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Critics at Large | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

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.

Condé Nast 2023

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.

Condé Nast 2023
63hr 38min
Thumbnail for "Samantha Irby Knows How to Be Funny".
Samantha Irby Knows How to Be Funny
November 21, 202341min 1sec39.38 MB
Thumbnail for "Why We Turn Grief Into Art".
June 19, 202545min 23sec43.47 MB
Thumbnail for "Our Romance with Jane Austen".
June 12, 202546min 29sec44.53 MB
Thumbnail for "“Mountainhead” and the Age of the Pathetic Billionaire".
June 5, 202545min 23sec43.57 MB
Thumbnail for "Lessons from “Sesame Street”".
May 29, 202550min 25sec48.3 MB
Thumbnail for "The Season for Obsessions".
May 22, 202547min 44sec45.72 MB
Thumbnail for "The Grand Spectacle of Pope Week".
May 15, 202544min 56sec43.04 MB
Thumbnail for "I Need a Critic: May 2025 Edition".
May 8, 202551min48.96 MB
Thumbnail for "How “Sinners” Revives the Vampire".
May 1, 202543min 15sec41.43 MB
Thumbnail for "War Movies: What Are They Good For?".
April 17, 202545min 55sec43.98 MB
Thumbnail for "“The Studio” Pokes Fun at Hollywood’s Existential Struggle".
April 10, 202549min 17sec47.21 MB
Thumbnail for "Gossip, Then and Now".
April 3, 202543min 49sec41.97 MB
Thumbnail for "Joe Rogan, Hasan Piker, and the Art of the Hang".
March 27, 202548min 23sec46.34 MB
Thumbnail for "Critics at Large Live: The Right to Get It Wrong".
March 20, 202539min 31sec37.85 MB
Thumbnail for "Our Modern Glut of Choice".
March 13, 202543min 19sec41.49 MB
Thumbnail for "How “The Pitt” Diagnoses America's Ills".
March 6, 202545min 27sec43.53 MB
Thumbnail for "In “Severance,” the Gothic Double Lives On".
February 27, 202546min 41sec44.72 MB
Thumbnail for "The Staying Power of the “S.N.L.” Machine".
February 20, 202546min 5sec44.14 MB
Thumbnail for "How Romantasy Seduces Its Readers".
February 13, 202549min 37sec47.53 MB
Thumbnail for "David Lynch’s Unsolvable Puzzles".
February 6, 202547min 10sec45.28 MB
Thumbnail for "The Splendor of Nature, Now Streaming".
January 30, 202544min 27sec42.68 MB
Thumbnail for "The New Western Gold Rush".
January 16, 202545min 47sec43.96 MB
Thumbnail for "The Elusive Promise of the First Person".
January 9, 202545min 48sec43.97 MB
Thumbnail for "Hayao Miyazaki’s Magical Realms".
December 26, 202444min 43sec42.93 MB
Thumbnail for "Critics at Large Live: The Year of the Flop".
December 19, 202445min 32sec43.72 MB
Thumbnail for "After “Wicked,” What Do We Want from the Musical?".
December 12, 202447min 50sec45.92 MB
Thumbnail for "The Modern-Day Fight for Ancient Rome".
December 5, 202443min 27sec41.72 MB
Thumbnail for "Will Kids Online, In Fact, Be All Right?".
November 21, 202448min 28sec46.53 MB
Thumbnail for "The Value—and Limits—of Seeking Comfort in Art".
November 14, 202444min 25sec42.64 MB
Thumbnail for "Critics at Large Live: Julio Torres’s Dreamy Surrealism".
October 31, 202443min 41sec41.94 MB
Thumbnail for "Help, I Need a Critic!".
October 24, 202453min 50sec51.68 MB
Thumbnail for "A Controversial Trump Bio-pic and the Villains We Make".
October 10, 202450min 28sec48.45 MB
Thumbnail for "“The Substance” and the New Horror of the Modified Body".
October 3, 202448min 47sec46.84 MB
Thumbnail for "The Fate of the Finance Bro".
September 26, 202449min 27sec47.48 MB
Thumbnail for "Sally Rooney’s Beautiful Deceptions".
September 19, 202446min 53sec45.01 MB
Thumbnail for "Was Abraham Lincoln Gay . . . And Should We Care?".
September 12, 202441min 54sec40.23 MB
Thumbnail for "The Trap of the Trad Wife".
September 5, 202443min 36sec41.86 MB
Thumbnail for "Tarot, Tech, and Our Age of Magical Thinking".
August 29, 202446min 43sec44.85 MB
Thumbnail for "The Irresistible Myth of Las Vegas".
August 22, 202443min 23sec41.65 MB
Thumbnail for "Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, and the Unstable Hierarchy of Pop".
August 15, 202446min 39sec44.79 MB
Thumbnail for "Why We Want What Tom Ripley Has".
August 8, 202450min 45sec48.72 MB
Thumbnail for "The Kamala Harris Vibe Shift".
August 1, 202444min 7sec42.36 MB
Thumbnail for "From Vanity Fair’s “Dynasty”: Can Harry and Meghan’s Hollywood Dream Last?".
July 25, 202444min 35sec42.81 MB
Thumbnail for "Alice Munro’s Fall from Grace".
July 18, 202447min 37sec45.72 MB
Thumbnail for "The Changing World of Nature Documentaries".
July 11, 202444min 8sec42.37 MB
Thumbnail for "From The New Yorker Radio Hour: Emily Nussbaum on the Beginnings of Reality TV".
July 4, 202415min 55sec15.25 MB
Thumbnail for "Summer Obsessions".
June 27, 202448min 9sec46.12 MB
Thumbnail for "The Therapy Episode".
June 20, 202445min 27sec43.64 MB
Thumbnail for "Is Travel Broken?".
June 13, 202448min 29sec46.55 MB
Thumbnail for "The Many Faces of the Hit Man".
June 6, 202446min 51sec44.98 MB
Thumbnail for "The Rising Tide of Slowness".
May 30, 202447min 6sec45.22 MB
Thumbnail for "The New Midlife Crisis".
May 23, 202445min 18sec43.49 MB
Thumbnail for "Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and the Benefits of Beef".
May 16, 202446min 16sec44.42 MB
Thumbnail for "Our Collective Obsession with True Crime".
May 9, 202451min 19sec49.27 MB
Thumbnail for "Why the Sports Movie Always Wins".
May 2, 202445min 49sec43.99 MB
Thumbnail for "“Civil War” ’s Unsettling Images".
April 18, 202446min 10sec44.32 MB
Thumbnail for "“Curb Your Enthusiasm” and the Art of the Finale".
April 11, 202444min 33sec42.77 MB
Thumbnail for "Why We Want What Tom Ripley Has".
April 4, 202447min 31sec45.62 MB
Thumbnail for "Kate Middleton and the Internet’s Communal Fictions".
March 28, 202445min 20sec43.52 MB
Thumbnail for "Is Science Fiction the New Realism?".
March 21, 202446min44.16 MB
Thumbnail for "The New Coming-of-Age Story".
March 14, 202450min 1sec48.02 MB
Thumbnail for "Why We Love an Office Drama ".
March 7, 202447min 19sec45.43 MB
Thumbnail for "The Politics of the Oscar Race".
February 29, 202448min 37sec46.68 MB
Thumbnail for "How Usher, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift Build Their Own Legacies".
February 15, 202444min 8sec42.37 MB
Thumbnail for "The Painful Pleasure of “Wretched Love”".
February 8, 202445min 52sec44.04 MB
Thumbnail for "Why We Can’t Quit the Mean Girl".
February 1, 202445min 48sec43.97 MB
Thumbnail for "From In the Dark: The Runaway Princesses".
January 30, 202414min 7sec13.52 MB
Thumbnail for "What Is the Comic For?".
January 25, 202449min 20sec47.36 MB
Thumbnail for "The Case for Criticism".
January 18, 202443min 15sec41.52 MB
Thumbnail for "Can Slowness Save Us?".
January 11, 202447min 23sec45.49 MB
Thumbnail for "Portraits of the Artist".
January 4, 202446min 49sec44.95 MB
Thumbnail for "From The New Yorker Radio Hour: a Conversation with Dolly Parton".
December 28, 202324min 37sec23.59 MB
Thumbnail for "The Year of the Doll".
December 21, 202345min 46sec43.94 MB
Thumbnail for "George Santos and the Art of the Scam".
he ex-congressman has already pivoted from politics to pop culture—and become the latest beneficiary of America’s enduring fascination with con artists. Are we the ones being duped?
December 14, 202345min 44sec43.91 MB
Thumbnail for "Hayao Miyazaki’s Magical Realms".
The Japanese filmmaker behind “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away” is renowned for stories about resourceful children navigating surreal, often perilous circumstances. In “The Boy and the Heron,” the eighty-two-year-old makes a rare return to his own youth.
December 7, 202344min 55sec43.12 MB
Thumbnail for "The Past, Present, and Future of the Period Drama".
“The Buccaneers,” a new television series based on the Edith Wharton novel of the same name, is the latest in a string of shows to mix a historical setting and a distinctly modern sensibility. Are the updates revelatory, or pandering?
November 30, 202345min 13sec43.42 MB
Thumbnail for "Is “The Golden Bachelor” Too Good to Be True?".
Is “The Golden Bachelor” Too Good to Be True?
November 16, 202343min 42sec41.96 MB
Thumbnail for "Why We Dine Out (or Don’t)".
Why We Dine Out (or Don’t)
November 9, 202343min 51sec42.1 MB
Thumbnail for "Britney Spears Tells Her Horror Story".
Britney Spears Tells Her Horror Story
November 2, 202343min 33sec41.82 MB
Thumbnail for "Martin Scorsese’s America".
Martin Scorsese’s America
October 26, 202343min 25sec41.69 MB
Thumbnail for "Are Straight Couples O.K.?".
Are Straight Couples O.K.?
October 19, 202344min 9sec42.39 MB
Thumbnail for "Spies, Sex, and John le Carré".
Spies, Sex, and John le Carré
October 12, 202341min 36sec39.95 MB
Thumbnail for "Taylor Swift Is Everywhere All at Once".
Taylor Swift Is Everywhere All at Once
October 5, 202341min 10sec39.53 MB
Thumbnail for "The Myth-Making of Elon Musk".
The Myth-Making of Elon Musk
September 28, 202339min 9sec37.59 MB
Thumbnail for "What Is Cringecore, and Why Is It Everywhere?".
What Is Cringecore, and Why Is It Everywhere?
September 28, 202337min 34sec36.07 MB
Thumbnail for "Introducing: Critics at Large".
On a new culture podcast, The New Yorker’s critics take on some of the defining texts of our era, from Rushdie to “The Real Housewives.”
September 21, 20232min 58sec2.94 MB

Samantha Irby Knows How to Be Funny

Thumbnail for "Samantha Irby Knows How to Be Funny".
November 21, 202341min 1sec

Samantha Irby’s latest essay collection, “Quietly Hostile,” cemented her place as one of the great professionally funny people working today. Her books and her writing for such TV shows as “Shrill” and “Tuca & Bertie” are distinguished by a no-holds-barred, raunchy, often scatological brand of humor and a willingness to poke fun at just about anything—including herself. In a live taping of Critics at Large at this year’s New Yorker Festival, the staff writers Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz sat down with Irby to unpack her approach. They discussed humor as a coping mechanism; her work on the “Sex and the City” reboot, “And Just Like That . . .,” and the ensuing backlash; and how the Internet has transformed the comedy landscape. “What people enjoy is so varied,” Irby says. “The future is you finding very specific things that delight you, and having them readily available.”

New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.

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Thumbnail for "Samantha Irby Knows How to Be Funny".
Samantha Irby Knows How to Be Funny
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