9 pieces of can’t-miss pop culture to catch up on this weekend

The ever-growing glut of TV, movies, books, music, comics, and podcasts can be a lot to keep up with. So we here at Vox Culture — where our current obsessions include a new Hamilton music video, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and a nifty webcomics archive — have a few suggestions for how to make the best use of your pop culture–consuming time.

Here are some items you should really consider checking out.

Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and Somali poet-rapper K’Naan hail “America’s ghostwriters” in this searing six-minute takedown of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies. Featuring the work of immigrant creatives including British Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed (The Night Of, Girls), Puerto Rican rapper Residente, and Mexican-American rapper Snow Tha Product, the video tackles a host of charged social issues, from deportation to underpaid immigrant labor to Syrian refugees. It’s a pointed reminder that now more than ever, you can’t separate Hamilton’s multicultural artistry from political attempts to disenfranchise the real people who make America great. —Aja Romano

Daryl Gregory’s Spoonbenders is the kind of novel where you can practically feel the inevitable TV adaptation taking shape as you read it. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. This sort of high-concept beach read is exactly what you want to have under your arm as a long and lazy summer unfolds.

The book’s conceit is that the Telemachus family, formed when a con man fell for a woman imbued with immense reserves of psychic power, fell into disgrace after a disastrous appearance on a talk show in the ’70s. Now it’s the mid-’90s, the family has fallen to ruin, and the government is wondering if perhaps there’s still a little psychic energy left in their midst. Gregory’s characters are brightly drawn, and he neatly captures the world of the early internet. But the real fun is in seeing how his intricately constructed puzzle comes together in the end. —Todd VanDerWerff

The new video for “Element” promptly shot to the top of YouTube’s trending list following its unexpected Tuesday release. The song, which explores Lamar’s relationship to his community and his black identity in the wake of his rap success, appears on Lamar’s recent album DAMN, and the video, directed by photographer Jonas Lindstroem, is a tour de force of arresting visuals, with multiple shots recreating the work of black photojournalist Gordon Parks. It’s a powerful continuation of Lamar’s exploration of black community amid systemic violence, with gorgeous imagery of young black men metaphorically awakening to their own power. —AR

Earlier this month, America’s oldest federal cultural institution launched the first phase of its new digital archive dedicated solely to internet-based comics. Typically free to read and updated regularly, webcomics have become notable their contemporary artistry and for featuring characters and themes typically marginalized by the mainstream comics industry.

The archive is free to peruse and currently contains 41 titles, including the award-winning JL8, which follows DC Comics characters in elementary school. Other titles of interest: As the Crow Flies, the serialized story of a queer 13-year-old girl stranded in an all-white Christian backpacking camp, and xkcd, a series of standalone entries featuring stick figures, romance, sarcasm, and math. Though all of the comics within the archive are also available at their own websites, it’s a great place to discover a new title or three. —Abbey White

I have no idea what most of the lyrics are to “As If It’s Your Last,” or what they mean. I just know that resistance is futile when it comes to Blackpink’s latest single, thanks to its undeniable bop, ’80s-inspired beat (think Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Cut to the Feeling”), and infectious hook. And for some strange reason, the song makes me believe I am agile enough to roller-skate.

Historically, K-pop bands have had trouble finding footing in the US, but with a playful single like “As If It’s Your Last,” an accompanying music video that looks like it was dipped in radioactive candy, and a catalog full of still-undiscovered (at least in America) hits, Blackpink have as good a chance as any at changing that. —Alex Abad-Santos

Given that Vince Staples’s debut, 2015’s Summertime ’06, was one of the leanest, most economical double albums in a genre known for superfluous features and extraneous tracks, it makes sense that the artist’s second LP is a 36-minute high that feels like a party scene shot by Danny Boyle. With a bevy of well known electronic producers in tow, plus Kendrick Lamar and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn contributing, Staples’s Big Fish Theory is a frenetic examination of the responsibilities, perks, and drawbacks of newfound fame. Thematically, the album overlaps with Lamar’s DAMN, but Staples’s pitch-black sensibility, candor, and incisive lyrics converge to craft a wholly unique and equally important take. Part brain food, part bangers, Big Fish Theory is your antidote to empty-calorie summer music. —Grant Rindner

You may not know portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman’s name, but you’ve seen her work: Since the 1960s, she’s shot huge, revealing portraits of some of the most notable names in popular culture, from Bob Dylan to Jorge Luis Borges. Now, in The B-Side (which just hit theaters), documentarian Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line) turns his camera on her, letting the kind and self-effacing artist tell her story — from her invention of a proto–selfie stick long before anyone thought of such a thing to the large-format work she’s doing today. Dorfman is the exact opposite of the stereotypical tortured artist, which probably makes her a bit of a radical. Listening to her talk about her life and work in The B-Side is both inspiring and strangely calming. —Alissa Wilkinson

I’ll say it: There’s no reality show on television that’s more spectacular or downright fun than RuPaul’s Drag Race, the drag queen competition series that’s captured viewers’ hearts and minds and dreams of contoured glory for eight years now. In keeping with drag tradition, competitors must perform, write new material, and sew while keeping their stiletto-sharp wits about them, making Drag Race a reality-show triple threat. The ninth season just wrapped on June 23, so you can watch the whole thing at your leisure, or go back in Drag Race herstory with some of the earlier seasons. Seasons five through seven are available to stream on Amazon Prime; seasons two through nine are available to buy on Amazon and iTunes. —Caroline Framke

Controversial author David Paulides has made it his mission to discover the stories behind the surprisingly high number of people who go missing in the middle of nowhere, in remote corners of America’s national parks and other wilderness areas. And while most of those disappearances have completely logical explanations — like “somebody fell off a cliff” logical — some of them are downright mysterious and eerie, with bodies seeming to appear in places they simply shouldn’t be. Paulides often suggests (sometimes directly; sometimes in so many words) that something beyond human comprehension might be at play, even if “beyond human comprehension” just means “a serial killer far more prolific than any other in history.”

The result might mean you think most of what he’s saying is bullshit, and he is weirdly fond of talking about Bigfoot. But he’s also a fascinating subject for a documentary. Enter Missing 411, which probably could do a little more to wrestle with the fact that Paulides is simultaneously one of the few investigators doggedly concerned with these disappearances and someone who seems to believe some very strange things. (Then again, it’s based on his books, and he produced it, so maybe not.) But it’s also the perfect movie for anyone who’s ever stayed up too late reading a Reddit thread full of park rangers’ spooky stories, and, if nothing else, a fascinating portrait of its subject. (Missing 411 is available to rent on Amazon and iTunes.) —TV