Critics at Large | The New Yorker

When Emily Brontë published “Wuthering Heights,” in 1847, critics were baffled, alarmed, and mostly unimpressed. James Lorimer, writing in the North British Review, promised that the novel would “never be generally read.” Nearly two centuries later, it’s regarded as one of the great works of English literature. In a live taping of Critics at Large at the 92nd Street Y, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss the staying power of the original text and the countless adaptations it’s inspired, from the 1939 film featuring Laurence Olivier to Andrea Arnold’s 2011 version. The most recent attempt comes from the director Emerald Fennell, whose new “Wuthering Heights,” starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, reads as a romantic fever dream. The movie has been polarizing in part for the way it excises some of the weirder and wilder aspects of its source material. But what’s discarded—or emphasized—can also be revealing. “It’s an audacious proposition to adapt a great novel … I don’t think it needs to be faithful, necessarily,” Fry says. “The adaptation itself becomes a portrait of the time in which it’s made.”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Wuthering Heights,” by Emily BrontëKate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” (2026)“Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ Never Plumbs the Depths,” by Justin Chang (The New Yorker)“Barbie” (2023)“Saltburn” (2023)“Promising Young Woman” (2020)“Jane Eyre,” by Charlotte Brontë“The Communist Manifesto,” by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx (1848)Peter Kosminsky’s “Wuthering Heights” (1992)William Wyler’s “Wuthering Heights” (1939)Andrea Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights” (2011)“All the King’s Men,” by Robert Penn Warren“I Love L.A.” (2025–)New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Toni Morrison was many things in her lifetime—Nobel laureate, renowned author, Princeton professor, and generous mentor to young writers. Her appeal translated seamlessly to the internet, where old interview clips still bubble up regularly on social media, reminding us of her sharp wit and commanding presence. But, as Namwali Serpell argues in a new book of essays, “On Morrison,” this undeniable star persona risks eclipsing the genius—and complexity—of the eleven novels she wrote. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz dive back into these works to rediscover the writer as she was on the page. The hosts discuss Morrison’s début novel, “The Bluest Eye”; “Beloved,” which is widely regarded as her masterpiece; and “Jazz,” the experimental 1992 novel believed to be her personal favorite. Throughout her career, she insisted on writing flawed, dynamic characters rather than paragons of virtue. “The Morrison project is to put Black life, and particularly the lives of Black women, at the very center of literature—but to do it in a way that’s true to character and to human experience,” Schwartz says. “The people she’s writing about are damaged, are greedy, are jealous, are sad . . . and also are generous, and loving, and hurt and trying to heal.”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“On Morrison,” by Namwali Serpell“Toni Morrison, the Teacher,” by Vinson Cunningham (The New Yorker)“The Bluest Eye,” by Toni Morrison“Song of Solomon,” by Toni Morrison“Toni Morrison and the Ghosts in the House,” by Hilton Als (The New Yorker)“Jazz,” by Toni Morrison“Beloved,” by Toni Morrison“Sula,” by Toni Morrison“Black Writers in Praise of Toni Morrison” (The New York Times)“The Blue Period: Black Writing in the Early Cold War,” by Jesse McCarthyMonuments at MOCA and the Brick“Language as Liberation,” by Toni MorrisonNew episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Once the fervor around Charli XCX’s 2024 album “brat” had cooled, the singer was approached to make a documentary about the tour—a practice that’s been embraced by the likes of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. But Charli, who has built her brand in opposition to mainstream expectations, instead released “The Moment,” a tongue-in-cheek satire about the pressures stars face to milk career highs like “brat summer” for all they’re worth. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider “The Moment” alongside both the sanitized documentaries it mocks and other artists’ attempts to subvert the form. Many of these projects promise genuine insight into their subjects, but what they actually show is the increasingly delicate balancing act of “authentic” celebrity. “It is really hard to both reveal and conceal at the same time,” Fry says. “To invite the fan in—but not in a way that feels unsafe, or that could get you cancelled, or could make you sell less, or could make you unloved.”See Critics at Large live: the hosts will be discussing “Wuthering Heights” onstage at the 92nd Street Y on February 19th. Both in-person and streaming tickets are available. Buy now »Read, watch, and listen with the critics:Charli XCX’s “brat”“The Moment” (2026)“Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé” (2019)“Gaga: Five Foot Two” (2017)“A Hard Day’s Night” (1964)“Spice World” (1997)“Taylor Swift: The End of an Era” (2025)“Sean Combs: The Reckoning” (2025)“Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” (2023)“Gimme Shelter” (1970)“Madonna: Truth or Dare” (1991)“I’m Still Here” (2010)New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

“Heated Rivalry,” a low-budget Canadian series that began streaming on HBO Max late last year, quickly made the leap from unexpected word-of-mouth success to full-blown cultural phenomenon. The show, which follows a pair of professional hockey players who fall for each other, has been name-checked by everyone from the N.H.L. commissioner to Zohran Mamdani; its two young leads, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, just served as Olympic torch-bearers. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz unpack “Heated Rivalry” ’s appeal, considering its embrace of earnestness and its place in a broader lineage of stories about gay love. The way the protagonists are forced to hide their relationship recalls dramas set in earlier eras, from E. M. Forster’s “Maurice” to Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain”—but the function of the closet in art is ever-evolving. The hosts also discuss “Pillion,” a new film starring Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling, which features parents who are supportive of their son’s gayness but in the dark about his life as a sub. “It’s interesting, these contemporary stories where gay relationships are, in the larger culture, totally accepted—and that there are sort of closets within closets,” Cunningham says. “There’s a deeper place that others cannot go.”See Critics at Large live: the hosts will be discussing “Wuthering Heights” onstage at the 92nd Street Y on February 19th. Both in-person and streaming tickets are available. Buy now »Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Heated Rivalry” (2025–)“Pillion” (2026)Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan NovelsEsther Perel’s response to “Heated Rivalry”The novels of Sally Rooney“The Delicious Anticipation–and, Yes, Release—of ‘Heated Rivalry,’ ” by Naomi Fry (The New Yorker)“Maurice,” by E. M. Forster“Brokeback Mountain” (2005)“The Price of Salt,” by Patricia Highsmith“Carol” (2015)“My Own Private Idaho” (1991)“The Swimming-Pool Library,” by Alan Hollinghurst“The Loves of My Life,” by Edmund White“I Love L.A.” (2025–)New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz celebrate the one-hundredth episode of Critics at Large with a special installment of the podcast’s advice series. Together, they counsel callers on everything from turning non-readers into bibliophiles to the art of curating the ideal road-trip playlist. They’re joined by David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, who shares some cultural dilemmas of his own. Finally, the hosts turn the tables and ask for guidance from their listeners.Read, watch, and listen with the critics:Billie Holiday’s “Body and Soul”Bob Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde”Joni Mitchell’s “Blue”The music of Laufey“I Regret Almost Everything,” by Keith McNally“The Palm House,” by Gwendoline Riley“Task” (2025—)“Die, My Love” (2025)“Carol” (2015)“The Price of Salt,” by Patricia Highsmith“Surface Matters,” by Naomi Fry (The New Republic)Geese’s “Getting Killed”“What Went Wrong”Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy“The Ambassadors,” by Henry James“Marty Supreme” (2025)“Why Football Matters” (The New Yorker)See Critics at Large live at 92NY on February 19: https://www.92ny.org/event/vinson-cunningham-naomi-fry-and-alexandra-schwartzNew episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Someone looking to understand America might do well to study the nation’s embrace of football. N.F.L. games regularly outperform anything else on television, and, in 2025, some hundred and twenty-seven million viewers tuned into the Super Bowl—more than ever before. As this year’s championship approaches, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz are joined by their fellow New Yorker writer Louisa Thomas to unpack the sport’s allure, which has persisted despite increasingly dire evidence of the danger it poses to players’ health. Together, they discuss football’s origins as a “war game,” how fictional depictions have contributed to its mythos, and the state of play today. “A very compelling reason for football’s popularity is that it's not only a simulation of war,” Thomas says. “It’s a simulation of community.”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Friday Night Lights” (2006–11)“The West Wing” (1999–2006)“Football,” by Chuck Klosterman“The End of the NFL’s Concussion Crisis,” by Reeves Wiedeman (New York magazine)See Critics at Large live at 92NY on February 19: https://www.92ny.org/event/vinson-cunningham-naomi-fry-and-alexandra-schwartzNew episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In “The Testament of Ann Lee,” a new film directed by Mona Fastvold, Amanda Seyfried plays the founder and leader of the Shaker movement—a woman believed by her followers to be the second coming of Christ. Fastvold uses song and dance to convey the fervor that Mother Ann shares with her acolytes. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss how such depictions of religious devotion might land with modern viewers. They trace this theme from Martin Scorsese’s docuseries “The Saints” to “Lux,” a recent album in which Rosalía mines the divine for musical inspiration. These stories, many of them centuries old, might seem out of step with modern concerns. But we’re still borrowing their iconography—and anointing saints of our own—today. “The bracing and sort of terrifying thing about them is precisely that they are human beings,” Cunningham says. “What they say to us is, ‘If you had the juice, you could do it, too.’ ” Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Marty Supreme” (2025)“The Testament of Ann Lee” (2025)“Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” (2024—)Rosalia’s “Lux”“Conclave” (2024)Michelangelo’s “The Temptation of Saint Anthony”“The Flowers of Saint Francis” (1950)Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”“The bizarre rise of ‘convent dressing,’ ” by Eleanor Dye (The Daily Mail)“What Kind of New World Is Being Born?,” by Vinson Cunningham (The New Yorker)“Patricia Lockwood Goes Viral,” by Alexandra Schwartz (The New Yorker)See Critics at Large live at 92NY on February 19: https://www.92ny.org/event/vinson-cunningham-naomi-fry-and-alexandra-schwartzNew episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Though Jane Austen went largely unrecognized in her own lifetime—four of her six novels were published anonymously, and the other two only after her death—her name is now synonymous with the period romance. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz choose their personal favorites from her œuvre—“Emma,” “Persuasion,” and “Mansfield Park”—and attempt to get to the heart of her appeal. Then they look at how Austen herself has been characterized by readers and critics. We know relatively little about Austen as a person, but that hasn’t stopped us from trying to understand her psyche. It’s a difficult task in part because of the double-edged quality to her writing: Austen, although renowned for her love stories, is also a keen satirist of the Regency society in which these relationships play out. “I think irony is so key, but also sincerity,” Schwartz says. “These books are about total realism and total fantasy meeting in a way that is endlessly alluring.”This episode originally aired on June 12, 2025. Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Pride and Prejudice,” by Jane Austen“Persuasion,” by Jane Austen“Emma,” by Jane Austen“Mansfield Park,” by Jane Austen“Sense and Sensibility,” by Jane Austen“Northanger Abbey,” by Jane Austen“Virginia Woolf on Jane Austen” (The New Republic)Emily Nussbaum on “Breaking Bad” and the “Bad Fan” (The New Yorker)“How to Misread Jane Austen,” by Louis Menand (The New Yorker)“Miss Austen” (2025—)“Pride and Prejudice” (2005)Scenes Through Time’s “Mr. Darcy Yearning for 10 Minutes” SupercutSee Critics at Large live at 92NY on February 19: https://www.92ny.org/event/vinson-cunningham-naomi-fry-and-alexandra-schwartzNew episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Many of this year’s most talked-about releases were, in some sense, diagnostic: from Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” to Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” films offered up assessments of the nation’s ills. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss these and other reflections of American life, which arrive at a time when reality itself feels more nebulous than ever. Then, the hosts consider the “broken mirror” of A.I., and how the second Trump Administration’s effort to erase unflattering chapters of U.S. history has further muddied the distinction between fact and fiction. Despite these dark developments, the art that’s emerged from this moment, much of it focussed on activists and renegades seeking change, also functions as a warning against stasis. Cunningham says, of the cultural shift: “This fixation on democracy on the ground—whether it’s violent or not, whether it’s misguided or not—I hope describes a yearning for more action. A move away from the mirror, and out into the streets.” Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Sinners” (2025)“Fruitvale Station” (2013)“ ‘Sinners’ Is a Virtuosic Fusion of Historical Realism and Horror,” by Richard Brody (The New Yorker)“Eddington” (2025)“ ‘Eddington’ and the American Berserk” (The New Yorker)“Gimme Shelter” (1970)“One Battle After Another” (2025)“One Paul Thomas Anderson Film After Another” (The New Yorker)“Bugonia” (2025)“Art in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” (The New Yorker)“Our Fads, Ourselves” (The New Yorker)New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

We all know the formula: it begins with a dead body, and quickly introduces a motley crew of outlandish characters, each with a motive for murder. The whodunnit genre has been a cultural fixture since the days of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie—the latter of whom has been outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Recently, though, the murder mystery has achieved a new level of saturation, with streaming services offering up a seemingly endless supply of glossy thrillers. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss how these new entries are updating the classic form. “Wake Up Dead Man,” the latest of Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” movies, slyly incorporates social commentary, while shows like “Search Party” and “Only Murders in the Building” poke fun at the figure of the citizen sleuth. In our era of conspiracy theories and vigilante actors, there’s also a dark side to the archetype. “This desire to be the hero and to follow the logical trails and take things into your own hands—it's very appealing, if you do it right,” Schwartz says. “It’s great if you catch the right guy. If you don’t, and you catch the wrong one, the entire foundation of society crumbles.”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Knives Out” (2019)“Glass Onion” (2022)“Wake Up Dead Man” (2025)“Big Little Lies” (2017-)“The White Lotus” (2021-)“And Then There Were None,” by Agatha Christie “Rian Johnson Is an Agatha Christie for the Netflix Age,” by Anna Russell (The New Yorker)“The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side: A Miss Marple Mystery,” by Agatha Christie“Only Murders in the Building” (2021-)“Nicole Kidman Gives Us What We Want in the Silly, Soapy ‘Perfect Couple,’ ” by Vinson Cunningham (The New Yorker)“The Residence” (2025)“The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” by Arthur Conan Doyle“Search Party” (2016-22)“The Hound of the Baskervilles,” by Arthur Conan DoyleThe “Encyclopedia Brown” books“Clue” (1985)New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Since it was penned more than four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” has been in production nearly continuously, and has been adapted in many ways. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider why this story of a brooding young prince has continued to speak to audiences throughout the centuries. They discuss the new film “Hamnet,” directed by Chloé Zhao, which recasts the writing of “Hamlet” as Shakespeare’s response to the death of his child; Tom Stoppard’s absurdist play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”; Michael Almereyda’s 2000 “Hamlet,” which presents the protagonist as a melancholy film student home from college; and other adaptations. What accounts for this story’s hold over audiences, centuries after it was written? “I think it endures because every generation has its version of the incomprehensible,” Cunningham says. “It’s not just death—it’s politics, it’s society. Everybody has to deal with their own version of ‘This does not make sense and yet it is.’ ”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Hamnet” (2025)“Hamnet,” by Maggie O’Farrell“Hamlet,” by William ShakespeareKenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” (1996) Michael Almereyda’s “Hamlet” (2000)“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” (1990)John Gielgud’s “Hamlet” (1964)Robert Icke’s “Hamlet” (2017, 2022)“Every Generation Gets the Shakespeare It Deserves” by Drew Lichtenberg (The New York Times)“Hamlet and His Problems" by T. S. EliotNew episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The American musical is in a state of flux. Today’s Broadway offerings are mostly jukebox musicals and blatant I.P. grabs; original ideas are few and far between. Meanwhile, Jon M. Chu’s earnest (and lengthy) two-part adaptation of “Wicked”—an origin story for the Wicked Witch of the West that first premièred on the Great White Way over twenty years ago—has struck a chord with today’s audiences. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss “Wicked” before stepping back to trace the evolution of the musical form, from the first shows to marry song and story in the nineteen-twenties to the seventies-era innovations of figures like Stephen Sondheim. Amid the massive commercial, technological, and aesthetic shifts of the last century, how has the form changed, and why has it endured? “People who don’t like musicals will often criticize their artificiality,” Schwartz says. “Some things in life are so heightened . . . yet they’re part of the real. Why not put them to music and have singing be part of it?”This episode originally aired on December 12, 2024.Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Wicked” (2024)“The Animals That Made It All Worth It,” by Naomi Fry (The New Yorker)“Ben Shapiro Reviews ‘Wicked’ ”“Frozen” (2013)“Hair” (1979)“The Sound of Music” (1965)“Anything Goes” (1934)“Show Boat” (1927)“Oklahoma” (1943)“Mean Girls” (2017)“Hamilton” (2015)“Wicked” (2003)“A Strange Loop” (2019)“Teeth” (2024)“Kimberly Akimbo” (2021)New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Vince Gilligan’s new show, “Pluribus,” opens with an unconventional apocalypse. A benevolent alien hive mind descends on Earth, commandeering the bodies of all but a handful of people who appear to be immune, including a curmudgeonly writer named Carol Sturka. Though the world that the “joined” are building seems ideal—no more crime, efficient resource distribution, an end to discrimination—it doesn’t leave much room for Carol’s messy humanity. Is it worth it? On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss “Pluribus” and other perfect societies imagined and enacted by artists and thinkers, from Thomas More’s 1516 satire, “Utopia,” to the Shaker movement and beyond. They reflect on why these experiments have rarely held up to scrutiny or benefitted more than a select few, and why we keep coming back to them anyway. “I’m not the most optimistic person,” Fry says. “But if you’re stuck in pessimistic, dystopic thinking, are you foreclosing on greater promise or greater potential of imagination?” Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Pluribus” (2025–)“Breaking Bad” (2008-13)“Better Call Saul” (2015-22)“The X-Files” (1993-2002)“The Giver,” by Lois Lowry“Utopia,” by Thomas More“Les Guérillères,” by Monique Wittig “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977)“The Testament of Ann Lee” (2025)“The Hunger Games,” by Suzanne Collins“Utopia for Realists,” by Rutger Bregman“Ragtime” (1996)New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On October 19th, a group of masked men broke into the Louvre in broad daylight and made off with some of France’s crown jewels. Suspects are now in custody, but the online fervor is still going strong. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss the sordid satisfaction of watching a heist play out, both onscreen and off. They dive into the debacle at the Louvre, along with a range of fictional depictions, from the fantasy of hyper-competence in “Ocean’s Eleven” to the theft that goes woefully awry in Kelly Reichardt’s new film, “The Mastermind.” Part of the fun, it seems, lies in rooting for those who identify and exploit the blind spots of an institution. “Someone else, just like me, is seeing that everybody is an idiot. But, unlike me, they’re able to best those people in charge,” Fry says. “It’s an alternative morality—a morality of wits.”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“The Mastermind” (2025)“Ocean’s Eleven” (2001)Stella Webb’s impression of “the Louvre heist Creative Director”Jake Schroeder’s “Ballad for the Louvre”“Showing Up” (2022)“The Italian Job” (1969)“How to Beat the High Cost of Living” (1980)“Drive” (2011)“Le Cercle Rouge” (1970)“This Is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist” (2021)“Good Time” (2017)“George Santos and the Art of the Scam” (The New Yorker)New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Padma Lakshmi is unquestionably a woman of taste. As a host of the beloved food-competition series “Top Chef” and the star of the culinary docuseries “Taste the Nation,” she’s spent nearly two decades artfully conveying—and critiquing—flavors and aromas for an audience. Before that, she was a fashion writer and model, cultivating her own sense of what’s worth wearing and seeing. And she isn’t done evolving: she’s recently begun performing standup comedy, an art form with a notoriously steep learning curve. In a live taping at The New Yorker Festival, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz talk with Lakshmi about the difference between discernment and pickiness, how travel has expanded her taste, and her approach to rendering judgement on TV. “I see my job as helping,” Lakshmi says. “I see my job as being the person in the kitchen who’s saying, ‘Does this need a little salt?’ ”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Top Chef” (2006—)“Taste the Nation” (2020-23)“RuPaul’s Drag Race” (2009—)“American Idol” (2002—)“Project Runway” (2004—)“Padma’s All American,” by Padma Lakshmi“Padma Lakshmi Walks Into a Bar,” by Helen Rosner (The New Yorker)“Art in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” (The New Yorker)Dijon’s “Baby”“Frankenstein” (2025)New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Horror movies are big business: this year, they’ve accounted for more ticket sales in the U.S. than comedies and dramas combined, bringing in over a billion dollars at the box office. And the phenomenon goes beyond a hunger for cheap thrills and slasher flicks; artists have been using horror to explore deep-seated communal and personal anxieties for centuries. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz, along with the New Yorker culture editor Alex Barasch, use three contemporary entries—“The Babadook,” “Saint Maud,” and “Weapons”—to illustrate the inventive filmmaking and sharp social commentary that have become hallmarks of modern horror. “In the past, the horror would be something external that’s disrupting a previously idyllic town or life. Now there's a lot more of: the bad thing has already happened to you,” Barasch says. “You already have a trauma at the beginning of the film—or even before the film begins—and then that is eating you from the inside, or trying to kill you, and you have to grapple with that.”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“The Babadook” (2014)“Rosemary’s Baby” (1968)“Scream with Me,” by Eleanor Johnson“Hereditary” (2018)“The Substance” (2024)“Saint Maud” (2020)The “Saw” franchise (2004—)“The Exorcist” (1973)“The Case Against the Trauma Plot,” by Parul Sehgal (The New Yorker)“Weapons” (2025)“Barbarian” (2022) “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974)“Get Out” (2017)“Alien” (1979)“The Blair Witch Project” (1999)“Talk to Me” (2022)New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On August 7, 1985, five family members were shot dead in their English country manor, Whitehouse Farm. It looked like an open-and-shut case. But the New Yorker staff writer Heidi Blake finds that almost nothing about this story is as it seems. New Yorker subscribers get early, ad-free access to “Blood Relatives.” In Apple Podcasts, tap the link at the top of the feed to subscribe or link an existing subscription. Or visit newyorker.com/dark to subscribe and listen in the New Yorker app. In the Dark has merch! Buy specially designed hats, T-shirts, and totes for yourself or a loved one at store.newyorker.com.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Generative A.I., once an uncanny novelty, is now being used to create not only images and videos but entire “artists.” Its boosters claim that the technology is merely a tool to facilitate human creativity; the major use cases we’ve seen thus far—and the money being poured into these projects—tell a different story. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss the output of Timbaland’s A.I. rapper TaTa Taktumi and the synthetic actress Tilly Norwood. They also look back at movies and television that imagined what our age of A.I. would look like, from “2001: A Space Odyssey” onward. “A.I. has been a source of fascination, of terror, of appeal,” Schwartz says. “It’s the human id in virtual form—at least in human-made art.”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:TaTa Taktumi’s “Glitch x Pulse”Cardi B’s “Am I the Drama?”“Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE” (2024)“Dear Tilly Norwood,” by Betty Gilpin (The Hollywood Reporter)Tilly Norwood’s Instagram account“Holly Herndon’s Infinite Art,” by Anna Wiener (The New Yorker)“2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968)“The Morning Show” (2019—)“Simone” (2002)“Blade Runner” (1982)“Ex Machina” (2014)“The Man Who Sells Unsellable New York Apartments,” by Alexandra Schwartz (The New Yorker)“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” by Walter Benjamin“The Death of the Author,” by Roland BarthesNew episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In the latest installment of the Critics at Large advice series, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz answer listeners’ questions about a range of conundrums. Some seek to immerse themselves in fictional worlds; others look for help with their own creative practices. Plus, the actor Morgan Spector (best known as Mr. Russell on “The Gilded Age”) calls in to ask the critics about poetry. “As always after we do this kind of show, my faith in humankind is restored,” Fry says. “Our listeners want to connect—they want to grow. They’re looking to pass through life not just on autopilot but to look to culture for meaning.”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Ethan Hawke: Give yourself permission to be creative” (TED)The poetry of Diane Seuss“Lilacs,” by Rainer Diana Hamilton“The Wire” (2002-8)“The Americans” (2013-18)“Billy Joel: And So It Goes” (2025)“The Good Wife” (2009-16)“30 Rock” (2006-13)“How a Billionaire Owner Brought Turmoil and Trouble to Sotheby’s,” by Sam Knight (The New Yorker)“Lupin” (2021—)“The First Wives Club” (1996)“A Quick Killing in Art,” by Phoebe Hoban“Where Have All My Deep Male Friendships Gone?” by Sam Graham-Felsen (the New York Times Magazine)Aaron Karo and Matt Ritter’s “Man of the Year”“The Archers” (1951—)“How to Cook a Wolf,” by M. F. K. Fisher“Home Cooking,” by Laurie Colwin“Fresh Air with Terry Gross”“What Was Paul Gauguin Looking For?,” by Alexandra Schwartz (The New Yorker)“Wild Thing,” by Sue Prideaux“Mr. Turner” (2014)“Topsy-Turvy” (1999)“The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing,” by Adam MossSuzan-Lori Parks’s “Watch Me Work”New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker that explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Scrutiny of the figure of the “trad wife” has hit a fever pitch. These influencers’ accounts feature kempt, feminine women embracing hyper-traditional roles in marriage and home-making—and, in doing so, garnering millions of followers. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss standout practitioners of the “trad” life style, including Nara Smith, who makes cereal and toothpaste from scratch, and Hannah Neeleman, who, posting under the handle @ballerinafarm, presents a life caring for eight children in rural Utah as a bucolic fantasy. The hosts also discuss “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” a reality-television show on Hulu about a group of Mormon influencers engulfed in scandal, whose notions of female empowerment read as a quaint reversal of the trad-wife trend. A common defense of a life style that some would call regressive is that it’s a personal choice, devoid of political meaning. But this gloss is complicated by societal changes such as the erosion of women’s rights in America and skyrocketing child-care costs. “In American society, the way choice works has everything to do with child-care options, financial options,” Schwartz says. “When you talk about the idea of choice, are we just talking about false choices?” This episode originally aired on Sept. 5, 2024. Read, watch, and listen with the critics:@ballerinafarm@gwenthemilkmaid@naraazizasmith“How Lucky Blue and Nara Aziza Smith Made Viral Internet Fame From Scratch,” by Carrie Battan (GQ)“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” (2024–)@esteecwilliams“Mad Men” (2007-15)The Little House on the Prairie series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder“Wilder Women,” by Judith Thurman (The New Yorker)“Meet the Queen of the “Trad Wives” (and Her Eight Children),” by Megan Agnew (The Times of London) New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices