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Episode Date: April 23, 2025

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At NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we sort through a lot of television, and we've found some recent TV comedies we really like that you don't want to miss. And we'll tell you where to watch them in one handy guide. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he'll be spending less time in the Trump administration, but that his government work will continue. Musk spoke to investors and analysts late Tuesday after shares in his Tesla company

posted a sharp drop in profits. NPR's Kamila Domenosky has more. Musk says Tesla's future profits rely on robo- taxis and humanoid robots, not anything as mundane as selling cars. And after a 71% drop in profits, he said the companies recovered from worse. Investors say they want Musk to focus more on Tesla, and he did announce he'd step back from the government, partially. I think I'll continue to spend, you know, a day or two per week on government matters for as long

as the president would like me to do so. He also said that protests against Tesla were paid for, which protest organizers deny, and that demand for Tesla vehicles remains strong despite a sharp drop in sales. Camila Dominovski, NPR News. Food and drug administration inspectors who examine factories around the world have been spared from federal layoffs this month. But NPR's Sydney Lufkin reports

that staffers supporting the inspectors were let go. FDA staffers responsible for handling travel arrangements for FDA inspectors are gone. They were cut as part of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s plan to eliminate thousands of workers from federal health agencies. Current and former FDA inspectors tell NPR that will slow down inspections and make the U.S. food and drug supply less safe. Chris Middendorf spent most of his 20 years at the FDA doing inspections.

What you don't want to see are basically operators touching their face, messing around with their mask, touching things with their hands they shouldn't be. But the only way you can see them is by standing outside the production window and watching for hours. HHS told NPR it's monitoring the situation and working to make sure inspections continue. Sydney Lepkin, NPR News. CBS's 60 Minutes is losing its executive producer. As NPR's Giles Snyder reports, the resignation comes

amid a battle with the Trump administration. Bill Owens did not explicitly cite President Trump for his decision to step down as 60 Minutes executive producer. In a note to staff, he said he is losing the freedom to run the show independently. Owens resigned amid President Trump's $20 billion lawsuit over an interview with then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and as CBS parent Paramount Global seeks FCC approval of a more than $8 billion merger deal with Skydance Media.

Giles Snyder reporting. Thousands of New Jersey residents have been forced to evacuate, and a section at the Garden State Parkway is closed because of an 8,000-acre wildfire burning in Ocean County. Authorities say more than 1,300 structures are threatened by the blaze, which is 10 percent contained. This is NPR. Gunmen have killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The attack occurred Tuesday in a meadow near the town of Pathalgam, a popular area surrounded

by snow-capped mountains and pine forests. Local officials say attacks on civilians in the area are rare. Police are searching for the assailants, who they believe are militants fighting Indian rule. For the second time in four years, a jury has found that the New York Times did not slander former vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin. Bruce Conviser has more from New York.

It took a jury just two hours to decide in favor of the New York Times. At root was whether the Times had defamed the former governor of Alaska in a 2017 editorial. The editorial claimed there was a connection between a Palin political action committee mapped with gun imagery and the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in 2011. The Times quickly acknowledged the error and corrected it, but Palin wasn't satisfied. The case first went to trial in 2022. The jury then also found in favor of the Times, but an appeals court throughout the verdict on procedural grounds.

There was no immediate word on whether Palin would appeal the latest verdict. For NPR News, I'm Bruce Conveyser in New York. Danielle Pletka The Supreme Court's conservative justices appear to be leaning towards parents in a dispute with the school system in Montgomery County, Maryland. It issues whether students may opt out of classes that teach materials that run counter to their parents' beliefs. A group of parents sued to remove their children from elementary school classes that use storybooks with LGBTQ characters. This is NPR News. Black Panther finds Michael B. Jordan playing twin brothers. It's got vampires, it's got great music, and it's a fun one

to see with a big crowd. This is the most excited I've been about a movie in a very long time. We'll tell you why you should see Sinners on the biggest screen you can. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR.