New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix is our deliberately oversimplified guide to who falls where on our taste hierarchies: highbrow, lowbrow, brilliant, and despicable. This week: Bari Weiss at CBS, Obama on Marc Maron’s final ‘WTF’ episode, and more.

Excellent and horrifying piece from @chrisstanton27.bsky.social , who spoke to former healthcare executives about the soul-destroying things they witnessed at the top of the for-profit medical insurance industry nymag.com/intelligence...

BOTD Carole Eastman!! W: The Shooting (Hellman) Model Shop (Demy) Downfall Child (Schatzberg) 5 Easy Pieces (Rafelson) @specktor.bsky.social: "the one I felt the strongest kinship with" [More: www.ocregister.com/2021/07/24/w... Also: @chrisstanton27.bsky.social: lithub.com/its-time-to-...

RIP David Lynch, who built puzzles out of pure affect and called them movies. His palaces of dream logic underscored the unacceptable horrors of so many straightforward narratives. A rare contemporary artist whose name has already—deservedly—become its own aesthetic adjective. “Now it’s dark.”