Slate Culture Feed

Three weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum shared an unusual tweet: a cartoon image of himself with his arm draped around a giant, anthropomorphized lump of coal. This piece of coal has big googly eyes and a smudge of a nose, and is wearing a safety vest and a hard hat. He is, frankly, adorable—and he has a name: Coalie.

When Coalie first appeared on the internet, he went viral—ridiculed on social media, in news...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Kat Tenbarge, who wrote “There's nothing funny about the Epstein Files,” to discuss how the internet has turned Jeffrey Epstein into a meme. While dark humor has long been a way to process tragic events, online shitposts about the sex offender and alleged sex trafficker risk minimizing his crimes. Instead of justice, the public is using the newly-released files to score internet po...

On the air, Yesi Ortiz is a warm, flirty host for a popular L.A. hip hop station. Off the air, she’s a single mother of six adopted kids. Managing both roles, plus romance, is a challenge.

This episode originally aired in 2015. 

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Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh break down the Seattle Seahawks’ brickwall defense in the Super Bowl, plus Bad Bunny’s refreshing halftime performance.

The panel then pivots to the stranger corners of the NBA trade deadline before welcoming college sports writer Jesse Dougherty, who discusses his experience as part of the Washington Post sports desk that was recently eliminated in a round of mass layoffs.

Be...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Mia Sato, reporter at The Verge and author of the recent piece, “The rise of the slopagandist.” Creators like Nick Shirley are claiming to be journalists, making unfounded accusations against immigrants that directly result in ICE raids, including the unrest in Minneapolis that resulted in the death of two civilians. The content is lazy and designed to generate outrage, but is only...

This week, Steve, Dana and guest host Sam Adams talk anti-authoritarian art in its many forms. First, they take up It Was Just an Accident, the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning film by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Inspired in part by Panahi’s own experience being imprisoned for critiquing the Iranian government, his new film—made in secret from the regime— holds back little in its sharp political critique, rage, and… a surprising amoun...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Alex Kirshner, Slate contributing writer and host of Hang Up And Listen. Back in September, Alex wrote about Brick, the plastic gadget he says “broke his phone addiction.” It seems like now more than ever, people want off their phones, and are trying everything from Brick to dumb phones to make it happen. They’re also, ironically, posting all about it, which begs the question: Do w...

Growing up, George Saunders was the eldest boy with younger sisters, in a family full of women who gave him praise and special treatment. That created the confidence that fueled his ambition to become a great writer. 

In this lively interview, George talks about why that dream took decades to realize and what was essential to making it happen – including a karmic, three-week romance, a pivotal trip to the Afghanistan border dur...

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh kick things off by picking their favorite (and the most horrifying) events to watch at the upcoming Winter Olympics.

Then the panel digs into Bill Belichick’s bizarre Hall of Fame snub. They finish with a conversation with the Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn about the Buffalo Sabres, the NHL’s most playoff-averse team that might actually make the postseason this year.

Ben delivers...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by writer Laura Wheatman Hill. Her Slate piece, “We Should Just Let TikTok Die,” documents life under TikTok’s new ownership. Algorithm glitches and alleged censorship have users disenchanted with the platform, which is now in the hands of owners friendly to Donald Trump. Some prominent users have already deleted the app, but even if people stay, the old TikTok—with its personalized a...

Chameleon: That’s long been the word used to describe David Bowie, pop music’s shapeshifting extraterrestrial. He shifted personas, genres, and looks, emerging from swinging London with psychedelic folk before steamrolling through glam rock, disco, funk, new wave, alt-rock, and even jazz.

Less remarked was Bowie’s savvy about shifting through commercial phases—he wore pop stardom like a costume, too. He drifted in and out of the...

Shuffling under the mortal coil this week (aka hosting the Gabfest), it’s our OG players Steve, Dana, and Julia. Like a morose Danish prince contemplating a human skull, they gaze upon the Oscar nominated Hamnet, based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell inspired by William Shakespeare’s life. Directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, Hamnet has brought some critics to tears and left others cold. Our hosts sh...

It’s a weird time for culture. There is more of it than ever before, it’s more accessible than ever before, but so little of it feels original. New movies are based on old stories, new songs are recycling old hooks, and fashion trends are cycling so fast that everything’s in. 

Has our culture grown stagnant? The author and culture critic W. David Marx thinks so. 

His new book, Blank Space, argues that there is a “bl...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Slate contributing writer David Mack to discuss the surge of niche celebrity drama unfolding in the midst of a horrifying news cycle. We’re cancelling the “Glambot guy”? Brooklyn Beckham broke up with his family via Instagram Story? Those two hockey podcasters didn’t actually like Heated Rivalry??? This drama is so petty, but also so necessary for staying sane during these times. W...

Comedian Maria Bamford discusses her separation after a decade of marriage, the wildfires that destroyed her Altadena neighborhood, and starting over in a new apartment. 

Check out if Maria is coming to your city on her comedy tour: https://mariabamford.com/tourdates 

Listen to our previous Death, Sex & Money interviews with Maria: 

Anna and Maria talk in 2023 about her memoir Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult 

...

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh recap NFL conference championship weekend, where the Patriots braved a blizzard better than the Broncos, and Sam Darnold proved that resurrected quarterbacks really can win it all.

Later, they get into Trinity Rodman’s three-year NWSL deal that keeps her in D.C., but has caught the ire of the players’ union.

The panel wraps with a breakdown of the Mets' busy offseason and ...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Washington Post reporter Tatum Hunter, who interviewed Australian teens about the country’s new social media ban. Platforms like Instagram and Reddit are now required to keep under-sixteens off their apps, but it didn’t take long for the teens to outsmart these new restrictions. As similar legislation is introduced across the world, no one knows if these bans are actually effective...

This week, our Gabfest panel includes Steve and guest hosts Nadira Goffe and Laura Miller with a typically eclectic collection of topics. First up, Dana hops on the call to decode the unspoken truths and dream imagery of Kleber Mendonça Filho’s film The Secret Agent. Set in 1970s Recife, Brazil and starring a very charming Wagner Moura, the film is a heterodox brew of political thriller, magical realism, and attentive character stu...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by internet culture writer Jennifer Swann, whose recent piece for Wired featured the users who are still turning to Craigslist for apartment hunting and second-hand shopping, despite newer, flashier alternatives. In fact, it’s precisely because Craigslist hasn’t changed at all in the past 30 years that people keep coming back. While so many other early websites have been lost to time,...