From Cafe and the Vox Media Podcast Network, welcome to Stay Tuned.

I'm Pete Barara.

From time to time, we re-air a conversation that stuck with us at Stay Tuned.

This week, we're revisiting a conversation I had with Frank Bruney in January of this year.

Bruney has worn many different distinguished hats at the New York Times over the last 25 years,

from Metro reporter to White House correspondent to chief restaurant critic and now to opinion writer.

He writes a weekly newsletter reflecting on politics, culture, food, the use of language,

and many other topics of interest.

He's also a professor of journalism and public policy at Duke University and the author of many books,

including his most recent memoir, The Beauty of Dusk, Unvision, Lost and Found.

We spoke about polarizing political rhetoric heading into 2024, how AI is changing the fabric of writing,

and how an unusual medical ailment he experienced in 2017 changed his outlook on life.

That's coming up. Stay tuned.

Frank Bruney, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Right out of the have you way overdue, I've been a fan for a very long time,

and I like everything that you put out.

My first question to you is, given what's going on in our politics,

and that you write about politics and public policy, you teach public policy at Duke,

do you, do you long for the simpler days of being a restaurant critic?

I didn't mean to presume that those were simpler days, but it just strikes me that if you could

look jury eight in a bisque, maybe that's just nicer and more pleasant than what you have to figure out now.

...