Welcome to the 30th episode of Diversity Hire! Today’s guest was New York Times critic-at-large Maya Phillips. We talked about the pleasure and terror that comes with fandom, the perils of colorblind casting, the role a critic’s identity and politics play in the way they evaluate art, why there need to be more editors of color, and much more. Kevin and Arjun also talk about the novel the media elites are all reading and the media elites who are listening to the podcast.
You can buy Maya’s first book, Erou, here, and be on the lookout for her second book, NERD: On Navigating Heroes, Magic, and Fandom in the 21st Century, dropping in 2022.
Thanks for listening!
Arjun & Kevin talk about viral novels and bluechecks (0:00)
Maya Phillips talks about her recent move (7:07)
Maya walks us through her career timeline (8:19)
What Maya thinks about colorblind casting and the discourse around representation in film and TV (re: “‘Hamilton,’ ‘The Simpsons’ and the Problem With Colorblind Casting,” The New York Times, 2020) (15:30)
On having to deal with assignments where you’re asked to translate Black art to white audiences (re: “August Wilson, American Bard,” T Magazine, 2020) (20:40)
How can we change the critical lens to account for the lack of racial analysis of white-led films? (24:46)
What does Maya make of the kind of anxiety editors have about making sure the identity of the critic lines up with the art? (28:13)
It feels like we’re constantly having to explain ourselves (re: “The Smithsonian’s Black-History Museum Will Always Be a Failure and a Success,” The New Yorker, 2019) (31:09)
Maya’s experience with working with editors of color (33:20)
How does Maya’s political diet affect her role as a critic? (re: “Black Women Are the Superheroes the World Needs,” The New York Times, 2020) (35:45)
What’s Maya watching? (40:56)
How has writing about theatre, film, and television affected Maya’s consumption (43:03)
On fandom (re: NERD: On Navigating Heroes, Magic, and Fandom in the 21st Century, 2022) (45:58)
Do fans misunderstand the place that criticism is supposed to inhabit in our society? (49:33)
Arjun’s Feelings Don’t Care About Facts Corner (52:58)
The Diversity Tribual (1:00:42)
Episode 30 - Everyone’s a Critic with Maya Phillips