Culture Gabfest

On this week’s show, Slate’s books and culture columnist, Laura Miller, sits in for Julia. The panel begins with KAOS , Netflix’s new series that reimagines Greek mythology in modern times. Created by Charlie Covell ( End of the F***ing World ), KAOS stars Jeff Goldblum as Zeus, alongside a host of excellently cast deities. But is the show too self-satisfied and high off its own supply?‌ The three...

On this week’s show, the hosts begin by reviewing Bad Monkey , a breezy new crime drama on Apple TV+ starring Vince Vaughn as a former police officer turned health inspector. It’s everything a summer show should be: laid-back, easy on the eyes, and set in warm, sunny Florida. Then, speaking of returns, the panel turns back the clock and tackles Homicide:‌ Life on the Street, a groundbreaking cop s...

On this week’s show, Rebecca Onion and Jenny Zhang fill in for Stephen. First, the panel tackles HBO’s Industry . The show is in its third season and has seen a huge increase in viewership. But is it a show worth of the coveted Sunday night timeslot? Then, they explore Alien: Romulus , a new addition to Xenomorph lore, with a controversial cameo. Finally, the panel talks about Sephora, beauty cult...

On this week’s show, June Thomas (author of A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women’s Culture ) and Dan Kois (author of Hampton Heights ) fill in for Dana and Stephen. First, the panel tackles It Ends With Us starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni (the latter also directed and produced the film.) It’s a big, glossy melodrama laced with a domestic violence plot, and is the first fi...

On this week’s show, it’s the return of a Cultfest favorite: The Annual Summer Strut Episode! As per tradition, the panel is joined by Slate’s pop music critic and chart analyst (and host of the podcast Hit Parade ) Chris Molanphy to celebrate his tenth (!!) year of Summer Strutting —before the four dive into their favorite picks from this year’s massive playlist, populated with song recommendatio...

On this week’s show, the panel is joined by Jamelle Bouie (New York Times Opinion columnist and Friend of the Pod) to discuss Deadpool & Wolverine , Marvel’s R-rated superhero flick starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman that’s dominating at the box office. Then the four assess the onslaught of Kamala Harris memes sweeping the internet right now and the role social media will play in this yea...

On this week’s show, the panel gets swept up by Twisters , and begins by discussing director Lee Isaac Chung’s standalone sequel starring Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones. (For the record, the original 1996 disaster flick, Twister , is a near-perfect, Gabfest-approved comfort watch ). Sure, Chung’s reboot isn’t as weird as the original, and the modern-day renderings of completely plausible natura...

On this week’s show, the panel begins by dissecting Longlegs , director Osgood Perkin’s viral horror movie starring Nicolas Cage that’s sweeping the box office. Aided by a clever marketing campaign, Longlegs is undoubtedly the summer’s “you gotta see it” horror flick, but does the Silence of the Lambs copycat live up to the hype? Then, the three jump (or is it herkie?) into Greg Whiteley’s latest...

On this week’s show, June Thomas (co-host of Slate’s Working podcast and the author of A Place of Our Own ) sits in for Julia Turner. The panel first explores The Bear , now in its third season, and questions whether Christopher Storer’s beast has become too self-aware. Then, they discuss Fancy Dance , a profoundly moving film by Native writer-director Erica Tremblay starring Lily Gladstone that’s...

On this week’s show, Dan Kois (author of Vintage Contemporaries and the upcoming Hampton Heights ) and Laura Miller (Slate’s books and culture columnist and author of The Magician’s Book ) fill in for Julia and Dana. The panel is first joined by Carl Wilson, Slate’s music critic and the author of Let’s Talk About Love , to parse through I Am: Celine Dion , a new documentary on Prime Video. Directe...

On this week’s show, Isaac Butler (co-host of Slate’s Working podcast and the author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act ) sits in for Julia Turner. The panel first turns their attention to Ren Faire , HBO’s three-part documentary chronicling the surreal power struggle at the heart of America’s largest renaissance festival. Director Lance Oppenheim ( Spermworld , Some Kind of H...

On this week’s episode, the hosts excavate the psyche and begin by exploring Inside Out 2 , a sophisticated children’s movie that tackles the question on every kid’s mind: How does one go about crafting a highly integrated ego? A bevy of new emotions join the motley crew living inside of our teenage protagonist Riley’s mind, most notably Anxiety, voiced brilliantly by Maya Hawke. The film, a seque...

On this week’s show, Dan Kois (writer at Slate and author of Hampton Heights: One Harrowing Night in the Most Haunted Neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin ) fills in for Dana Stevens. The hosts begin by exploring the latest addition to the Star Wars canon, The Acolyte , created by Leslye Headland ( Russian Doll ). Amandla Sternberg and Lee Jung-jae lead the who-dunnit mystery, and while there is a...

On this week’s show, the hosts begin by asking the question: What even is Garfield? Jim Davis’ overfed, Monday-hating (even though he’s jobless) cultural figure first appeared in comic strips in the late 1970s, and since then, has been surprisingly resilient, most recently conquering the summer box-office with The Garfield Movie . But who is Garfield, and more perhaps more importantly, why is he a...

On this week’s show, the hosts begin by jumping into Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga , a prequel to George Miller’s 2015 Fury Road , in which Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Furiosa, an arachnid beauty who’s stolen as a child and becomes a wasteland road warrior. She’s a “strong, silent type,” typical of the action film genre, but does that trope mean something different with a female protagonist in 2024? The pa...

On this week’s show, the hosts begin by reviewing Babes , Pamela Adlon’s ( Better Things , Louie ) directorial feature debut starring Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau. Through raunch-comedy and body horror, Babes explores childbirth and pregnancy through a refreshingly unromanticized lens, but does it succeed as a drama? Then, the three switch gears and turn to Interview With the Vampire , AMC’s A...

On this week’s show, the hosts begin by dissecting The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes , the fourth chapter in the Apes franchise. Set “many generations” in the future, the latest installment (directed by Wes Ball and starring Owen Teague) is an undeniably well-crafted summer blockbuster – but does it achieve the level of complexity and thought its predecessors did? (Read Dana’s review for Slate...

On this week’s show, the hosts begin by diving head-first into The Fall Guy , director David Leitch’s love letter to stunts and stunt people. It’s a rom-com starring action set pieces, in which stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) falls for his director and ex-flame, Jody (Emily Blunt). The film is very telling about the work that goes into making an action flick… but does The Fall Guy ever achiev...

On this week’s show, the hosts begin by discussing Challengers , Luca Guadagnino’s sexy tennis flick in which Zendaya stars as Tashi Duncan, the muse and lover of two male players, Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor). It’s a smart but silly movie, one that paints a beautifully nested portrait of friendship and rivalry, and explores the complexities of desire. Then, the three dissect Baby...

On this week’s episode, the panel is first joined by Slate’s music critic, Carl Wilson, to puzzle over The Tortured Poets Department , Taylor Swift’s much-anticipated 11th studio album. Stuffed with 31 tracks, the two-part album is a departure from the billionaire pop star’s otherwise perfectly crafted oeuvre: it’s messy and drippy, and at times, manic and frenetic. Is this secretly a cry for help...

On this week’s show, Slate culture writer (and Very, Very Good Friend of the Show, a.k.a. VVGFOP) Nadira Goffe sits in for Dana Stevens. The three begin with Civil War , writer-director Alex Garland’s ( Ex Machina , Annihilation , Men ) dystopian travelog starring Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, and Wagner Moura that imagines a burned out, bombed out America in the throes of a raging internal confli...

On this week’s show, the panel is first joined by Slate business and culture writer Nitish Pahwa to discuss Monkey Man , Dev Patel’s dazzling but muddled directorial debut. The ultra-violent action flick stars Patel as Kid, a young man who works his way into a secret brothel for the super rich, hell-bent on finding the police chief who murdered his mother and exacting his revenge. It’s clearly a p...

On this week’s show, the panel is first joined by Slate culture writer (and the Gabfest’s Senior Beyoncé Correspondent) Nadira Goffe to dissect Beyoncé’s latest album, Cowboy Carter . Released on March 29th, Cowboy Carter is a 27-track behemoth with a country soul, packed with archival footage and songs that span multiple genres. To call it a country album would be too simplistic, so we’ll stick w...

On this week's show, Slate’s Dan Kois (author of Vintage Contemporaries , How to Be a Family , The World Only Spins Forward , and Facing Future ) sits in for Julia Turner. The panel first begins with a reboot: In 1999, when Jon Stewart took over, rather indifferently, the helm of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show , he changed the media landscape with his comedic chops, serious outrage, and penchant...

On this week’s show, Slate culture writers Nadira Goffe and Dan Kois fill in for Julia and Stephen. First up, the panel dissects Love Lies Bleeding with What’s Next producer Madeline Ducharme. Writer-director Rose Glass’ second feature stars Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian as beefed up, star-crossed lovers, in a twisted and gory love story about two unhealthily enmeshed women. (You can read Madel...