Culture Gabfest

This week, Steve, Dana and guest host Sam Adams talk anti-authoritarian art in its many forms. First, they take up It Was Just an Accident , the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning film by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Inspired in part by Panahi’s own experience being imprisoned for critiquing the Iranian government, his new film—made in secret from the regime— holds back little in its sharp political cri...

Shuffling under the mortal coil this week (aka hosting the Gabfest), it’s our OG players Steve, Dana, and Julia. Like a morose Danish prince contemplating a human skull, they gaze upon the Oscar nominated Hamnet , based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell inspired by William Shakespeare’s life. Directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, Hamnet has brought some critics to tear...

This week, our Gabfest panel includes Steve and guest hosts Nadira Goffe and Laura Miller with a typically eclectic collection of topics. First up, Dana hops on the call to decode the unspoken truths and dream imagery of Kleber Mendonça Filho’s film The Secret Agent . Set in 1970s Recife, Brazil and starring a very charming Wagner Moura, the film is a heterodox brew of political thriller, magical...

Podcasting is a privilege as Steve is joined by Dan Kois and Rebecca Onion to unpack and cackle at the domestic thriller schlockfest The Housemaid. Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried star in the Paul Fieg-directed tale of two women facing off to rule the McMansion roost. Next, Seyfried proves she’s got the range as the panel joins the chorus appraising her performance in The Testament of Ann Lee ,...

This week, Julia and Steve welcome guest host Sam Adams to deconstruct the aggravating, yet strangely charming, table tennis phenom on the make that is Marty Supreme . Played with “BDE off-the-charts” (Steve’s words) by Timothée Chalamet, the unceasingly shameless hustler may just be an avatar for our age. Speaking of avatars, we can’t avoid discussing Avatar: Fire and Ash, the latest installment...

In the waning moments of 2025, Julia, Dana, and Steve say goodbye to the year that was with a beloved annual end-of-year tradition… our listener call-in show! And you delivered some great queries, dear listeners.  The hosts tackle questions about everything ranging from under-dramatized historical eras to Wuthering Heights to wedding registry etiquette. They also zoom out to grapple with a fundame...

After thinking it was lost to the sands of internet time, our team uncovered a 2013 gem from the archives. In the “The Abstract Noun Edition,”  your favorite Gabfesters talk about how we talk. Steve, Dana, and Julia discuss the elements of language: vocabulary, conversation, and voice. In paroxysms of polysyllables, they invoke their favorite writers—and their least favorite linguistic tics—to pro...

On this week’s show, Dana and Steve are joined by guest host Rebecca Onion for a Gabfest first: a segment about something from the sprawling Taylor Sheridan television universe. They strap on their cowboy boots and hop in the pickup for a conversation on season 2 of Landman which stars a rangy and world-weary Billy Bob Thornton as an oil industry fixer . Next, they turn north of the border for som...

On this week’s episode, Gabfest old friends Steve, Julia, and June Thomas convene on two showbiz works of midlife retrospection and regret: the new film Jay Kelly and Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along . The former, directed by Noah Baumbach, stars George Clooney as the titular movie star looking back on his life while on a European train picaresque. The latter was a legendary flop for Sondh...

On this week’s show, Julia and Steve are joined by guest host Jamelle Bouie to crack mysteries corporeal and divine in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery . The latest entrant in Rian Johnson’s whodunnit franchise sees Daniel Craig return as detective Benoit Blanc to team up with an earnest—and earnestly handsome—priest played by Josh O’Connor. Next, they take on the hefty new Ken Burns documen...

Something Wicked this way comes as Dana, Steve, and guest host Dan Kois gather round their proverbial cauldrons for an all-movie edition of the Gabfest. First up, of course, is Wicked: For Good the green/pink-hued conclusion to the alternative history of Oz. This sequel, which reunites Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as witch besties/mortal enemies, goes to surprisingly dark places. Next, they dis...

If you’ve got a cultural question or topic you’d like our hosts to tackle, now is your chance because we’re preparing for our annual call-in show! Call and leave us a message with your cultural query at:  347-201-2397 On this week’s show, Julia, Dana, Steve are off to the dystopian races with Edgar Wright’s adaptation of The Running Man. Based on a novel by Stephen King and starring movie-star-to-...

Hark, the holiday season is upon us—and with it the most solemn of festive traditions: a gift guide! In this video and podcast special, Slate hosts Dana Stevens, Chris Molanphy, and Willa Paskin beam-in from their collective hearths to deliver unto the internet their favorite gifts for culture lovers this holiday. In addition to sharing gifts, they also discuss the cultural artifact that is the “h...

On this week’s show, Steve, Dana, and Julia merge their consciousnesses—so to speak—to reflect on Pluribus , the latest television saga from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan. In this unlikely body snatchers/sci-fi mashup, Rhea Seehorn plays a woman intent on saving the world from… eternal happiness? What exactly it needs saving from—or if it needs saving at all—is fodder for much discourse. Nex...

On this week’s show, Steve, Dana, and Julia pull up proverbially barstools at Sardi’s to discuss Richard Linklater’s latest film Blue Moon , which is about one night in the life of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart. As played by a transformed Ethan Hawke, Hart is witty, needy, and totally captivating. Next, they travel Down Cemetery Road by way of a conversation about the new conspiracy series starrin...

On this week’s show, Dana is joined by fellow movie critics Amy Nicholson of The Los Angeles Times and Slate’s Sam Adams for an all-film edition of the Gabfest. First up, they enter A House of Dynamite , Kathryn Bigelow’s tense procedural about a nuclear catastrophe. Whether or not this grim thriller has any spark is up for debate. Next, they step into the raucous party of Hedda Gabler in Nia DaCo...

This is a special preview of this week's Slate Plus episode. To get the full episode, another one like it every single week, and unlimited reading on Slate.com, subscribe to slate plus at Slate.com/cultureplus and help us keep the lights on. When you have Jad Abumrad in the studio, you don’t let him leave without squeezing as much quality audio from him as possible. So, inspired by Jad’s own natur...

On this week’s show, Dana, Steve, and Julia step into the gothic, visually rich world of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. It’s been years in the making, gorgeously rendered, and stars the always compelling Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi, but it’s up for debate if something like a soul emerges from del Toro’s mad machinations. Next, author and journalist Stefan Fatsis joins the logophilic panel to...

On this week’s episode, Julia and Steve are joined by guest host Rebecca Onion to admire and puzzle over the magnetic appeal of Channing Tatum in Roofman . Does the beloved hunk’s captivating performance ground Derek Cianfrance’s tonally odd film?  Next, the hosts take another step into Tim Robinson’s cringey, paranoid, comedy looking glass with his new series The Chair Company . Finally, they wel...

On this week’s show, our fighters Steve, Julia, and Dana enter the ring to tussle over The Smashing Machine , the Dwayne Johnson vehicle directed by Benny Safdie. Can they smell what the Rock is cooking? Is it a subtly modulated performance about a sensitive pro UFC fighter? Or, a shameless Oscar play?  Next, it’s on to the offbeat climes of Tulsa, Oklahoma by way of The Lowdown, a shaggy noir ser...

On this week’s dispatch, Dana is joined by comrades in arms Sam Adams and Isaac Butler to take on Paul Thomas Anderson’s thrilling and incendiary new film One Battle After Another. Starring Leonard DiCaprio, the action epic depicts an America one notch away from our own fractured republic. Does the target of its revolutionary fantasia hit too close? They discuss. Next, they kvell about Long Story...

On this week’s episode, Julia and Dana are joined by Slate writer (and Philadelphia native) Nadira Goffe for a conversation rooted in Delaware County about Task , HBO’s new gritty crime drama from the creators of Mare of Easttown .  Next, the hosts give longtime listeners what they’ve been chirping for: a discussion of birding. Specifically, it’s a discussion about the dirtbag, gonzo, totally self...

On this week’s show, Steve and Dana are joined by guest host Dan Kois to turn the volume up to… well, how hard Spinal Tap II: The End Continues rocks is the question of the day. They debate the mockumentary sequel which reunites the original Tap gang for a surprisingly tender portrait of aged rock stars. Next, they turn their icy gaze at the POV-shifting, soapy series The Girlfriend , starring Rob...

On this week’s show, Steve, Dana, and Julia crack open the latest edition of The Paper , a new mockumentary set in the The Office universe . They debate whether the tried and true sitcom formula still delivers and assess its portrayal of local journalism. Next, they share their feelings about two couples who are terrible at sharing theirs in Splitsville, the marriage farce created and starring Kyl...

This week, Steve, Julia and guest host Isaac Butler visit a pre-gentrified 1990s New York to discuss the gritty crime romp Caught Stealing directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Austin Butler (no relation). Next, it’s off to Cooper’s Chase, an English manor turned retirement community , to take up the case of The Thursday Murder Club , Netflix’s new film adaptation of the beloved cozy mystery s...