The Statue of Liberty as Icon

Cancer is loud when it enters our lives We built the Jack and Cheryl Mooorris Cancer Center, so cancer doesn't get the last word. The Jack and Cheryl Moores Cancer Center, New Jersey's only fre standing cancer hospital to Silence Cancer. R WJ Barnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute, the state's only NCI designated comprehensive cancer center Rwjbh d. org slash Morris Cancer Center New York Times I'm Michel Bbaro. This is the Daily on Sunday Today, in celebration of America's two hundred fiftieth birthday, we posed a simple question to some of our favorite colleagues from across the newsroom, people who write about books, movies, TV shows, science, sports, wellness Food. We ask them all, what is the most American thing on your beat? Some of their answers will surprise you. I would say that the TV show that most encapsulates America for me is CBS's survivor. Some might make you angry. There's no better choice than Grand Theft Auto Some might make you think a little bit differently All of these urgent issues are tied to the American fixation on parking our cars all in their own way extremely American There will be blood. August Wilson's centurry cycle, Demolutition Derby. How do you capture America? How do you determine the most American book? It's a trap. It's a trap. The E andem. Get out. Bama Rush. Randy Newman's pololitical science Beloved by Tony Morrison or Huckkfinn or Teel Mckingbird,is Here we go The most American episode of the Daily ever. It's Sunday, july fifth Happy birthday, America There's a lot of classical music that is quintessentially American, but if I had to pick one, I think the most American of them would be Erin Copeland's Rodo I'm Joshua Brononey. I write about classical music and opera at the timimes So Eron Copeland was writing in the nineteen forties at a time when American sound really came into its own He really cracked the code of what it means to be American in music. He was writing about specifically American themes. He was writing about the American landscape. With Rodeo, he's writing a score for a ballet by Agnes Tamill. That's about as American as it gets because it's about a tomboy cowgirl in the West being courarttered by two men in Rodeo Eron Copeland kind of creates the vibe of Americana as we know it, but at the same time, he's creating that by drawing on American folk music So the first movement alone incorporates the tune if he'd be a buckaroo by his trade And later there's this really, really lovely late night waltz That's based on a tune called I Ride and oldld Paint I mean, this is a song that Woody Guthrie recorded as well And like this is what American music is made of. It's about a school of composing that was really trying to distinguish the United States, from the rest of the world and specifically from the European tradition Okay, here we go If anyone, even if they don't think they know Rodeo, they know Hoown, which is the finale. It is just, I mean, it's as finale as a finale gets. It's also ultimately as American it gets. I mean Anyone who was around in the nineties might remember beef. It's what's for dinner, which was what this was used for. I mean, it was it was a barbecue in the backyard. I mean, it's just like it's pure Americana. This isn't anything that's particularly high brow. I mean, it appeals to the masses that comes from the masses and that is so quintessentially American in classical music Hi I am Vanessa Friedman and I am the Chief fashion critic for the Times If you stop anyone on the street and ask them what they think the most American piece of apparel is, they will probably come up with something like a t shirt and jeans However, if you ask anyone outside of this country how they can identify an American through what they arere wearing. the answer they always come up with is Leggings, sports bra, worketwear I'm Eric Peppenberg and I write about horror movies for the New York Times. Only in America Could you get a horror film like Jordan Peel' Get Out? Get Out holds up a mirror to the so called post racial America, liberal America and says That monster that you thought wasn't there anymore It's still there and it's not going anywhere I'm Kevin Roousce and I'm a tech columnist at the Times The most American piece of technology is Amazon Prime It is based on a fundamentally American premise that people want things fast, cheap, and all the time I'm Miakado Murphy. I am the assistant film editor and also resident roller coaster lover here at the Times The most American roller coaster is the Beast King's Island It's this giant wooden coaster. It feels like it's both too much, but also something that you just can't get enough of. and that feels genuinely American I'm James Ponawazk and I'm the chief TV critic for the New York Times Survivor is one of my favorite shows. Survivor is in my family what sports is in other families. Welcome. too Survivor fifty What's the idea? What is the setup of survivor bunch of people. come from somewhere else and they are stuck with each other and they have to set up a society and figure out how to get along or not get along Survivor is always evolving, and it's not because of the twists or advantages. Survivor evolves because of you. Slayer It is not necessarily an idealistic or optimistic picture of America Survivor is a zero sum game. It is a competition. Only one of you will win. ofen a cutthroat competition. You must and will rely on each other in order to survive in a real jungle and you must and will vote each other out in order to win. W people falling apart into triribes And factions. I know you can trust you. And sometimes treating each other unpleasantly. You are an unemployed, uneducated, leech on society. And the only thing It is very competitive Much as America is But it's also often my God, very uplifting. Good job. G to go el Good job guys. People are competing with each other, but they also have to form alliances. They have to cooperate. And within this bigger game of trying to win a million dollars, there are all sorts of opportunities for What can often be really kind of touching stories of personal triumph Natie has earned her way back into this game Somebody doing a hard thing that they didn't think that they were capable of. People coming together to support teammates who are having a hard time She was in need I would want someone to treat my daughter that way if're him in this g For sure, for sure, Joe It shows the challenges and sometimes the potential for triumph that you get When you throw together bunch of people who came from somewhere else And try to get them to create a world from scratch That's not always pretty Our history certainly hasn't always been pretty Uh, you know It's Exciting And vital And I think filled with a kind of energy that to me is distinctly American if not sort of stereotypically You know, red, white and blue propagandistically America Sarp spoke. Jancy Dunn, I write the Wld newewsletter. and honestly, the most American thing on my beat is that I'm constantly writing about two things How to be as productive as possible and how to get some rest I'm Elena Bergeron. I'm an assistant editor for Pop Culture at the times When I think about America in sports, I think about the women's and men's Olympic hockey team's wrecking shop at the Winter Olympics, taking home gold, making us proud My name is Jennifer Seli and I'm the nonfiction book critic for the The New York Times The most American nonfiction book is Paved Paradise How Parking Explains The World by Henry Grubar Gbar makes the argument that a lot of questions about how to allocate resources in cities questions of building, affordable housing, all of these really urgent issues are actually tied to the American fixation not just on cars, but on parking those cars It really made me understand the country in a new way I'm Bill Wask, and I'm the science editor of the New York Times. When my colleagues and I in the science desk were thinking about what The most American scientific discovery would be we settled on Robert Godddard's discovery of liquid rocket fuel. I think we were working backwards from the fact that when it was combined with television, from then on, the televised rocket launch became this extremely American phenomenon. It's something that brought the whole country together bigig explosions and flames and smoke, what could be more American than those things It is Bamarage day one, so get excited I'm Madt Malan Kurch and I am the internet Culture reporter on the Styles D desk here at the Times of Alabama police come to the stays for The most American thing online that I've reported on is Bama Rush. It's the first day of Bama Rush, so that means I'm on my way to Coman Coliseseum for conacation, so I'm gonna give y'all a little o. Bama Rush is the week before school starts where women flock to the University of Alabama and Tuscaloosa and vie for spots in sororities. This shows up in the form of many, many videos. So I'm gonna show you guys what's in my Rush bag. Young women showing what they're buying is women My shorts are free people What they're prepping, what they're going wear. My sonnies are from Cate Sade. Sorority Rush is sort of this perfect encapsulation of the promise of the American meritocracy. These are David Derman, Gucci, Dior, Gucci, and Cartier. And then. Anybody should be able to get into a sorority, but you have sort of this hidden power structure around social capital who you know what you're wearing. and so it's this to go macro, this friction between the promise of democracy and like The exclusivity of reality In my necklace is David Yearerman, My earrings are Van Clef So like a little chandeliers I mean, it's a thing that might be easy to dunk on and make fun of, right? Because it's eighteen year old girls, young women sort of competing for a social club. But modern day sorority culture is born out of a historical lineage of women who are looking for access into spaces that they didn't have, whether that be social clubs or academia. So there is sort of something positive underneath all of this, once you strip away the jewelry and the weird ruffled Sorts. This was At one point, quite revolutionary Also an American concept, really, think about it We'll do it back This podcast is supported by Bank of America Private Bank You're cut from a different cloth. And with Bank of America Private Bank, you have an entire team tailored to your needs with wealth and business strategies built for the biggest ambitions, like yours. Whatever your passion, unlock more powerful possibilities at privatebank dot bank offammerica dot com What would you like the power to do? Bank of America Official Bank of the FIFA World Cup twenty twenty six. Bank of America Private Bank is a division of Bank of America NA member FDSC and a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation. Investing with Schwab is like spending a Saturday at a great farmer's market. You can fill your reusable tote with a bit of everything. Maybe you go for some free range, self directed investing, or perhaps you pick up a few farm fresh trades will you peruse You can even get help from a dedicated advisor. That's full service wealth management. Mix, match, and change your mind whenever you want. Because at Schwab, you can invest your way. No matter your goals or appetite for investing, Schwab has everything you need, all in one place. Visit schwab. com to learn more This podcast is supported by the Propane Education and Research Council America's energy security is on thin ice. We're challenged by an overburdened electrical grid, rising energy costs, and disruptive severe weather You could wait until one of these stops you cold, or you can make a power play with propane It's affordable, abundant, safe, and made in the US. Propane is reliable energy, even when the grid isn't, visit propane dot com slash PowerPlay to gain the ultimate energy advantage I'm Kim Sverson. I'm a national food correspondent for the New York Times I am going to try to convince you that you can tell The story twentieth century America through One food item and that is the Minem The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand begins with Frest Mars, who is the charismatic heir to the Mars emmpire hisis dad, Frank that created the Milky Way bar in the nineteen twenties is that Milkyays are as wholesome and nourishing as they are enjoyable And so on And as often happens, Fst Mars became estranged from his father He goes to Europe He discovers that Some of the British volunteers in the Spanish Civil War are eating these little chocolate balls covered in hard candy, so they wouldn't melt in the heat. Sny Spain Garden of Europe You know, at this point, selling chocolate in the summer in America was a challenge So here we have Forest Mars going Aha. He brings this idea back to the U. S. but he didn't have a lot of chocolate, He didn't really have the raw materials. So he partners with Bruce Murray, who's the son of a Hershey executive. so you have the first two Nppo babies, really in Candy in America coming together, creating the Einem nineteen forty one. When a soldier is out in the field and away from camp C He must carry his own ration The first contract he had was with the US. government in World War I. So all the soldiers are getting these little carton tubes of Minems in their rations. Containing concentrated soup They'll come back. They're like, hey, love the M and Ms and so boom The M andM becomes very popular national canda becausecause Amerham's milt chocolate melts in your mouth It's notot in your hand Very almost crucially, MinM is a great example of American marketing too, right? So we all will remember, if you're over forty, melt in your mouth, not in your hand. meelt in your mouth, not in your hand. Mel your mouth not your hand, sir. your They were the first candy on the space shuttle They opened that big M and M store in two thousand six. And I think you'll remember crucially the Ein andem spokes candy. Just your friendly neighborhood, Eminem. Sit down Of course, The red M andM and the yellow M and M were sort of the glitzy stars. And then we had Mrs. Brown who had some heels on, she was kind of a Boss lady M and M My shell is brown. It just looks like my milk chocolate is showing. Only a fool would actually. So at some point, misses Brown got a makeover and the stiletto heels were replaced by a more sensible shoe thus thrusting the M andM into the heart of America's culture wars, which is that the Brown M andM has quote, transitioned from high stilelettos to lower block heels Also less sexy That's progress And then there was the purple M and M. which was kind of the Inclusive M andem if you will. This, of course, thrressed the M andM even deeper into the culture wars The company added obese and distinctly frumpy lesbian M andMs to promote, quote, feminism and body positivity In other words And that was that Something I think is really interesting that a lot of people don't know is that the M and M has had an outsized influence on American agriculture. Now there are two exciting candies to choose from. nineteen fifty four, they decided to add the peanut M and M. And the new M and M's peanut chocolate candies You know the tricky thing about peanuts is they go rancid very quickly The last thing you want to do is eat a rancid peanut M andM that will put you off M andMs for a long time, which the company realized. And so they've developed various kinds of peanuts to grow for their pe at M andM over the years Georgia is the country's leading producer of peanuts, according to UGA's Center for Aggrribusiness and Economic Development. In the two thousands, the company worked with agriculture specialist at the University of Georgia to create the perfect peeanut for the peeanut M and M. Georgia dash zero nine B The Georgia zo nine B It's a high yielding, high leake TSWV resistant runner type. So You have this great ag story EinMs again is a little bit in the news with with our current Maha health movement One of the big make America healthy again. Tenan is to get rid of artificial dyes and food. and MinM has been trying desperately to do that. They can reliably recreate the red and yellow with natural ingredients like turmers and beets reallyally difficult with the blue and the brown. So you may be seeing weird, slightly less vibrant colored M andMs in your packs as they're trying to figure it out. But again, M andMs, the greatreat American food story Really? The story of American food is really the story of innovation and of money. and of our incredible need to eat sweet things What is the M American book? When I was asked about the M American play, first, I panicked. I actually came up with ten plays That would be August Wilson's century cycle. But then I chose the book, The Love Songs of W EBad Boys by Honore Fanon Deuffers My name is Helen Shaw. I'm the Chief theatater crritic at the Times I am M.J. Franklin. I'm an editor at the New York Times Book Review In the America cycle, Wilson sets each of the ten plays in each of the ten decades of the twentieth century among a group of very loosely related families in the Hill district in Pittsburgh. The book weaves together two separate storylines. The first is about this girl growing up in the late twentieth century The second storyline is the story of her ancestors as they're living, On the land that later becomes Georgia, that later becomes the America that we know and love today those two storylines converge and as they converge, you really see how history, American history is alive and present with us today. It's still It shapes how we live, it shapes our experiences The past is not just the past, but it's something that's still present with us And that's why I love it All ten plays together make a really beautiful kind of statement about what August Wilson thought was happening with the African American experience, what he thought bllack culture was facing in the twentieth century and what sort of reparations it was capable of making in the spirit There are all of these big, lofty important ideas in it, but it is carurried in this just delightful, compelling vehicle That's the love songs of WEB Boys by Honoree Fanone Deffers. That is August Wilson's centy cycle I'm Alisssa Wilson, and I am a movie critic here at the New York Times To me, the most American movie is Paul Thomas Anderson's two thousand seven epic There Will Be Blood I drink your Milk sake. I drink it up. Don't bully me,el. There will be blood is about an oil man named Daniel Plainview, played by Daniel D Lewis who is pushing out across really the West in order to seek his fortune. I have a competition I want no one else to succeed And often in American Westerns, we see that as kind of a positive thing, and it is inirting that trope. This man, he does pull it off. He becomes fabulously wealthy. When we finally see him near the end of the film, he has built an incredible mansion. It has kind of famously a bowling alley in it but he is Absolutely miserable at the end of the film You have none of me and you. Baskard from a basket And we see that all of his wealth did not insulate him from what actually happens often to people when they do become fabulously wealthy Thank God. I have none of you G here So we see this kind of taking of this trope that persists throughout, you know, the American imagination and flipping it on its head It's a movie about capitalism, but in a kind of cynical way. It's a movie about the dangers of unfettered liberty It's a movie about the pursuit of power even above wealth You know, when you watch this movie, you can see parallels to questions about entrepreneurialism in the twenty first century. you have a great chance here. Bear in mind you can lose it all if you're not careful. out of all men that beg for a chance to. So it's not that all of everything about America is bad, but it is about when the ideals that sometimes are associated with the American project are taken to their final kind of end the kind of idea of unfettered liberty, the unfettered pursuit of power those things are ultimately destructive, not just to a person's life Mrister Daniel reallyally to their soul. I'm finished. Hey, I'm Zachary Small, and I'm a cultureal reporter at The New York Times, writing about everything from video games to fossils and art. My name is Elizabeth Finchantelli, and I write about culture for the New York Times When you think of a video game that is trying to take in all of the weird complexities of American culture, there's no better choice than Grand Theft Auto I think that the most American thing I've ever witnessed is a demolition derby. Grand Theft Auto is a series of games. The new one is coming out at the end of this year, and you're essentially plopped into some crime ridden city in America and you are a criminal. and you can do whatever you want. A demolition derby is when people get into an arena and they run into each other until there's one car lif standing as a matter of speaking It's as American as South Park as Burlesque Theater. It's shoc in awe. It's PT. Barnum It's about Mhem Violence Chaos I do find it incredibly thrilling though. I have to say my first one, I was screaming. I lost I really lost my mind There's some impulse to just really push the limits Test the boundaries of what you can get away with, the mayhem I do feel like that's very American I name'm Jason Ziniman, I'm a critet at large and I write a lot about comedy I think you can make the argument that there's no work of comedy that sums up a particular part of the American character better than Randy Newman's political science. No one likes us Don't know why M not be perfect, but heaven knows we try all around, even our old friends put us down. Let's drop the big one. see what happened. The song is a jingoistic American advocating for bombing the world into smithereens He's not saying we're gonna to bomb the world because of some grand plan or because of some ideology or because of some thought out geopolitical reason. He's saying bomb the world because he's annoyed and mopey. and let's just see what happens. T goes London Fy room This is not the you know the anger of the underdog. This is the resentment of a powerful who feels like the underdog And that really feels like it captures where we are as we've been as a country for quite a long time. Aican to or how peaceful little be. everybody? It's kind of a downer of an answer, I realize What's more American than that? They all hate us anyhow. So let's drop the big one now Just dp be All the way back. FX is The Bear, the Emmy Award winning series returns for its final season. With no money, the threat of a sale, and a torrential storm in their way, the team bands together to achieve one last service. Can they finally earn that coveted Michelin star? FX is The Bear, the final season, all episodes now streaming on Hulu New York, If your AC is always turned up, well your energy bills will go up too. Luckily, we've got ways to help. Try our personalized energy savings tips or explore budget billing, which helps to spread out your biggest payments. Visit coned. com slash bill help to get started because taking control is New York. This podcast is supported by the Propane Education and Research Council America's energy security is on thin ice. We're challenged by an overburdened electrical grid, rising energy costs, and disruptive severe weather You could wait until one of these stops you cold, or you can make a power play with propane It's affordable, abundant, safe, and made in the US Propane is reliable energy, even when the grid isn't, visit propane dot com slash PowerPlay to gain the ultimate energy advantage My name is Jason Ferago and I'm one of the critics at large of the New York Times, where I write principally about art, architecture, monuments and the way it all fits into the wider world When I'm thinking about whether One work of art could be Cub the most America. There's really one that immediately comes to mind, and it's the Statue of Liberty Really even before She was fully erected. She was turned into And I don't use the word lightly an icon, an actual sort of visual representation of the United States as such French work of arts. That is, in my view, the most American work of arts You know, I went in for the first time Certainly the first time I can remember in my life justust a couple of weeks ago And the fitness of the copper Less than an eighth of an inch thick. and the armature designed by Gustav Eiffel of a tower you might know in Paris. Holding her all up malleability of the copper and the idea that there's this sort of extraordinary symbol that's also an empty shell. It's something that's very, very strong, but it's also vacant You know, you could spend a lot of time with your therapist talking about how these contradictions might embody a certain American ideal, and a certain ideal of liberty that I think goes wholly underestimated. I'm Ao Scott. I'm a critic at large at the New York Times Book Review To me, if I had to pick one poem as the most American poem I think it would be crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Walt Whitman Flood tide below me, I see you face to face clouds of the West sun half an hour high, I see you also face to face This is the actor Jeffrey Wright reading Cross in Brooklyn Ferry Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes how curious you are to me. On the ferry boats, the hundreds and hundreds that cross returning home are more curious to me than you suppose. And you that sh'all cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to me and more in my meditations than you might suppose Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, he originally called it Sndown poem and it's kind of a description of crossing over from Brooklyn to Manhattan, crossing the East Rriver at sunset But what makes it so vivid and interesting and so American in a way is that he uses this experience of basically a daily commute to meditate on a whole state of connection between the past, the present, and the future What is it then between us? What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us whatever it is, it avails not Distance avails not, and place avails not. I too, lived Brooklyn of Ample Hills was mine I too walked the streets of Manhattan Island and bathed in the waters around it But it's not all like sweetness and light. We're not necessarily all like great, wonderful people. I mean, we're talking about New York City, you know It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall The dog threw its patches down upon me also The best I had done seemed to me blank and suspicious The great thoughts, as I suppose them, were they not in reality meager. nor is it you alone Who know what it is to be evil I am he who knew what it was to be evil So I love that passage because it's saying like it's not that we're all great people. One thing that we have in common is that we can be terrible. We're sort of we're low and mean and jealous and lazy in all of these things. But that is also what makes us this great community, this great democracy. And I think in a way, what he's saying is if you have an idea that that there's going to be democracy, that you're going to have a democratic way of living. It has to include that. It has to acknowledge that, that we're not angels, we're not perfect And we have to in some way, embrace, you know our low as well as our high aspects. gorgeous clouds of the sunset drenched with your splendor, me or the men and women generations after me. across from shore to shore countless crowds of passengers, stand up tall masts of Manhatta Stand up beautiful hills of Brooklyn distills for me in a way that notot many other literary works do a kind of an idea of America as extending into the future So there's this idea that America is a space and a community and an experience that's defined not by a shared past, but by a shared future And that to me makes it kind of wonderfully and in a sort of utopian, democratic way, quintessentially America Drive cities. Brain your fraight Bring your shows, ample and sufficient rivers, expand being than which none else is perhaps more spiritual Keep your places objects than which none else is more lasting You have waited You always wait you dumb, beautiful ministers We receive you with free sense at last. and are insatiate hencefward Not you anymore shall be able to foil us or withhold yourselves from us We use you and do not cast you aside. We plant you permanently within us. We fathom you not We love you There is perfection in you also You furnish your parts toward eternity. Great or small You furnish your parts toward the soul H My name isia Corless, and I'm the dance critic at the New York Times. I think dance has more pieces about America than I even realized Two of the most American dance pieces are Stars and Stripes by George Balanching, nineteen fifty eight and Appalachian Spring by Martha Graham, nineteen forty four The Appalachian Spring. It's set to Mus by Eron Copeland, which is I know that There's another Eron Copeland score in this Pentation But Eron Copeland is worth mentioning twice and many more times And it's about a frontier couple and they're starting their Theyir live together Stars and Stripes is said to Susa music. As arranged by Hershey K Stars and stripes, you know, they're Baton twirling maerettes and there's a huge flag that rises from the floor at the end of the ballet. It's kind of crazy. The dancing is technical. It's classical ballet. It's like making this putting this serious art form on top of this Subject. I don't know that he was making fun of America, but but while also loving it. And Graam was like, she was showing what America is and showing what an American art is makes and why they make it and why that is important I think, you know, they're both dances about optimism and hope and keeping the faith with your eyes wide open They see things for what they are And I think that You know, being funny and serious at the same time is really healthy And very American. I'm John Carina I'm aop music crit at New York Times and the co host of popcast our pop culture talkal show Um when presented with the absurdest project to identify the most American pop song. Immediately, I thought of all the easy outs there could be. It could be a J Z song. of Americana Simon' song Hell a Baring nam a song And I realized pretty quickly None of those were correct because those reflect ideas about America that I think we often wish about ourselves but it may not reflect the actual mess of the country that we live in So I picked a song called Trump Trump Baby. B a Florida rapper named Fgiato Blow Gorgiato Blow refers to himself as the mayor of Magaville. He's a white rapper