Cannonball with Wesley Morris - Podcast Rankings and reviews

Jenna and Wesley are two of the most thoughtful and mindful culture critics. I love getting their take on new music, TV, or movies, and I get a lot of recommendations from their conversations too. I especially love their conversations about music. I felt like Wesley's episode about Philly was unexpected but one of the best!

Thank you for pushing me to think deeper — to stretch and challenge what feels familiar. Your elegant explanations make really complex ideas accessible. I love talking with the young adults in my life about each of your episodes. We appreciate you both so much!

I listened to the episode about J.Lo in this podcast, because the synopsis sounded interesting and as a huge fan of hers I wanted to hear Wesley’s and J’s takes. I do wonder what they’d say today if this podcast were still on, especially because J said that Ben Affleck doesn’t deserve her (which I highly agree with). I also think it’s interesting that she brought up how J.Lo looked scared in interviews back when she was married to Marc Anthony, because there are rumors that he abused her during their marriage.

That said, their cultural commentary on J.Lo isn’t an amazing one. Wesley is entitled to his own opinions, but I thought her Motown tribute was great. Also, I totally disagree with him on “El Cantante” being terrible. That’s a very good film and one of J.Lo’s best acting performances to date, I can’t tolerate slander for that movie. And most egregiously, Wesley fails to mention her dance background in this episode, which is pivotal in tracing her rise to stardom. The information of her being on In Living Color is literally towards the top of her Wikipedia page. It’s also ludicrous how Wesley calls J.Lo “a good dancer” when merely being “good” doesn’t give you opportunities to backup dance for Janet Jackson, New Kids on the Block, or MC Hammer (all of which she’s done). You have to be among the best to get them. J.Lo is considered one of the best dancers in the industry. And although Wesley said that on World of Dance “she judged dancers who are better than her,” this isn’t totally correct either. Yes she judged dancers who are more skilled in different genres, but she’s still amazing with the genres she dances to, such as salsa and hip-hop. The failure to mention her dance background in any way—automatic one star deduction.

I can tell Wesley hasn’t watched many J.Lo performances, but if he watched her Celia Cruz tribute, 2015 AMAs performance, and the It’s My Party tour routines, he would know how incredible of a dancer she is. He tries fitting her into the “jack-of-all-trades, master of none” category, but it falls short. J also classifies her into “famous for being famous” category. While not totally wrong, it’s still a myopic take that doesn’t capture the multiple dimensions of J.Lo’s image. An interesting episode they made, but they certainly needed to do more research before speaking on her. I give it a 3 out of 5.

Love love love the richness and sensitivity with which you explore politics, entertainment and out collective experience as Americans. I have binged my way through every episode and can’t wait for more Wesley and Jenna. Your beautiful minds, hearts and voices are so essential in these times.

I’m in shock after listening to the Kanye episode. The episode spent about 30 seconds mentioning the recent horrific antisemetic comments that Kanye has said. It mentioned 0 times the increase in hate crimes this past month against Jews as a result of his comments. The focus was on incidents that occurred 2 months ago- rather than anything he has said in the last 2 weeks. No mention of the multiple targeted synagogues after his speech or other hate crimes. Why is there a fear of calling out anti Semitism? Please, Call out hate wherever it is, and whoever it targets. What is the fear of addressing anti semitism head on, and why is it the remaining acceptable form of hate? Why use the comments that Kanye has recently used to put Jews in danger as a prompt to discuss hate towards other groups as the focus?

Both Wesley and Jenna are smart and have interesting things to say. I just wish Wesley would….say less and let Jenna talk more. As it is, it seems like she can barely get a word in edgewise and is reduced to enthusiastic “uh uh s” and “MMM” over and over. It’s to the point where I can’t even stand to listen anymore. Give Jenna her own show!!