Slate Culture Feed

One day on his morning Uber route, Jason Armstrong got an email from his father. The message: at 85, he'd decided to end his life by stopping eating and drinking. Jason's first reaction? This was the "ultimate act of narcissism." But over the next few months, as Jason witnessed his dad's careful preparations, his perspective shifted. In this episode, Jason talks to Anna about processing his father...

Split Zone Duo’s Alex Kirshner , Power Plays’ Lindsay Gibbs , and the Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh chat about the NFL Players Association’s calls to revoke media access to locker rooms, the controversy surrounding a transgender volleyball player at San Jose State, and the wild week in college football. On the Bonus episode, exclusively for Slate Plus members, the hosts discuss Pete Rose’s historic and s...

Candice Lim is joined by Slate producer Madeline Ducharme to break down the third season of HBO’s Industry . Created by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, the show stars Myha’la, Marisa Abela, and Harry Lawtey as three young finance workers obsessed with getting ahead. The show has not always been a ratings hit, but this season brought in record viewership, leading some to wonder how it became an HBO jug...

With all the Diddy news coming out, it's time to revisit this episode where Rachelle is joined by Nadira Goffe to dive into the firestorm engulfing two 2024 interviews on Shannon Sharpe’s delightfully dishy podcast Club Shay Shay. Katt Williams and Mo’Nique sat down with Sharpe in separate three-hour-long interviews that have set the internet ablaze. Both of the legendary comedians dished about th...

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...

Elizabeth* has a secret life as a hoarder. None of her colleagues or family members know that her apartment is filled to the brim with garbage bags, discarded hobbies and beautiful writing paper. Instead, she hosts an anonymous podcast detailing her struggles and efforts to declutter. In this episode, she talks to Anna about her complicated relationship with objects, how it relates to money anxiet...

Split Zone Duo’s Alex Kirshner , Power Plays’ Lindsay Gibbs , and the Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh get into playoff talk, first MLB and then the WNBA. Later, they talk about the seemingly impossible task of filling Nick Saban’s shoes at Alabama. On the bonus episode exclusively for Slate Plus members, they discuss the White Sox's historic implosion. MLB (2:48): Which playoff team should Lindsay root for...

Candice Lim is joined by Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe to explain the controversy surrounding James Duncan and Fuhad Dawodu, the co-hosts of the  ShxtsNGigs  podcast. Back in July, James and Fuhad appeared on  Flagrant,  a podcast hosted by comedian Andrew Schulz. Upon the episode’s release, James and Fuhad’s listeners  reacted  strongly to comments made by, and in front of, the duo that dispa...

A decade ago, Rolling Stone magazine called 1984 “ Pop’s Greatest Year .” A bold statement…but a lot of critics agree. A confluence of factors—the comeback of dance music, the peak of MTV, the Second British Invasion, and the emergence of metal and hip-hop—made the radio a great place to be. It was a year of fearless genre crossover…cinematic hits…veterans reinventing themselves…ballads that becam...

Oscar-winner Warren Beatty first secured the rights to the comic book character Dick Tracy in the lead up to his 1990 movie adaptation. Decades later, Beatty kept playing Tracy in bizarre late-night specials airing on cable TV, that confounded nearly everyone. Why is one of the most famous movie stars of the 20th century, spending the twilight of his career playing a comic strip detective of dwind...

Candice Lim is joined by WUNC’s Anisa Khalifa ( The Broadside )  and Dr. Jess Maddox ( The Internet Is for Cats ) to discuss the biggest animal phenomenon of the year: Moo Deng. For the past few months, our timelines have been flooded with  memes  of a pygmy hippo in Thailand whose TikTok fame has created international fame, a 24/7 livestream, and increased visitor numbers for her zoo. But what do...

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...

If you lived in Columbus, Georgia in the 90s, you might remember a queer club called Sensations. But Bob the Drag Queen knew Sensations by day, not night – she was in elementary school when her mom owned the place. Bob eventually moved to New York City, and now, she’s an international stand-up comedian and drag star. In this episode, Bob talks to Anna about turning her big ideas into iconic side h...

Split Zone Duo’s Alex Kirshner , Power Plays’ Lindsay Gibbs , and the Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh discuss Shohei’s record-breaking season, Adrian Wojnarowski’s retirement, and the waning passing abilities of NFL quarterbacks. In the bonus episode exclusively for Slate Plus members, the hosts examine whether the SAFE Bet Act could actually rein in sports betting. Woj (3:09): What comes next for sports s...

Candice Lim is joined by 404 Media co-founder Jason Koebler to discuss “ Celebrity Number Six ,” an intriguing internet mystery that was finally solved after four years. In January 2020, a Reddit user posted a plea on no fewer than 13 different subreddits asking for help identifying a collage of celebrity faces on his curtain . Some faces were quickly identified, such as Adriana Lima, Jessica Alba...

Candice Lim is joined by Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe to play a game of High Speed Downloads, where they get 60 seconds to break down an internet story they’re obsessed with. From the sudden memeification of a  decade-old Nickelodeon show  to everything that’s going on with  Shannon Sharpe , they also explain what happened between  Ice Spice  and her opening act-turned-former best friend. Thi...

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...

Martha Wainwright was born into a world of music and folk fame, with songwriter parents Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle and brother Rufus. In this episode, Martha opens up about love and jealousy, the profound impact of losing her mother to cancer, and how she discovered new sexiness following her divorce. Martha Wainwright’s memoir is called Stories I Might Regret Telling You . You can...

Split Zone Duo’s Alex Kirshner , Power Plays’ Lindsay Gibbs , and the Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh reunite to talk about the U.S. women’s first victory at the Solheim Cup in eight years. They also discuss the Oakland Athletics’ move to Sacramento, and Tua Tagovailoa’s latest frightening concussion. On the bonus episode, Slate Plus members can hear chat about A’ja Wilson’s historic WNBA season. LPGA (2:1...

Candice Lim is joined by culture reporter Ej Dickson to break down her  Rolling Stone profile  of A.J. and Eric “Big Justice” Defumo, better known as the “Costco Guys.” In January 2024, A.J. was a former pro wrestler-turned-mortgage lender who wasn’t finding much traction on TikTok, until his son Eric joined him for a  trip to Costco . That laid the groundwork for the duo’s  biggest video to date...

A decade ago, Rolling Stone magazine called 1984 “ Pop’s Greatest Year .” A bold statement…but a lot of critics agree. A confluence of factors—the comeback of dance music, the peak of MTV, the Second British Invasion and the emergence of metal and hip-hop—made the radio a great place to be. It was a year of fearless genre crossover…cinematic hits…veterans reinventing themselves…ballads that became...

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...

Adults have a long history of trying to find morals and lessons in children’s literature. But what happens when a seemingly innocent book about a boy and a hungry mouse becomes fodder for the culture wars? Over the last decade, Laura Joffe Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie has been adopted by some on the right as a cautionary tale about government welfare. In this episode, we explore the ori...

Candice Lim is joined by Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe to break down the BookTok drama surrounding  Old Enough  by Haley Jakobson. Last year,  Old Enough  hit the shelves as a queer, coming-of-age novel about a sophomore in college named Sav and her ex-best friend, Izzie. A year later, a guest of Lucie Fink’s podcast  The Real Stuff  claimed she was allegedly the basis for Izzie and that her c...

After Cody Delistraty’s mom died in his early 20s he decided to turn his grief into a research project with one central question: can grief be cured? In this episode, he talks to Anna about all of the various remedies he tried, what worked, and what lessons he learned along the way.  Cody’s book is called The Grief Cure: Looking For the End of Loss Looking for more episodes on grief and longing? H...