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.

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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.

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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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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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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?

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. 

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. 

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.

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• Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@CannonballPodcast
• For transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/cannonball

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