Pantomime, or panto, is a family comedy filled with fairy tales, music, slapstick and audience participation and is a holiday season staple across the UK. This year, one production is selling out a retelling of "Snow White" that blends classic panto with Muslim culture and humor, and even teases its online trolls. Independent Television News correspondent Minnie Stephenson reports. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy
In this special holiday week episode, Mike sits down with comedian Alex Edelman, fresh off a Tony Award for his show Just For Us and a spot on the Time 100 list. They discuss the "liquid dynamics" of a Comedy Cellar audience, the art of bombing while testing new material, and why jokes about the Israel-Gaza conflict are the hardest tightrope in comedy right now. Edelman explains why comedy thrives in doubt rather than certainty, how he uses "invisible pillars" to structure a narrative, and why he believes a joke should be "conversant with the moment, not beholden to it." Plus, Mike offers a critique of the mockumentary format glut in modern sitcoms.
With Christmas Day missile strikes on sites linked to the Islamic State group, we hear from a Catholic priest in Nigeria.
Also in the programme: a BBC Persian TV documentary, in which one of Iran’s leading female actors renounces the compulsory hijab, has broken viewing records; and we look ahead to some of the more unusual sports in next year's Winter Olympics.
(Photo: A man standing amid a destroyed building following US strikes in Nigeria's Kwara State. Credit: REUTERS/Abdullahi Dare Akogun)
OA1219 - This year we are celebrating Boxing Day by not doing whatever people are supposed to do on Boxing Day and talking about weed instead. Did Donald Trump really just finish out 2025 by doing something good for US drug policy? We hotbox some Time Machine to revisit Matt’s analysis from last May of Joe “Grandaddy Purple” Biden’s announcement that he was initiating the long process to have the federal government to reclassify OG Kush from its current legal status as Green Crack down to the same category as metabolic steroids. We then return to the present to check in on the weirdly unreported story on how Biden’s efforts went from Blue Dream to Trainwreck in the year after his big announcement before evaluating Trump’s chances of turning cannabis policy Panama Red.
Finally, in a seasonal footnote Matt shares the story of how the city of Boston fired the first shots on the War on Christmas… in 1659.
Biden DOJ's analysis of legal questions around plans to redesignate cannabis to Schedule III
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In 2025, the crack team of intrepid presenters here on CrowdScience have been on some incredible adventures. They’ve wondered whether water is wet, and gone a hunt for a missing tangerine. They’ve wondered why animals swallow rocks, imagined what would happen if the earth spun backwards and pondered whether atoms are immortal.
But, as the year draws to a close, Anand Jagatia is wondering… have they REALLY been paying attention? Time to put them to the test!
In this special programme, Anand gathers the other four presenters into a studio together – Caroline, Alex, Marnie and Chhavi, for an end-of-year quiz – and you can join in at home!
Presenters: Anand Jagatia, Caroline Steel, Alex Lathbridge, Marnie Chesterton and Chhavi Sachdev
Producer: Emily Knight
Editor: Ben Motley
(Photo: CrowdScience presenters in the studio with purple background Credit: BBC)
Hey smarties! We’re taking a short break for the holidays. In the meantime, enjoy this bonus episode on one of Kimberly’s favorite topics: anime!
Anime had a big year in 2025. The animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” broke Netflix’s record for most-watched movie on the streaming platform. And “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle" became the top-grossing international film ever at the North American box office. When “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” debuted in theaters earlier this year, Kimberly spoke with Crunchyroll’s executive vice president of global commerce Mitchel Berger about the strategy behind the film’s release and the future of anime content.
