Cannonball with Wesley Morris

The New York Times asked more than 500 TV insiders and experts to select their 10 favorite shows that premiered in the 21st century. That survey of the 100 best TV shows published this week. There’s lots of golden age and prestige TV on it — “Mad Men,” “Game of Thrones,” “Succession,” “Severance” — but also some outliers that illustrate a medium in flux. In the last 25 years, we’ve started talking...

This week’s episode will be about the New York Times list of the 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century (full list here) . See you tomorrow! Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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 pc...

Singer-songwriter Ella Langley’s country tune “Choosin’ Texas” entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart last November, and it hasn’t left. It’s just tied the record for the most nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1: 22 . (Sorry, Mariah Carey.) Wesley Morris is a student of the chart and he’s noticed that in recent years certain songs seem to hang around for a long, long time. These chart toppers are starting...

It has been 25 years since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and Wesley has been reflecting on what has changed since then — particularly when it comes to comedy. The first film he saw in theaters after the attacks was “Zoolander,” which opened to mediocre box office numbers and mixed reviews. The movie became a flashpoint as the world wrestled with questions about what was funny and when it would be...

This year’s summer movie season proved that the “Toy Story” franchise still has some juice, that “The Odyssey” can spark endless debates, and that “The Invite” might be the sleeper film of the year. But according to Wesley Morris, we’re still in a summer movie drought. He can’t help himself! His nostalgia for the movies of summers past is as strong as it was last year . So, once again, Wesley invi...

Anita Baker’s second album, “Rapture,” was released in 1986 and became a breakout hit for the R & B singer from Detroit, winning two Grammys and selling eight million copies worldwide. The album’s eight tracks defined her signature sound — what Baker liked to call “fireside love songs with jazz overtones” — and solidified her as a giant of the Quiet Storm radio era. But while the singer went on to...

What did we get for our country’s 250th birthday, a.k.a. the semi-quincentennial? An Ultimate Fighting Championship cage match on the White House lawn? A sparsely attended Great American State Fair? An underwhelming logo? The last time we had an anniversary this massive, it was 1976 — the bicentennial — and the celebration was everywhere: in our movies, in our books, in our Saturday morning cartoo...

When Madonna’s new album, “Confessions II,” dropped in early July, it went straight to the top of the Billboard 200 ( her 10th No. 1 album ). Many of the 16 tracks plumb her own history for lessons learned along the way. On “Bizarre,” the blue Shelby Cobra she gave her first husband, Sean Penn, “ wasn’t meant to last .” On “The Test,” she tells her daughter Lola Leon, with whom she sings: “I wish...

If you haven’t seen Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” yet, good luck. The hit of the summer is selling out showtimes around the country. Wesley Morris initially thought he didn’t need this adaptation. Then, Matt Damon was cast as Odysseus. Curiosity piqued. Fast forward to him in a packed theater (IMAX 70mm, of course) excited by the prospect of an old-fashioned all-star-cast movie. But with Nolan...

After five weeks of action, the World Cup is finally coming to an end, a tournament that will be remembered as much for its feats of athleticism — the precision passes and laserlike goals — as for the passionate fans and spirited team rivalries. No wonder soccer is called the beautiful game. Wesley and his guest, Pablo Torre, host of the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” also see the action on the...

Olivia Rodrigo’s third record, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” is a 13-song concept album that imagines the arc of a young relationship from desperate yearning, to domestic coupling, to eventual dissolution and heartbreak. It might be Album of the Year. To Wesley Morris, the dating world has only sharpened the 23-year-old’s song craft. Sure, she’s talented and can write a ballad like...

Forget the hot dogs and apple pie. Wesley has one thing on his mind this Fourth of July — potato salad! The moment has stirred up some really strong feelings for this classic summer staple and how it lives up to the country’s ideals of what it is and could be. Wesley takes to the streets of New York City and back to The Times’s Cooking Kitchen to test out his theory against his family’s recipe for...

A few weeks ago, “Cannonball” hosted its first live show at the 2026 Tribeca Festival. Wesley Morris thought to himself, “What could we talk about in front of a bunch of New Yorkers that would be interesting to them?” And then the answer came to him: New York movies! Movies about New York City. Joining him for the conversation is Cynthia Nixon, one of our great New Yorkers. She’s made iconic work...

It’s no secret that Steven Spielberg is fascinated with the cosmos. His latest aliens-are-among-us action thriller, “Disclosure Day,” follows a TV weatherperson (Emily Blunt) and an encryption specialist (Josh O’Connor) as they attempt to understand their connection to life beyond this planet. In doing so, they get entangled in a government cover-up. Ahead of the movie’s release, Wesley Morris spe...

“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...

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 hi...

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....

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:...

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: W...

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 submitt...

“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 horr...

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. He...

“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.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You ca...

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 t...

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 fo...