by The New Yorker
<p>Critics at Large is a weekly culture podcast from The New Yorker. Every Thursday, the staff writers Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss current obsessions, classic texts they’re revisiting with fresh eyes, and trends that are emerging across books, television, film, and more. The show runs the gamut of the arts and pop culture, with lively, surprising conversations about everything from Salman Rushdie to “The Real Housewives.” Through rigorous analysis and behind-the-scenes insights into The New Yorker’s reporting, the magazine’s critics help listeners make sense of our moment—and how we got here.</p>
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April 17, 2025
Critics Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz explore how the film Warfare uses personal accounts to depict war and its emotional impact on viewers.
April 10, 2025
The tension between art and commerce is a tale as old as time, and perhaps the most dramatic clashes in recent history have played out in Hollywood. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz explore how moviemaking and the business behind it have been depicted over the decades, from Lillian Ross’s classic 1952 work of reportage, “Picture,” to Robert Altman’s pitch-black 1992 satire “The Player.” In “The Studio,” a new Apple TV+ series, Seth Rogen plays a hapless exec who’s convinced that art-house filmmaking and commercial success can go hand in hand. At a moment when theatregoing is on the decline and the industry is hyper-focussed on existing I.P., that sentiment feels more naïve than realistic. And yet the show’s affection for the golden age of cinema is infectious—and perhaps even cause for optimism. “Early auteurs were people who knew Hollywood and could marshal its resources toward the benefit of their vision,” Cunningham says. “I wonder if now is the time for people who are seasoned in the way of Hollywood to really think about how it can be angled toward making art.” Read, watch, and listen with the critics: “The Studio” (2025–) “Veep” (2012-19) “The Player” (1992) “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pat-Hobby-Stories-Scott-Fitzgerald/dp/0684804425">The Pat Hobby Stories</a>,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Picture-Lillian-Ross/dp/0306811286">Picture</a>,” by Lillian Ross “<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/los-angeles-production-tv-film-shoots-1236042027/">Why Los Angeles Is Becoming a Production Graveyard</a>,” by Winston Cho (The Hollywood Reporter) <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/live/oscars-2025-live-updates">The New Yorker’s Oscars Live Blog</a> New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large <a href="http://swap.fm/l/tny-cal-extref">wherever you get your podcasts</a>.
April 3, 2025
Gossip, an essential human pastime, is full of contradictions. It has the potential to be as destructive to its subjects as it is titillating to its practitioners; it can protect against very real threats, as in the case of certain pre-#MeToo whisper networks, or tip over into the realm of conspiracy. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider the role gossip has played in society over the centuries. They discuss Kelsey McKinney’s new book on the topic, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/You-Didnt-Hear-This-Me/dp/1538757400">You Didn’t Hear This from Me</a>,” which Schwartz recently <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/24/you-didnt-hear-this-from-me-kelsey-mckinney-book-review">reviewed in The New Yorker</a>, and consider instructive cultural examples—from the Old Testament to “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” Today, many celebrities have embraced being talked about as a badge of honor, even as new technologies allow questionable assertions about anyone—famous or otherwise—to spread more freely and quickly than ever before. “Just being in public makes you potentially fodder for gossip,” Schwartz says. “I do worry about a world in which privacy is compromised for everybody.” Read, watch, and listen with the critics: “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/You-Didnt-Hear-This-Me/dp/1538757400">You Didn’t Hear This from Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip</a>,” by Kelsey McKinney “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/24/you-didnt-hear-this-from-me-kelsey-mckinney-book-review">Is Gossip Good for Us?</a>,” by Alexandra Schwartz (The New Yorker) “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lovers-Discourse-Fragments-Roland-Barthes/dp/0374532311">A Lover’s Discourse</a>,” by Roland Barthes “Grease” (1978) “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/House-Mirth-Twentieth-Century-Classics/dp/0140187294">The House of Mirth</a>,” by Edith Wharton “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Custom-Country-Bantam-Classics/dp/0553213938">The Custom of the Country</a>,” by Edith Wharton “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Moses-Mountain-Zora-Neale-Hurston/dp/0061695149">Moses, Man of the Mountain</a>,” by Zora Neale Hurston “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Emma-Penguin-Classics-Jane-Austen/dp/0141439580">Emma</a>,” by Jane Austen “Gossip Girl” (2007-12) “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” (2010—) New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large <a href="http://swap.fm/l/tny-cal-extref">wherever you get your podcasts</a>.
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