Hump day recommendations

Hear: Former campaign foes chat. I like the podcasts by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, and in their most recent “Leading,” they interviewed London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who’s running for a third term in next month’s election. Stewart notably ran against Khan a few years back, and I enjoyed hearing the former opponents discuss Khan’s leadership of England’s largest city. Khan’s take on former PM Boris Johnson alone is worth a listen. – Tracy

Watch: “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.”This movie, the latest from director Guy Ritchie, is based on a true story (or claims to be, at least). It focuses on a top-secret and rambunctiously unorthodox British combat unit during World War II. In many ways, it felt like the British version of “Inglourious Basterds.” TLDR: It was a lot of fun. Definitely worth seeing in theaters. – John

Listen: Kevin Kaarl. Disappointed by Taylor Swift’s new album? (Come at me, Swifties!) For a singer-songwriter who has yet to burn through their talent satisfying the perverse beast that is the music industry, check out this young man from Chihuahua. His guitar-driven ballads fall somewhere between Julieta Venegas, Death Cab for Cutie, and Willie Nelson, full of sadness and silver linings. – Matt

Tame: a dragon (if you can). The slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin, once said the Kremlin’s decision to empower Ramzan Kadyrov as the strongman of Chechnya was akin to “fostering a baby dragon, which you then have to keep feeding to prevent it from setting everything on fire.” This 2016 profile of Kadyrov by New Yorker writer Joshua Yaffa tells the story of how Kadyrov became “Putin’s Dragon.” With the Kremlin now reportedly scrambling to groom a successor to the terminally ill Kadyrov, Yaffa’s piece remains as timely as ever. – Alex