What's Good Wednesdays

Humpday Recommendations 5/17/2023

Watch: High and Low It’s one of Akira Kurosawa’s finest films and the great Toshiro Mifune’s most understated performances. High and Low is a police thriller that follows an investigation of the kidnapped child of a wealthy industrialist. Released in 1963, it’s also a portrait of Japan in transition from slow post-war recovery to economic boom times, and it brings the powerful and the excluded crashing together. - Willis

Watch/listen to/ROFL at: Christopher Walken reading "Three Little Pigs." Enjoy here. — Carlos

See: Shucked on Broadway, or just listen to Independently Owned from the soundtrack. The show is hilarious and jam packed with CORNY puns that will make the most high brow comic chuckle. The story grows on you as it goes along, and stays with you long after. Set in an imaginary slice of American heartland, the aptly named heroine, Maizy, is the only person in her closed-off community willing to venture to the big city of Tampa, Florida, to save the town. On a deeper level, Shucked is about rural consciousness and diversifying America's cultural cannon. It's a show you won't understand until you see it, and won't regret giving a chance. Riley

More For You

Three months into the Iran war, the Strait of Hormuz is in a standoff and the geopolitical fallout is spreading fast. Kori Schake of the American Enterprise Institute breaks down with Ian Bremmer what the conflict means for US power and the ambitions of Russia and China.

US President Donald Trump participates in an arrival ceremony at Beijing Capital International Airport during his visit to the country, in Beijing, China, on May 13, 2026.
REUTERS/Evan Vucci

Xi Jinping will welcome Donald Trump with lots of pomp and circumstance. The summit, though, will be short on substance.