The origin of ‘conclave,’ Kaitlyn Dever’s pain, a ‘Succession’ reunion, and what to read this weekend: April 25, 2025

Every Friday, Gold Derby rounds up some of the best stories of the week from our friends across the web. Maybe you missed these, maybe you were too busy to read them at the time, maybe you bookmarked them and forgot, but hopefully you'll have some over the weekend to check them out. Happy reading!

Word of the Week: The papal 'conclave' is secretive. The word's origin explains why
The word "conclave" has never been uttered more than in the past six months. So before you (re)watch Conclave this weekend in anticipation of the real conclave, brush up on the word's etymology via NPR.

It broke her too
For Vulture, Katie Heaney profiles Kaitlyn Dever, who opens up about how the death of her mother Kathy from breast cancer in February 2024 impacted her performance as Abby, herself a grieving young woman, on The Last of Us. The Emmy nominee returned to set to film Abby's brutal murder of Joel (Pedro Pascal) three days after her mother's funeral.

Netflix's Stranger Things play might be worst Broadway show I've ever seen
Slate's Sam Adams does not hold back in his review of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which opened this week on Broadway. The production is so bad, he says, it actually makes the series worse.

What would pop music be without 808 drums?
As part of the New York Times' J Is for Japan series, Jon Pareles goes deep into the history of 808 drums (aka the Roland TR-808 drum machine), explaining how Japanese tech forever redefined Western music beginning in the 1970s.

Succession siblings reunite: Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook on forgetting bad lines, acting in bad projects, and why Broadway is so 'f---ing athletic'
Succession stars Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook reunite for Variety's Actors on Actors ostensibly to discuss their respective Broadway shows, Glengarry Glenn Ross and The Picture of Dorian Gray, but really that was just an excuse for them to hang out with their bestie in a free-wheeling, hilarious convo — and to show how well they still remember lines from the HBO drama.