
Stephen Thompson
Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
In 1993, Thompson founded The Onion's entertainment section, The A.V. Club, which he edited until December 2004. In the years since, he has provided music-themed commentaries for NPR programs such as Weekend Edition, All Things Considered and Morning Edition, on which he earned the distinction of becoming the first member of the NPR Music staff ever to sing on an NPR newsmagazine. (Later, the magic of AutoTune transformed him from a 12th-rate David Archuleta into a fourth-rate Cher.) Thompson's entertainment writing has also run in Paste magazine, The Washington Post and The London Guardian.
During his tenure at The Onion, Thompson edited the 2002 book The Tenacity Of The Cockroach: Conversations With Entertainment's Most Enduring Outsiders (Crown) and copy-edited six best-selling comedy books. While there, he also coached to a sizzling 21-42 record, and was once outscored 72-0 in a span of 10 innings. Later in life, Thompson redeemed himself by teaming up with the small gaggle of fleet-footed twentysomethings who won the 2008 NPR Relay Race, a triumph he documents in a hard-hitting essay for the book This Is NPR: The First Forty Years (Chronicle).
A 1994 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Thompson now lives in Silver Spring, Md., with his girlfriend, his daughter, their three cats and a room full of vintage arcade machines. (He also has a large adult son who has headed off to college but still calls once in a while.) Thompson's hobbies include watching reality television without shame, eating Pringles until his hand has involuntarily twisted itself into a gnarled claw, using the size of his Twitter following to assess his self-worth, touting the immutable moral superiority of the Green Bay Packers (who returned the favor by making a 22-minute documentary about his life) and maintaining a fierce rivalry with all Midwestern states other than Wisconsin.
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We asked PCHH listeners to vote for the best Muppet. Nearly 20,000 votes later, here's your top 25, with accompanying commentary by Linda, Stephen, Aisha and Glen.
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Watch the pop superstar and his band perform four songs from the forthcoming Justice, including a world premiere of "Peaches."
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Members of the NPR Music team this week have been previewing the new music out this year. Another member of the team spotlights two of the albums he's looking forward to hearing.
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NPR's Michel Martin talks with Aisha Harris, host of the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, and NPR Music's Stephen Thompson, about how the events of 2020 have forever changed the entertainment industry.
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The Biden administration's pick for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is a musician who's released two songs on Spotify under the name "ABlinken."
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The namesake of rock band Van Halen dazzled a generation of guitar fans with his flashy solos and trademark finger tapping.
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It was Lady Gaga's night, BTS finally got its due, Keke Palmer impressively hosts and the lines between "live performances" and "music videos" were blurred like never before.
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Billie Eilish used some of her signature video magic to perform in front of the Tiny Desk from the comfort of her own home.
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Houston, the only woman included in the 2020 class of a male-dominated institution, will be joined by Biggie Smalls, Nine Inch Nails, The Doobie Brothers, T. Rex and Depeche Mode.
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Backed by a band assembled just for this occasion, the breakthrough pop icon performs three joyfully showy songs from Cuz I Love You.