Five YouTube Circuit-Breakers For Bad Days

Plus: 'Only Murders In The Building,' Amazon's new 'Cinderella,' and What's Making Us Happy [View this email online]( [Pop Culture Happy Hour]( by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when we learned [ABBA would be back](. It was the week when we learned [a couple of Tom Cruise characters would not be back]( as soon as we thought. And it was the week when the long and unhappy story of Mike Richards and Jeopardy! [finally seemed to end](. Let's get to it. Opening Argument: Five YouTube Circuit-Breakers For Bad Days I don't believe in hiding your head in the sand during bad news weeks, but I also don't believe in a 24-hour constant stream of uninterrupted panic, for the simple reason that I don't think your body and brain are meant to sustain that. I thought about that quite a bit this week, as a whole cascade of bad news -- we're still in a global pandemic that's nowhere near over, and it wasn't even the most upsetting thing that was on my mind -- threatened to swamp me. And as silly as it seems, it reminded me how helpful it can be just to have a few circuit-breakers handy. By circuit-breakers, I mean things that are just not connected to anything -- anything -- that worries me, and can interrupt the cycle of panic-Panic-PANIC-PANIC!! that really can get out of hand. So with no apologies, I give you five of my circuit-breakers from the category of "diverting YouTube channels." 1. [The photographer Jessica Kobeissi]( does a couple of different things on her channel. She talks about taking pictures, and she talks about equipment, and she talks about working with clients, and she takes you through the process of editing photos. But she also does reaction videos to episodes of America's Next Top Model and points out, in short, that this is not how you would ever do a photo shoot and these are not things you would ever say to models. 2. [The hair guru Brad Mondo]( starts every video coyly saying "Hi, beautiful," which is the kind of thing a lot of people can't stand about YouTube. I get it! But for some reason, I gradually became infatuated with his reaction videos where he watches the footage people for some reason choose to share with the public in which they attempt to bleach or color or cut their own hair at home. He's not afraid to congratulate people who are successful, and he gives actual concrete advice to people who aren't. He gave a lot of lessons during quarantine about how you can manage your own hair when you need to, and in general, I find him a delight. 3. I like a lot of food channels, but the one I've been into in [the last couple of weeks is Food52](. I'm particularly enamored of Erin McDowell's detailed, thorough baking demos, which can run upwards of an hour as she explains variations on pie crust or layer cakes. It's a restful but not soporific kind of watch, friendly but not wildly chipper. Food52 is also home to work from some of the chefs who left Bon Appetit's video operation in 2020, including Sohla El-Waylly and Rick Martinez. [I also love the NYT Cooking channel]( for the record. 4. [How To Cake It]( is the home of baker Yolanda Gampp. If you've seen those videos where a thing that looks like a real thing turns out to be a cake? She makes that kind of cake. A sneaker, a mango, a burger, whatever. Gampp recently stopped putting out new cake videos (and took a break to be a judge on Crime Scene Kitchen), but there are years of incredible creations to check out. 5. Wired and GQ are both good channels, but what I love is a series that's very similar on both of them. Wired calls it Technique Critique and GQ calls it The Breakdown, and it features experts looking at scenes from movies and saying how realistic they are. (For example, on The Breakdown, Free Solo subject Alex Honnold [talked about climbing scenes]( Over on Technique Critique, I'm a huge fan of surgeon Annie Onishi, whose dry wit brings a lot of flair to her opinionated [takes on medical shows and films](. The Breakdown also has medical stuff, though, including [the wildly charming Dr. Italo Brown]( who works in an ER, talking about movie injuries. --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- We Recommend: Sopranos expert and my pal Alan Sepinwall has started publishing coverage of the new film The Many Saints Of Newark over at Rolling Stone. Start with his [big digital cover story](. I think there will be a lot of chatter about the FX series [Impeachment: American Crime Story]( which starts Tuesday night. Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky, Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp … it’s a whole thing. Reviews are mixed. We’ll be talking about it on PCHH. Check it out for yourself, prosthetics and all. If you liked Michael Greyeyes on Rutherford Falls, [seek out the new film Wild Indian]( which is now streaming. It’s a thriller about the dangers of digging up the past, and while it’s not an easy watch, he’s terrific in it. What We Did This Week! [only murders image]( Craig Blankenhorn/ HULU On Monday's show, Glen, Aisha and our friend Tobin Low [talked about the beloved comedy]( Happy Endings. [On Tuesday's show]( Glen and the lovely Christina Tucker talked about the Marvel series What If...? On Wednesday's show, Glen and Aisha talked about [the Nicolas Cage movie]( Pig. On Thursday's show, we shared [an encore of our episode]( about high school required reading. [And on Friday's show]( Stephen talked to Daisy Rosario, Mallory Yu, and Laura Sirikul about Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings. As always, I wrote about [this week's episode of Ted Lasso](. I also wrote about [Amazon's new Camila Cabello Cinderella]( which is ... odd. Glen [liked the new Hulu series]( Only Murders In The Building. And Glen was [a little more charmed than he expected]( to be by Q-Force. What's Making Us Happy: Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: - What's making Mallory happy: [The Legend of Auntie Po By Shing Yin Khor]( - What's making Daisy happy: [The “play something” feature]( on Netflix and [Fifty Shades of Grey]( - What's making Laura happy: [The Ted Lasso episode "The Signal"]( and [Sparking Joy]( - What's making Stephen happy: [Madi Diaz’s album History of a Feeling]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. --------------------------------------------------------------- What do you think of today's email? 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