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 spent time with Spielberg and wrote a profile of him for The New York Times Magazine. The 79-year-old director’s appetite for telling stories on the big screen is undiminished — he’s preparing to make his first western — but Wesley writes that as Hollywood adapts to the streaming era, “the idea of a Steven Spielberg has felt endangered.”

And so, there’s only one person for Wesley to call when a new Spielberg drops: Eric Hynes, Wesley’s pal and former co-worker from Kim’s Video in New York City. They started their Spielberg conversation over 25 years ago as young cinephiles. On today’s episode, it continues.

Together, they consider the evolution of aliens in Spielberg’s work, relive memorable onscreen sequences and think about the strength of the filmmaker’s more-than-half-century canon.

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“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 that generation. The 26-year-old, who had previously been making content for YouTube, is now responsible for a film that has made over $230 million (so far) on a budget of $750,000. Hollywood has taken notice. Barker has been offered an eight-figure deal for his next movie, sight unseen.

For Wesley Morris, the success of “Obsession” raises a bigger question about relationships today: Is this how the young folks think about love—as something that should appear instantaneously, without effort, but might also ruin their lives?

With all this in mind, Wesley invited Angelica Jade Bastién, a pop culture critic with New York Magazine, onto the show to ask, “Are the kids all right?”

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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 him feel good. Doesn’t the best theater raise uncomfortable questions, and not give clear answers? Shouldn’t the shows vying for Broadway’s top awards be a bit more difficult?

To work through these feelings, and to help wrap his head around this season, Wesley invites Helen Shaw, The Times’s chief theater critic, to compare notes.

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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. Ligaya makes a compelling argument that imaginative, ambitious, delicious food can be found at every price point and in every corner of this city.

On today’s episode, Wesley talks with Ligaya about how she put together such an expansive and inclusive list. They dig into a few of her greatest meals, wrestle with some readers' discomfort with having casual spots ranked next to fine dining restaurants and, most of all, celebrate the culinary wonder that is New York City.

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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: “Saturday Night Live.” Maybe, after 51 years, “S.N.L.” should end too.

So Wesley invited Jason Zinoman, a Times critic at large, to discuss “S.N.L.” and the beleaguered state of late-night television. What is worth saving?

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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 submitted ballots. How to honor those submissions while narrowing down and exercising a critic’s judgment?

Nearly 6,000 comments later, one thing is clear: Everybody’s a critic. Many are asking the nagging question, “How can you leave out so-and-so?!” Our critics included! So, Wesley invites a few of the project’s participants, Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, the hosts of “Popcast,” and Sasha Weiss, a deputy editor of The Times Magazine, to rehash it all out.

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“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 horrified by Joe Jackson’s abusive parenting. Where’s Janet Jackson and Diana Ross? Nevermind them. Look, it’s Bubbles the chimp! The child molestation allegations? Eh, let’s just play another No. 1 hit instead! Besides, moviegoers are not complaining. “Michael” crushed box office records. With the best opening weekend for a biopic ever, it’s a hit.

None of this comes as a shock to Wesley Morris, but he’s left with some complicated feelings. His pal, the film curator Eric Hynes, shares these feelings, too. Together, they review the movie and wrestle with the Michael Jackson biopic that could have been.

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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. Here were two of Hollywood’s finest in a complex, high stakes, love affair — one made even more interesting by its interracial realities.

But the movie inexplicably dodges the question of race.

So Wesley invites Gina Cherelus, who covers dating and culture at The New York Times, to help him unpack "The Drama" — what it knows, and doesn’t, about what it’s up to.

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“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. 

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