Culture Gabfest

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...

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 b...

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-infuse...

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 gr...

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, w...

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 s...

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, si...

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’ a...

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...

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 relatio...

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 Moha...

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...

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, whic...

On this week’s show, the hosts consider ‘Glicked’ (or is it ‘Wadiator’? ‘Gladicked?’), the Wicked and Gladiator II double feature that promised to be this year’s ‘Barbenheimer.’ But did it deliver? Or even come close? First, the trio inspects Wicked , which won the weekend by a long shot (and broke a few records along the way.) At times, director Jon M. Chu’s film adaptation of the famed Broadway...

On this week’s show, Isaac Butler (Supreme Friend of the Show and author of The Method:‌ How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act ) sits in for Dana. First, the panel is quite verbose about Say Nothing , a limited series that takes place over four generations and is set during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. By dramatizing the real-life events recounted in Patrick Radden Keefe’s 2018 bestseller,...

On this week’s episode, the hosts tackle A‌ Real Pain, writer-director Jesse Eisenberg’s tale of two cousins (played by himself and Kieran Culkin) who travel to Poland to honor their late grandmother and, in the process, come to understand their family’s history through a new lens. Then, the three drop into the lush, sumptuous world of Like Water for Chocolate , Max’s new six-part limited series a...

On this week’s show, Extremely Musical Friend of the Pod (EMFOP)‌ Chris Molanphy joins to memorialize pop’s Renaissance Man, Quincy Jones, who passed away on November 3, 2024. The legendary producer worked with every star under the sun, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Chaka Khan, and created the best-selling album in history. (“Thriller,” maybe you’ve heard of it?) Then, the trio mulls...

On this week’s show, Slate senior editor Rebecca Onion sits in for Julia Turner. First, the hosts examine Dahomey , an audacious new documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Mati Diop ( Atlantics .)‌ With a one hour, eight minute run time, Dahomey is an incredibly rich text in a very small package, and contemplates the repatriation of 26 royal treasures plundered from the Kingdom of Dahomey as they jour...

On this week’s show, the panel falls for Anora , a new movie from writer-director Sean Baker ( Tangerine , The Florida Project ) that’s as arrestingly tender as it is sexy, funny, and unpredictable. The whirlwind Cinderella story won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, and will likely become an Oscar frontrunner due to its star-making performances and humanistic depiction of life on the margins an...

On this week’s show, Julia and Stephen are joined by Slate writer and senior editor, Sam Adams. Why do we tell fictional stories about real people?‌ The panel ponders this question as they discuss two biopics: The Apprentice and Saturday Night . The Apprentice is an uncanny portrait of Donald Trump, a young striver under the tutelage – and spell – of his mentor, Roy Cohn. But does the film offer a...

On this week’s show, Dana and Stephen are joined by Supreme Friend of the Podcast (SFOP) Isaac Butler, author of The Method:‌ How the Twentieth Century Learned to‌ Act . The trio first explores The Wild Robot , DreamWork Animation’s handcrafted, lovingly made film that’s the surprise of the year. Lupita Nyong’o voices ROZ, an old-fashioned robot powered by supremely advanced A.I. who must learn ab...

On this week’s show, the hosts are joined by a very special fourth panelist: Wesley Morris, a critic at The New York Times and the host of The Wonder of Stevie , a new podcast on Audible. First, the quartet explores The Substance , a lurid, monstrous body horror flick by writer-director Coralie Fargeat. Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading Hollywood icon who is so repulsed by the idea o...

On this week’s show, two of our favorite Slate-sters, Nadira Goffe (culture writer)‌ and Dan Kois (author of Hampton Heights ), fill in for Dana Stevens and Stephen Metcalf. The trio first pays a visit to Gotham, and reviews Max’s The Penguin , an odd, unevenly paced mob show that doubles as DC Comics intellectual property. Sporting a prosthetic face, Colin Farrell reprises his role as the titular...

On this week’s show, the hosts begin by reviewing one of Netflix’s hottest movies at the moment, Rebel Ridge . Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, Rebel Ridge is a revenge thriller that tackles the very real issue of civil asset forfeiture. And while the film’s cleverness is up for debate, the panel agrees on one thing: the star of Rebel Ridge , Aaron Pierre, is fantastic (“each of his eyes d...

On this week’s show, the hosts revisit Beetlejuice (1988), the seminal film that marked Tim Burton’s arrival onto the scene as a sort of grim fairy tale teller. 36 years later, the director and much of the original cast return for its sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice , a surprisingly sincere tale about the nature of death and grieving. Or, is it a total mess?‌‌ The hosts discuss. Then, the three di...