The Five: GoT's horrible pilot, Baby Shark's origin story, and a new single from Vampire Weekend

Almost every week, MPR News senior producer Stephanie Curtis stops by to tell us what to read, watch, listen to or experience. Here's her roundup for the second week of April 2019.

1) The audiobook of "Spinning Silver"

Naomi Novik's epic retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, is fantastic reading. But I highly recommend you listen to it. The audio version is read by Lisa Flanagan. Her accents are exquisite.

2) Here's What Happens In The Original, Terrible 'Game Of Thrones' Pilot That Never Aired

The final season of 'Game of Thrones' kicks off Sunday, April 14. But the series had an infamously bad start — a pilot that was so bad, friends advised the creators to never let it see the light of day. But our friends at HuffPo found the original script, and in this article, they detail all the differences between the first pilot and the one that originally made air.

3) Decoder Ring podcast

This is a fun podcast, all about cracking cultural mysteries. But in particular, you should check out this episode about the earworm "Baby Shark." It soared to popularity with American kids this year, but Decoder Ring discovers it's been around for years, maybe even decades.

4) Julian Assange profile by Andrew O'Hagan

"A fair reading of the situation might conclude, without prejudice, that Assange, like an ageing movie star, was a little put out by the global superstardom of Snowden. He has always cared too much about the fame and too much about the credit, while real relationships and real action often fade to nothing. Snowden was now the central hub and Julian was keen to help him and keen to be seen to be helping him. It's how the ego works and the ego always comes first."

5) "This Life" by Vampire Weekend

This is a single off their upcoming album, which releases in May. It has a 1970s Paul Simon vibe that I love.