Pauline Kael's first assignment at a major national magazine was to review a beloved musical about a singing nun. She told millions of readers they were swallowing a saccharine fantasy and was fired immediately. This episode explores how a woman born to Polish Jewish chicken farmers in Petaluma, California, spent three decades in obscurity as a nanny, cook, seamstress, and violin teacher before becoming the most feared and influential film critic in American history.

The discussion follows the 1952 coffee shop argument that led to her first published review, her years programming a Berkeley cinema, the surprise bestseller that moved 150,000 paperbacks, and the contrarian defense of a violent bank robber movie that landed her a permanent home at The New Yorker. It also examines her rejection of objectivity, the credit controversy over her es ...