The Retrievals On C-Sections; Open To Debate On Iran Strikes; Cannonball Premieres

 

In today's article, we have a second season that exposes a medical issue, specifically C-sections, and adequately treating the pain of women. That's the theme of The Retrievals in its second season. 

Then we have the superb Open To Debate, attempting to provide context to the recent Iran Strikes with recent debates that offer the transparency of more accurate information and the nuance of conflicting ideologies.

Finally, The New York Times releases a new show by Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Wesley Morris called Cannonball. Let's see if Morris is as good at the spoken word as he is at the written word. 

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The Retrievals Season 2: C-Sections

The New York Times and Serial Productions have announced that Susan Burton’s award-winning podcast “The Retrievals” will return with a new four-part season on Thursday, July 10. The Retrievals, Season 2: The C-sections is an intimate, character-driven investigation into what it takes to solve one of medicine's most persistent problems – listening to women patients and adequately treating their pain.

 Remarked Susan Burton: “Following the first season of The Retrievals, I heard from hundreds of listeners who shared their own stories of inadequately treated pain. Among the most disturbing were from those who said they’d felt everything during their C-sections. This new season is focused on people who are bringing this problem to light and finding solutions to it.”

 C-sections are the most frequently performed major surgery in the world, and a lot of patients go into the procedure thinking they’re not going to feel anything. And yet, in the United States and Canada, approximately 100,000 women annually not only feel something, but they feel significant pain. There’s no other major surgery where this would be acceptable. 

The Retrievals, Season 2: The C-sections investigates this underreported problem, and goes behind the scenes at one Chicago hospital where staffers are spurred into action after one of their own nurses undergoes an excruciating C-section. While writing this season, Susan was inspired by shows like The Pitt and ER, and this new season of The Retrievals rolls out like a medical drama.
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 Open To Debate On Iran Strikes


 Open to Debate addresses a fundamental problem in America: the extreme polarization of our nation and our politics. 

"We are the nation's only nonpartisan, debate-driven media organization dedicated to bringing multiple viewpoints together for a constructive, balanced, respectful exchange of ideas. Open to Debate is a platform for intellectually curious and open-minded individuals to engage with others who hold opposing views on complex issues. We know debate works to find common ground: On average, 32% of the Open to Debate audience changes their mind on contentious topics after hearing a debate."

For months, the nonpartisan media platform Open to Debate has been hosting live debates on topics increasingly relevant during the current Iran strikes by Israel and the U.S.

For anyone looking to go behind the headlines and hear a variety of perspectives on both the origins of the current situation, and the best paths forward, here is a quick primer of five recent debates that provide context for what's happening right now:

1. Can America and Its Allies Tolerate A Nuclear Iran, or Is It Time to Stop Them Now? (from January 2025)

• Arguing STOP NOW: Behnam Ben Taleblu, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
• Arguing TOLERATE: Barbara Slavin, Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center

2. Should Israel Strike Iran? (from October 2024)

• Arguing Yes: Michael Doran, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, Hudson Institute
  
• Arguing No: Shira Efron, Senior Director of Policy Research, Israel Policy Forum

3. Is Trump Good For Israel? (from May 2025)

• Arguing Yes: Einat Wilf, Former Member of Israeli "Knesset"; Co-author of "The War of Return"
  
• Arguing No: Jeremy Ben-Ami, Founder and President of J Street

4. Was Trump Right to be Hard on Soft Power in the Middle East? (from April 2025)

• Arguing Yes: Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, President & Founder of Ideas Beyond Borders
  
• Arguing No: Jeffrey Gedmin, President & CEO of Middle East Broadcasting Networks

5. Is Trump's America a Reliable Ally? (from June 2025)

• Arguing Yes:
  1. Joshua Shifrinson, Associate Professor at University of Maryland's School of Public Policy; Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute
  2. Kelly Grieco, Senior Fellow with the Reimagining US Grand Strategy Program at the Stimson Center
  
• Arguing No:
  1. Liana Fix, Fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations
  2. Charles Kupchan, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University
  

Want to go deeper? Check out Open To Debate's "Middle East" YouTube playlist for recent debates on Gaza, Netanyahu, The Two-State Solution, and more.
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 Cannonball with Wesley Morris debuts

Surprisingly personal and never obvious. Cannonball is a new weekly podcast from The New York Times, hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Wesley Morris.

Every week, Wesley will sit down with fellow writers, artists, critical thinkers, and friends to discuss the culture that moves us — the good, the bad, and everything in between. From Bruno Mars to Pee-wee Herman to “And Just Like That,” Wesley and his guests will explore various aspects of art and popular culture while delving into their historical context, uncovering layers of meaning and insight. Come for the conversations, stay for the feelings.

Wesley Morris is a film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for The New York Times, as well as co-host, with J Wortham, of the New York Times podcast Still Processing. He won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for his work with The Globe and the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for his New York Times coverage of race relations in the United States, making Morris the only writer to have won the Criticism prize more than once.

New episodes of Cannonball drop every Thursday. The first episode has been released. In the show premiere, Wesley Morris has a confession to make: He loves Bruno Mars. Nothing wrong with that, right? With the help of the culture writer Niela Orr, Wesley untangles his crush from his discomfort with the pop star’s cozy relationship to Blackness.