Hello, Slate Podcast listeners.fest Secrets of the New York Times

Spelling Bee Edition. It's Wednesday, February 24th, 2021. On today's show, Nomadland, it's a feature film,

a road movie of astonishing intimacy, and in its own way, grander. It stars Francis McDormand as Fern,

a woman living out of an itinerant white van. It's now streaming on Hulu. And then we discuss

Spelling Bee, the addictive puzzle game from the New York Times with its editor, Sam Izurski.

And finally, Ted Cruz's whopping Cancun blunder and the etiquette of group chats.

Joining me today is Julia Turner, the deputy managing editor of the LA Times. Hey, Julia.

Hello, hello.

And of course, Dana Stevens, the film critic for Slate.com. Hey, Dana. Hey, Stephen.

Shall we? Let's go.

Nomadland is the new film from writer-director Chloe Zhao.

It stars Francis McDormand as Fern, a woman whose whole life more or less

disappeared when a gypsum plant her husband worked in closed.

Soon after that, her husband died, leaving her a widow.

And she's now living out of a white van, but not alone exactly.

She's part of the subculture of nomads, mostly older people traveling from job to job,

from Amazon warehouses during the holiday crush to farm communities during harvest time.

And they're living substantially living out of their vehicles. They're itinerant and highly

individualistic, but also together they form very much of a vehicles. They're itinerant and highly individualistic,

but also together they form very much of a community. What follows is a quiet, steady,

intimate exploration of Fern's life. It's day-to-day challenges, but also it's really,

really astonishing, very moving existential vistas. It's a movie that asks us what a home is,

...