connor, Demi, and Brett on the street literal days before the news about Taylor broke and I wonder how much they knew at that point.
ALSO! It’s Tuesday, which means there are some amazing new books out that I want to highlight:
A Killer in the Family, a family drama about rich people behaving badly, by my friend and writing group member Amin Ahmad
Yesteryear, about a trad wife that has one of the best twists I’ve read lately by Caro Claire Burke
The Write Off, a contemporary romance I can’t wait to get my hands on, but have heard amazing things about by the lovely Kara McDowell
Found Time, an 831 Stories novella and second-chance romance by Carolina Goldstein
