Podcast Summary: "A Hundred Years of The New Yorker"

On the Media – WNYC Studios
Release Date: December 24, 2025
Host: Brooke Gladstone
Guests: Jelani Cobb (The New Yorker), Marshall Curry (Director), Judd Apatow (Executive Producer)
Episode Focus: How to capture, distill, and celebrate a century of The New Yorker in a new Netflix documentary

Episode Overview

This episode celebrates the 100th anniversary of The New Yorker magazine through a behind-the-scenes exploration of the new Netflix documentary chronicling its storied century. Drawing on insights from director Marshall Curry, producer Judd Apatow, and New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb, the conversation explores the magazine’s enduring legacy, editorial ethos, archival treasures, and the daunting challenge of condensing its immense history into a single film. The discussion is candid, reverent, and, appropriately, often quite funny—much like The New Yorker itself.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Challenge of Telling The New Yorker’s Century-Long Story

• Enormity of the Task:
  • Capturing The New Yorker’s expansive history, from its cultural significance to its editorial intricacies, proved "an impossible task."
  • Marshall Curry: "Trying to make a 90-minute film about the New Yorker is like trying to make a 90-minute film about America." (02:12)
• "A Tasting Menu":
  • The documentary was designed as "a sampler box of chocolates, enough to just give you a sense of what this magazine's history was." (02:47)
  • The team had to curate only a handful of stories and voices, fully aware that they’d be leaving out many "darlings."

2. Creative Approach and Teamwork

• Finding the ‘Greatest Hits’:
  • The process started by identifying 15–20 landmark stories—those that shaped the magazine and left a mark on culture.
  • Only stories with strong visual potential made the final cut to suit documentary filmmaking. (06:30)
• Team Acknowledgments:
  • Marshall Curry warmly acknowledged his team for their collaboration and perseverance (05:10–05:58).

3. Personal Histories and Entry Points

• How the Filmmakers Connected with The New Yorker
  • Judd Apatow: Playfully admits he didn’t start reading The New Yorker until his 40s, mostly out of embarrassment during a visit with Owen Wilson.
    • "So the answer is 42 years old." (09:45)
  • Marshall Curry: Grew up with the magazine in the house and developed a deeper connection in his 20s, though he was never a true “fanatic” (09:53–10:35).

4. Inside the Making: Editorial Process and Fact Checking

• Capturing the Magazine’s Essence:
  • Judd Apatow: Praises the documentary for spotlighting "how dedicated and honest and amazing everybody is" at The New Yorker. (10:43)
• Fact-Checking as a Rite of Passage:
  • Jelani Cobb: Vividly describes submitting an article and seeing his work transformed by editors, copy editors, and infamous fact-checkers. (15:46)
    • The process is likened to "getting a colonoscopy while being audited by the IRS." (16:20)
  • Judd Apatow: Jokes about the daunting experience of fact-checking—“every once in a while you say something really terrible to a reporter and then they go, did you say that?... It's on the tape.” (17:00)

5. The Outsider’s Perspective at the Magazine

• Editors Not Native to New York:
  • Four of the five editors-in-chief didn’t grow up in New York, which, Curry suggests, allowed for an “outsider” perspective crucial to the magazine’s identity (17:35–19:06).
  • Marshall Curry: Cites E.B. White’s "Three New Yorks" metaphor (19:07):
    • Natives: give stability
    • Commuters: give “churn and the money”
    • Settlers/outsiders: provide passion

6. Obsession, Craft, and Survival

• Relentless Attention to Detail:
  • Marshall Curry: The level of editorial obsession he witnessed—multi-hour meetings about individual words—was "admirably inefficient...like monks copying books as the barbarians are destroying the libraries." (22:58–24:03)
• Relevance in the Digital Age:
  • The New Yorker survives, Curry argues, because it produces "a product that you cannot get for free on the Internet and they ask people to pay for it." (25:23)
  • Comparison to Jiro Dreams of Sushi: They’re not trying to be fast or large-scale; instead, they’re focused on making something extraordinary for a discerning audience.

7. What Didn’t Make the Cut

• Lost Stories:
  • Much material, including segments featuring Jill Lepore and Adam Gopnik, ended up on the cutting room floor—what filmmakers refer to as "killing your darlings." (25:57–26:37)
• Coverage of Race:
  • Admits the film only briefly touches on the slow inclusion of Black writers and editors; points to further reading, especially Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Jamaica Kincaid (26:46–27:10).

8. The Role of Humor

• Editorial Decisions Reflect Origins:
  • The film traces the magazine’s evolution from satirical weekly to a blend of wit and serious journalism.
  • Structure of the documentary follows this tonal journey—“front-loaded” humor and cartoons, then more serious reportage. (28:27–28:39)

9. The Challenges of Profiling Journalists

• The Meta Awareness Problem:
  • "Everybody who works at The New Yorker knows how a profile works, and that makes them hard to make profiles about." (13:14–14:06)
  • Classic documentary tricks (like letting silence linger) don’t work as well on savvy journalists, making in-depth profiles a “cat and mouse challenge.” (14:24–15:17)

10. A Celebration—and a Recruitment Pitch

• Inspiring the Next Generation:
  • Some young viewers told Curry the film inspired them to consider journalism as a career. "To me that's like, that's a great review for it." (29:23–29:57)

11. A Fun Anecdote: Taylor Swift, The National, and the End Credits

• Scoring the Finale:
  • Marshall Curry shares how a unique version of Taylor Swift’s "Welcome to New York," performed by Matt Berninger of The National, became the documentary’s closing song—secured with Taylor Swift’s direct approval. (30:05–32:09)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On the Impossible Task:
  • Marshall Curry: "Trying to make a 90 minute film about the New Yorker is like trying to make a 90 minute film about America." (02:12)
• On Editorial Obsession:
  • Marshall Curry: "It's like monks who are copying the books over as the barbarians are destroying the libraries. That's what it feels like." (24:03)
• On Fact-Checking:
  • Jelani Cobb: "It has been compared to getting a colonoscopy while being audited by the IRS." (16:18)
• On the Outsider Perspective:
  • Marshall Curry: Citing E.B. White, "the first [New York] gives it its stability, the second gives it the churn and the money, and the third gives it its passion." (19:07)
• On Survival in the Digital Age:
  • Marshall Curry: "They make a product that you cannot get for free on the Internet and they ask people to pay for it. And it's kind of amazing." (25:23)
• On Cutting Favorites:
  • Marshall Curry: "You have to kill your darlings. And it was incredible. Darling of darlings." (25:57)
• On the Impact for Young Journalists:
  • Marshall Curry: "I've heard a couple of young people say... I never thought about being a journalist before, but from watching the film, it kind of seems like something I'd want to do." (29:50)
• On the End Credits Song:
  • Marshall Curry: "I write Taylor Swift an email. Two days later, she says, sure...So that's the song at the end...an unreleased version of Taylor Swift's ‘Welcome to New York.’" (31:50–32:09)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Topic/Segment | Timestamp | |----------------------------------------------|------------| | Brooke Gladstone opens episode | 00:27 | | Jelani Cobb introduces the documentary | 00:57 | | "Impossible" scope—why a tasting menu | 02:06–03:26| | How to select stories and voices | 06:16–08:16| | How Curry & Apatow found the New Yorker | 08:16–10:43| | On media obsession & fact-checking culture | 15:46–17:35| | The outsider perspective | 17:35–19:52| | Producing and cutting the documentary | 21:56–26:37| | Race and representation in the magazine | 26:33–27:38| | The importance of humor and tone | 27:49–29:15| | On inspiring new journalists | 29:23–29:57| | Securing Taylor Swift song for film | 30:05–32:09|

Conclusion

The episode is a spirited, affectionate, and clear-eyed tribute to The New Yorker’s first hundred years. Through the lens of documentary-making, it illuminates the magazine’s idiosyncratic editorial culture, its evolution, and the very human obsessions that have kept it both elite and enduring. The tone is lively and the humor—like the magazine’s own—never far from the surface.

Additional Resources

• The New Yorker at 100 documentary is now streaming on Netflix.
• For more on Black writers’ experiences: See Charlayne Hunter-Gault’s latest essay collection and talks by Jamaica Kincaid. (27:10)
• E.B. White’s renowned essay on "the three New Yorks" is cited as essential context for understanding the city's and the magazine's identity.

Compiled and summarized with careful attention to the original voices and content of the podcast episode.