And after 15 seasons and 555 episodes and more than 345 Billboard chart toppers, "American Idol" is done with us. Love it or hate it, the show changed the American television business, the American reality television business, the American music business. It gave us Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Clarkson and Ryan Seacrest. And it gave us Taylor Hicks and William Hung. And Ryan Seacrest. We unpack the whole thing, the good and the bad.
And then: The first "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" teaser trailer came out yesterday, and there's a certain contingent that's excited to see such an accomplished actress as Felicity Jones in a Star Wars picture (there's another contingent that's much less excited). But that got us to thinking: Is it actually good that every serious actor on the planet apparently has to bow down to comic book and sci-fri franchises? I mean, would we've wanted Ingrid Bergman to make an X-Men movie?
And finally: Both Gay Talese (84) and Calvin Trillin (80) got themselves in some trouble this week with some maybe tone-deaf words. And so we wonder, without apologizing for them too much, how much can we expect somebody to keep up with the exact pace of changing sensibilities? Can any of us guarantee that, in our 80s, we won't seem obnoxiously old school in our attitude toward robots being allowed to adopt human children or something?
Further assigned reading:
- Race, Art, and Essentialism by George Packer
- James McBride's 'Kill 'Em and Leave' by Rick Moody
- Gay Talese 'Misunderstood the Question' About Women Writers, Not That It Matters
- Gay Talese's controversial words: An annotated transcript with audio
- Dean Baquet Responds To "Gay Talese Goes Through the Twitter Wringer"
- A 'Flawed Story' on Gay Talese, and 'Clumsy' Handling of Race and Gender
- The Voyeur's Motel by Gay Talese
- Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet? by Calvin Trillin
GUESTS:
- Rebecca Castellani - Scholar of modern literature
- Taneisha Duggan - Producing associate at TheaterWorks
- Kate Rushin - Poet, writer, and educator
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Colin McEnroe, Greg Hill, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.
