Culture Gabfest
New York Times critic Dwight Garner says “The Slate Culture Gabfest is one of the highlights of my week.” The award-winning Culturefest features critics Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner debating the week in culture, from highbrow to pop. For more of Slate’s culture podcasts, check out the Slate Culture feed. Want more Culture Gabfest? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Culture Gabfest show page. Or, visit slate.com/cultureplus to get access wherever you listen.
Episodes
August 6, 2025 • 82 mins
It’s the most feelin’ yourself time of the year; a time for uptempo jams to make the sidewalk your runway; a time for the annual Summer Strut playlist! As per tradition, Steve, Dana, and Julia are joined by music critic and chartologist Chris Molanphy to sift through the hundreds of listener submissions to pick their favorite songs to strut to this season. They’ll also kick off the show with a discussion of the song of the summer. ...
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July 30, 2025 • 62 mins
On this week’s show, Dana, Steve and guest host Nitish Pahwa summon their critical superpowers to assess Marvel’s Fantastic Four: First Steps. Can the charms of Pedro Pascal and company mixed with a Jetsons-style retrofuturism energize this long-troubled comic book IP? They discuss.
Next, they’re joined by Euny Hong, author of The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture, to unpack why KPop ...
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July 23, 2025 • 64 mins
Disinfect your groceries and mind the 5G, on this week’s show Steve, Dana, and guest host Sam Adams dive into the dread-inducing world of Ari Aster’s Eddington. Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal, the neo-Western explores the conspiracy-brained, mentally unstable summer of 2020 when COVID brews unrest in a small town. Like said town, the panel is divided.
Next, they talk about why one of the biggest selling musical acts of ...
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July 16, 2025 • 60 mins
On this week’s show, Dana and Steve are joined by guest host Isaac Butler to talk truth, justice, and the American way via James Gunn’s Superman. They discuss the latest incarnation of the man of steel and the cultural discourse he’s generating that has become as volatile as kryptonite itself.
Next, they hop to another cultural lightning rod: Lena Dunham. They get into her new series Too Much which she created with her husband Lui...
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July 9, 2025 • 60 mins
On this week’s show, Julia and Dana are joined by June Thomas for a decidedly feminist discussion. They start with Sorry, Baby, the debut feature from writer, director, and actor Eva Victor, about a young academic’s life after a terrible trauma. The panel debates whether the film— which was a Sundance hit for A24 — is a tart, surprising traumedy or a frustratingly evasive experiment.
Next, they get into Dear Ms.: A Revolution in P...
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July 2, 2025 • 62 mins
On this week’s show, Steve, Julia, and guest host Sam Adams are off to races with F1:The Movie, the new Brad Pitt racing vehicle featuring lots of racing vehicles. Is the thrill ride more than the sum of its sports movie cliches, high-octane action sequences, and perpetually handsome movie-star? Does the answer even matter?
Next, they’re joined by Slate senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario to decode the particularly British c...
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June 25, 2025 • 62 mins
On this week’s show, Julia, Dana, and Steve return to the Rage Virus-infected world first created by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland two decades ago. They talk about 28 Years Later and what the zombie movie sequel has to say about now. A lot it turns out: COVID, Brexit, human mortality, and more.
Next, they grapple with the media phenomenon that is Alex Cooper—the spunky and sexually frank host of the blockbuster podcast Call Her Dad...
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June 18, 2025 • 62 mins
On this week’s show, Steve and Dana are joined by guest host Dan Kois to weigh the suitability of Materialists as a rom-com for our transactional age. In choosing between suitors played by Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans, matchmaker Dakota Johnson must choose between love and money— but is there a soul beneath all this romantic calculation? They debate.
Next, they return to the depths of a billionaire-backed fiasco in the new docum...
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June 11, 2025 • 60 mins
On this week’s show, the secret word is: Pee-wee. Dana, Steve, and Julia discuss the new documentary Pee-wee as Himself. The fascinating two-part film, directed by Matt Wolf, attempts to reveal the complex man Paul Reubens behind the beloved, surprisingly subversive, goofball that was Pee-wee Herman.
Next, they tee off to talk about Stick, the new comedy series starring Owen Wilson set in the world of professional golf. In the th...
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June 4, 2025 • 62 mins
On this week’s show, longtime hosts Julia, Stephen, and Dana are all together in-person to talk about Mountainhead, the new HBO Max movie from Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession. Then, they dig into the new Amazon Prime series Overcompensating. Finally, they talk about the new PR junket, full of spicy food and odd quizzes, inspired by this Vulture article by Nicholas Quah.
Endorsements:
Dana: The Pulitzer Prize winning book,...
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May 28, 2025 • 63 mins
On this week’s show an all-star team of super agents join Julia to gab including guest host Amy Nicholson, film critic for the Los Angeles Times. Their first mission: Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, the supposed final installment of the Tom Cruise action juggernaut. Like Cruise on to a vintage biplane, Dana jumps on the call to discuss all the film’s death-defying stunts, clunky exposition, and lasting cultural impact.
Ne...
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May 21, 2025 • 59 mins
In this week’s show, Dana and Julia are joined by guest host Isaac Butler to go through the A24, bromance looking glass to discuss Friendship, the surreal cringe comedy starring I Think You Should Leave’s Tim Robinson and the always friend-crushable Paul Rudd.
Next, they share their thoughts on Final Thoughts: Jerry Springer, the new podcast by Prologue Projects and Leon Neyfakh about the improbable and complex story of the infamo...
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May 14, 2025 • 54 mins
On this week’s show, Steve, Dana, and Julia gab about Another Simple Favor, the sequel to Paul Fieg’s 2018 A Simple Favor, which again pits Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick in a twisty, noir comedy.
Next, they discuss Amy Sherman Paladino’s new Franco-American ballet TV confection Étoile. Finally, they confer on the shocking conclave pick of an American pope with New York Times journalist and Vatican-watcher Ruth Graham.
In the exc...
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May 7, 2025 • 65 mins
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 gets into Lena Dunham's latest addition to the canon of "writers writing about moving out of New...
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April 30, 2025 • 65 mins
On this week’s show, Julia Turner is joined by Slate’s own Dan Kois and Sam Adams. They start by talking about the second season of Andor, the Star Wars series that might have more in common with The Wire than The Mandalorian.
Then, they talk about The Wedding Banquet, a remake of the Ang Lee classic. Finally, they get into the story of the discovery of a new color called olo.
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Julia, Sam, an...
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April 23, 2025 • 67 mins
On this week’s show, Julia, Stephen, and Dana are together and talk about Sinners with Slate Culture Writer Nadira Goffe.
Then, they talk about a new animated series from Ramy Youssef called #1 Happy Family USA. Finally, they take a listener's suggestion and listen to a few episodes of the new podcast, Good Hang with Amy Poehler.
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Nadira rejoins the panel to go deep on Sinners.
Email us at ...
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April 16, 2025 • 67 mins
On this week’s show, Julia, Stephen, and Dana are reunited! The panel starts with Apple TV+’s new prestige offering, Your Friends and Neighbors, starring Jon Hamm.
Then, they talk about A Minecraft Movie, already the most financially successful movie of the year. Finally, they bat around the purpose of, and responses to, the all-female Blue Origin flight that happened on Monday.
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, a conversati...
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April 9, 2025 • 59 mins
On this week’s show, Slate’s own Sam Adams sits in for Julia as they discuss the new Michelle Williams limited series “Dying for Sex,” about a woman who leaves her husband to experience a sexual awakening after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis.
Then, the trio discuss the documentary “Secret Mall Apartment” about a group in Rhode Island who managed to keep an apartment in a busy mall for years in the early aughts. Finally, Carl...
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April 2, 2025 • 71 mins
On this week’s show, the hosts discuss Apple TV’s latest ode (tragic comedy?) to the movie industry with The Studio. Then, they step up to the plate and take a swing at the baseball film Eephus. Finally, they invite Slate’s Rebecca Onion to discuss the new edition to Panem’s dystopia: Suzanne Collin’s Sunrise on the Reaping.
Endorsements:
Dana: A French Village Podcast
Steve: “Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship” by Hannah ...
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March 26, 2025 • 70 mins
On this week’s show, Slate’s Rebecca Onion sits in for Julia. The team discusses Netflix’s current number 1 program Adolescence and what it says about how the descent into incel culture starts young. They then invite Chris Molanphy to talk about Lady Gaga’s new album, MAYHEM. They close out with a discussion on Trump's continued assault against DEI, this time holding funding over the heads of public universities if they don’t end p...
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