Naomi Fry, a critic and podcast host, had something to get off her chest.

“This is such a horrible thing to say, and probably many listeners will not like hearing this,” she began, speaking hesitantly. Her co-hosts, the fellow critics Vinson Cunningham and Alexandra Schwartz, leaned in from across a small, round table at a recording studio in Manhattan.

“I don’t like … philosophy?” Fry said, as if asking for permission.

Cunningham and Schwartz, who had joined Fry to discuss, in part, the book “Should We Go Extinct?” by the philosopher Todd May, burst into laughter. Soon Fry was laughing, too.

“I thought you were going to be like, ‘I think humans shouldn’t exist,’” Cunningham said.

“It’s just such a philistine thing to say, I feel,” Fry replied.

Schwartz interjected: “Everyone knows our biases. Give us a novel, put the philosophy in with it. We love story!”

“I love stories,” said Fry, coming alive. “Like, can you

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