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 theyâre 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 âThe Real Housewives.â Through rigorous analysis and behind-the-scenes insights into The New Yorkerâs reporting, the magazineâs critics help listeners make sense of our momentâand how we got here.
The HBO series âThe Gilded Age,â created by the period-drama maestro Julian Fellowes, took a moment to find its audience. But several seasons in, the lush sets, immaculate costuming, and soapy plotlines have attracted a robust viewership, making it must-watch television. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider the showâs appeal and whether its focus on high-society dramas makes it, as some critics have said, insipid or trivial. In his effort to bring the titular period to life, Fellowes both dramatizes and sanitizes the social tensions of the day, particularly in the case of the ruthless capitalist George Russell, whom viewers have affectionately nicknamed Train Daddy. Why are we so ready to cozy up to these historical avatars, even as anger toward modern billionairesâ meddling seems at an all-time high? âThis show creates an avenue for viewers who politically are really opposed to that to actually indulge in it,â Schwartz says. âThis is the sneak attack of Julian Fellowes.âÂ
Read, watch, and listen with the critics:
âThe Gilded Ageâ (2022â)
âThe Age of InnocenceâÂ
âThe Custom of the CountryâÂ
âOpenAIâs Hollywood Whisperer,â by Charlotte Klein (New York)
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.
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On this episode of Critics at Large, recorded live at the twenty-seventh annual New Yorker Festival, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz bring their advice series to the stage for the first time. They advise on a range of topics, including films to introduce children to the magic of movies, art to rekindle a feminist spark, and whether trying to optimize oneâs inner life can diminish the capacity for genuine taste.Â
Read, watch, and listen with the critics:
âGangs of New Yorkâ (2002)
âWest Side Storyâ (1961)
âCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragonâ (2000)
âCasablancaâ (1942)
âRaiders of the Lost Arkâ (1981)
âPlaytimeâ (1967)
âDuck Soupâ (1933)
âE.T. the Extra-Terrestrialâ (1982)
âSpirited Awayâ (2001)
The music video for Michael Jacksonâs âRemember the Timeâ
The music video for Michael Jacksonâs âThrillerâ
âWar and Peace,â by Leo Tolstoy
âPlays: The Seagull; Uncle Vanya; Three Sisters; The Cherry Orchard,â by Anton Chekov
âThe Dolphin Letters, 1970-1979,â by Elizabeth Hardwick and Robert Lowell
âThe Black Outside,â by Joy Priest
âPricks in the Tapestry,â by Jameson Fitzpatrick
âThe Morning of the Poem,â by James Schuyler
âMommie Dearestâ (1981)
Holeâs âLive Through Thisâ
âWomen Talking,â by Miriam Toews
âWomen Talkingâ (2022)
âHow to Say Babylon: A Memoir,â by Safiya Sinclair
âThe Substanceâ (2024)
âBig Swiss,â by Jen Beagin
âOreo,â by Fran Ross
âLife Itself!,â by Elaine Dundy
âEureka Day,â by Jonathan Spector
âMiddlemarch,â by George Eliot
âPride and Prejudice,â by Jane AustenÂ
âLooking for Mr. Goodbar,â by Judith Rossner
âThe Vanishing Half,â by Brit Bennett
âShow Me a Heroâ (2015)
âOceanâs Elevenâ (2001)
âHeart of the Beastâ (2026)
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.
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âYou Can See Everythingâ and the Nathan Fielder Effect
Nathan Fielderâs onscreen personaâflat, literal-minded, and seemingly baffled by ordinary social behaviorâhas made him one of our most distinctive cultural figures. On his Comedy Central series âNathan for You,â his approach collided with the eagerness of ordinary people to be agreeable, and on the HBO series âThe Rehearsal,â it became a kind of social science, as Fielder staged elaborate simulations of real life. Fielderâs latest project, âYou Can See Everything,â a documentary he made with the director Lance Oppenheim, trains that deadpan gaze on Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of Theranos, who invited the filmmakers into her home in the weeks before she reported to prison for defrauding investors. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss the film and the strange mirroring between its two central figures: Fielder, performing an unnerving bluntness, and Holmes, wide-eyed and doll-like, who seems to remember almost nothing and insists she did nothing wrong. The hosts also consider what the movie says about the documentary form itself, and whether it can, or should, get at the truth. And with âYou Can See Everythingâ earning fifteen million dollars in its opening weekend, a remarkable figure for a documentary, they ask what it says about us as viewers that weâre so caught in Fielderâs web. Schwartz says it speaks to âour very human need to trust people while knowing that no one is really fundamentally trustworthy, but wanting everyone to be.â As she puts it, âWeâre all kind of on trial here, too.â
Read, watch, and listen with the critics:
âYou Can See Everythingâ (2026)
âWe Can Never Understand Elizabeth Holmes, or Nathan Fielder,â by Naomi Fry (The New Yorker)
âLance Oppenheim Is Going Places,â by Alex Barasch (New York)
âSpoiler Alert: Keeping Movies Under Wraps,â by Richard Brody (The New Yorker)
âNathan For Youâ (2013-17)
âThe Rehearsalâ (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 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 more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
âThe Social Reckoningâ Shows How It All Went Wrong
In 2010, Time magazineâs Person of the Year was not a world leader or entertainment icon but Mark Zuckerberg, the twenty-six-year-old creator of Facebook. That same year, Zuckerberg got the Hollywood treatment in the bio-pic âThe Social Network,â directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz revisit âThe Social Network,â which put forward an origin story for the company, captivating audiences and becoming a cultural touchpoint in the process. They compare it to Sorkinâs new film, âThe Social Reckoning,â which dramatizes whistle-blowing by the former Facebook employee Frances Haugen and the resulting bombshell investigation conducted by the Wall Street Journal in 2021. In the earlier film, Jesse Eisenberg played Zuckerberg as a lonely, ambitious geniusâa stark contrast to Jeremy Strongâs portrayal, in âThe Social Reckoning,â of a man who puts profits before people at every turn. At its best, the new film functions as its own form of whistle-blowing. âThe best reason to watch âThe Social Reckoningâ is that a lot of people still don't understand some of these things about this company,â Cunningham says. âI do wonder if a kind of news-giving or news-bringing, however belated . . . is a salutary effect of these portrayals.âÂ
Read, watch, and listen with the critics:
âThe Social Networkâ (2010)
âThe Social Reckoningâ (2026)Â
âThe Facebook Filesâ (The Wall Street Journal)
"Successionâ (2018-23)
âAaron Sorkin Made a Movie About Her. She Just Hopes Mark Zuckerberg Watches.â by Seija Rankin (The Hollywood Reporter)Â
"As Big Tech Takes Over Hollywood, the Picture Onscreen Gets Darker," by Alissa Wilkinson (The New York Times)
âSilicon Valleyâ (2014-19)Â
âCareless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism,â by Sarah Wynn-Williams
âDon't Be Evil: Bad Bosses, Fake Promises, and My Escape from Big Tech,â by Claire Stapleton
âEdward Snowden and the Rise of Whistle-Blower Culture,â by Jill Lepore (The New Yorker)
âData center opposition a rare issue uniting Americans across the political divide,â (60 Minutes)Â
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 more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tom Cruise is often said to be the last of a dwindling breed: the true movie star. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider the performances that have earned him that designation. The hosts are joined by Tyler Foggatt, a senior editor at The New Yorker and a die-hard âCruise-head,â who breaks down the chapters of the actorâs career. The early âheartthrob years,â marked by films like âRisky Businessâ and âThe Color of Money,â established Cruiseâs appeal onscreen and catapulted him into projects with respected directors such as Stanley Kubrick and Paul Thomas Anderson. Cruiseâs affiliation with the Church of Scientology might have torpedoed the career of a different celebrity, but he remains irresistible to audiences, who have shown up at the box office throughout the past decade of his careerâwhich has largely been defined by action flicks and jaw-dropping stuntwork. In âDigger,â the polarizing new film directed by Alejandro GonzĂĄlez Iñårritu, Cruiseâs performance as a potbellied, aging oil baron is a rare departure from his usual fare. Might it signal another reinvention? âCruise will probably default back to the formula that he knows works,â Foggatt says. âBut maybe we'll get a couple âDiggerâs between now and then.âÂ
Read, watch, and listen with the critics:
âDiggerâ (2026)
âRisky Businessâ (1983)
âThe Color of Moneyâ (1986)
âCocktailâ (1988)
âJerry Maguireâ (1996)Â
âBorn on the Fourth of Julyâ (1989)
âMagnoliaâ (1999)Â
âValkyrieâ (2008)
The âMission: Impossibleâ movies (1999-)
âWar of the Worldsâ (2005)
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 more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What Survival Stories Tell Us (and Should We Listen?)
On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss the perennial appeal of survival stories. They trace the theme of man versus nature from early novels like Daniel Defoeâs âRobinson Crusoeâ to new releases like âHeart of the Beast,â in which Brad Pitt plays a grizzled veteran traversing the Alaskan wilderness with a canine companion. Survivalist themes are common in reality franchises like âSurvivor,â now in its fifty-first season, and the History Channel show âAlone.â But a new offering from Channel 4, âApocalypse,â takes the format in a darker direction: contestants profess their fears about societal collapse as they compete for food and shelter on an abandoned military base. As anxiety rises about the climate crisis and the potential for an A.I. takeover, the question of survival seems more pressing than everâand yet these tales of rugged individualism can seem out of step with the times. âThey donât really describe our condition,â Cunningham says. âUnless you are in fact marooned somewhere, there are other people. Itâs harder to dramatize surviving together than it is surviving alone.âÂ
Read, watch, and listen with the critics:
âHeart of the Beastâ (2026)
 âA Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck,â by Sophie Elmhirst
âAll is Lostâ (2013)
âHatchet,â by Gary Paulsen
âMy Side of the Mountain,â by Jean Craighead George
âIsland of the Blue Dolphins,â by Scott O'DellÂ
âCast Awayâ (2000)
âRescue Dawnâ (2006)Â
âThe Ecstatic Truth,â by Daniel Zalewski (The New Yorker)
âThe Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding,â by Ian Watt
âThe Revenantâ (2015)Â
âLittle House in the Big Woods,â by Laura Ingalls Wilder
âAloneâ (2015-)
âSurvivorâ (2000-)
âApocalypseâ (2026)Â
âTuesday, and Afterâ (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 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 more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
âThe Journey,â a five-part audio investigation by Ava Kofman, unravels the mystery of how Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang, a wealthy Los Angeles couple, obtained dozens of children through nearly as many surrogatesâand exposes a scandal that threatens to undermine the entire surrogacy industry.
In Episode 1, âGifts,â a woman in Texas agrees to carry a child for the couple. She thinks sheâs helping a family in need. Then she becomes a whistle-blower.
In the Dark is an acclaimed investigative-journalism podcast that launched in 2016. Its third season won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for audio.
To keep listening to âThe Journey,â search for In the Dark wherever you get your podcasts.
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As the school year resumes, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider the workâand pleasureâof teaching and learning, reflect on their own experiences in the classroom, and counsel listeners on scholastic concerns. One teacher calls in asking for texts she could assign to combat apathy among her high-school students; another is looking for works that depict the highs and lows of her chosen career; and a graduate student seeks works of poetry to convince skeptics of the formâs artistic value. The hosts discuss the ways in which teaching is itself a kind of art form. âTeaching is so much a kind of performance,â Cunningham says. âYou have to be the one out on the ledge . . . to establish a new frontier of, âYou are allowed to be excited about this.â â
Read, watch, and listen with the critics:
âLess Than Zero,â by Bret Easton Ellis
Homerâs Odyssey
âBlack Boy,â by Richard Wright
âThe Great Gatsby,â by F. Scott Fitzgerald
âA Complicated Kindness,â by Miriam Toews
âBlack Swanâ (2010)
âThe Holdoversâ (2023)
âDemocracy and Education,â by John Dewey
âThe Classâ (2008)Â
âThe Simpsonsâ (1989-)
âAre You My Mother?,â by Merve Emre (The New Yorker)
âDead Poets Societyâ (1989)
âTheme for English B,â by Langston Hughes
âLlull,â by Ariana Reines
âOdes,â by Sharon Olds
âThe Red Poppy,â by Louise GlĂŒck
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 more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices