Still Processing

By The New York Times

Society & Culture Arts

What's Still Processing about?

Wesley Morris and J Wortham are working it out in this weekly show about culture in the broadest sense. That means television, film, books, music — but also the culture of work, dating, the internet and how those all fit together.

Listen to this podcast in New York Times Audio, our new iOS app for news subscribers. Download now at nytimes.com/audioapp

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America Has a Problem

12.06.2022

Today: The undoing of Kanye West. “We’re in deeply vile territory, and I can’t make intellectual sense of that,” Wesley Morris says about West, who now goes by Ye. In 2004, when Ye released “College Dropout," he seemed to be ...

Still Processing episodes:

12.06.2022 America Has a Problem Today: The undoing of Kanye West. “We’re in deeply vile territory, and I can’t make intellectual sense of that,” Wesley Morris says about West, who now goes by Ye. In 2004, when Ye released “College Dropout," he seemed to be ...
11.29.2022 Plastic Off the Sofa “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” came into theaters with a huge responsibility: It had to address the death of Chadwick Boseman, the star of the first “Black Panther” movie, who died of cancer in August 2020. Wesley and J discuss how ...
11.22.2022 I'm That Girl Beyoncé’s latest album, “Renaissance,” showcases a pop star letting go of all expectations. Wesley and J go deep into the album and this new era of Beyoncé. It’s an era of play, freedom, comedy and queerness — unlike anything we’ve ...
11.15.2022 New Foundation Wesley and J discuss the push to “return to office” — and what it means for their lives, as well as American culture as a whole. What have 50 years of workplace sitcoms, from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” to ...
11.08.2022 Summer Renaissance Donna Summer’s 1977 hit “I Feel Love” is the inspiration for the final track on Beyoncé’s new album, “Renaissance.” Summer became the queen of disco in the ’70s, but her catalog goes much further than that. You can hear her ...
11.01.2022 Alien Superstar J Wortham and Wesley Morris are back, just in time for Scorpio season. Ever since they watched Jordan Peele’s latest film, “Nope,” together over the summer, they haven’t been able to stop talking about it. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya ...
06.16.2022 We Belong Together Reunited at last, J Wortham joins Wesley Morris in the studio for the last episode of the season. They reflect on the challenges of being apart for almost a year while J was on book leave. How did J deal ...
06.09.2022 When Your Neighbor’s the Highway Today, Wesley leaves the studio – and goes home. He embarks on a journey that involves a car named Khad'ija, a tireless 92-year-old activist and one Chinatown. Last year, President Biden signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law. One ...
06.02.2022 And a Britney Song Was On … "This Is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan is an unforgettable hip-hop relic, a jam whose opening six words alone make you want to party. Wesley has heard this 1995 hit countless times since he was a teenager, but ...
05.26.2022 Sweat Equity When Wesley was 11, he wanted to be just like Sandra from the sitcom “227,” played by Jackée Harry. Sandra was sassy, boisterous and always got what she wanted. But it took reading Margo Jefferson’s latest book, “Constructing a Nervous ...
05.19.2022 Can Athletes Ever Be Movie Stars? What happens when athletes decide to act? And what doesn’t happen? Wesley Morris and Bill Simmons, sportswriter and founder of The Ringer, break down the history of athletes in movies. They start with Jackie Robinson playing himself in 1950, discuss ...
05.12.2022 Keanu Wesley wants to get to the bottom of Keanu Reeves — and to understand “why we get so much out of a movie star who appears to give us so little.” He’s joined by Alex Pappademas, the author of “Keanu ...
05.05.2022 Sex, Death & Bunnies "Fatal Attraction" came out in 1987 when Wesley was 11, and it made a permanent impression on the way he thinks about certain aspects of lust and suspense. With Jenna away on book leave, he welcomed Parul Sehgal, a staff ...
04.28.2022 Where'd All the Method Acting Go? In the 20th century, method acting was everywhere. Actors went to extreme lengths to inhabit the complicated psyche of a character, sometimes making audiences deeply uncomfortable. Think Robert De Niro in “Raging Bull” or Marlon Brando in “Apocalypse Now.” But ...
04.21.2022 Skip Intro Wesley worries the “skip intro” button is killing the TV theme song. He takes his concern to his friend Hanif Abdurraqib, a poet, music critic and MacArthur “genius grant” winner. Together, they explore their childhood memories of “Good Times,” “The ...
04.14.2022 American Top 40 Wesley has been obsessed with lists since he was a child — think Casey Kasem’s American Top 40, the Academy Awards and Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Albums of All Time. Now, he wants to think more seriously about expanding what ...
04.07.2022 A New Season of 'Still Processing' We’re back with a new season on April 14! Jenna Wortham is on book leave, so Wesley Morris will be taking on solo hosting duties for much of this spring. He will be joined by a stellar cast of guests, ...
05.20.2021 'Before I Let Go' When the three opening notes of the song hit, there’s only one thing to do: Find your people and dance. Today, we’re talking about “Before I Let Go,” by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, and the song’s unique ability to gather ...
05.13.2021 The People in the Neighborhood A powerful — and revealing — aspect of the Derek Chauvin trial was the community it created out of strangers. Week later, we’re still thinking about the witnesses, and the way they were connected in telling the story of how ...
05.06.2021 We, Tina She’s simply the best. A new documentary on HBO (called, simply, “Tina”) explores Tina Turner’s tremendous triumphs, but we wanted to go deeper. We talk about how her entire career was an act of repossession: Taking back her name, her ...
04.29.2021 Cathy Park Hong The Asian-American poet wants to help women and people of color find healing — and clarity — in their rage. Hong's book of essays, “Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning," came out in February 2020, and it’s taken on new ...
04.15.2021 Lil Nas X? Not Sorry! Social media apologies have become the standard celebrity response to internet outrage. But why do they feel so deeply inadequate? Jenna and Wesley dissect a new spate of public apologies from the last year. And they look to the activist ...
04.08.2021 40 Acres and a Movie Disney owns a piece of every living person’s childhood. Now it owns Marvel Studios, too. Jenna and Wesley look at depictions of racist tropes and stereotypes in Disney’s ever-expanding catalog. The company has made recent attempts to atone for its ...
04.01.2021 No Country for Any Men “Promising Young Woman” is one of this year’s major Oscar contenders. It’s a dark revenge fantasy that asks a sweeping moral question: What if there are no good men? Wesley and Jenna go deep into the film and consider what ...
03.25.2021 Now That's What I Call a Bridge! “Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo makes Wesley nostalgic for his favorite part of a song: the bridge. Bridges used to be a core feature of popular music, but they’ve become an endangered species, right next to the sitcom laugh track. ...
03.18.2021 The N-Word It’s the episode we’ve been wanting to make for years. In our season premiere, we’re talking about the N-word. It’s both unspeakable and ubiquitous. A weapon of hate and a badge of belonging. After centuries of evolution, it’s everywhere — ...
03.11.2021 The Return of Still Processing We’re back with a new season on March 18! Join culture writers Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris in the juiciest group chat, the coziest diner booth, the crowded kitchen at a house party with the best snacks and the real ...
02.25.2021 Best of the Archives: Whitney Houston (2017) We’re preparing to drop a whole new season this spring. In the meantime, we want to make sure you’ve had a chance to hear some of our all-time favorite episodes. Like this one, about Whitney Houston. It’s been nine years ...
02.18.2021 Best of the Archives: Whiteness in America (2017) When “Hillbilly Elegy” showed up on Netflix last November, it was just the latest in a series of media attempting to explain whiteness to its audience. We’re revisiting a better (though not perfect) example: the podcast “S-Town.” Check out our ...
02.11.2021 Best of the Archives: Psychobros (2019) Not long ago, Harry Styles graced the cover of Vogue magazine in a dress. It was just one example of how traditional ideas of masculinity have been expanding — on the runway and in culture. In our episode “Psychobros” from ...
02.04.2021 Best of the Archives: Aretha Franklin (2018) Next month we’re starting a whole new season of shows! Yes, in March! We’re thrilled. While we’re getting ready, we selected four of our favorite past episodes for you to enjoy. This first one is about one of the greats: ...
11.12.2020 Sweet, Sweet Fantasies, Baby There’s a difference between our dreams for America — and our fantasies.
10.29.2020 'Waiter, There's a Fly in Our Bubble' Do we have enough breadcrumbs to get to the truth?
07.23.2020 Ziwe May Destroy Hamilton Welcome to the Age of Discomfort.
07.16.2020 Reparations for Aunt Jemima! When Quaker decided to take Aunt Jemima off the red pancake box after 131 years, did it also try to scrub the legacy she represents? And what sort of compensation is appropriate — and to whom — from a brand ...
07.09.2020 So Y’all Finally Get It Excerpts from our June 12 live event, where we caught up about the uprisings and resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. This is the first of three special summer episodes. Discussed this week: Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris in ...
05.14.2020 New Loop, America In our final episode from our living rooms, we visit the dystopia of “Westworld” and the utopia of “Hollywood” to see if we can glean anything about what might be in store on the other side of this pandemic — ...
05.07.2020 Does This Phone Make Me Look Human? Covid-19 isn't "the great equalizer" – except when it comes to making us need our devices more than ever. Screens have revealed superstars as civilians, and turned sitcom grouches into teddy bears. Basically: We’re ready to be more open with ...
05.01.2020 Fiona Ex Machina "Fetch the Bolt Cutters" is Fiona Apple's master class in channeling frustration and anger into what can only be called wisdom. Also, we hear from listeners all over the planet, sharing how they are taking care of the people in ...
04.23.2020 Halle Berry? Hallelujah. We come to terms with Halle Berry's "Catwoman."
04.16.2020 How to Learn From a Plague Activists stood up against the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, but the tools they used to make themselves heard are unavailable during our coronavirus pandemic. Still, many of that era’s strategies and warning signs seem alarmingly relevant now. ...
04.09.2020 Frosted Flakes Lions, and tigers and barely suppressed glee at criminal weirdos, oh my! What has big personalities, big issues and big cats? Netflix’s hit streaming show “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.” We explore what the show says about America’s unique ...
04.02.2020 Delicious Vinyl Not all reboots deserve to exist. Lots of them aren’t even things we want. But the new "High Fidelity" on Hulu is the reboot we didn’t know we needed. Discussed this week:Barack Obama’s TwitterCardi B’s Twitter and Instagram"Celebrity Culture is ...
03.26.2020 A Pod From Both Our Houses From our living rooms to yours, “Still Processing” is back. During this unprecedented time in our lives, we talk routines, dreams and what’s on our screens — or at least what will be on our screens. Because screens are all ...
03.21.2020 Got That WFH Setup Set Up New episodes coming March 26! You’ve got a lot of time on your hands, and so do we. Let's spend it together <3.
11.07.2019 Wake We examine how HBO’s series “Watchmen” and Bong Joon Ho’s film “Parasite” bring to light the hidden histories that shape our modern lives. Discussed this week:“Parasite” (directed by Bong Joon Ho, 2019)“Watchmen” (HBO, 2019)“White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American ...
10.31.2019 Straws California’s new legislation allowing college athletes to make money off endorsements. One step forward. The backlash against victims who came forward in the wake of #MeToo. Two steps back. Does big, sustainable change have to feel like grasping at straws? ...
10.24.2019 Psychobros We revisit "Fight Club" on the 20th anniversary of its release, and consider how the trope of the "psychobro" is showing up onscreen — in the new blockbuster “Joker” and HBO’s critically acclaimed series “Succession” — and off. Discussed this ...
10.17.2019 J.Lo Jennifer Lopez is having a triumphant 2019. From her Motown tribute at the Grammys to the success of “Hustlers” to the announcement that she’ll be performing at the Super Bowl halftime show, she seems to be enjoying the fruits of ...
10.10.2019 Back Next Week! We'll be back with a new episode next Thursday, October 17th.

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