I'm Wesley Morris.

I'm a critic at the New York Times,

and I spend a lot of time thinking about how culture and art make me feel.

But apparently, another part of my job is being stopped on the street

so other people can tell me how they feel about things that they watched and listened to and read.

I'm walking somewhere in Bedside Brooklyn.

I'm on a subway platform.

I'm standing in a bathroom washing my hands.

Honestly, I kind of love doing a little criticism when I'm waiting in line to pay for a bag

of pretzels.

I love doing it with a coworker who's sitting a desk away when, you know, we should be working. For me, the talking is how I

start to figure out how I really feel about something. So, I'm taking these conversations to a studio

because I'm making a new show.

Every week, I'm talking to somebody about culture, fellow writers, artists, and people I just

like talking to.

And yes, I know that word culture.

It is, what does it even mean at this point?

I mean, obviously, it means TV and music and movies.

We're going to talk about that new Pee-Herman documentary, for instance.

He calls it a decision made out of self-hatred and self-preservation.

What it's meant to love and lose a musician like Roberta Flack.

I mean, I feel like I'm in a therapy session because I'm piecing together a lot of stuff here.

...