MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Arts & Culture Stories from NPR

• How McKinsey cashed in by consulting for both companies and their regulators
  When McKinsey Comes to Town authors Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe say the consulting firm helped companies boost tobacco and opioid sales — while at the same time working for the FDA.
• Billy Eichner says straight people 'just didn't show up for Bros' at the box office
  The film is the first gay romantic comedy with a mostly LGBTQ cast to be given a wide release by a major studio. It took in a disappointing $4.8 million in its first weekend.
• SEC charges Kim Kardashian for unlawfully touting crypto on her Instagram account
  The reality TV star hawked a crypto token on her Instagram account without telling her hundreds of millions of followers she'd been paid to do so.
• My Ikea obsession led me to a super-fan's paradise in rural Sweden
  Ikea's unyielding sameness is a stabilizing force in my life — but I wanted novelty anyway, at any cost. So I traveled thousands of miles to the Ikea Museum.
• 'The Hero of This Book' is a lightly fictionalized memoir that examines devotion
  Elizabeth McCracken promised her mom she'd never write about her. But this work of fiction strives to conjure her up in order to prevent her from "evanescing."
• Sacheen Littlefeather, who gave Marlon Brando's Oscar rejection speech, dies at 75
  In 1973, Littlefeather provided one of the most dramatic moments in Oscar history: Offering Brando's regrets for refusing the award because of Hollywood's treatment and portrayal of Native Americans.
• 'House of the Dragon' recap episode 7: Just you and eye
  On the 7th episode of HBO's Game of Thrones spin-off, guests at a funeral express their grief through sex and violence. Fantasy royals: they're just like us!
• Emmy-Award winning puppeteer David Bizzaro goes on the road with Mochi
  NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Bizzaro, the voice of Mochi from Netflix's Waffles and Mochi.
• 'Saturday Night Live' returns and shows that a lot of rebuilding is underway
  Judging by the relentlessly average, borderline uninspired season opening episode, this 48th season of SNL is off to a bumpy start, writes our critic Eric Deggans.
• Stampede at a soccer stadium in Indonesia is the latest deadly incident with crowds
  Panic and a rush for the exit left at least 125 dead, most of whom were trampled, after the game. Here's a look at some of the major crowd disasters in recent decades.