The 2026 Pop Culture Interest Index

By Ryan O'Connell on 01/05/2026 • ( 0 )

Last night, a friend and I were talking about what lies ahead. It’s a natural conversation to have in early January, although with this Venezuela thing having happened earlier in the day, the conversation had more of an ominous tone and air of uncertainty than these conversations typically have.

In short, shit got a bit dark.

2026, in general, could end up being a bit of a dark year, and we’ll all be forced to respond accordingly, whether that’s via activism, black humor, painful acceptance, or some combination of all three. Or drinking or weed. Or those mixed with the others, and yeah, you get the idea. Shit’s gonna get weird, and in the words of Hunter S. Thompson, “when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

I would like to think the weird also looks for distractions and ways to balance out the darkness. That’s where our good friends in pop culture come in. 2026 is full of movies, TV shows, and albums coming out that all have the potential to tip the scales, and there are other events such as the Winter Olympics and the World Cup to look forward to. Yes, the specter of Trump and his goon squad looms large over everything, but even with that in mind, there are ways to find humor and joy in the madness.

Here are ten 2026 happenings that I’m interested in.

A New Album From The Roots

It has been over ten years since The Legendary Roots Crew released a new album, with And Then You Shoot Your Cousin having come out all the way back in 2014. Since then, they have largely kept busy as the house band for The Tonight Show and have been casually touring. Questlove is making documentaries, and Black Thought has seemingly collaborated with everyone besides his long-time partner in crime. You could be forgiven for now just believing we would never get another record from the group.

But alas, 2026 might be the year, kids. Throughout 2025, Questlove gave multiple interviews where he talked about how the band was currently recording, inundated with songs, materials, and guest spots. And sure, that’s cool, but talking is one thing; action is another. Fans of The Roots don’t want talking anymore. They want action.

Well, this album has a title, End Game, and in August, Questlove said they were shooting for an early 2026 release.

Call me cautiously optimistic, but optimistic nonetheless.

The Giddy Up America Interest Index Rating: 7.3

The 2026 World Cup

The World Cup might be my favorite sporting event, beating out the baseball playoffs and watching my youngest daughter run laps around the dining room table when she’s in what we affectionately call wrecking ball mode. Both the men’s and women’s World Cups are just a lot of fun, and in the summer of 2026, the World Cup is here in good old North America, which means any issues with time zones are pretty minimal. We won’t have to deal with games super early in the morning or way late at night, and for the most part, we should be able to catch most of them at a somewhat reasonable hour.

We love reasonable hours. They’re easily the best of the hours out there.

The Men’s World Cup is always a touch bittersweet for us Americans, as our dudes aren’t really the most competitive on an international stage. Rarely do they make it out of the group stage, and if they do, any celebrations are short-lived as they’re not really around the Knockout Stage for very long. It actually kind of seems like the current squad is lucky they get an automatic bid as one of the home teams, or else they might have missed the tournament altogether.

Whatever though, the World Cup is damn good fun and check your American exceptionalism at the door because it’s more enjoyable that way.

The Giddy Up America Interest Index Rating: 9.1

‘House of the Dragon’ Season Three

Do you know when the second season of House of the Dragon aired? I don’t. Two years ago, maybe?

I just checked. It was the summer of 2024.

Ugh, that was like, forever ago.

Next question: What happened in that second season? Uh…geez..that one lady died on her dragon because the one dude and his giant dragon beat them in a sneak attack and then possibly in the same battle, the one dude tried to kill his brother, who is king but also maybe not king because uh, what’s her name is queen because her father named her heir but then some shit happened and she’s over on Dragonstone rallying the troops and her husband/uncle is too, but no one really likes him, but they like her and the king has run away because he’s afraid of his brother, which tracks because his brother is a psycho and will likely claim he’s king and that’s not good because you know, as we are currently witnessing here, mentally unstable people shouldn’t be in charge of anything, let alone countries or in this case, realms.

I think that covers it. Maybe? I don’t know. I think the show comes back this summer, and it’s kind of make-or-break time for the show. Either it catches fire and gets people talking or the layoff and whatnot finally does it in. Either way, it should be fun.

The Giddy Up America Interest Index Rating: 5.01

Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’

Christopher Nolan has reached the point where anything he releases is going to get the people excited, and at a time when movies are in a bit of a transitional period, it’s cool to have a director out there producing films that can get people to the theaters. His take on The Odyssey already sounded incredible, given that it’s Nolan and the cast is stacked. I mean, there’s no telling what our greatest filmmaker could do with one of the greatest stories ever told.

A trailer has been released, and even with minimal footage included, it looks incredible and massive and ultimately, peak Nolan. I love Peak Nolan. It’s one of my favorite peaks.

With the end of the year looking to be dominated by Avengers: Doomsday and the third Dune movie, the lane has been cleared for The Odyssey to own the summer. I for one, can’t wait to keep telling myself I’m going to see it in theaters only to be reminded that I only see kids’ movies in theaters and The Odyssey doesn’t look like a kids’ movie, but ah, maybe we’ll get a new TV by then.

The Giddy Up America Interest Index Rating: 9.3

Stephen Colbert’s Exit

I don’t really watch The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but that’s more about me than it is about him and his show. I do, however, continue to appreciate Colbert, and especially in this current era of madness, really appreciate his ability to speak truth to power, regardless of the consequences. And now one such consequence is CBS cancelling his show, despite its high ratings. CBS cited money as an example, but everyone knows it was CBS and their parent company, Paramount, canning Colbert to appease our mafia wannabe President.

Cool country we’re living in these days, huh?

I have no doubt Colbert will find another platform down the road, but given how eloquent, intelligent, and funny he is, his final shows are going to be must-watch television. Will he bring back his Colbert Report character? That’d be fun. Will he go scorched Earth? Eh, probably not. He’ll likely take the high road but will do so in the funniest way possible. Will he use the opportunity to appeal to our better angels and encourage us to fight for a better tomorrow? Possibly. I think it’s all on the table for one of the best entertainers out there today.

The Giddy Up America Interest Index Rating: 6.9 (giggles)

The Foo Fighters’ New Album and Stadium Tour

Since the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins, there has been somewhat of a lack of stability with America’s preeminent big-time rock band. Replacing Hawkins with Josh Freese kept the lights on, but I never felt he was a long-term solution. It seemed like Grohl and company agreed, as Freese was replaced by Ilan Rubin of Nine Inch Nails last year. Rubin doesn’t have the bounce and pop Hawkins had (neither did Freese), but he has a thumping, animalistic power that fits better than the boilerplate drumming of Freese, something that was on display when the band performed a set on Amazon Music Live.

A dose of youthful enthusiasm is exactly what the Foo Fighters need at this stage of their career and should properly re-energize them for 2026, when they’re rumored to have a new album coming out and have a massive stadium tour planned for the summer of 2026.

Rock music is still a player in America, but not at the level it once was, having been resoundingly surpassed by Pop, Country, and at times, Rap. And while there are definitely some young rock bands making noise (if I had a nickel for every time someone mentioned Geese, I’d have at least 2 bucks by now), the genre needs a standard bearer and torch carrier. They need someone like Foo Fighters to do the thing where a rising tide lifts all the boats.

Rise the boats, Foos. Do it for your country.

The Giddy Up America Interest Index Rating: 5.8

‘The Pitt’ Season Two

On a recent episode of the podcast Welcome to the Party Pal, I named The Pitt my favorite show of 2025 (Task was second.) The Pitt excited me in ways a TV show hasn’t in some time. It was infectious and enthralling, captivating and incredibly emotional. Noah Wyle was on another level, and good lord, the entire cast was gangbusters. And because I heart logistics to no end, I loved the inside info on how the show was written, with the writers having to account for the geography of the ER when thinking of blocking and staging.

I watched eight episodes in a row on a flight and would have been cool with an even longer delay if it meant I could watch more.

The show is not for everyone, largely because the show doesn’t shy away from some of the gruesomeness that comes with working in the ER. But if you can stomach that, then you’re going to get the best drama on television.

The Giddy Up America Interest Index Rating: 9.9

How ‘SNL,’ Seth Meyers & Jimmy Kimmel Handle Trump

Around word fifty or so, I said shit could get dark this year and a bunch of words later, I still think that. I also think that while finding ways to laugh at what’s happening is important, it could get increasingly harder as we, you know, flirt with living in a dictatorship. At some point, laughing might not feel right as the subject matter grows increasingly dark and scary.

Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel have done a masterful job of calling out the various absurdities of Trump 2.0, and Saturday Night Live has found a good lane for itself with James Austin Johnson’s Trump impression.

But is there a point where we can’t do jokes anymore?

I remember back during the second George W. Bush term, when it felt like the tragic circumstances had outpaced the absurdity, and it didn’t feel right anymore to laugh at it, no matter how good vintage Jon Stewart was. That was around year 7. We’ve only been through one year of Trump 2.0, but it feels like that moment is getting closer and closer. And there’s also the looming threat of all three shows getting yanked off the air as more and more media companies cower to Trump.

These people are all funny, smart professionals, and I have no doubt that they can find the humor in the bleakness and despair. I’m just not sure there will continue to be an audience for it.

The Giddy Up America Interest Index Rating: 4.9

A New Spoon Album

It’s a fact, friends. Spoon has never released a bad album. In fact, they’ve never released an album that could be viewed as anything worse than ‘it’s pretty good.’ Britt Daniels and crew are one of the most consistent bands out there, with album after album being rock solid. The rock critic Steven Hyden has what he calls “The 5 Album Test.”

It works like this: You take an artist, you look at their discography, and you judge whether they have put out five consecutive “great” albums. That’s it. That’s the methodology. But why five consecutive great albums? Because it’s more than two consecutive great albums (an impressive achievement), three consecutive great albums (a triumph most artists don’t come close to accomplishing) or four consecutive great albums (true “hall of fame”-level performance). If you have five consecutive great albums, you simply are one of the legends of your life and times.

He has Led Zeppelin and the Beatles in this category. In 2024, he kicked around the idea of Vampire Weekend passing the test. I’m okay with that. But I’m in support of Spoon having passed the test with flying colors, and if anything, the real challenge is determining when Spoon’s run begins and ends. I think it starts with 2002’s Kill the Moonlight and ends with 2014’s They Want My Soul, although that would omit Girls Can Tell on the front end and both Hot Thoughts and Lucifier on the Sofa on the back end.

Nothing is perfect, I guess.

Except for Spoon.

Now, Spoon hasn’t officially come out and said that they have a new album coming out this year, but they did release two killer tunes last August, and when they did, Daniel said they had been in the studio doing work.

Promising. Very promising.

The Giddy Up America Interest Index Rating: 8.9

Whatever Goose Does

Oh, Goose. What are we gonna do with you guys?

I have no idea what 2026 has in store for Goose, but whatever happens, it’ll find a way to be interesting and be something worth talking about, for better or worse.

And I’m here for it, no matter what direction it takes, and at this point, I’m open to anything. They release another album? Sure. They break up? Bummer, but we can’t rule it out. Cotter murders someone? Not likely, but he probably has a good costume to where if he were to murder someone. With Goose, anything is on the table, and honestly, the most shocking outcome for Goose this year is that they just play it straight, do a couple of tours, release another live album, do Goosemas again, and call it a year.

I don’t know. No one does. But I enjoy Goose and enjoy their role in my life, so I’m down.