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The Culture Gabfest, Bombard Me With Phonemes Edition

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Updated Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009, at 11:34 AM ET

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Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 58 with Stephen Metcalf, Jody Rosen, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below: 

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In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss the new season of 30 Rock, the refund offer from Baby Einstein, and the genius—and crossover potential—of country music star Brad Paisley.

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned in the show:

Troy Patterson's review of the 30 Rock Season 4 premiere in Slate.
Todd VanDerWerff's post on the decline of 30 Rock on the AV Club's blog.
Terry Gross' interview with Tracy Morgan on NPR's Fresh Air (plus an excerpt from Morgan's memoir).
Baby Einstein "sets the record straight" on its refund offer.
Rachel Emma Silverman's post about the refunds on the Wall Street Journal blog the Juggle.
The XXfactor blog's posts about Baby Einstein.
Brad Paisley's official site.
Jody Rosen's review of Brad Paisley's album American Saturday Night in Rolling Stone.
Ben Ratliff's review of Brad Paisley's show at Madison Square Garden in the New York Times.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana's pick: Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment.
Julia's pick: Season 8 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, available only in comic book form.
Jody's pick: The Outlaw Sea by William Langewiesche.
Stephen's picks: The Wire, The Larry Sanders Show, and In Treatment.

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Stephen Metcalf is Slate's critic at large. He is working on a book about the 1980s.

Jody Rosen is Slate's music critic. He is the author of White Christmas: The Story of an American Song, and a frequent contributor to the New York Times and The Nation.

Dana Stevens is Slate's movie critic. Email her at slatemovies@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter.

Julia Turner is Slate's deputy editor and a regular on Slate's Culture Gabfest podcast. You can email her at juliaturneratslate@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/juliaturner.

Illustration by Robert Neubecker.