Out Loud: 'Breaking Bad' and TV as Torture: The New Yorker This week in the magazine, Tad Friend writes a Profile of Bryan Cranston, who plays the drug kingpin Walter White on AMC's "Breaking Bad." The show is currently wrapping up its final season. On the podcast, Sasha Weiss talks with Emily Nussbaum and Friend about what has made the show so satisfying. Nussbaum, The New Yorker's TV critic, explores how Walter White adds a layer of punishing moral complexity to the the vicarious thrills of a traditional anti-hero, and Friend explains how Bryan Cranston's understanding of Walter differed from that of Vince Gilligan, the show's creator. Also on the podcast, Andrew Marantz on the "Truman Show" delusion.