Tarot, Tech, and Our Age of Magical Thinking
Critics at Large | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.4 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2024
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Until recently, tarot, astrology, and spiritualism—practices often shorthanded simply as woo-woo—were the stuff of dusty psychic parlors and seventies nostalgia. But today, mysticism has permeated mainstream culture. In the third and final installment of the Critics at Large interview series, Vinson Cunningham talks with Jennifer Wilson, a contributing writer at The New Yorker, about this new age of magical thinking. They discuss how “woo” has seeped into our everyday lives through apps such as Co-Star, and how recent TV shows and novels have embraced supernatural themes. With the rise of cryptocurrency and sports betting, speculation about the future has become a fundamental part of our economy, too. “Maybe people would feel less uncertainty that pushes them to consult with astrology and tarot-card readers if there were more security in the present,” Wilson says. “In so many ways, this is a problem we’ve created.” And a bonus: Vinson gets a tarot reading of his own.
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“Long Island Compromise,” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
“ ‘The Curse’ and the Magical Thinking of the Speculative Economy,” by Jennifer Wilson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Critics at Large, a podcast from The New Yorker. |
| 0:07.8 | I'm Alex Schwartz. |
| 0:09.1 | I'm Gnomie Fry. |
| 0:10.4 | And I'm Vincent Cunningham. |
| 0:13.2 | Each week on this show, we make sense of what's happening in the culture right now and how we got here. |
| 0:19.4 | Hey, guys. |
| 0:20.2 | Hey. |
| 0:21.2 | How's it going? |
| 0:22.5 | Good. |
| 0:25.0 | Today is the third and final installment in our guest critic interview series. |
| 0:29.8 | Vincent, you're up. |
| 0:31.5 | Yes. |
| 0:32.4 | I want to start out with a question for each of you. |
| 0:35.7 | What's your sign? |
| 0:36.6 | And how do you feel about it? Who wants your sign? And how do you feel about it? |
| 1:13.5 | Who wants to know? And how do you feel about it? It's 1978. Vincent is wearing a white leisure suit and some chains. It's the age of Aquarius. And he's styling up to us in the disco club and says, what's your sign, baby? Take me there. There you go. All right. My sign is Virgo, whereas when I was learning French, I once said in French, Je suis a Vierge, which means I am a virgin. So don't say that, folks. So what do you say? You just leave out that article. Just go right to the sign. Just leave jeze? That's it. Oh, yeah. Interesting. That's a little, for any of you learning French Virgo's out there, that's a little piece of advice. |
| 1:13.5 | How do I feel about my sign? |
| 1:14.6 | I feel that it is unfortunately pretty accurate. |
| 1:20.1 | I say unfortunately because I want to not believe and basically don't believe. |
| 1:25.4 | But then I'm like, well, there it is, right in front of me, |
| 1:29.0 | you know, perfectionist, got to finish what you start. |
| 1:31.9 | But maybe I'm just imposing qualities that I have onto the sign. |
... |
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