37 min

American Top 40 Still Processing

    • Society & Culture

Wesley has been obsessed with lists since he was a child — think Casey Kasem’s American Top 40, the Academy Awards and Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Albums of All Time. Now, he wants to think more seriously about expanding what we call the canon, making sure more people have a say in which works of art are considered great, enduring and important.

For guidance, Wesley sits down with Daphne A. Brooks, an academic, critic and music lover, to ask whether expanding the canon is even the right way to think about this. Her thoughts surprise him: We can do better than lists!

Check out Daphne A. Brooks's reading recommendations at nytimes.com/stillprocessing.

Wesley has been obsessed with lists since he was a child — think Casey Kasem’s American Top 40, the Academy Awards and Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Albums of All Time. Now, he wants to think more seriously about expanding what we call the canon, making sure more people have a say in which works of art are considered great, enduring and important.

For guidance, Wesley sits down with Daphne A. Brooks, an academic, critic and music lover, to ask whether expanding the canon is even the right way to think about this. Her thoughts surprise him: We can do better than lists!

Check out Daphne A. Brooks's reading recommendations at nytimes.com/stillprocessing.

37 min

Top Podcasts In Society & Culture

Disrespectfully
Katie Maloney, Dayna Kathan
Shawn Ryan Show
Shawn Ryan | Cumulus Podcast Network
Fail Better with David Duchovny
Lemonada Media
Stuff You Should Know
iHeartPodcasts
This American Life
This American Life
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Spotify Studios

More by The New York Times

The Daily
The New York Times
The Ezra Klein Show
New York Times Opinion
Hard Fork
The New York Times
Modern Love
The New York Times
The Run-Up
The New York Times
Matter of Opinion
New York Times Opinion