I Need a Critic: October, 2025, Edition

0:05This is Critics at Large, a podcast from The New Yorker. I'm Alex Schwartz. I'm Nomi Fry. And I'm Vincent Cunningham. Each week on this show, we make sense of what's happening in the culture right now and how we got here. How are you guys? Absolutely hanging on by a thread. That's it. I came into the studio today and I said, is quote unquote mercury and quote unquote retrograde? Because things have just been going wrong. October in New York, baby. It's not, by the way. I mean, it's not. It's not. Whatever that is, it's not. Nonetheless, we are fighting for our lives. Fighting for our lives and yet.

0:46And yet. Gathered here once again for what is really becoming a tradition here at Critics at Large. My friends, it's time for the franchise. I need a critic. Oh, yes. Thank goodness. I've been trying to figure out why we love doing these so much. I think it's, first of all, hearing the wonderful voices and minds of our listeners, which is just the best thing in the world. But, I mean, what's so great about it? Oh, I know what's so great about it. There are a few things. One is, as you say, just being in communion with the listeners. The second thing, I think, is that it's really fun to just stretch our minds in all these different directions.

1:26It's like a little, like, rapid-fire challenge. Go, go, go, go, go. And so that's fun. And then I think the third thing is that right now, when everybody wants to put questions into chat GPT and just seek answers from the great AI, there is something wonderful about humans talking to and helping humans. We believe in it. I like that. Yeah. This is bespoke advice. So here's what's on the docket for today. As you know, if you're a longtime listener, we've been collecting submissions about the specific cultural dilemmas that are coming up in your lives right now. And today we get to hear what you sent in.

2:08And all together, we're going to try to figure out some answers. We also, though, have, I can't even, it's impossible to say how special a guest, a very special guest, let's say, dialing in on the Critics at Large hotline. And that's today on Critics at Large, another scintillating edition of I Need a Critic.

2:39All right. The Critics at Large hotline is open. And is that? I think we're getting a call. Ring, ring. Hello? Who's on the line? Hello? Oh, my God. As I live and breathe. Wow. It is actor Morgan Spector, known to many of you as Mr. Russell on HBO's wonderful show, The Gilded Age. Look what the horse and buggy dragged in. Exactly. To which all three of us are addicted, we should say. We love The Gilded Age. We love Morgan. We even love Mr. Russell, even though he is a pitiless capitalist. Although he does have some pity, right, Morgan, would you say? Yeah, no, absolutely. I think, you know, he's not entirely up for just wholesale slaughter of his workers.

3:28That's a redeeming feature. Right. And he's a girl dad. He's a girl dad. Yeah, that's right. That's right. As a father of daughters. As a father to a daughter, Mr. Russell is a sympathetic character. Anyway, Morgan, we're so excited to have you here. I should note I am proud to be a close personal friend of yours in real life. IRL. But I also know that you are an avid listener to critics at large. That is in fact the case. I think I'm a completist. I think I've listened to every episode. Wow. And I love the advice episodes. I think they're so beautiful. Yeah. And so when we were planning to do this iteration of I Need a Critic, I said, why shouldn't Mr.

4:17Russell call in? because I should reveal that we call you amongst ourselves, Mr. Russell, even though we do know your actual name. We understand what acting is. We get it. No, no. What if we don't get it? We barely get it, but we try. You can continue. That's fine. That's whatever feels more comfortable. Right, right. Well, okay, we're going to refer to you as Morgan today. And Morgan, you have a cultural question for us. Do you not? I do. I do. My question is, how do I know if a poem that I write is actually a poem or if it's just like some emo scribbling that I've done? I guess I should get some context for this question.

5:04Yes. Did you see this clip of Ethan Hawke that was going around a few years ago where he's talking about the necessity for human creativity? I don't think I've seen that clip, but it sounds very much like Ethan Hawke. Yeah, yeah. Like I can imagine it. In preparation for this call, I looked up the text of it. Can I just read it to you briefly? Absolutely. Okay, great. I feel like this is kind of up your alley. So this is the quote. Do you think human creativity matters? Well, most people don't spend a lot of time thinking about poetry, right? They have a life to live, and they're really not that concerned with Allen Ginsberg's poems or anyone's poems until their father dies.

5:40They go to a funeral. You lose a child. Someone breaks your heart. and all of a sudden you're desperate for making sense out of this life. Has anybody felt this bad before? How did they come out of this cloud? Or the inverse, something great. You meet somebody and your heart explodes. You love them so much you can't even see straight. You're dizzy. Did anybody feel like this before? What is happening to me? And that's when art's not a luxury. It's actually sustenance. We need it. That's the end of the quote. Ethan, that's pretty good. That's very good. Yeah. It is pretty good. And I loved it and I loved him for saying it.

6:14and it sort of reflects what I'm talking about, which is this sense that there are moments in life where one reaches for poetry. And when that happens to me, I often have the impulse to write it. But I am not someone who often has the impulse to read it. Oh, that's interesting. So that's where my question really comes from, is I don't read a lot of poetry. I read a lot of fiction. I read a lot of nonfiction. I care about writing. But I don't read a lot of poetry. And when I do read poetry, I often find it, I struggle to connect with it sometimes because I think sometimes it's very densely elusive.

6:48Sometimes it feels like it's being written for a sort of small circle of poets who only who understand each other's gestures in a way that I don't. And I will also concede that I'm just like, you know, ill read in poetry. Like it's this there's a lot of ignorance that I'm bringing to this question. That makes two of us, Morgan. Well, fair. Good. I'm not I'm not a poetry person. But I do think it's incredibly necessary. I do think it's something that we reach for, especially in these moments of great loss or great tumult and almost as a kind of ritual. Like we need language to give us something more out of those kinds of moments than we get from quotidian speech.

7:27And and yeah, so I just I don't know. How do I how do you know when something is a poem? How do you know when it actually contains enough meaning to really articulate some of those moments in life when one reaches for poetry? I don't know. Do you guys have any thoughts? On one level, first of all, everything you said about poetry is true. There is this sort of mystique. And I don't think it's the fault of poets. I think it's the fault of largely the interpreters of poetry that make it seem like this sort of like a cult system of codes that only someone sort of like who's been initiated into the rights can like approach the holy place or whatever.

8:06But I think that the first qualifier is if you have termed it a poem, then already you're thinking in a different register, which leads me maybe to the second thing, which is I think poems are evidence of overflow, is my feeling. which is why even poets they all talk about like you know if I get a couple great poems a year that's a good year because you can't force like an overflow it's like they build up is my like theory of the case and then sometimes you have to sing I think the classic example of this is just look at the structure of Morgan as an actor and your training did you do a lot of Shakespeare in my training yeah I haven't actually done any professionally but yeah I've done I've done Shakespearean.

8:53But like, you know the sound of it, right? We talk, we talk, we talk, you know, a lot of dialogue. And then at a certain point, somebody's feeling too much and Hamlet has to be like, whatever. Let me talk to the audience. Oh, that there's two, two solid flesh would melt. All that stuff. And all of a sudden, somebody has to sing. And then the third way I would be like, this is definitely a poem, is if you are suddenly thinking in sounds as well as in the usual things that language contains, I think, Morgan, that you're a poet. And I also think that this thing of being well-read in poetry, while great, poetry is a part of the system of sustaining my own...

9:32I read poetry a lot, but I think classically, people weren't sitting around being well-read in poetry. They're around a campfire, and this guy, fucking Homer, like the guy in your dorm room who always has a guitar, is like, guys, can I tell you about the anger of Achilles? the son of Atreus Agamemnon. I got a story about these dudes. And people sat around listening to it and memorized this stuff and probably said it more often than they ever heard it. So for all these reasons, Moria, I think we all just learned that you are a poet. I love everything Vincent said, but I'm going to come at this from a slightly different angle, which is, you know, I'm going back to your original question, which is how do you know that what you're writing is good and not terrible?

10:18And I think the real question is, why does it matter? Yeah. Because I, you know, I think maybe it matters to you. Here I'm going to, within three minutes of meeting you, I'm now going to assert why I think it might matter to you. But because you're an artist and because you've achieved a high level at your own craft, you may be concerned about creating art or even creating something that you're not sure is art without it being at a similar level. But also, like, unless you're now planning to send out your collected works for publication, and maybe you are. I'm not. Free yourself. If you can get free, get free.

10:56Yeah, I think what Alex is saying is really right. I think writing in general is extremely embarrassing. Writing poetry is probably even more embarrassing than writing prose. Exactly. So there's just something like inherently just so shameful about it. You know, there's nothing more embarrassing than being a poet, you know? And yet there are— But nothing more noble. But there's nothing more noble. Exactly. When it's right, it's nothing more noble. Yeah. No. And so just, yeah, just like set yourself, you know, free on the ocean of poetry, Morgan. Listen, I love everything all of you are saying, but it makes me think as we're talking, if you were not trying to make me feel better about my obvious insecurities, how do you answer that question more sort of in the abstract?

11:50Like, I don't know if I remember the there was the Internet phenomenon of Rupi Kaur. Yes. She was very popular. Her book sold well. She was like an Internet poet. And she was treated to some extent, I think, fairly with a certain amount of derision by by some quarters of the Internet and the literary community. And I'm curious, like, why isn't that a poem? I mean, I guess it's one thing to say it's not good and you don't like it. I mean, that's always an option with anything. Yeah. But yeah, with poetry, it seems particularly slippery to me just because of the concision of the form. And you aren't constrained necessarily by form or by meter.

12:27What transforms something from like a, you know, an artfully arranged list into a poem? I mean, an artfully arranged list might be a poem. It's the same as with visual. It is the same as with visual art, like post Duchamp, basically. Someone could sign a urinal and someone could declare it art. And then that argument goes on forever. I think Rupi Kaur writes poems. I don't think most of them are good poems. And the reason I would say that is because when I look at the poems, and I'm looking at a couple right now, I don't see a kind of originality of language or freshness of language that I would want to see in a poem.

12:59And it doesn't have to be, and often it really isn't, a kind of high archaic language, not at all. But a kind of originality of putting together words to create something new in image and meaning, I think, might be an underlying quality of what a good poem is. and, as Vincent was saying, an inherent sense of the musicality of language, which can be used to all different kinds of ends. One of my favorite poets working today, Diane Seuss, these long, long, like, post-Witman, just maximalist lines. They had to design the book differently to make all the lines fit. And, you know, there's a certain kind of poet that says, this is just a paragraph.

13:35And part of the function of the poet is to say, oh, no, no, no, this too can be a poem. There's a book that I really like right now. It is by Rainer Diana Hamilton, a poet who I just love. And she's got this book of poems called Lilacs. And it's really a book about sense memory and whether poetry can be used to aid us in remembering the information of the senses. It's like, how can I remember smells? How can I remember sounds, et cetera? They read like essays. And some of them were initially published as prose. But part of the point of the book is, oh, poetry isn't just an artifact. It helps us to do things.

14:16And so turning this into a poem might, you know, whether it's to remember things, which is like the classical function of like, I'm going to put it in a rhythm and then you'll remember the song, you know? What if poetry is the way to like sort of keep up with the onrush of life? And so if the poem is helping you to do something that other kinds of language couldn't do, my contention would be, you got yourself a poem. I love that answer. Thank you. You are welcome. You guys are really good at this. Another happy, satisfied customer. You know? Such as we have, man. We're so happy you did this. This is the coolest thing in the world.

14:56Morgan, thank you so much. It was my total pleasure. Thank you guys so much. You're the best. And if you want to share your poems with us, we would be honored. I did think of that, but I probably would rather peel my eyes off. with some kind of dull implement. But yeah, thank you. Don't do that.

15:17In a minute, more questions from listeners like you. Yes, you. This is I Need a Critic on Critics at Large from the New Yorker. Don't go away. Get real. Stick with us.

15:58We'll see you next time. with tech leaders across Silicon Valley, internet fandom investigations, and government crackdowns on rigged gambling were taking you all over the news cycle, going straight inside the priorities, pressures, and power plays driving today's biggest decisions. Uncanny Valley tackles the questions keeping you up at night and helps make sense of the future taking shape right now. Listen to new episodes every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.

16:35Here's the thing. Once upon a time, a young boy named Vincent Cunningham watched a movie he never should have saw. It's called The Ring. You've heard it. It turns the seven days of the week into a goddamn nightmare from which, will you recover? I don't know. I haven't. So we want to talk about horror movies on Critics at Large. We want to hear from you. And it could be anything. Is there a horror movie that you want us to watch you think we would like? Is there a director, a subgenre that you're sort of particularly drawn to or it changed things for you? Anything about horror question, comment, directive, we want to hear it.

17:16Send us a voice memo to themailatnewyorker.com. That's themailatnewyorker.com with the subject line, critics. Ooh.

17:32So here's how this is going to go. We each have a batch of voicemails. You know, we've all got clients to bring to the table. So we're going to take turns sharing those with the group. Who wants to start? I can start. There we go. I can start. This voicemail is from Gabriella, a listener who needs our help. Hi, critics. I broke my ankle two weeks ago in an adult women's amateur rugby league game. Respect. And I had to have surgery last week to put a metal plate in my ankle to hold everything in place. Oh, boy. So I'm looking at a long and very boring recovery. I'm looking for a recommendation for a really all-consuming TV show that can get me glued to that couch where I really need to be.

18:15I really appreciate your help at this time because I am bored and trapped in New Jersey. Oh, no, Gabriela. we're first of all so sorry to hear of your predicament but i personally am very impressed a badass predicament yeah i mean good god 100 guys what do you think how can we help all encompassing televisual experience you could go in so many directions gabrielle if you're a long time listener you know my recently binged sex in the city it was the most important thing that's to me over the last three years. I don't know. Really great. I think, though, that the most bingeable show that I've ever watched is The Wire, because it's got a million characters.

18:59It's like Balzac or something. It's got docks. It's got schools. It's got newsrooms. It's got the police. It's got a thousand milieus into which one can sink one's teeth. Also, in terms of noir, crime, et cetera, the Americans, the spy thriller starring Keri Russell, is a binge watch that recently is still burned across my brain. Lighter fare? The Billy Joel doc. Oh, yeah. The new Billy Joel doc is immersive. It's not gonna last through the healing of your leg, but goddamn what a guy. Still rock and roll to me. Still a rock and roll to me, too. Great doc. He did not start the fire. I know a guy who did that.

19:47Nor did we. Should we hasten to add? Okay, I got a recommendation, too. I'm just going to recommend the show that I watched at the end of my pregnancy and through my immediate postpartum period, which I was late to. If you want to understand American culture as it is now, if you want to see where it all began because you know where it was going, if you want to engage with the big issues of the day, with big tech, with AI, with the law, with order. If you want great personal drama. You're going to recommend Entourage, right? No. Thank you, though. If you want interpersonal drama, if you want a little bit of romance, if you want the comforting serial sequencing of regular network television, you can do no better than The Good Wife.

20:38a sublime televisual experience. I've never seen it. Oh, my God. Me either. Well, unless you have a broken ankle or you're, you know, heavily pregnant, can't really move, and then have a little baby and also can't really move, it's going to be very hard to go back to the beginning of eight or whatever seasons of, you know, 70 episodes a season, whatever it is. It's literally endless, and you're going to thank me. That's a great wreck. I've never watched it. I've always wanted to. Maybe at some point, I will do that. But now I'm going to offer some lighter fare, something that is happening right now in my household and is bringing all of us, myself, my husband, and our daughter, a lot of pleasure.

21:21A little BTS. A little BTS, yes. Somehow we had never watched 30 Rock. And my daughter is a big comedy person and a big SNL person. and she said, oh, we should, you know, we should watch 30 Rock. And I was like, I'm just here to say that this is like the most pleasurable watching experience and like immersive and in a world of characters and jokes and bits that are just like so impressive on the comedic level. Yeah, Tina Fey, love you. She's got the stuff. Yeah. Gabriella? Be well. Heal up. Heal up. I got somebody. Her name's Carolyn from Germany, from Bonn, Germany. Let's take it away, Carolyn.

22:15Dear critics, I loved reading some Knight's Peace on Subherbys a few weeks ago in the New Yorker, and it got me interested in this world of the auction house where billionaires meet art connoisseurs. So what are your recommendations for fiction, movies, or television series that explore the discourse on the price versus the value of art that depict the slightly illegal art market gambling or shady finances and that have an aesthetic sensitivity for the art pieces at play or that celebrate the glamour of the art world. I'm also interested in the dramatic value of the auction, so the adrenaline, the rituality, and the many ways in which such an auction house can become a theatre.

22:58I love this question. Beautiful question. Beautiful question. Beautifully said, but also the meat of it is so good. Love it. So, Carolyn, you're absolutely right about the high drama of the auction. And in fact, auctions do feature in a variety of film and TV shows precisely for that reason. And I'm actually thinking the first thing that came to mind when I heard your question was the first episode of the recent Netflix series Lupin or Lupin, where there's a heist at a very fancy auction in the Louvre. And that's just kind of fun to see a heist at an auction. My personal favorite auction scene is, of course, from the First Wives Club, where the Sarah Jessica Parker character is kind of goaded into overpaying for some hideous item because she's told that Jackie O has one just like it.

23:50Great scene. If you haven't also, Caroline, seen The First Wives Club, you simply must. That is great. I have something which is a little bit further afield. It's not about an auction house. It's not about auctions, but it is about the art market and about what, Caroline, you referred to as the kind of meeting point between actual value, you know, artistic value and market value. This is a biography of Jean-Michel Basquiat called A Quick Killing in Art by Phoebe Hoban. It's from 1998. And as you probably know, Basquiat, who died very young, still in his 20s, had a kind of like meteoric ascent.

24:33And of course, since his death, his market value only rose more. And so it's a really interesting depiction. It's a very tumultuous, you know, short, scandalous life. But that question of what is the value of art and also the kind of glamorous surroundings of an art world that preys on its young, you know, young and talented is very much top of mind in this book. I want to read that. My favorite art world text is so much more low rent than all of this. And yet I cannot help but speak. What I would like you to do, Carolyn, is just pull up the search engine of your choice. Maybe it's Google. I don't know what they do in Bonn.

25:21And search Mugrabi New York Post. M-U-G-R-A-B-I New York Post. It is the best thing in the world. A series of headlines will appear. Libby Mugrabi, who was the wife of a sort of art collector scion named David Mugrabi. These two people, David and Libby Mugrabi, had what some people called the art world's or New York High Society's nastiest divorce in 2018. And you know how much we love reading about that. We love that. And so part of the site of the Tsuris was the house and all of the art in it. You'll read these pieces. Did David try to talk to a hitman to get his services? Libby says that happened.

26:15But did a housekeeper take over the compound in the Hamptons and Southampton and, quote unquote, glamp in it with her friends, shunting Libby's mother into the pool house and making her not leave there? Was there an attack on Libby Mugrabi by David Mugrabi's housekeeper? Libby says so. Was there ecstasy and couple swapping? Maybe. Maybe. It is a great freaking story. It's like the Hamptons version of the Wolf of Wall Street, but the tawdriest thing in the world. Just look at the pieces. One leads to another. It's not TV. It's not a movie. But God damn, it's cinematic in scope and scale. You got to check out the Mugrabi epic.

27:03Okay, you guys. I feel like we really need to put our heads together and help our next listener, whose name is Lee. Let's go to the tape and listen to his quandary. Dear Critics, I'm now 44, with school-age kids, a rewarding job, and a lovely family. Though warm and broad the picture of my life feels incomplete, I feel a lack of close friendships. I live in a different city than where I grew up, most of my oldest friends are scattered across the country, and those that are in my town show little interest in socializing nowadays. Some of this can be explained by them also having family demands on their time, but some, I cannot help but imagine, is just that they aren't interested in hanging out with me.