Culture Gabfest

Culture Gabfest

New York Times critic Dwight Garner says “The Slate Culture Gabfest is one of the highlights of my week.” The award-winning Culturefest features critics Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner debating the week in culture, from highbrow to pop. For more of Slate’s culture podcasts, check out the Slate Culture feed. Want more Culture Gabfest? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Culture Gabfest show page. Or, visit slate.com/cultureplus to get access wherever you listen.

Episodes

Is Sinners Hollywood’s Salvation?

April 23, 2025 • 70 mins
On this week’s show, Julia, Stephen, and Dana are together and talk about Sinners with Slate Culture Writer Nadira Goffe.  Then, they talk about a new animated series from Ramy Youssef called #1 Happy Family USA. Finally, they take a listener's suggestion and listen to a few episodes of the new podcast, Good Hang with Amy Poehler.  In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Nadira rejoins the panel to go deep on Sinners.  Email us at ...
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Putting the Asinine in Astronaut

April 16, 2025 • 70 mins
On this week’s show, Julia, Stephen, and Dana are reunited! The panel starts with Apple TV+’s new prestige offering, Your Friends and Neighbors, starring Jon Hamm.  Then, they talk about A Minecraft Movie, already the most financially successful movie of the year. Finally, they bat around the purpose of, and responses to, the all-female Blue Origin flight that happened on Monday.  In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, a conversati...
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Dying for Sex and Living in Malls

April 9, 2025 • 61 mins
On this week’s show, Slate’s own Sam Adams sits in for Julia as they discuss the new Michelle Williams limited series “Dying for Sex,” about a woman who leaves her husband to experience a sexual awakening after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis.  Then, the trio discuss the documentary “Secret Mall Apartment” about a group in Rhode Island who managed to keep an apartment in a busy mall for years in the early aughts. Finally, Carl...
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Seth Rogen’s Love/Hate Letter to Hollywood

April 2, 2025 • 73 mins
On this week’s show, the hosts discuss Apple TV’s latest ode (tragic comedy?) to the movie industry with The Studio. Then, they step up to the plate and take a swing at the baseball film Eephus. Finally, they invite Slate’s Rebecca Onion to discuss the new edition to Panem’s dystopia: Suzanne Collin’s Sunrise on the Reaping. Endorsements: Dana: A French Village Podcast Steve: “Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship” by Hannah ...
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Netflix’s Incel Tragedy Adolescence

March 26, 2025 • 73 mins
On this week’s show, Slate’s Rebecca Onion sits in for Julia. The team discusses Netflix’s current number 1 program Adolescence and what it says about how the descent into incel culture starts young. They then invite Chris Molanphy to talk about Lady Gaga’s new album, MAYHEM. They close out with a discussion on Trump's continued assault against DEI, this time holding funding over the heads of public universities if they don’t end p...
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Cate Blanchett Is a Sexy Super Spy

March 19, 2025 • 71 mins
On this week’s show, Slate’s Dan Kois sits in for Stephen Metcaff. The hosts discuss the new Mr. & Mrs. Smith-like film Black Bag, starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. Then they dive into the “inconvenient” Hulu show Deli Boys. They end by discussing the legacy of Dave Eggers’ phenomenal memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Endorsements: Dana: The television show A French Village Dan: Stone Yard Devotional ...
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Meghan Markle Sprinkles Potpourri on You

March 12, 2025 • 74 mins
On this week’s show, we throw a flower-sprinkled dinner party for a space clone (personal beehive not included). Slate culture staff writer Nadira Goffe sits in for Dana, and the hosts discuss the new Bong Joon Ho film Mickey 17, followed by Meghan Markle's uncanny homemaking show With Love, Meghan on Netflix.  Finally, we invite Slate writer Dan Kois to discuss his new cover story “How Giant White Houses Took Over America.” Endors...
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Zero Day Makes Robert De Niro a Befuddled President

March 5, 2025 • 70 mins
On this week’s show, no amount of star power can save a “screamingly stupid show.” (Sorry, Robert De Niro et al.)  With Sam Adams—Slate Senior Editor and Staff Writer—sitting in for Dana, the team talks about the Netflix political thriller series Zero Day. Then they remember the career of Gene Hackman and end with their thoughts about this Atlantic article on navigating optimism during times of crisis. Endorsements: Julia: Moist Pe...
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The Oscars Go Streaming

February 26, 2025 • 72 mins
On this week’s show, we preview the Oscars and Trump’s demolition throughout renowned institutions of art. Isaac Butler — author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act and host of the new Criterion Channel series, The Craft of Acting — sits in for Stephen Metcalf. First, the hosts discuss I’m Still Here and the continued addition of non-English speaking films getting some of the biggest Oscar buzz. Then we tackle t...
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Congratulations! You Finally Got Your Severance.

February 19, 2025 • 62 mins
On this week’s show, Slate Business and Tech reporter Nitish Pahwa sits in for Julia. The panel discusses Severance season 2 from Apple TV+. They then talk about the Oscar-nominated film No Other Land – a Palestinian documentary following a young activist fighting his community's mass expulsion by Israeli occupation. They end by discussing Nitish’s recent reporting on Buzzfeed’s upcoming AI-infused social media platform, BF Island....
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The SNL 50th Anniversary Industrial Complex

February 12, 2025 • 77 mins
On this week’s show, the hosts reflect on 50 years of music, culture, and comedy with the 50th anniversary of SNL and QuestLove’s new documentary Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music. For that, the team is joined by Jason Zinoman, critic at large for culture at The New York Times.  Then they discuss the Oscar-nominated animated film Flow – where we follow the adventures of an unlikely group of animals led by a curious black cat...
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Noah Wyle Lures Us Into The Pitt

February 5, 2025 • 67 mins
On this week’s show, the hosts discuss Max’s new medical drama The Pitt – a show that we legally can’t call an ER reboot but does have Noah Wyle donning scrubs and handling the next bodily emergency yet again. Our regular hosts also discuss an article from the Intelligencer, The Cruel Kids’ Table about how young Republicans now feel empowered to bring cruelty back into public discourse. Finally, we welcome LA Film Critic Amy Nichol...
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One of Them Movies About Women That Stuns Hollywood by Being a Hit

January 29, 2025 • 67 mins
On this week’s show, Dan Kois sits in for Dana Stevens. First, the hosts discuss One of Them Days, a new buddy comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA that’s quickly becoming a critical darling — and a box office success. Then, they dive into Asura, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Netflix show that’s about the dynamics between three sisters and is “totally uninterested in the rhythms of a TV show.” Finally, it’s time to explore t...
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Chalamet Goes Electric

January 22, 2025 • 80 mins
On this week’s show, the hosts dive into A Complete Unknown, director James Mangold’s surprisingly charming Bob Dylan biopic that’s all about fame and what it looks like to be adjacent to it. Then, the three explore Dick Wolf’s latest project: On Call, a half-hour cop procedural set in Long Beach, California that’s streaming on Prime Video. Finally, the trio remembers David Lynch, the iconic, singular filmmaker who passed away last...
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Babygirls and Nickel Boys

January 15, 2025 • 77 mins
On this week’s show, Slate staff writer Nadira Goffe sits in for Stephen. First, the panel explores Babygirl and its kinks. The latest feature from Dutch writer-director Halina Reijn stars Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson, and is fascinated by sex (mostly, as a concept.) Then, the three puzzle over Nickel Boys and the film’s audacious use of first-person point-of-view in filmmaker RaMell Ross’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pul...
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The Brutalist’s Outsized Ambition

January 8, 2025 • 73 mins
On this week’s show, it’s an all-movie week! Isaac Butler — author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act and host of the new Criterion Channel series, The Craft of Acting — sits in for Stephen Metcalf. First, the panel explores The Brutalist, director Brady Corbet’s two-part epic following the life of László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust then emigrates to the Uni...
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Annual Call-In Show 2024

January 1, 2025 • 67 mins
On this week’s show, it’s one of the Gabfest’s most cherished traditions: the yearly call-in show. Dana, Julia, and Stephen answer listen-submitted questions that run the gamut – can cooking for one be a joy? Should philosophy be studied more? And how did you make your most recent friend?  In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel dishes about pottery. Listener Dave asks: “what's your relationship to pottery? How do you drink...
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Ted Danson, Gumshoe Grandpa

December 18, 2024 • 69 mins
On this week’s show, the hosts indulge in the cozy pleasures of A Man on the Inside, a six-part Netflix series from showrunner and feel-good sitcom vet Michael Schur. Ted Danson stars as a grieving retired professor who is offered the chance to start life anew – and goes undercover inside a San Francisco retirement home. Then, the trio dives into The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s most daring — and mos...
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The Strange Lionization of Luigi Mangione

December 11, 2024 • 61 mins
On this week’s show, the hosts chew over Nightbitch, Marielle Heller’s (Queen’s Gambit, Can You Ever Forgive Me, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, MacGruber), fourth feature film. Amy Adam stars as “Mother,” a former artist who has given up her creative pursuits to care for her infant son full-time — a transition so taxing, that she begins dissociating and transforming into a dog at night. And while there’s a lot to like here (it’s an a...
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Steve McQueen’s Blitz: Dud or Hit?

December 4, 2024 • 61 mins
On this week’s show, Slate experts June Thomas (author of A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women's Culture) and Dan Kois (author of Hampton Heights: One Harrowing Night in the Most Haunted Neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) fill in for Dana and Julia. First, the trio tackles Blitz, director Steve McQueen’s new film about the German bombings of London during World War II, which stars Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinso...
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