Cozy fall recommendations

Fall is in the air and you need stuff to watch and listen to and read as you curl up under the blanket and settle in. We’ve got you covered with some under the radar picks that are, as the kids say, giving autumn. We talk about: Over the Garden Wall, The Guest, books by Josephine Tey and Helene Hanff, and the music of Connie Converse and The Weakerthans. Looking for more cozy recommendations? Check out these episodes: Little House on the Prairie https://www.npr.org/2026/07/14/nx-s1-5888602/little-house-on-the-prairie In Tina Fey’s ‘The Four Seasons,’ marriage is far from a vacation https://www.npr.org/2026/05/28/nx-s1-5836363/in-tina-feys-the-four-seasons-marriage-is-far-from-a-vacation Connect with Pop Culture Happy Hour: Letterboxd https://letterboxd.com/nprpopculture/ / Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pchh Our weekly newsletter https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org http://plus.npr.org/. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:15Glen Weldon?

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• 0:37Speaker 02

  I don't know why cozy has a British accent for me. All I can say is it does, and I doubt I'm alone.

• 0:43Glen Weldon?

  No.

• 0:47Glen Weldon?

  Fall is in the air. The weather is crisp. The leaves are crunchy. The apple cider is hot and spiced and maybe even spiked. That's up to you. You've set out some Stilton and walnuts. There's a roaring fire to ward off the nighttime chill. You need stuff to watch and listen to and read as you curl up under the blanket. Settle in and get cozy. We've got some under the radar picks that are, as the kids say, giving autumn. I'm Glen Weldon, and joining me today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is my co-host, Stephen Thompson. Hey, Stephen, happy fall.

• 1:17Stephen Thompson?

  Hello, Glenn.

• 1:19Glen Weldon?

  Also joining us is Margaret H. Willison. She's a culture writer who is also teaching a class about Jane Austen. Hey, Margaret.

• 1:25Speaker 02

  It's a pleasure to be here and cozy with you both.

• 1:27Glen Weldon?

  Yeah, let's cozy it up. This is a pretty straightforward brief, right? Just to let folks know, though, these things that we're recommending, they, let's not get too literal. Look, they may or may not be set during the fall season. They may or may not be about the fall. We are talking vibes here. What we're looking for is cozy, autumnal vibes. Margaret, kick us off.

• 1:47Speaker 02

  So I think the role of mystery novels as convalescent literature is somewhat well established. It's a little counterintuitive, right? Because how can something be cozy when there's a murder?

• 1:58Stephen Thompson?

  And yet, there's cottage industry.

• 2:01Speaker 02

  Look, if you're setting cozy, if your character's cozy, if your vibe's cozy, even if there's a murder, sometimes all that does is reify the coziness.

• 2:12Glen Weldon?

  Okay.

• 2:13Speaker 02

  Right? Because the bad people have been contained and expelled from the cozy atmosphere. Evil has been vanquished. That is what I feel happens in what I would say is the coziest thriller I've ever read, Brat Farah by Josephine Tay.

• 2:27Glen Weldon?

  Okay.

• 2:28Speaker 02

  So Josephine Tay is a under-known, under-read part of the British golden age of mystery writing. Brat Farah is one of her two standalone novels. In this one, a fine, upstanding orphan comes to London to make a name for himself, and he meets Rapsgallion from a rural area who realizes he looks exactly like the missing presumed dead heir of a fine horse farm in rural England.

• 2:59Stephen Thompson?

  This thing's getting cozier and cozier.

• 3:01Speaker 02

  So cozy, but also very thrilling. So he would never, as a noble and upstanding person, usually partake of something like this. But he just so happens to passionately love horses. Against his better judgment, he is tempted into the farce. He goes back and pretends to be the heir, the missing presumed dead heir, missing, no longer, now presumed alive. But his younger, quote unquote, twin brother, weirdly, not at all happy to see him. Weirdly, the only person who doesn't seem taken in by his extremely convincing portrayal of the dead heir.

• 3:37Glen Weldon?

  Okay.

• 3:37Speaker 02

  What could be behind that? You have to read the book to find out.

• 3:40Glen Weldon?

  Okay.

• 3:42Glen Weldon?

  Can you explain something to me? What does the title mean? Is that a guy's name?

• 3:44Speaker 02

  Yes, that is the name of the orphan in question. That is the name he was given as an orphan, Brat Farah.

• 3:50Glen Weldon?

  Okay, all right.

• 3:52Stephen Thompson?

  Okay.

• 3:52Glen Weldon?

  Brat Farah. All right, that's a great and exceedingly cozy pick. Thank you very much.

• 3:57Speaker 02

  And a gateway to more Josephine Tay, all of which is excellent. And it's that right point of abundance, right? Where it's like, not so many that you're like, well, they're all the same. I'm overwhelmed just thinking about it. But not so few that you worry you'll run out if you really fall in love.

• 4:14Glen Weldon?

  Okay, right. All right.

• 4:16Stephen Thompson?

  I like this because part of what we're doing here is discoveries. It's not just like, I like pumpkin spice lattes and Agatha Christie.

• 4:22Speaker 02

  Right.

• 4:23Stephen Thompson?

  We're talking about discoveries. I love that.

• 4:25Glen Weldon?

  All right. Now, Stephen, your discovery, even if I didn't have the prep doc open, I would know that for this particular episode, you're going to prick some pretty sad songs. Hit me.

• 4:37Stephen Thompson?

  Now, Glenn, I did pick two, spoiler, both of my picks are music.

• 4:42Glen Weldon?

  Uh huh.

• 4:43Stephen Thompson?

  I went one happy, one sad.

• 4:45Glen Weldon?

  Okay.

• 4:45Stephen Thompson?

  Because fall contains multitudes.

• 4:48Glen Weldon?

  There you go.

• 4:48Stephen Thompson?

  But, you know, I also played a type. When I think of coziness and chilly fall days, I think of my favorite thing. Glen Weldon, what is my favorite thing? My favorite thing is melancholy.

• 5:00Glen Weldon?

  There we go.

• 5:02Stephen Thompson?

  And when I think about music for a melancholy fall day, I think of the brilliant, still grossly under-discovered folk singer Connie Converse, who was a pioneer in many ways. Her story's worth reading in more detail than I'm going to get into here, but she was singing folk songs in New York City in the early 1950s, well before folk music blew up there. She was an academic. She was an activist. She was ahead of her time in many ways. She finally, though, gave up on music in the early 60s and left New York. And shortly after her 50th birthday in 1974, she disappeared and was never seen or heard from again, making her this figure of mystery.

• 5:47Stephen Thompson?

  And about 20 years ago, the historian and public radio DJ David Garland helped bring her to the world's attention. In the years since, she's developed something of a cult following. There have been reissues and tributes kind of rolling out ever since. And I have to say, the music itself is stunning. It is very autumnal. It is haunting and sweet and beautiful. As you will hear in this passage from her signature song, "How Sad, How Lovely."

• 6:19Speaker 04

  Like the fall of a leaf. How sad, how lovely, how green.

• 6:37Glen Weldon?

  All right, bonus points for actually mentioning "The Fall of a Leaf."

• 6:41Stephen Thompson?

  Yes.

• 6:42Glen Weldon?

  Absolutely.

• 6:43Stephen Thompson?

  That was certainly the line that immediately caused this song to jump to mind when I was thinking about this topic. But the whole song and her whole body of work as it exists in the world feels like it's in conversation with the seasons and the changing of the seasons and what that feels like and how that affects us. This music is melancholy. It is beautiful. How sad, how lovely. That is Connie Converse. If you haven't spent time with her music, pour yourself a pot of tea. Get ready to stare into the middle distance, baby.

• 7:16Glen Weldon?

  This is it. This is it. I don't have a sweater now, but if I did, I would listen to that. I would roll the sleeves all the way down and grasp a comically oversized cup of tea and stare out to the window.

• 7:27Speaker 02

  Using the sleeves of your sweater as an insulation between you and the mug.

• 7:31Glen Weldon?

  That's exactly it. That's why you got the long sleeves. Yeah.

• 7:33Stephen Thompson?

  And to blot your tears.

• 7:35Glen Weldon?

  And to.

• 7:36Speaker 02

  I don't know that Glenn's crying, but he could use it to blot your tears, Stephen.

• 7:41Stephen Thompson?

  Thank you. Yes, that's the dream.

• 7:43Glen Weldon?

  In my head, I'm always crying. Okay. My first pick, it's not a discovery, I'm afraid. It's not under the radar. But I picked it because I know our listeners, and I suspect it's a lot of our listeners' go-to pick as soon as they heard "Autumnal Vibes." And I picked it because if we let this episode go and not one of us mentioned the animated series "Over the Garden Wall," our listeners would come at us with torches and pitchforks. And they have every right to, because this show's entire vibe, its entire reason for being is the fall. Do you guys know the show?

• 8:17Speaker 02

  I am familiar, but I have not watched it, so.

• 8:18Glen Weldon?

  Oh, man.

• 8:19Stephen Thompson?

  And Glenn, I gotta say, I've heard of it. I've never seen it.

• 8:23Glen Weldon?

  Oh, man, you have to correct that about yourself immediately. It's about these two half-brothers, Wirt and Greg, voiced by Elijah Wood and Colin Dean. They get lost in a magical forest and have to find their way home. This show exists at the overlap of the Venn diagram of cozy and creepy AF. It is also surprisingly emotional in ways that I think would appeal to both of you, the emotions that kind of sneak up on you. Wirt is a worrier. He's just a ball of anxiety. He's very indecisive. His little brother Greg is just a naive, hopeful goon. The voice acting is very naturalistic. The world of the show becomes more, I would say, emotionally complex as it goes than the art style might indicate.

• 9:07Glen Weldon?

  I mean, the character art's very simplistic. It becomes a show about depression in a way, and not everyone they meet on their journey is going to help them. That's a good lesson for kids to learn, I think. Sometimes Wirt is right, and the world lets him down. And sometimes Greg is right. And kindness is met with kindness. The greatest thing about the show is that you can burn through it all in one sitting. There are only 10 episodes. They're each about 11 minutes long.

• 9:30Stephen Thompson?

  Oh, wow.

• 9:30Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 9:31Glen Weldon?

  But man, this show, get out some stinky cheese and some walnuts and just settle in. This is autumn distilled to its essence. Once again, that's "Over the Garden Wall." It's available on Disney Plus, Hulu and Prime Video.

• 9:43Stephen Thompson?

  Wow. I think we should throw a party. It's just the three of us. And we just take turns. Will, you listen to the music of Connie Converse. I'll watch this show, and I guess Margaret can read to us from some book.

• 9:57Glen Weldon?

  That would be awesome.

• 9:58Speaker 02

  I mean, that sounds incredible. Glenn, I'm sure your cabin's available.

• 10:02Glen Weldon?

  Absolutely. You know, it doesn't sound like a party, though. And I don't think it's the right word. I don't think "party" is the right word. A wallow, maybe. A little wallow. Well, we've got a few more cozy recommendations after the break.

• 10:16Speaker 00

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• 10:49Glen Weldon?

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• 11:21Speaker 00

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• 11:37Glen Weldon?

  All right, Margaret, we are back. Hit us with your next pick.

• 11:40Speaker 02

  It's convenient that Stephen mentioned reading aloud because I am going to read a little bit of the book I'm about to recommend aloud. But first, let me set the table. This is 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hampf. Right? And this is the thing. If you've read this book, you're like, oh, my god, that book, of course. What a treasure. And if you've never heard of it, you're like, what is she talking about? So this is a collection of letters between underpaid script reader in mid-century New York who is self-educated and desperate to get, like, good, clean scholarly editions of books she can't find for some reason in America.

• 12:21Speaker 02

  She finds a bookstore in London at 84 Charing Cross Road, Marks & Company booksellers, and they have a lot of the titles she's looking for at prices that seem reasonable. And so she begins corresponding with them to order her books. And this blooms into a profound friendship between Helene and all of the people who work at the shop in post-war London, where they're still recovering from, you know, the devastation of World War II and the Blitz and all of those good things. I don't know why cozy has a British accent for me. All I can say is it does, and I doubt I'm alone. This could sound very dull, but what you need to understand is that Helene is a firecracker.

• 13:05Speaker 02

  And to demonstrate that, I'm going to read you the fourth or fifth letter in the book. Helene has requested a Latin Bible because she, of course, as an autodidact, is learning Latin from a tutor she's paying, and she's received something she didn't entirely expect. Also, just a quick note about the wording here. Black Protestant, you might think that means Black, capital B, American Church. It doesn't. What it's referring to is the Imperial Grand Black Chapter of the British Commonwealth. So we have 14 East 95th Street, November 18, 1949. What kind of Black Protestant Bible is this?

• 13:49Speaker 02

  Kindly inform the Church of England that they have loused up the most beautiful prose ever written. Whoever told them to tinker with the vulgate Latin? They'll burn for it. You mark my words. It's nothing to me, I'm Jewish myself, but I have a Catholic sister-in-law, a Methodist sister-in-law, a whole raft of Presbyterian cousins through my great-uncle Abraham, who converted, and an aunt who's a Christian Science healer. And I like to think none of them would countenance this Anglican Latin Bible if they knew it existed. As it happens, they don't know Latin existed. And it continues on from there. You have brash American, brashing Americanly. You have reserved Brits, reserving Britishly, but slowly but surely becoming friends over

• 14:34Speaker 02

  the course of a 20-year period of correspondence. So this is real correspondence. These are the actual letters. It's something you'll read in under an hour, and it's so wonderful. And much like Josephine Tay, once you've read one Helene Hampf book, this collection of letters, you can go on to read all of her other writing. She has an incredible memoir about being, quote-unquote, "underfoot in show business" that has great anecdotes about the premiere of the show, the Rodgers and Hammerstein play Oklahoma, which was not considered a likely hit. And she has a number of travel memoirs. She got to write on the strength of this about London, New York, and other places.

• 15:16Speaker 02

  She is consistently a delight to read, and you will passionately enjoy this book.

• 15:22Glen Weldon?

  Now, Margaret, the only reason I have read this book is because of the 1987 film, 84 Charing Cross Road, starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. Are you familiar with the movie?

• 15:33Speaker 02

  I am familiar with the movie. It is an adaptation of a stage play that was based on this show. And it has the virtues and sins of a book of letters adapted into a stage play adapted into a film, which is very static, but the casting is impeccable. Anthony Hopkins as the head bookseller of Marks & Company, Frank Doyle, is exquisite. And Anne Bancroft, you couldn't get a better Helene if you tried.

• 15:58Glen Weldon?

  Cozy, reserved, stiff-upper-lip British.

• 16:02Speaker 02

  100%.

• 16:02Stephen Thompson?

  With notes of fussiness and pedantry.

• 16:05Speaker 02

  It's also so fun to me because it has such great, like, material details about what it was like to be alive right then, both in Manhattan, when poor people could still afford to live there, and in London, when it was recovering from the Blitz. And it's like, you know, she has to order food for them through, like, a Danish package company because the Danes have ample food that isn't limited by rationing, whereas the Brits are also living under rationing. And so, like, getting a real egg is this incredible gift for them. And all these other things that I find just extremely cozy because they really ground me in the place and time being discussed. I think you will passionately enjoy this book, which is 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hampf.

• 16:48Glen Weldon?

  That is a perfect pick. I think when I saw that you had picked this, I was like, well, that is the coziest damn thing. I can imagine.

• 16:56Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 16:56Glen Weldon?

  Now, Stephen, you gave us the sad song, "It Said So Much." You got a happy song for us now. What's the happy song?

• 17:03Stephen Thompson?

  Yeah, well, so I grew up in a small town in central Wisconsin. I've certainly discussed this on the show before. Central to a lot of my autumnal memories is the feel of small-town bars. My parents were not big drinkers. They didn't spend a lot of time in bars. But if you've lived in a small town in Wisconsin, you know just what the bars there feel like. And a song that conjures the feel of a small-town northern bar in chilly weather, my mind immediately goes to the wonderful Canadian band, The Weaker Thans, and this song from 2007 called "Tournament of Hearts."

• 18:04Stephen Thompson?

  Hard song to excerpt in part because this song is laden with references to curling. That last line, "I'm always throwing hack weight," is a reference to curling. The song is, like, set in a dirtbag Canadian bar, and it absolutely transports you there. Lots of references to bottles and brown ones and rich, dense references to the sport of curling. And is there a country cozier than Canada? You might say England. Margaret might say England, but I'm going to say Canada. And particularly, like, just like a doofy, dirty bar in Winnipeg where this band is

• 18:47Stephen Thompson?

  from, The Weaker Thans songs are so full of detail. And I think that's part of what makes a work of art cozy. What makes a work of art feel kind of autumnal is you're, like, stopping and studying your surroundings. And there's something about a song like that that's so rich in detail, that is so transporting. And, you know, The Weaker Thans songs are full of references to curling, references to Canada, references to being kind of a frustrated academic. There's this specificity that runs through this band's songs and the songs of its wonderful singer, John K. Sampson. The Weaker Thans have been inactive for many years, and I'm just dying for more of their

• 19:32Stephen Thompson?

  music. They're wonderful. That is my favorite autumnal folk-pop punk band, The Weaker Thans.

• 19:40Glen Weldon?

  This song has a smell of, like, stale beer in a carpet.

• 19:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, but like, friends complimentary.

• 19:48Glen Weldon?

  Right, right.

• 19:49Stephen Thompson?

  Exactly.

• 19:50Glen Weldon?

  Familiar, cozy, exactly. All right, you nailed the brief. Of course, of course you did. All right. My last pick, I mean, I don't think it's cozy per se, but it's certainly autumnal. It's "The Guest," which is a 2014 thriller that stars Dan Stevens, who came to the world's attention, of course, as posh, blue-eyed, heartthrob Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey. And since leaving that show, Dan Stevens has, I think, arranged his career to be anything and everything but that. He's got a long IMDb page filled with weirdos. God love him. And here, this is very soon after Downton Abbey, he is playing a hot weirdo here, a

• 20:33Glen Weldon?

  guy who visits the family of a soldier who died in Afghanistan, claiming to be their son's best friend from his unit. He says he's there to help them out as a favor to their son. I'll just say, no spoilers, there is more to that story. And at first, he is very, very helpful, and he helps the family, and he does improve their lives, though he does tend to kill folk a lot. There is that.

• 20:53Stephen Thompson?

  A downside.

• 20:54Glen Weldon?

  A downside. He is, but I mean, he's so charming and helpful in the beginning. He's like if Mary Poppins were a sociopath, which, I mean, show me the lie. This turns into a really dark and very funny and very violent action film. It is set in a small town in the run up to Halloween. And just about every shot in it has a jack-o'-lantern somewhere in the background. And the whole climax of the film takes place at a school Halloween dance. It is a nasty piece of work, but the soundtrack is just about as Halloween as you can get. It's very kind of gothy, like Love and Rockets, Sisters of Mercy, Clan of Zymox. And I found this movie because I really liked the director, Adam Wingard's previous film. It was a horror movie called You're Next.

• 21:36Glen Weldon?

  Now, since he made this film, Wingard's gone a little Hollywood on us. He's made a couple Godzilla versus Kong movies. I mean, everybody's got to, everyone's got to feed their family, right? He has just now made another movie called Onslaught, which also stars Dan Stevens. And it's reportedly set in this guest universe. I haven't seen it, but I am certainly going to cozy, I don't know, but like Halloween autumnal through and through. That is the 2014 movie, The Guest, which is available to rent and buy on VOD.

• 22:08Speaker 02

  I love that we both have stories about imposters.

• 22:11Glen Weldon?

  That's true.

• 22:12Speaker 02

  But different flavors. It's like if you want imposter, comma, happy ending, you can read my book. If you want imposter, comma, sinister ending, Glenn's got you covered.

• 22:22Glen Weldon?

  There you go.

• 22:24Glen Weldon?

  Isn't that always the way?

• 22:25Speaker 02

  Isn't it just?

• 22:27Glen Weldon?

  I don't want to say on type. I don't want to say on brand, but I'll say on brand.

• 22:31Stephen Thompson?

  What is cozier than us being on brand?

• 22:33Glen Weldon?

  Exactly. That's, it's again.

• 22:35Stephen Thompson?

  The comfort of the familiar.

• 22:37Glen Weldon?

  The comfort of familiar. And you nailed it. And that is a great place to end because you have just encapsulated what cozy means. That brings us to the end of our show. Margaret H. Willis and Stephen Thompson, thank you so much for being here.

• 22:48Stephen Thompson?

  Thank you.

• 22:49Speaker 02

  Glenn, it's been a pleasure.

• 22:50Glen Weldon?

  This episode was produced by Hafsa Fathama, Liz Metzger, and Mike Katz. It's been edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. And Hello, Kimin provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Glen Weldon, and we'll see you all next time.

• 23:08Speaker 05

  Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors.

• 23:12Speaker 00

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• 23:28Speaker 05

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