Cannonball with Wesley Morris

“Obsession” is about a guy who makes a wish for a girl to love him “more than anyone in the entire world.” What follows is a classic horror movie trope: the girlfriend from hell. One of the movie’s tag lines is “be careful who you wish for.” And younger audiences are flocking to see “Obsession,” making it a genuine Gen Z phenomenon.

The film’s writer-director-editor, Curry Barker, is also part of that generation. The 26-year-old, who had previously been making content for YouTube, is now responsible for a film that has made over $230 million (so far) on a budget of $750,000. Hollywood has taken notice. Barker has been offered an eight-figure deal for his next movie, sight unseen.

For Wesley Morris, the success of “Obsession” raises a bigger question about relationships today: Is this how the young folks think about love—as something that should appear instantaneously, without effort, but might also ruin their lives?

With all this in mind, Wesley invited Angelica Jade Bastién, a pop culture critic with New York Magazine, onto the show to ask, “Are the kids all right?”

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Each spring, in the months leading up to the Tony Awards, Wesley Morris tries to see as many Broadway shows as he can. And this season’s spree (including “Ragtime,” “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” “Proof,” “Dog Day Afternoon” and “Giant") left him with the question: Where are the challenging shows?

There were some great performances, but the productions seemed designed to reflect his values and make him feel good. Doesn’t the best theater raise uncomfortable questions, and not give clear answers? Shouldn’t the shows vying for Broadway’s top awards be a bit more difficult?

To work through these feelings, and to help wrap his head around this season, Wesley invites Helen Shaw, The Times’s chief theater critic, to compare notes.

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A list, according to The Times’s co-chief restaurant critic Ligaya Mishan, can be a way “to make sense of chaos” and to also “destabilize the current order.”

Her list of “the 100 Best Restaurants in New York City in 2026” takes that spirit to heart. A taco truck in Queens (Birria-Landia) serving $5 consommé sits alongside a Caribbean fine dining spot in Manhattan (Kabawa) with a $145 tasting menu. Ligaya makes a compelling argument that imaginative, ambitious, delicious food can be found at every price point and in every corner of this city.

On today’s episode, Wesley talks with Ligaya about how she put together such an expansive and inclusive list. They dig into a few of her greatest meals, wrestle with some readers' discomfort with having casual spots ranked next to fine dining restaurants and, most of all, celebrate the culinary wonder that is New York City.

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The “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” ends this week. When CBS announced the show’s cancellation last summer, the network said in a statement that it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” There’s still some debate around what happened and why, but for Wesley Morris, the demise of the long-running franchise brought up feelings about another late-night show: “Saturday Night Live.” Maybe, after 51 years, “S.N.L.” should end too.

So Wesley invited Jason Zinoman, a Times critic at large, to discuss “S.N.L.” and the beleaguered state of late-night television. What is worth saving?

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Wesley Morris liked “The Devil Wears Prada 2” more than he thought he would. He didn’t need this sequel, but it captures the spirit of the original well enough.

Miranda and Andy, played by Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, are the same. Miranda still queen and Andy still a grunt. But this time around Andy is a grunt with a staff and a little bit power. She moved on up!

This got Wesley to thinking: What happened to the stories about working class people? Ones about folk with basic, common man smarts being just as good (if not better) than elites at the top? Blue collar workers and the middle class used to dominate the screen. Now their bosses are taking center stage. And so, Wesley looks back on how one onscreen trend led to the other. 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. 

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