The public outrage was inevitable. The New York Times Magazine published a list of the 30 greatest living American songwriters. Two hundred and fifty music insiders submitted ballots. Six Times music critics and writers sorted through it all to get to 30.

For Wesley Morris, it was both daunting and thrilling. Luminaries like Bonnie Raitt, George Clinton, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mariah Carey submitted ballots. How to honor those submissions while narrowing down and exercising a critic?s judgment?

Nearly 6,000 comments later, one thing is clear: Everybody?s a critic. Many are asking the nagging question, ?How can you leave out so-and-so?!? Our critics included! So, Wesley invites a few of the project?s participants, Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, the hosts of ?Popcast,? and Sasha Weiss, a deputy editor of The Times Magazine, to rehash it all out.

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?Michael,? the new Michael Jackson biopic, knows what it?s doing. That?s clear from the opening shot: high-water pants and white socks pushed down to a pair of black penny loafers. It?s appealing to a very specific version of our memories of Michael Jackson. The version some of us prefer to hold onto. But in doing so, it avoids the truth.

Our qualms with the King of Pop? Forget about that. Be horrified by Joe Jackson?s abusive parenting. Where?s Janet Jackson and Diana Ross? Nevermind them. Look, it?s Bubbles the chimp! The child molestation allegations? Eh, let?s just play another No. 1 hit instead! Besides, moviegoers are not complaining. ?Michael? crushed box office records. With the best opening weekend for a biopic ever, it?s a hit.

None of this comes as a shock to Wesley Morris, but he?s left with some complicated feelings. His pal, the film curator Eric Hynes, shares these feelings, too. Together, they review the movie and wrestle with the Michael Jackson biopic that could have been.

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Wesley loves Zendaya. The actress caught his eye as the charming but drug addled Rue in HBO?s ?Euphoria.? But he thinks Hollywood hasn?t cast her in roles worthy of her considerable gifts. So when Zendaya showed up in the movie ?The Drama? as a young Black woman with a secret from her past that threatens to derail her engagement to Robert Pattinson?s character, Wesley was cautiously optimistic. Here were two of Hollywood?s finest in a complex, high stakes, love affair ? one made even more interesting by its interracial realities.

But the movie inexplicably dodges the question of race.

So Wesley invites Gina Cherelus, who covers dating and culture at The New York Times, to help him unpack "The Drama" ? what it knows, and doesn?t, about what it?s up to.

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?Cannonball? is on its last week of spring break, so we?re sharing an episode of ?Popcast? that features Jack Harlow discussing his pivot to R&B. In a viral clip from this episode, Harlow, a white musician, says, ?I got Blacker.? Wesley was struck by Harlow's honesty and the questions raised by the full conversation. 

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While the ?Cannonball? team is on a short break, Wesley is recommending some notable conversations he?s listened to lately from other New York Times shows. This week, it?s an episode of ?Modern Love,? featuring host Anna Martin talking with Zendaya and Robert Pattinson. They dig into the complicated relationship at the core of their new film, ?The Drama,? and consider how much they actually want to know about their real-life romantic partners.

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Every spring, Wesley Morris finds himself searching for music that captures the light and breezy feeling that comes with the end of winter. This year, there?s an obvious soundtrack to the season: Harry Styles?s new album, ?Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.? ?These songs are like 12 beautiful little flowers,? Wesley says. ?They?re not supposed to last forever. They?re just supposed to last for the season. And six weeks, that is a perfect amount of time for these songs to just blossom in your ears.? Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The latest from the Ryan Murphy television fun house is an unquestionable hit. It?s also a ?90s nostalgia bomb. People are trying to eat, shop and dress like John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. They?re obsessed. But with what, exactly? Because at first, ?Love Story? has all the hallmarks of a ?90s sitcom ? a young working woman in the city, enjoying her freedom till a meet-cute with the one. Only in Murphy?s version, that?s the moment this turns into another one of his American Horror stories. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Wesley Morris is an unabashed believer in the Oscars. That they genuinely matter. Every year, he has to re-convince his friend, Sasha Weiss, the culture editor for The New York Times Magazine. This year, of course, there?s the ?One Battle After Another? versus ?Sinners? of it all. And there?s a lot there. But also, what happened to ?Marty Supreme? and poor Timothée Chalamet? And is it possible that ?KPop Demon Hunters? took home Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song and still, somehow ? got robbed? Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is one of those ?who knows what?s going to happen? years at the Oscars. And maybe the biggest question of the night is which movie will dominate: ?Sinners,? with its record 16 nominations, or ?One Battle After Another,? which is right behind with 13. One is a vampire movie set in the Jim Crow South, featuring not one but two Michael B. Jordans. The other imagines a leftist revolutionary outfit led by Black women ? Teyana Taylor! ? facing off against a racist, sexist, authoritarian government. No matter what, we?re talking about a pretty exciting night ? including for many Black people. But you know how it is with race and the Oscars. It is never that simple. Because there are some people who are not rooting for Paul Thomas Anderson?s version of Black feminist-driven revolution. And a lot of those people are Black feminists themselves. Including Wesley?s dear friend, the scholar Daphne A. Brooks. After leaving the theater, she sent him a text calling it ?a Black feminist 911 emergency.? So before the biggest awards of the industry are handed out, Wesley invites Daphne on the show to ask her, ?What?s the 911 situation here?? Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Back in 2003, a new reality TV show hosted and co-created by Tyra Banks convinced an entire generation that they too might have what it takes to become America?s next top model. Now, a new Netflix docu-series wants us to know just how badly the contestants were treated ? by the show and sometimes by Banks herself. To Wesley?s surprise, Tyra Banks agreed to be interviewed for the series, ?Reality Check: Inside America?s Next Top Model,? and to revisit some of the show?s most cringe and painful moments. Was it a genuine attempt at accountability? And are we satisfied by what we're hearing? Wesley invites Michaela angela Davis, a writer, editor and stylist, to talk about it. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Seven years after Toni Morrison?s death, we?re experiencing what the critic Parul Sehgal describes as a ?wave of Morrisonia.? Eleven of her novels are being reissued by her publisher. There?s a new book of criticism about her novels. You can feel the effort to shore up her legacy.

It?s an understandable impulse. This is the woman who wrote ?Beloved,? the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that, as Parul writes, ?invented a language for unassimilable pain, for the horrors of the Middle Passage, of bondage and its systematized torture and sexual brutality.?

The book can feel like a kind of miracle. And Morrison, therefore, like a kind of saint. But sanctification ? both Parul and Wesley fear ? has its own risks. It puts Morrison up in the sky, where we can?t quite reach her. Too far away to touch.

So in this episode of Cannonball, that?s what Parul, Wesley and their editor, Sasha Weiss, set out to do. Touch Morrison?s work ? as she wanted us to.

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Valentine?s Day weekend is over, and we?re left with a new film adaptation of Emily Brontë?s ?Wuthering Heights.? Audiences are hot, bothered and swooning. Can you blame them? The trailer had promised ? and the film delivers ? a stunning Margot Robbie, a seductive Jacob Elordi and a lot of sticky substances (like, a lot.) Wesley Morris knows sex and shock to be the director Emerald Fennell?s specialty, and this flick is no different. But where?s the actual substance? To confront his suspicion head on, Wesley takes a movie buddy, the culture editor Sasha Weiss, to see the film that?s got everybody and their lovers in knots. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

?We?re living in protest-y times! Where are all the protest songs??

That was a question that Wesley Morris was asking in the time leading up to Bad Bunny?s Super Bowl LX halftime show. He thinks the scarcity of direct protest art in this moment contributed to the intense speculation and anticipation about what Bad Bunny would do on that stage. Would it be a protest? And if so, what kind of protest?

Well, now the show?s over. So what did it turn out to be? To discuss, Wesley Morris sits back down with his friend Sasha Weiss, culture editor at The New York Times Magazine.

They also think about the role of protest music more broadly. When does a song need to hit us over the head? And when is subtlety useful ? or called for?

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?The Pitt? is back for a second season, and it?s appointment viewing for Wesley Morris. Every Thursday at 9 p.m., the show serves up an emergency room?s worth of maladies and realities ? sparing us none of the naked truths about being a human in a vulnerable body. Sasha Weiss, the culture editor at The New York Times Magazine, joins Wesley to talk about how the show is making an old-school television genre feel not just contemporary, but vital. Plus, a conversation with the writer and novelist Taffy Brodesser-Akner about when loving a work of art becomes an obsession. And Wesley has an unexpected reaction to the Grammys. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

?Marty Supreme? is a box office and critical hit. The film just received nominations in many of the most coveted Oscar categories ? best picture, director and actor. And Wesley is glad about all of it. He loved the movie and its shameless protagonist, Marty Mauser.

But it turns out that a lot of people going to see this movie don?t share his feelings. In fact, a lot of them hate it. And much of that seems to have to do with a hatred of Marty himself.

Wesley?s friend and a culture editor at The New York Times Magazine, Sasha Weiss, thinks people may be missing the point. Which, to her, has a lot to do with the Jewishness of the film. She joins Wesley to talk it out.

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Cannonball is taking a short break and will be back very soon. In the meantime, listen to this special conversation:

Last November, Wesley spent an evening with Michelle Obama to celebrate the release of ?The Look,? her new book about fashion and the power of style. It?s a heavy text ? weighing in at about 4.12 pounds (Wesley checked). That makes it great for coffee tables. But it also reflects the weight of what it meant to Michelle Obama, as First Lady, to be looked at. Every outfit carried meaning and significance, and she knew it. 

Together, Wesley and Michelle reflect on her approach to fashion from day one in the White House, her time in the East Wing, and some of her most memorable looks.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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Wesley has a practice as a new year begins of saying goodbye to those who won?t be coming with us. He could have easily done an episode on any number of household names. He could have done the same with people who weren?t the biggest names, yet still loomed large for many.

But out of all the artists who passed in 2025, Wesley decides to dedicate time to Roberta Flack.

The critic and scholar Daphne A. Brooks, a friend of Wesley?s, joins him to reflect on treasured moments in Flack?s music. They reminisce on the powerful range of her discography, the quiet it kept and the fire it sparked in others.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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When a book publisher asked Wesley to write an introduction for a new edition of ?The Great Gatsby,? he was confused. So many people had already written about F. Scott Fitzgerald?s novel since it was first published in 1925. What could he add? And why him?

But eventually, he realized he does in fact have a special relationship with this book. He has read it in three different phases of life, and each time, it seemed profound in an entirely new way.

So in the final week of the book?s 100th anniversary, Wesley talks to the novelist Min Jin Lee and Gilbert Cruz, editor of The New York Times Book Review, about why all three of them have found themselves in a decades-long relationship with this book.

 

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Wesley has been thinking a lot this week about what Rob Reiner gave us. Not the best movies. But our favorite ones. He wanted us to feel good. And for Wesley, no movie hit that pleasure center more than ?When Harry Met Sally.? He watched it over and over as a teenager. It?s probably why he moved to New York. He wanted what they were having. This week, Wesley reflects on the impact Reiner had on his life, and shares a conversation he had on The Daily ? involving a very extended appreciation of that famous diner scene. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today?s show, Wesley reveals his favorite film performances of the year ? but his list is not an ordinary best-of list. He zeroes in on the specific details that make a performance great. Like, who did the best acting in a helmet this year? Who were the most convincing on-screen best friends? And who refused to play it safe? Find out in our first annual Cannonball Great Performers special.

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The world is different once an artist dies. The same goes for their music. Since D?Angelo?s death, Wesley keeps returning to ?Black Messiah? ? to him, a perfect final album. What makes an artist?s last record resonate with us long after they?re gone? Wesley invites his friend Alex Pappademas, a senior culture editor at GQ Magazine, to listen back to some last albums that have haunted them both. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cannonball is off this week for the holiday. But I wanted to share something with you from our friends over at The Interview. It?s a conversation that my colleague David Marchese had awhile back with one of our biggest stars, Eddie Murphy. I've been thinking about it recently because there's a new documentary about Murphy that just came out on Netflix -- and I highly recommend this conversation as a kind of companion listen over your long weekend. Murphy reveals a surprising side of himself that I hadn?t heard before. Hope you enjoy it, and see you back here next week!

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Netflix has a hit in ?The Perfect Neighbor,? a documentary attracting a lot of attention for both its subject and its form. Using police camera footage, the film shows the events leading up to the killing of a Black mother of four by her white neighbor. It?s unquestionably powerful and difficult viewing. But for Wesley and his fellow Times critic Parul Sehgal, it raises all kinds of moral and ethical questions. What does it mean to watch these events through the lens of the police officers involved? Is the movie the filmmakers thought they were making the one that the audience is actually receiving? And should we even be allowed to see this?

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Every December, Wesley?s hometown radio station, 88.5 WXPN, does some kind of end-of-year countdown, as voted on by listeners. This year, it?s the 885 greatest cover songs. This was exciting news for Wesley, who loves himself a good cover ? and considers their near disappearance from pop music to be a kind of national tragedy. He talks all things covers with one of his favorite reinterpreters of music, the Grammy-nominated jazz singer Cécile McLorin-Salvant, who also happens to have done a cover that landed at No. 7 on the list he agonized over for WXPN. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For Wesley, the most interesting thing about Taylor Swift?s latest album didn?t have much to do with the music. It was the critical response. Sure, there was plenty of enthusiasm. But there was also some exasperation and weariness. And to Wesley, that felt like a needed shift in pop music criticism. Which has gotten awfully nice lately. A little too nice.

That idea ? that pop music criticism has lost its edge ? was explored in a recent New Yorker essay by Wesley?s buddy and fellow critic, Kelefa Sanneh. The two get together to trace the history of the form and think about what?s lost when critical punches are pulled.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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Dwayne ?the Rock? Johnson?s new movie, ?The Smashing Machine,? sends him back to his natural habitat: the ring. But for the first time ever, Johnson finds himself in a role that grapples with what it means to move through the world in a body like his.

Wesley talks to Sam Anderson, who recently spent a day with Johnson for a Times Magazine profile. They think about the line between artifice and reality ? in Johnson?s performance, and in Sam?s effort to get to know one of the most famous people on earth.

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Wesley Morris doesn?t go for cheap jump scares or gratuitous gore. Instead, his favorite horror movies fill him with a sense of dread. This Halloween, he invites film curator Eric Hynes to rewatch scenes from some of the scariest movies they?ve ever seen ? some you?ll find in the horror section and some you won?t.

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Wesley Morris didn?t love Lady Gaga?s new album ?Mayhem.? Then Caryn Ganz, The Times?s pop music editor, took him to see Mayhem ? the tour ? on its final night at Madison Square Garden. It totally changed the way both of them think about Gaga and what she?s been up to all this time. In short: All hail Mother Monster. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Wesley Morris has been talking about movie stardom with Bill Simmons of The Ringer for as long as they?ve known each other. The actor and director Robert Redford is often invoked in their conversations as the definition of a movie star. In today?s episode, Wesley invites Bill to remember the roles that made Redford a household name and to ruminate on the state of the movie star in 2025. Do we have any true stars left?

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Paul Thomas Anderson is a very rare figure in Hollywood ? he?s widely considered to be one of the very best directors of his generation, but he?s never really had a hit when it comes to making money. One Battle After Another might change that. It?s a big budget action movie with a bankable star. And to Wesley?s relief, that didn?t come with any compromises.

Wesley invites The Ringer?s Sean Fennessey to celebrate the merits of Anderson?s films and determine if this is his best.

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This season, ?South Park? is taking on the Trump administration the only way it knows how: with stop-motion, expletives and jokes about the size of the president?s penis. But how is the show getting away with it? Wesley Morris and the comedian Wyatt Cenac discuss the special sauce that is allowing "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone to survive the political pressure that?s come for their comedy peers. At least for now. 

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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Six years ago, with the publication of The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones argued that slavery was a foundational institution upon which the United States was built. President Trump called the project a crusade against American history ? ideological poison that, ?if not removed,? would ?dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together.? Now, his administration is making a similar argument to attack diversity programs, historical discussions of slavery, civil rights and more as he pressures museums, schools, government agencies, national parks and other civic institutions to de-emphasize race.

Wesley contributed to The 1619 Project, and he sits down with Nikole to trace the project?s journey from publication to this moment ? when Trump has returned to power on a message that explicitly rejected its premise.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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We're taking a break this week. See you next Thursday! Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It?s been a long time since MTV was appointment viewing. And yet, billions of people are still watching music videos on the regular ? on YouTube. Where does that leave a decades-old awards show dedicated to the craft? Wesley invites Niela Orr, a culture critic, on the show to discuss what makes an unforgettable video and to review this year?s nominees to see which ones should go home with the moon person. Yes, they still give ?em out.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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Wesley was formed in the glory days of the summer movie: ?Total Recall.? ?Ghost.? ?Pretty Woman.? All from the same epic summer of 1990. He found this year?s slate disappointing by comparison. So in this episode, Wesley invites his friend, the New York Times Magazine writer Sam Anderson, to travel back in time with him ? to reimmerse themselves in the movies that shaped their adolescences, and maybe give you the edge-of-your-seat cinematic experience you deserve before summer is over.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball
 

 

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?Highest 2 Lowest? is an over-the-top, bougie and unapologetically New York movie. It might also be Spike Lee?s most conservative offering to date. Wesley invites critic Vinson Cunningham to discuss whether the 68-year-old director is picking up an old refrain, and telling young Black men to pull up their pants.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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Wesley is joined by another unapologetic fan of the ?Sex and the City? reboot, Taffy Brodesser-Akner. Together, they celebrate a show about old friendships and middle age. And blame you for its untimely end.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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Wesley went to the final stop of the Cowboy Carter Tour. He talks through what he saw ? the genre of it all, and the quietly powerful politics ? with Salamishah Tillet, Times contributing critic and the professor behind an entire class about Beyoncé.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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What does Ryan Coogler?s vampire movie ?Sinners? have in common with the Drake-Kendrick beef? Wesley has a theory that he?s been sitting with for weeks. He shares it with the writer Rembert Browne, and together they consider the vampiric threats facing Black art in America right now.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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Twenty-four years ago, Wesley Morris and the film curator Eric Hynes were just a couple of ?cooler-than-you? cinephiles working at Kim?s Video, the beloved New York City video store. They recently got together to dissect the trends, snubs and outliers on the Times?s 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century list and to shed a few tears over their own top 10s, which we've shared below. 

FROM WESLEY MORRIS: 

Norte, The End of HistoryMad Max: Fury RoadThe Piano TeacherO.J.: Made in AmericaWall-EMoonlightThe Holy GirlInherent ViceLove and DianeMagic Mike XXL

FROM ERIC HYNES:

In the Mood for LoveThe Act of Killing and The Look of Silence (tie)A.I. Artificial Intelligence The New WorldHale County This Morning, This EveningSynecdoche, New YorkCameraperson 35 Shots of Rum Inside Llewyn Davis and A Serious Man (tie)Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait

 

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

 

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Wesley Morris talks with Samin Nosrat, a chef and food writer, about her love-hate relationship with ?The Bear,? a show that?s always racing against the clock. She says the best moments, in the show and in our own kitchens, happen when things slow down.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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In the new HBO documentary ?Pee-wee as Himself,? Paul Reubens, the creator of the iconic character Pee-wee Herman, comes out as gay. Reubens, who spent most of his career in the closet, had already come out years before but then returned to the closet during his time as the popular Saturday morning children?s show host.

On today?s episode of ?Cannonball,? Wesley Morris talks with the writer Mark Harris about Reubens?s relationship to being closeted, and they discuss what it means for artists to publicly come out.

 

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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The trial of Sean ?Diddy? Combs ended on Wednesday when he was convicted of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution but was acquitted of the most serious charges against him: racketeering and sex trafficking. Wesley Morris, our critic at large, attended some of the court proceedings over the past couple months, and he walked away with deep and complicated feelings about witnessing the drama of, as he put it, ?yet another very famous Black man on trial.? On today?s episode, Wesley wrestles with those feelings in conversation with our producer John White.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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Host Wesley Morris has a confession to make: He loves Bruno Mars. Nothing wrong with that, right? With the help of the culture writer Niela Orr, Wesley untangles his crush from his discomfort with the pop star?s cozy relationship to Blackness.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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A new weekly podcast, hosted by the critic Wesley Morris. Come on in, the culture?s fine.

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