I Need a Critic: One-Hundredth-Episode Edition

11:53Vinson Cunningham:Yeah.

11:54Alexandra Schwartz:By Keith McNally.

11:54Vinson Cunningham:Oh, just listen to the audiobook of that.

11:56Alexandra Schwartz:Yeah, the restaurateur Keith McNally, famous for running Balthazar and other fine concerns. It's really, it's a tough and self-indicting, but also really funny and erudite memoir, which I believe many people would get things from. And I just think that's the kind of book that I think of when I think of sort of like widening the pool of my recommendations.

12:25Vinson Cunningham:I think that's a great recommendation. Just a little shout out for the audio version read by the actor Richard E. Grant, who pronounced restaurant, restaurant, restaurant, as if it had never stopped being a French word.

12:37Naomi Fry:Wonderful. Another suggestion to your friend and just in general is why don't you, if you feel intimidated, if you feel like not necessarily like turned on by reading immediately, pick up a book that's a relatively easy lift in terms of like it's like length and heft. For instance, I'm thinking about the novels of Gwendolyn Riley, a British writer whose novels she's written seven novels by now. They're all quite short. They're all pretty sparse. I'm now reading her new novel set to come out, I think, in a couple months. It's called Palm House. and I'm racing through it because it's like an easy lift on the level of like, it's 200 pages.

13:24Naomi Fry:It's like, the font is pretty large. You know, the pages are quite sparse, but it's amazing. She's an amazing writer.

13:33Alexandra Schwartz:And something like that,

13:35Naomi Fry:something like that, which is like, okay, here, you can do this, you know?

13:39Alexandra Schwartz:I've been meaning to get into her book, so that's a good thing. It's great. I really,

13:42Naomi Fry:I was just reading it on the subway here

13:43Vinson Cunningham:and I was like, oh, this is awesome. Maxwell, Well, I have one other thing to say to you, and this is going to be a bit of a, you know, a cold bath, as it were. I think you need some new friends. I'm not saying get rid of the old ones. But listen, people are reading. They are. And people are actually very vocal and passionate about reading. Look at Goodreads. Look at what's going on there. Look at the hype, the arguments, the controversy. They're out there. Join a book group. Go to where the readers are. You deserve it, Maxwell. Okay.

14:15Naomi Fry:I hear a rumbling. Do we have a very special guest? Am I hearing a very special surprise guest at the door? Who could it be? We literally don't know who it could be. I know.

14:24Vinson Cunningham:We sound like we're staging it, but we really don't know. We really don't know. I don't know if we... Oh! It's Mr. David Rump! I know it. I heard there would be cake. I hear there's cake. There's cake. There's cake. I didn't come to see you.

14:34Naomi Fry:There was confetti. There's confetti. There's cake. There's even water. There's a caravan. There's even water. Yes. It's incredible. This is what we have in my little gig.

14:44Vinson Cunningham:All right. Okay. David Remnick.

14:46Naomi Fry:We have Mr. David Remnick. I'm so happy to be here. For the very first time. Mazel tov. Thank you. 100 episodes. I came down to congratulate you. Thank you very much. Thank you. This is great. Mm-hmm. This cake, and I feel that people listening should get a full description of this.

15:02Vinson Cunningham:Well, it has a fondant picture of our logo on it.

15:05Alexandra Schwartz:Is that what that's called?

15:06Vinson Cunningham:Yeah.

15:06Alexandra Schwartz:Should we eat it now that David's here? Should we have a slice?

15:09Vinson Cunningham:Why do you think I came? That's right. Well, we were saving it. We knew not what for. It is.

15:14Naomi Fry:We will need to clear the confetti. You don't want to eat confetti. It's less delicious than one might imagine. And I believe, David, you are here not just to help us celebrate. Oh, I've been prepped, my friend. But maybe you have a question to share with us because this is the I Need a Critic episode. So I do need a critic. So I have two issues. Okay. One is a poppier one. As you know, my ultimate escapism is anything that has chyrons in the bottom where you see, you'll see the Eiffel Tower, but that's not enough to tell you where you are.

15:50Vinson Cunningham:And then it'll say, Paris, France. You like being treated like a fool. Okay. Nothing better. I heard that Netflix has a Ben Affleck, Matt Damon thing and they're wearing cop vests. I can't wait. I am so in. But I want to know, in my area, spies, espionage, that kind of thing, give me a suggestion. I feel like you're so ahead of me, David. I don't even know what I'm going to do here.

16:17Alexandra Schwartz:Have you seen Mark Ravelo as an ex-priest, now alcoholic? No. In Task? Ooh. Oh, no. People keep telling me Task is great. This is HBO?

16:28Naomi Fry:I believe it's HBO, yeah. I think it's HBO. I haven't seen it, but I heard it's really good. It's HBO Max, it is.

16:33Alexandra Schwartz:Yeah, yeah. And Ruffalo, he's had a horrible family tragedy. You have to have that. And now he's leading a small field office of dubiously prepared agents. He's filled with pain. I mean, the pain is visceral. He drinks vodka every day out of a child's plastic cup.

16:53Naomi Fry:Not a child's plastic cup. That's very, very sad. That's a little over-determined.

16:57Alexandra Schwartz:It's sad, but he still has a priestly, otherworldly aura. and thinking that he's solving a group of small-time home invasions, finds himself in the middle of a large drug-related conspiracy. You will love it, David Remnick. I'm in. Okay, so that was my one question. The other thing is much more serious. We are all of us, all four of us, professional readers. And yet, if I don't take my phone and put it in another room, it's trouble. So how do you, in this attention economy, in this attention-frittered world, how do you manage?

17:34Vinson Cunningham:Well, I have a little thing called Opal. What is that? It's an app. Charges a hefty fee, but a fee I'm happy to pay because you can block various apps on your phone using Opal. Does it take your child out of the apartment, too? That costs a lot more money. They got it, but it's a—

17:56Naomi Fry:I would that it were so simple. Yeah. So what do you guys do? So the only thing that's worked for me so far is just deactivate my Instagram. At certain points, I haven't done it in a while, but the last time I was off for like four months. So I just was not on Instagram at all. Like a cleanse. Like a cleanse. A full colonic. Yes. And that helped me read a lot more and concentrate. I have heard good things about brick.

18:24Alexandra Schwartz:I've got a bunch of friends who like, you know. Yeah, you put it, people have it on the refrigerator, say.

18:29Naomi Fry:It's a physical thing. It's a physical thing, and you beep it. It disables your whatever apps you tell it to disable. And then you actually have to go and touch it, I guess. I don't have it, but that's my understanding.

18:42Vinson Cunningham:Let's get brick. Let's try brick.

18:44Naomi Fry:Yes. I also want to say for the record, this is all great,

18:47Alexandra Schwartz:and I love the sort of purity and work ethic of this conversation, but can I just say for the record that I don't think David Remnick, of all people, needs to be more productive? Maybe you need to be on your phone a little bit, David. You've got a lot of jobs. I've learned how, and this is going to upset you, I've learned how to do some of my weekend reading with the Nick game on and the sound off. There's one person in this room who not fault me for that.

19:09Naomi Fry:Oh, yeah. Mr. Vincent Cunningham.

19:12Alexandra Schwartz:This is when we text. This is when we're both doing this.

19:16Naomi Fry:You deserve to enjoy yourself.

19:18Vinson Cunningham:Do I? Yes. Thank you. Get a couple swipes in there. You've earned it. You've earned it.

19:23Naomi Fry:We love you, man. Love you.

19:25Vinson Cunningham:It's a delight. Thank you. Thank you so much. Come back anytime, David. This is fun.

19:29Naomi Fry:Take care.

19:33Naomi Fry:You have more questions, and wouldn't you know it, we have more answers. Critics at Large from The New Yorker will be right back.

19:54Naomi Fry:Okay, Vincent, do you want to share another?

19:57Alexandra Schwartz:I got one. I got one.

19:58Naomi Fry:Okay.

19:59Alexandra Schwartz:I got something from a listener named Annie. I think this is a constantly pressing human problem. Annie? Hi, critics. My question for you is how should one choose a baby name? Ooh. I hope this isn't too personal, but I wondered, since you're all parents, what cultural considerations came into your decision-making process? I'm not pregnant, but I hope to be someday. And I'm so puzzled when I consider what I'd name a child since there's so much historical and cultural and trend baggage tied to names. So I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thank you.

20:44Naomi Fry:I love this question. We had a list, but we were kind of like we didn't have like a clear winner of a name before our daughter was born. And as we were in the hospital, we were still kind of debating it. But by the time we had to leave the hospital, which because this is America was like, you know, 11 hours after I did birth. I'm exaggerating, but it was like, boot, you're out of here. I'm like crawling out.

21:18Naomi Fry:So all of which is to say this is a question that befuddled me as well. And I, you know, I didn't really know. For me, one of the guiding principles, and this maybe has to do with my own feelings about my name, is that I wanted the name to be pronounced the same in every place and language. My name is Nomi, even though I pronounce it Nomi, even though it's written with Ne because I'm from Israel originally. And that's how the name is pronounced. But I understand that is very confusing. You know, it looks like it would be pronounced Naomi or Naomi. I, for me, that uniformity and my daughter's name is Nina.

22:00Naomi Fry:And so I like that it was like it was a Russian name. It was a Spanish name. It can be a Hebrew name. It's, you know, it's an Anglo-Saxon name, you know, and it's the same in every. That was really for some reason that universality was really kind of like I wanted it to be easy for her. And another thing is, I think like the vibes of a name are maybe more important than, you know, actually this is named after like a particular character I love. Although that's lovely as well. I didn't have that. The vibes of Nina for me, and I'm not sure exactly why that is, felt very like 1970s Upper West Side.

22:39Naomi Fry:And it seemed to me something that I kind of like, for whatever reason, kind of like built me culturally, even though I didn't grow up in the 70s on the Upper West Side. And so I like that sense of it.

22:54Vinson Cunningham:Feeling and vibes are important. I went with a traditional name. My son's name is Benjamin. I mean, basically, we chose the most, like, Ashkenazi name we could possibly have. I liked the kind of classic biblical names that have meanings that are attached to characters that all have meanings in the Hebrew language. You know, I went for that. One thing I will say about names that I find so endlessly fascinating from a cultural perspective is there's always probably a little category of distinctive names that seem so distinctive. And the parents are like, this is a really standout name. And then it just turns out that's the name of the generation.

23:27Vinson Cunningham:A dear friend of mine, her daughter is named Sylvie. And I ran into someone a few months later who proudly told me her daughter's name was Sylvie. And I said, I know a Sylvie. And her face fell, you know. And now I know a bunch of Sylvie's. So do what you like, listener. do what you like, do what sounds good and feels good. Yeah, do what works for you. Don't fall into family pressures and this and that. That's what I would say. I don't know, Vincent, what about you?

23:49Alexandra Schwartz:Well, I've always been really attracted to the idea, which like comes up in the Old Testament all the time, which is like something's happening in the life of the parent. And they name the child something that sort of is almost like a marker in time. It's kind of a solipsistic idea, but it really is about like the child's arrival, how the parent interprets it. And we all know this because when we speak about our children, the joy that happens, you know, when you think about the child and this rush of associations come, and I say this only to say that you have to like how it sounds because I think the name has to inspire that same rush of affection and gratitude and, importantly, memory every time.

24:36Alexandra Schwartz:This happened with my firstborn. You know, I always wanted to have a kid with a sort of New York-y name. Madison Avenue in Harlem is one of my favorite, you know, the little correspondence between Madison and Fifth Avenue is one of my favorite places. I just wanted to think about that. My younger daughter's name, Luz, L-U-Z, means light. And I named her at a time when I really wanted a light in my life. And I think about those things, you know, I think about myself as like a young city walker all the time when I say Madison. I think about this like great light every time I say Luz. So it's like you want the name to be as much of a, I don't know, carrier of hope and joy as the child is.

25:21Alexandra Schwartz:And so that's really about your own ear.

25:24Vinson Cunningham:Yep. Okay, I'm queuing us up. Go ahead, Alex. Here we go. From Emily. Hi, my name is Emily and I live in Vermont. Recently I watched the movie Die My Love and I absolutely hated the movie. I was completely unmoved and felt like I was being sort of beaten over the head with a hammer I found it really heavy-handed I've been thinking a lot about the movie and I wanted to know if there's ever been a time when the world has embraced a movie and you have found yourself on the outside thinking man I really don't enjoy that at all and And what that made you feel about yourself and your sort of relationship to the rest of the culture.

26:15Really, really love your show and appreciate your perspectives and thoughtfulness. Thanks.

26:21Vinson Cunningham:Nomi is absolutely grinning. She's grinning and cackling.

26:25Naomi Fry:Okay, I'm not going to be a huge bitch. But I will say, Emily, that I am with you. I'm with you, my friend. and yeah I mean you are you will never walk alone as far as it concerns me and the movie die my love yes absolutely unmoved that's all I'll say I don't know what my co-hosts uh felt about the movie or if they've seen it didn't see it I didn't see it okay well

26:56Vinson Cunningham:yeah alienated alienated by the press tour but I'll put that out there but I do know the feeling

27:03Naomi Fry:of like thinking at least that you're not in step with the rest of the culture. And it's a lonely feeling. It's a weird feeling when, you know, you watch a movie or you read a book or whatever it is, and you feel like, how is this possible? How is this possible? I remember it happened to me with Carol, with Todd Haynes' Carol, which everybody loved. And I had read The Price of Salt, the Patricia Highsmith book that it was based on. And I loved The Price of Salt. And then I saw the movie and it was like, OK, this is I get why people are liking this. But it's like it's not like the book. You know, it's not nearly as good.

27:45Naomi Fry:And I remember feeling, yeah, quite lonely about that. And I think I even like wrote about the movie and, you know, it feels alienating. But at the same time, there's like a sense, sometimes like a sense of pride that I feel. I do, I am very unbelieving in myself often, but I do believe in my taste. Like, I do know what I like and not like, just like on a visceral level. And just be proud of that. Be proud of your own taste. Just like it's you. It's what, your taste is what creates you, partly. And so that's, it's fine. It's fine. You have my blessing, especially because I agree with you about that movie.

28:26Alexandra Schwartz:I'm in the middle of this, and it's still a negotiation with me because music, definitely works on us over time. But the band Geese.

28:35Vinson Cunningham:I knew you were about to say that. Even before you said it, I knew it was coming. Really?

28:39Alexandra Schwartz:I mean, I usually like, you know, the people that like that album are people whose opinions I really admire often. But their 2025 album, Getting Killed, which has some bangers on it. I like this song called Half Real. But there's a song on it that's on everybody's like, this is my favorite song of the year. All pay is do cocaine. I don't know how to say things that are French in origin, but I listen to it. I'm like, okay, you know, it's just, it's got a sound that maybe isn't totally native to my ears. And this album, I've listened to it about five times. I really try to get into albums, but I'm just kind of like, there is a consensus around this album getting killed that I can't feel my way into yet.

29:21Alexandra Schwartz:And it is isolating, but it's also, to Nomi's point, a reminder of usually when that happens, those are the moments when I can locate something new in my own taste. It's like, I don't like it because, boom. And often I will have learned a new facet of my own taste in this negative way.

29:39Naomi Fry:Okay. I am going to go to a question that I'm curious about. I feel like Alex at least will have kind of like an interesting answer to this. Let's hear it. Okay. This is from Elsa. Hello, critics. I am an American living abroad in Hamburg, Germany, and want to deepen my language skills by reading in German. But when I try, I just can't get into a book the same way I can in English. I lose focus and then interest and pick up the book less and less as reading becomes a chore. I need a critic. What are your experiences with reading in foreign languages? How do you three fall in love with the difficult and unfamiliar?

30:17Vinson Cunningham:What a wonderful question. Oh, you know what? I do have, I mean, I can just speak from personal experience, but you're absolutely right. So I love speaking French. I love speaking French. I love listening to French. I love living in French. I don't love reading in French for the exact same reasons that Elsa says. You know, I feel like I'm reading through basically like Vaseline-fogged glasses and the deep pleasure, even in difficult English texts, of wrestling, of mentally wrestling. It's slower. It's more arduous. All of those things. Elsa, it's okay if you're lazy. And if you need to persist, persist.

30:55Alexandra Schwartz:I would also say that right now I'm embarking on some Portuguese language study. And the answer for me is poetry.

31:04Naomi Fry:Oh, okay.

31:05Alexandra Schwartz:Because this issue of like sort of diminishing abilities as you go along is kind of solved with poetry. Like one lyric poem might take you a long time to like totally figure out. But every time you do that, you're learning because poetry is the art that takes every word and brings along with it all of its like former uses, all of its associations. And then it's over for a little while. And then you can get to work on a new poem another day.

31:30Naomi Fry:And I will say, too, just to wrap this up, is that some things can be a chore. Yes. Like we don't need to. And it's OK. Okay, if something needs to be a little bit of homework, you know, and you say, okay, twice a week, I'm going to set aside an hour and sit down and read in German. And I'm not going to like melt into the book as I would in English. And I'm not going to like necessarily understand all the double meanings and whatever, but I'm just going to practice. Then just set that time aside. Not necessarily fun, but useful. Vincent, do you want to give us another?

32:08Alexandra Schwartz:Absolutely. um here friends is isa um a question very close to my heart i can't i mean i couldn't it's like really the heart of the matter for me i'll just let it roll isa go ahead hello critics i have been faced with a very pressing dilemma in my relationship and it has to do with road trips And the dilemma being who is on Ox and what is on Ox as we're going on road trips. So just to give you a sense of my partner's and my music taste, my day list yesterday was old school electro Latino Sunday morning, whereas my partner's day list was van life modern folks Sunday afternoon. So you can see how distinct our music tastes are.

32:59So I would love if y 'all could help us out with recommending some music playlists, anything that a Taylor Swift loving man and a Juarez slash Bad Bunny loving person can enjoy together, or even some fictional podcasts or audio books that we could both enjoy. We have listened to movies even on road trips. The one that we've shared being The Devil Wears Prada. So we're up and down for anything. Just something that we can both, you know, sing our hearts out to and really enjoy as we're hitting the streets. All right. Thank you. Okay.

33:45Naomi Fry:Isa.

33:46Alexandra Schwartz:Yeah. Yeah.

33:47Naomi Fry:That's, you know, Vincent, since you said this is the heart of the matter for you.

33:51Alexandra Schwartz:Oh, God, it's so important.

33:52Naomi Fry:Do you want to do you want to start?

33:54Alexandra Schwartz:Yeah. Well, first of all, I love to make playlists. And I think that what this points out, this dilemma points out is that the art of making a playlist, listening to something in public with another person is always kind of it's not just a passive enjoyment. It's not just a passive entertainment, but it's kind of a didactic thing. You're learning something by way of the correspondence between song A and song B. Making the playlist is an answer to the question, what does Bad Bunny have to do with Taylor Swift? What are the in-betweens? So it's literally like you guys need to make a joint playlist, which is easily done on most of the main streaming services or whatever.

34:38Alexandra Schwartz:And you need to start with two songs. or maybe even, I don't know, maybe six songs. The point being three for you, three for him. And then your homework until whenever the road trip is, is to find songs that sort of belong in the conversational air between your songs and his. This is an amazing opportunity to learn each other and then learn something together. And you're going to find some amazing, the playlist that you make is going to be not just something to enjoy, but it's going to be like a syllabus of your joint enjoyment. It's going to make you and him better. Think about rhythm. Think about BPM.

35:23Alexandra Schwartz:Like, what are some songs that just have the same beat structure? It's going to be fun. I would just say enjoy.

35:32Vinson Cunningham:Love that advice. I'm going to take it in a bit of a different direction because, Issa, as I understand your question, you guys, you're really open. Like, it doesn't just have to be music. Like, maybe you'll never find that musical sweet spot. I mean, if you're listening to The Devil Wears Prada not even watching it, it suggests an interest in movies to me. Like, movies bring us together. Okay, I've been listening to a podcast that I've been really enjoying, and it's called What Went Wrong. It's a podcast about movies and about the making of movies and about what went wrong and occasionally what went right in the making of many, many movies.

36:08Vinson Cunningham:So there are all kinds of movies. Like I listened to one on Chinatown. I listened to one on Toy Story. The two hosts are great. They have a lot of knowledge. They're smart. They're funny. Why don't you guys check that podcast out and look for some movies that you've both seen? And it could even become like a kind of a playlist as you drive and maybe you watch the movie when that night when you get where you're going. I feel like that could be a fun little project. That's a lovely suggestion. Alex, who do we have on tap? Okay. We have a very timely question from Astrid.

37:06The reason, of course, is the very strong and threatening and hateful words and actions by the Trump administration against Europe in general and Denmark and Greenland in particular. It's always been that way that Europe has always looked up to and been influenced by American literature, cinema, TV and cultural trends. And Americans have always been charmed by European cultures and been influenced also by our art, our design, food and our fashion. I myself have always loved Americans, and I've always just had a warm place in my heart for the United States. So obviously it's really, really sad to see that people over here are giving up on the U.S.

37:47I would really love to hear your thoughts on this, critics. Do you miss us as much as we miss you? And what can you suggest looking to arts and culture that can inspire us to fall back in love?

38:00Naomi Fry:Oh, I think we miss you, Astrid. We miss you, Astrid. I think we miss you to the extent of like wanting to move in with you. Yeah. Astrid, we want to be where you are. For us over here at Critics at Large HQ, you know, much love to Europe. Sorry. Yes. And we're sorry. But, you know, anyway. So, but yes, that's a good, you know, obviously, as you imply, you know, suggest there's a long, long history of literature and movies and, you know, works of art about the relationship between Americans and Europeans and Americans going to Europe and Europeans going to America and so on. But I would say a favorite of mine, I mean, and it's a series, it's three movies, the Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise trilogy, in which Ethan Hawke plays a young, starting out as a young American in the first iteration, who meets a French girl, Julie Delpy, and they fall in love.

39:08Naomi Fry:I think it's a very charming, very loving depiction of the love and compassion between, as well as some, you know, like conflict between the American protagonist and the French protagonist.

39:23Alexandra Schwartz:Well, my initial reaction to this is Henry James. Oh, yeah. You know, I was thinking about The Ambassadors, which is my most recent reread of James and just the sort of change in perception that overcomes an interested and open American upon.

39:42Naomi Fry:Lambert Strother.

39:43Alexandra Schwartz:Yeah, upon reaching Europe in the sort of not simply locational, but sort of spiritual change that can come with a kind of, you know, diplomacy of the heart, let's call it. Maybe that's one.

39:58Vinson Cunningham:You know, I just think Astrid so much, I hear you and I feel you deeply. And I almost think the thing you need is like something super American. Like you say you want to fall back in love with American culture. And I'm just going to come and say, I know that we've talked about it a lot, obviously, and that we have a relationship to it in the room. I think when the movie Marty Supreme comes to you, you should see it. You just got to see a hustler who only cares for himself, who's like in many ways the worst aspect of the society, but in some small ways also kind of the best aspect of the society.

40:34Vinson Cunningham:An outsider, a Jewish kid in the post-war who has crazy delusions of grandeur. And believe me, if he thought that just capturing Greenland would win him a ping pong trophy, he would do it. I think you have to just brush up against that absolute frenetic, completely delusional American energy and know that we really are with you.

41:05Naomi Fry:We've been doing all the hard work. In a minute, listeners. Yeah, it's your turn. I need a critic on Critics At Large. We'll be right back.

41:27Naomi Fry:Okay, so normally, you know we're the ones answering the questions, but this episode is a little bit special, so we're changing things up. We have our own questions to share, and we need your advice. Yes. Listeners, we're turning the tables. Help us. Help us. We help you, we hope. Now we need your help. If you think you've got an answer to the questions we're going to be posing right now, please email it to us at themailatnewyorker.com. Subject line critics. Okay, you guys, what are your questions? Let's start. Vincent, do you want to begin?

42:08Alexandra Schwartz:Yeah, I do want to begin. Obviously, a lot of the questions that we get often have to do with kids and stuff, so I want to reciprocate that. My question is this. Let's say you have a young child, as I do. The child goes to sleep, I don't know, somewhere in between 7 and 9, depending on how the night's going. You got to get to bed at, let's say, midnight. Now, one of my vices is that I stay up way longer than that. Way longer. But I'm trying to change.

42:36Naomi Fry:You're a bit of a bad boy.

42:37Alexandra Schwartz:Yeah, a little bit, you know, up at night. How do people, I would love to know, manage their engagement with art? They want to read. Maybe you want to get a movie in or an episode of a show. You got three hours to yourself, let's say, you and the other adult that you live with or not. How do you fit it all in? Do you talk about it beforehand? Do you have a schedule? How do you manage getting in culture and art under the nocturnal timeline that is sort of imposed upon you by a child?

43:13Naomi Fry:That's a great question. Love it.

43:14Alexandra Schwartz:It's a big problem for me these days.

43:16Naomi Fry:It's a struggle for all parents, especially of young kids.

43:19Alexandra Schwartz:Yeah.

43:19Naomi Fry:Yeah. Alex, what's your question?

43:22Vinson Cunningham:As listeners may know, I've been engaging a bit more than usual in the world of sport. I was very surprised to find myself thoroughly enjoying learning about football for our recent football episode. And what I want to know is what great artwork about sport do you think I should engage with next? Could be a movie. Could be a book. Could be TV series. Could be whatever. Where am I going? Take me there.

43:54Naomi Fry:Great question. I wouldn't mind knowing for myself. We'll find out. I'll pass the word along. Okay, so here's my question. If you've been listening for 100 episodes, listeners, you probably know that I'm a bit of a nervous person. I'm a bit of an anxious person. Like, I want to relax. I want to chill out. But I find that's difficult for me. Okay. And I often find or I fear, I guess, that my desire to relax is at odds with my desire to better myself, to expand my horizons, to become a smarter, more improved person. So what I'm asking from you listeners, can you suggest a book or a movie or, you know what, even an album that would help me find comfort and relaxation, but that wouldn't also be necessarily totally mindless?

45:12Naomi Fry:okay this might be a tall order because you know i watch housewives i watch reality you know i do some stuff to relax and i also think about those things but the but the but it's not like high culture right so i want that sweet meeting point between relaxation and edification help me help me Thank you. You guys, once again, Oh my gosh. Thanks so much, listeners, for sending us your questions. It's an honor. It's a pleasure. It's a privilege. Always. We loved celebrating this 100th episode mark with you. Congrats to all of us. We did it. To us in the room and also to Rhiannon Corby, Alex Barris, Steven Valentino.

45:57Alexandra Schwartz:Mike Kutchman.

45:58Naomi Fry:Mike Kutchman. All the people helping us.

46:01Alexandra Schwartz:James E. O. James E. O. Jake Loomis, Vince Fairchild, Ron Bondi.

46:06Naomi Fry:The people holding it down. The people holding it down. We couldn't do it without you. And of course, to the listeners, once again, thank you, thank you, thank you. Keep coming back, as they say. That's it.

46:17Vinson Cunningham:We're here if you are.

46:23Naomi Fry:This has been Critics at Large. Alex Barish is our consulting editor. Rhiannon Corby is our senior producer. Our executive producer is Stephen Valentino. Alexis Quadrato composed our theme music, and we had engineering help today from Vince Fairchild with mixing by Mike Kutchman. You can find every episode of Critics at Large at newyorker.com slash critics. And remember, you can always send us an email or a voice memo asking for advice. We might not get back to you right away, but we do bank these things for future episodes. And sometimes we build whole episodes around the ideas you guys send in.

47:00Naomi Fry:And on that note, we have heard the call. We heard it loud and clear for heated rivalry. And we will be answering it. Join us next time. We'll see you there.

47:43Vinson Cunningham:We'll see you next time. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer.