The routine that arrives right on time

Plus: Muppets, Dungeons & Dragons, and descendants of kings [View this email online]( [Pop Culture Happy Hour]( by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when [Gwyneth Paltrow totally dominated legal news]( right? It was the week when [a hotly anticipated film]( moved a step closer to our eyeballs. And it was the week when we were reminded, yet again, that [no movie franchise is really over]( until it stops bringing in money. Let's get to it. The routine that arrives right on time I've been thinking a lot about habits — mine, and everyone else's. One of the things that made broadcast television work when I was growing up was the power of habit. My first memory of negotiating my bedtime with my parents was that once a week, they would let me stay up until 8:30 PM instead of going to bed at 8:00, and I could decide which night to do it. I used my precious extra half-hour once a week on Tuesdays, to stay up to watch Happy Days. Back then, you couldn’t stream Happy Days later, and you couldn't record it at home. You watched it or you missed it, and that inflexibility built habits, and those habits helped build audiences, and those audiences could be very faithful. This brings me to coffee. I struggle with a lot of routines I try to develop, but I am quite faithful to my morning coffee. I've had drip coffee machines large and small, I've had pour-over rigs, and I've had pod gizmos that removed the most obnoxious part of making coffee, which is dealing with coffee grounds. But recently, I've settled on a blue stainless-steel French press (I don't want to handle glass before 8:00 AM). Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, and Kieran Culkin in Succession/HBO MAX So the morning goes like this: Come downstairs. Put the water in the kettle, press the button to heat it. While it's heating, let the dog out. Grind the coffee. Put the coffee in the French press. When the water is hot, pour it into the press. It has to brew for four minutes. Set my watch with a four-minute timer. During those four minutes, I get my meds, and I set up the dog's meds on his spoon — mine go down with water, the dog's go down with bacon-flavored (and dog-specific) spray cheese. Usually, I have time to empty the dishwasher. Then I bring in and feed and give "cheese spoon" to the dog, and usually by then, the coffee is ready. I get two cups out of the press, which I often enjoy while watching YouTube, and then it's time to start the rest of the day. And then a few weeks ago, I found that through some terrible neglect of my own basic needs, I had run out of coffee beans. I felt my eyes widen like I was a cartoon character. People think it's the caffeine, but really it's the routine. I had disrupted one of the few constants I had been good about maintaining. What to do? And then I remembered that in my pantry, I had a jar of instant [Café Bustelo](. Nothing seemed more different from my fussy morning plan than instant coffee, but hey -- you make do. So I did something different, and the Café Bustelo mornings went like this: Boil water, add coffee. Intriguingly simple during a stressful time! And honestly, still coffee, still totally fine, tastes solid, still got the morning off to the correct start. There was only one problem: all the other pieces. When to give the dog his pills! When to empty the dishwasher! What order was anything supposed to go in? I stuck with the instant coffee until it was gone, just because it was so easy, and by then, I had to train myself to do the other thing all over again. It made me think about the fragility of viewing and listening habits. There's a reason HBO has tried so hard to maintain Sunday nights as its home. You can't really build a Succession habit, for instance, because it's not on enough of the time. But you can build an HBO Sunday habit. Podcasts and radio work this way, too, where it's challenging to build and benefit from habits in an increasingly choose-your-own-adventure entertainment and culture climate. Want to watch Happy Days? Watch it with breakfast! Or watch it on Saturday! Or save it all and watch it at the end of the season! It's chaos, my friends, it's chaos. Don't get me wrong; this can be a very good thing. I am not nostalgic for the limited options of my youth. I already told you I top off this routine-bound morning watching people listing the 20 Greatest Movie Twists on YouTube or whatever; you can bet your sweet bazoo I didn't have access to that as a 12-year-old. It's just a different arrangement of attention. If your routine was to sit with your partner or your parent at the same time, get the same snack, get under the same blanket, watch the same show, and have the same conversations, then it's nice to have the flexibility of doing it any time you want. It's easier; it's the instant coffee of TV. But just like you have to figure out when to give the dog the cheese spoon if not while the French press is brewing, you have to figure out how to keep the person, the blanket, the snack, and the conversations if you're not being pressed into the habit. It's not easy. As I write this, I think the dog needs his pill. --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- We Recommend If you [read this week about the dispute]( between Disney and Florida over a clause in a document that referred to the descendants of King Charles, you might enjoy my effort to search my brain for the details of [the Rule Against Perpetuities]( an effort that was only partly successful. (This explainer is for entertainment purposes only.) It's never the wrong time [to talk about]( Allison Jones. If you enjoy the very funny Alexandra Petri, I can wholeheartedly endorse [preordering her upcoming book]( US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up). As someone who grew up in Philadelphia and now lives in D.C., I very much appreciated her withering reference to the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787, and how the May-September period includes "the most fun months to be in Philadelphia wearing layers." A little bit of news we want to share: [The recent layoffs at NPR]( are affecting our show. Going forward, we’ll be in your feed four days a week. We promise it’s the same show you know and hopefully love, and we plan to make those four shows ones that you absolutely will not want to miss. What We Did This Week Hong Chau in The Night Agent/Netflix Stephen [talked to our wonderful producer]( Candice Lim (yaaaaaaay, Candice!) about some of the books about show business from NPR's Books We Love. I am always extra, extra happy when you get to hear the voices of some of the PCHH team that usually works on the other side of the microphone. Aisha and I [talked about]( the "we have to protect the president!" spy show The Night Agent. It was our pleasure [to encore our episode]( in which Stephen, Glen, Aisha and I all talked about our very favorite Muppets, as well as [the episode in which]( we shared the top Muppets as voted on by our listeners. More Muppet discourse! Aisha [reviewed the delightful romcom]( Rye Lane. It’s streaming on Hulu, and we'll be having a conversation about it on the show next week. Aisha also talked about [the show Swarm on All Things Considered](. And Glen [reviewed the inventive]( series The Big Door Prize, featuring the always charming Chris O'Dowd. The difference between song and record of the year at the Grammys can be confusing. [Stephen explained why on All Things Considered](. Glen reviewed the new adaptation of [Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves](. Finally, [Stephen and Glen talked about Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves]( with Planet Money's Wailin Wong and Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. (I try not to play favorites among episodes on which I do not appear, but I have to tell you, this episode is particularly wonderful and full of the joy I so very much needed. Thank you to these talkers, as well as producer Hafsa and editor Jessica.) 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: - Wailin Wong: [Studio Ghibli Fest]( - Sam Yellowhorse Kesler: [Succession]( and [the associated Planet Money episode]( - Glen Weldon: [Marvel Snap]( - Stephen Thompson: [Tournament of Champions]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. [Find a Station]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+](. Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free episodes. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [pchh@npr.org](mailto:pchh@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can [sign up here](. Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Pop Culture Happy Hour emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( [NPR logo]