Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special dream.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

Hello and welcome to Bookworm.

This is Michael Silverblatt, and I have two guests today.

The first, and we'll be getting our conversation with him,

is David Remnick, the new editor of The New Yorker,

a position he assumed in July, I believe, of 1998.

And our second guest is Mary F. Corey, a culture critic who teaches at UCLA, who has written a book about the New Yorker called The World Through a Monocle,

The New Yorker at Mid-Century, published by Harvard University Press.

Now, I wanted to begin by making a blanket statement that we needn't return to,

that when I get the New Yorker in the mail now, I've started to like the New Yorker more and more all over again, as I haven't done, and I'm not Tina bashing. I'm bashing a good 10 years' worth of New Yorkers, but it seems to be bringing the vitality and thrilled

to me of intelligence and good writing, vibrant writing, that I haven't seen anywhere

in a long time, and for that I wanted to thank you.

Thank you.

Now, I'm curious here.

What is it to put together an issue of the New Yorker?

The New Yorker has a history.

The trick is using it, playing with it,

revering it without being reverential or pious. That's part of it. That's on my shoulder every day for previous editors, but also God knows how many writers and people. The most important

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