Slate Culture Feed

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...

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. In addition to sharing gifts, they also discuss the cultural artifact that is the “holiday gift...

On today’s episode host Kate Lindsay is joined by Yahoo News senior entertainment writer, Kelsey Weekman, to answer the question on everyone’s lips: Who is Alex Warren and why is every store playing his music? The Hype House OG is nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys, and is part of a growing wave of musicians making “ secular praise music .” Where did Alex Warren come from, and how did he...

Country musician Luke Bell had swagger, talent, and a career on the rise, opening for Willie Nelson and Dwight Yoakam. Then mental illness took over. His mother Carol shares what it was like raising Luke, the fine line between his bold personality and paranoid delusions, and navigating his years of homelessness and psychosis before his death at 32.  Listen to his posthumous album, The King Is Back...

Hosts Alex Kirshner , Lindsay Gibbs , and Ben Lindbergh are joined by Knicks superfan and X-Ray Vision host Jason Concepcion for a discussion on Zohran Mamdani’s Knicks fandom and the team’s presence in the mayoral race. The panel turns to yet another major betting scandal – this time in Major League Baseball. Later, journalist Nathan Fenno joins to explain the wave of high-profile burglaries targ...

In a new, very special Death, Sex & Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale dig into the stressful world of financial advice and planning for retirement. How do you know if you’re set up financially to retire? Is it possible to think about retirement without having a panic attack? How much should you track your 401k? They’re joined by Felix’s financial advisor Adrianna Adam...

On today’s episode host Kate Lindsay is joined by Manny Fidel, culture writer and cohost of the No Such Thing podcast, to explain how gambling took over the internet. A recent betting scandal not only exposed the chokehold that gambling has on the sports industry, but opened up a larger conversation about how everything on the internet is influenced by gambling. People are betting political candid...

Autumn may have more cozy signifiers than any other season—though we all have our own favorites. Maybe for you it’s sweater weather, football games, spooky season, apple picking, leaf peeping, or mainlining candy corn. Whatever it is, in today’s episode we’re looking closely at three of these autumnal staples. First, we get to the bottom of a recurring complaint about the taste of the pumpkin spic...

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 today’s episode host Kate Lindsay is joined by Slate contributing editor Angelina Mazza to explain why Christian creators are throwing away their Hatch alarm clocks. The company’s Halloween commercial was so spooky that it was accused of having “demonic ties,” and now people are claiming they hear voices coming out of the device. The question is not, “Is the devil really hiding inside of a $200...

This September when SNL announced its season 51 cast, Ego Nwodim made the cut. Then, just days later, she announced on social media that she was leaving the show. "The hardest part of a great party is knowing when to say goodnight," she wrote. In this episode, she talks about learning to trust her body when making big decisions, growing up in a family of workaholics, and her 3 AM post-show ritual...

Hosts Alex Kirshner , Lindsay Gibbs , and Ben Lindbergh discuss what was possibly the greatest World Series of all time. Then they’re joined by Matt Brown , the publisher of Extra Points , to break down the competing Republican and Democratic proposals that could reshape the future of college sports. Finally, the Hang Up podfather Josh Levin returns to introduce his new sports history podcast, Rep...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by producer Vic Whitley-Berry, whose favorite animated shows like Hazbin Hotel have been funded by the internet—not big studios. In fact, as major studios consolidate and cut resources for animation, platforms like Patreon and YouTube are keeping the genre afloat. If we don’t continue to support independent artists, then crude animated musicals about...

In a new, very special Death, Sex & Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale dig into the difficult decision of whether or not to have kids. Child care? School? New vehicle? All the baby gadgets? Kids are expensive! Anna has two kids, and Felix is famously childless. Between the two of them they dig into their decisions to have and not have kids, the budgeting and balancing...

Walk into any store or flip on a radio, and you’ll probably hear the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” sooner or later. Thanks to that ubiquity, the swooning, menacing megahit’s songwriter—Sting—is a very wealthy man. Now his former bandmates, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, are suing Sting over who deserves to profit from “Breath” and other Police songs. No matter how that dispute turns out, it...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Jonquilyn Hill , host of Vox’s Explain It To Me podcast. The pair chat about how the internet used to celebrate Halloween, from spooky Twitter display names to Snapchat filters, and why no one wants to be earnest online anymore. However, today’s internet is still filled with plenty of scary stuff, with r/nosleep still going strong, ghost sightings...

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...

In the early-morning hours of October 2, 2023, progressive activist and organizer Ryan Carson was stabbed and killed by a stranger on a Brooklyn sidewalk. His girlfriend Claudia Morales—who witnessed the crime, attempted CPR, and dialed 911—quickly became the target of sensationalist online posting. Internet trolls falsely claimed that she didn’t cooperate with law enforcement and suggested that s...

Hosts Alex Kirshner , Lindsay Gibbs , and Ben Lindbergh discuss the federal indictments of NBA players and coaches for gambling incidents and how the ubiquity of online betting plays a role.. Then the panel is joined by the host of the Ringer’s F1 podcast, Megan Schuster , to discuss the excitement and drama heading into the final stretch of the Formula 1 season. Finally, they finish with a mid-se...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by writer and streamer Laura Kate Dale to talk about what happened to Emiru at this year’s TwitchCon. The streamer was assaulted during a meet-and-greet, after a number of female streamers had already dropped out of the convention in fear for their safety. What is it about TwitchCon that makes creators feel unsafe, and why are female streamers, in pa...

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...

There’s a ubiquitous prop in just about every police procedural and conspiracy thriller: a cork board pinned with documents, newspaper clippings, and Polaroid photos, all connected by a web of red string. They go by many names, including pin boards, string boards, evidence boards, investigation walls, conspiracy walls, and walls of crazy. These boards can be vehicles of insight or manifestations o...

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 today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Slate staff writer Luke Winkie to talk about Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who some viewers have accused of shocking his dog on his livestream. Winkie spent time with Piker and his dog, Kaya, for Slate earlier this year, and helps debunk the misinformation currently being spread by cloutchasers and right-wing media figures alike. He also answers th...