Slate Culture Feed

Vivian’s eating disorder started in college. She meticulously tracked calories and the number on the scale. Once she graduated she became less rigid with food, but her fixation with numbers took a new form: budgeting and saving money. In this episode, Anna talks to Vivian about her long and complicated relationship to mental math, how tracking calories and paychecks has helped distract her from pa...

Joel Anderson and Josh Levin are joined by the Washington Post’s Ben Golilver to talk about the NBA’s conference semifinals. Jackie Powell of the Next also joins to preview all the big storylines leading into the most-anticipated WNBA season ever. Finally, one of the WNBA’s top draft picks in 2023, Maddy Siegrist, explains what the 2024 rookie class can expect in their first year as pros. NBA play...

The second and final installment of our two part collab with Never Post!   Mike talks with mis- and disinformation researcher Joan Donovan about the line between gossip and conspiracy; then Candice and Rachelle join Mike to talk about what it feels like swimming in the wide open sea of monocultural event discourse. Also: C-SPAN’s earliest internet memories! Become a Never Post member at  https://w...

We first heard from a listener we’re calling Tom in an episode about life transitions . He told us he had recently gotten his driving license revoked because of a health condition, and felt stranded at home and abandoned by friends. In this episode, we called Tom back to learn more about his life and circumstances, and also to put him in conversation with Anna Zivarts, author of the new book, When...

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...

The jalapeño is the workhorse of hot peppers. They’re sold fresh, canned, pickled, in hot sauces, salsas, smoked into chipotles, and they outsell all other hot peppers in the United States. These everyday chilies are a scientific and sociological marvel, and tell a complicated story about Mexican food and American palates. In today’s episode, we meet Dallas-based food critic Brian Reinhart , who f...

This week, ICYMI and the  Never Post podcast  are collaborating on two episodes surrounding 2024’s biggest internet monocultural moment: Kate Middleton’s disappearance. It’s been more than a month since Kate  announced  she’d started preventative chemotherapy treatments following a cancer diagnosis. Which means it’s also been just over a month since  conspiracy theories  about the princess ran ram...

Nurse practitioners Teresa Owens Tyson and Paula Hill-Collins have saved countless lives in rural Appalachia. They operate a mobile clinic called The Health Wagon that brings much-needed care to people who wouldn’t otherwise get it. Teresa and Paula have also been friends since they were 14 years old. They finish each other's sentences, crack jokes, and support each other through difficult times. ...

Joel Anderson, Josh Levin, and NPR’s Gene Demby look back at the epic first-round series between the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers. They also check in on the chaos inside Deion Sanders’ Colorado football program. Finally, Alex Prewitt joins Joel, Josh, and Stefan Fatsis to examine why Korean basketball players bank in their free throws. Knicks- Sixers (2:25):  How New York came out on top...

On today’s show, Rachelle and Candice join the rest of the internet in yapping about Luca Guadagnino’s  Challengers  which features Zendaya as tennis prodigy Tashi Duncan and her paramours, Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor). In a spoiler-filled discussion, they dive deep into the scenes, needle drops and press tour moments that have kept social media abuzz. This podcast is produced by S...

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...

Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim walk through the drama surrounding Foxtrot, an upscale cafe and mini market that abruptly closed all of its locations on April 23. Despite its popularity and over $100 million raised, Foxtrot’s sudden shutdown shocked employees and devoted customers who expressed their outrage and sadness on  TikTok . Then, they discuss the rumors surrounding Outdoor Voices, the ex...

We’re bringing you an episode of The Last Archive from our friends at Pushkin Industries. In this episode: an exploration of early artificial intelligence, the story of the composer Raymond Scott’s lifelong quest to build an automatic songwriting machine, and what it means for our own AI-addled, ChatGPT. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To make this episode we asked you, our listeners, if you had any questions about a big life transition you were preparing for where you needed some advice.  We received a collection of questions that really trace the full life cycle of adulthood. We heard from those of you just starting out, wondering about new careers and family structures. We heard from those of you in midlife encountering desta...

Joel Anderson, Josh Levin, and Slate’s Alex Kirshner discuss the quarterback frenzy at the top of the NFL draft and Anthony Edwards’ star-making performances in the NBA playoffs. Then, Josh and Stefan Fatsis are joined by cross-country skiing broadcaster Chad Salmela to talk about the remarkable Jessie Diggins. QBs in the NFL draft (4:23):  Was the Falcons’ Michael Penix pick a big mistake?   Edwa...

On today’s episode, Rachelle and Candice answer a listener's question about “Dr.” Natalya Toryanski, an influencer with almost a quarter of million of followers on TikTok who tune into her satirical videos mimicking a prototypical “ bland influencer .” Our listener writes, “I have to believe that at least a major percentage of her content is intentional parody/satire; but then I have moments where...

When you hear “boy band,” what do you picture? Five guys with precision dance moves? Songs crafted by the Top 40 pop machine? Svengalis pulling the puppet strings? Hordes of screaming girls? As it turns out, not all boy bands fit these signifiers. (Well…except for the screaming girls—they are perennial.) There are boy bands that danced, and some that did not…boy bands that relied entirely on outsi...

Pop culture is full of fictional bands singing songs purpose-made to capture a moment, a sound. This music doesn’t organically emerge from a scene or genre, hoping to find an audience. Instead it fulfills an assignment: it needs to be 1960s folk music, 1970s guitar rock, 80s hair metal, 90s gangsta rap, and on and on. In this episode, we’re going to use ‘ Stereophonic ,’ which just opened on Broad...

On today’s episode, Steffi Cao explains Roblox to Rachelle. Cao, a culture writer with bylines at The Atlantic, Fast Company, Forbes, BuzzFeed and more, recently wrote about  Roblox’s new attempt  to venture outside of kids’ gaming. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim and Rachelle Hampton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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...

Earlier this year, when the future of Death, Sex & Money was up in the air, Anna Sale consulted Rebecca Auman, a tarot reader and self-described witch based in North Carolina. Anna felt lost, but Rebecca encouraged her to relax and to pay close attention to what her body and mind were telling her about that moment.  Afterwards, Anna wondered how Rebecca became so good at reading people–and at...

Joel Anderson, Stefan Fatsis, and Josh Levin are joined by writer Tom Haberstroh to discuss Jontay Porter’s lifetime ban from the NBA for gambling. The Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh also joins to talk about the scourge of pitcher injuries in Major League Baseball and what MLB should do to get the crisis under control. Jontay Porter (2:51):  What his ban augurs for the future of pro sports and betting.  ...

On today’s episode, Rachelle and Candice answer listener questions about the rapid rise of  Donghua Jinlong,  a Chinese company that manufactures glycine. Over the past few weeks, paradoxically  deadpan   and impassioned   videos   about the   high quality  of Donghua Jinlong’s products have taken over TikTok. Are teens actually consuming industrial grade chemicals? Or is something even weirder ha...

Candice Lim is joined by  We Signed An NDA  co-host Ann Maddox, who you may know as Tom Sandoval’s former personal assistant. In March 2023, Maddox was teaching improv to a middle school in Japan when she found out Sandoval and his then-girlfriend Ariana Madix had split. At first, Maddox assumed this was simply routine tabloid fodder, which often plagued her employers as long-time cast members on ...

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...