{"podcast":{"title":"Critics at Large | The New Yorker","slug":"critics-at-large-the-new-yorker-6612611","podcast_index_feed_id":6612611,"rss_url":"https://publicfeeds.net/f/5868/critics-at-large","website_url":"https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/critics-at-large","image_url":"https://f.prxu.org/5868/images/d31d50f8-9222-4f9e-85c3-069b023d7612/CAL-TILE-FINAL.jpg","author":"The New Yorker (audio_production@condenast.com)","episode_count":136,"summary":"Critics at Large is a weekly culture podcast from The New Yorker. Every Thursday, the staff writers Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss current obsessions, classic texts they’re revisiting with fresh eyes, and trends that are emerging across books, television, film, and more. The show runs the gamut of the arts and pop culture, with lively, surprising conversations about everything from Salman Rushdie to “The Real Housewives.” Through rigorous analysis and behind-the-scenes insights into The New Yorker’s reporting, the magazine’s critics help listeners make sense of our moment—and how we got here.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-02T18:19:04.282547+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/critics-at-large-the-new-yorker-6612611"},"episode":{"title":"Why We Cling to the Animal Kingdom","slug":"why-we-cling-to-the-animal-kingdom","published_at":"2026-06-11T09:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/critics-at-large-the-new-yorker-6612611/why-we-cling-to-the-animal-kingdom","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/critics-at-large-the-new-yorker-6612611","url":"https://play.prx.org/listen?ge=prx_5868_380b926e-f5ec-40f9-a484-8fd046c98385&uf=https%3A%2F%2Fpublicfeeds.net%2Ff%2F5868%2Fcritics-at-large","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pdrl.fm/cf3795/tracking.swap.fm/track/uJwtcKQUPuqBQPfusm59/dovetail.prxu.org/5868/380b926e-f5ec-40f9-a484-8fd046c98385/tnycriticsatlarge_061126_animals_v2__1_.mp3","summary":"Since the days of Aesop, stories about animals have been used to explore distinctly human values, virtues, and vices. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider such childhood classics as E. B. White’s “Stuart Little” and C. S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia” series, as well as “The Sheep Detectives,” a recent entry in this canon that centers on a flock who learn poignant lessons about life and loss. Works of adult literature, too, have explored the animal-human bond. Our tendency to project onto animals translates to the real world in strange ways, with figures like Timmy the Whale and Punch the Monkey going viral on our social feeds even as our day-to-day lives are more detached from the natural world than ever before. But the distance between us can be instructive, too. “Reckoning with their similarity to us and also their total strangeness to us . . . that’s where works about animals really get me,” Schwartz says. “Not just as a direct transfer onto the human experience but also this other thing that really does enrich our lives: to be in contact with species that are not our own.” Read, watch, and listen with the critics: Homer’s Odyssey “ Stone Fox, ” by John Reynolds Gardiner “ The Mare ,” by Mary Gaitskill “The Sheep Detectives” (2026) “ Stuart Little ,” by E. B. White “Bambi” (1942) “The Lion King” (1994) C. S. Lewis’s “ Chronicles of Narnia ” Series “Tom and Jerry” (1940-67) Aesop’s Fables “ Frederick ,” by Leo Lionni “ ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ and the Whodunnit Renaissance ” ( The New Yorker ) “Zootopia” (2016) “ Why Earnestness Is Everywhere ” ( The New Yorker ) “Babe” (1995) “Tiger King” (2020-21) “ Monkey Business in ‘Chimp Crazy, ’ ” by Vinson Cunningham ( The New Yorker ) I am Bunny on TikTok New episodes…","meta_description":"Since the days of Aesop, stories about animals have been used to explore distinctly human values, virtues, and vices. On this episode of Critics at Large,…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2896,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/critics-at-large-the-new-yorker-6612611/episodes/why-we-cling-to-the-animal-kingdom/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/critics-at-large-the-new-yorker-6612611/why-we-cling-to-the-animal-kingdom.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}