logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2024
50m 25s

“Civil War” ’s Unsettling Images

The New Yorker
About this episode
“Civil War,” Alex Garland’s divisive new action flick, borrows iconography—and actual footage—from the America of today as set dressing for a hypothetical, fractured future. Though we know that the President is in his third term, and that Texas and California have formed an unlikely alliance against him, very little is said about the politics that brought us ... Show More
Up next
Yesterday
Critics’ Cult Classics: Hannah Goldfield on the Food World’s Secret Tastemakers
In the second in a series of Critics at Large interview episodes devoted to the topic of cult classics, Naomi Fry talks with the New Yorker staff writer Hannah Goldfield about how that designation applies in the culinary realm. The two discuss specialty ingredients that appear on ... Show More
39m 15s
Aug 6
Critics’ Cult Classics: Hanif Abdurraqib on Camp Lo’s “Uptown Saturday Night”
When it dropped in January of 1997, Camp Lo’s “Uptown Saturday Night” thrilled some listeners and confounded others. On the first in a series of Critics at Large interview episodes devoted to resurfacing beloved cult classics, Vinson Cunningham talks with Hanif Abdurraqib, a cont ... Show More
46m 2s
Jul 30
The Irony and the Ecstasy of Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead’s ascent in the literary world has seemed, like much of what he does, impressively effortless. Though he’s best known for “The Underground Railroad” and “The Nickel Boys”—both of which were awarded Pulitzer Prizes—his œuvre also includes a mystery set amid rival ... Show More
50m 12s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2024
Civil War (2024)
<p>Is A24's CIVIL WAR top quality Garland, or mid Garland? Let's dig into everything from Kirsten Dunst to the themes to photo quality as we try and figure out how to feel about Alex Garland's CIVIL WAR.</p> <p>VIP feed this week is THE CONVERSATION 50th Anniversary - Subscribe a ... Show More
52m 59s
Apr 2024
America at war, now in theaters
The new movie Civil War delivers a sensational story about political polarization spilling into mass violence. If that seems reckless, it’s what apocalyptic films have done forever. The LA Times’s Mark Olsen and Northeastern University’s Nathan Blake explain. This episode was pro ... Show More
25m 45s
Apr 2024
A War Photographer Watches Alex Garland's 'Civil War'
<p>Alex Garland's new film, '<a href="https://a24films.com/films/civil-war">Civil War</a>,' debuted at no. 1 at the box office earlier this month, and  follows four journalists on a road trip from New York City to D.C. in the midst of societal collapse. The beating heart of the f ... Show More
23m 7s
Nov 2024
Alex Garland's Civil War: Vagueness, Violence, Boring
The guys cover CIVIL WAR (dir. Alex Garland) on this one, and it gets heated! But does it get heated because the film is hot garbage? Join the guys as they attempt to find out what this movie is trying to say through its vagueness, violence, philosophy, and potential to be a good ... Show More
1h 29m
Jan 2022
American Civil War?
One year on from Joe Biden’s inauguration David and Helen talk with Gary Gerstle about what’s gone wrong. What is the strategy behind this presidency? Has it tried to do too much or too little? And are the dark warnings of another American civil war really plausible? Plus we disc ... Show More
53m 39s
Jan 2023
Extremist Futures
It's 2074 and a suicide bomber has killed the President of the United States. Months later Marines open fire on protesters killing dozens. The Second American Civil War has just begun and once again the North and South are pitted against each other. This is all according to the d ... Show More
48m 36s
Apr 2023
What a slow civil war looks like
Sean Illing is joined by reporter Jeff Sharlet, whose new book The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War takes readers on the ground across America right now, as all kinds of people seem to be preparing for a violent fight with other Americans. They discuss the killing of Ashli ... Show More
56m 24s
Jan 2021
Sight Unseen
<p>As the attacks were unfolding on the Capitol, a steady stream of images poured onto our screens. Photo editor Kainaz Amaria tells us what she was looking for--and seeing--that afternoon. And she runs into a dilemma we've talked about before. In December of 2009, photojournalis ... Show More
36m 59s
Oct 2025
#441 — The Threat of Civil War
Sam Harris speaks with Stephen Marche about his book The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future. They discuss tensions between the United States and Canada, what a modern American civil war might actually look like, the key risk factors for a civil war, diversity and ... Show More
21m 58s