Welcome to Current Affairs, my name is Nathan Robinson.

I'm the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs magazine.

And my guest, today is the brilliant writer, Kerr Maloney.

Hello.

Kerr Maloney is a writer for one of the, if not the, best magazines in the United States, if not the world.

That is to say, current affairs.

Kira has written for us various things about everything from reviews of the products in the

stores of the 2020 Democratic candidates, which is an article that still holds up, because it's very, very funny.

And two discussions of film depictions of George W. Bush.

To most recently, what we're here to talk to Kira about today is articles on Charlie Chaplin

and the television program, The Twilight Zone, which have appeared in recent print editions of

current affairs.

Kira Belloni is also the co-proprietor of the blog and podcast The Sunday,

which is Sunday with an E as in the ice cream, can be found at the sunday.

Let's start with Charlie Chaplin.

And the first question, I suppose, here is, why is Charlie Chaplin worth writing about and viewing today here in 2022.

Well, I mean, in some ways, it's like self-evident because they're some of the greatest

and most important films ever made.

But I realized that most people have a, like a block in their minds because they're silent films and that's

seems crazy if you've never watched a silent film like the idea of it's like what the fuck has

even a film it doesn't that's crazy but if you actually sit down and watch silent films it's like

oh this is what films are.

...