Can an email newsletter also be a late-night radio show? One way or another, we’re going to find out. Every Friday, I’ll send a playlist culled from my weekly listening and a quote culled from my weekly reading.

When I was a kid, my parents were always listening to oldies and R&B radio stations, whose centerpieces were late-night, smooth-listening “Quiet Storm” shows. The songs were romantic and softly danceable. The D.J.s—deep voices, dramatic vowels—sounded like they looked like Billy Dee Williams. I often listened in the backseat of the car, just about to fall asleep. A soothing feeling that I’d like to pass along.

I’m a staff writer and critic for The New Yorker and a co-host of the arts and culture podcast Critics at Large. I wrote the novel Great Expectations, which was released in 2024 and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for Best First Book. Welcome to Vinson Cunningham’s Quiet Storm.

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