Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 93 with Daniel Engber, Stephen Metcalf, Troy Patterson, Dana Stevens, James Sturm, June Thomas, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics invite cartoonist James Sturm on to discuss his four months without the Internet, ask June Thomas why summer TV is better than ever, and host a fight between Troy Patterson and Daniel Engber about whether fireworks are worthwhile.

Here are some links to the things we discussed this week:

James Sturm's series on  quitting  the Internet on Slate.
The list of summer TV shows June Thomas is watching:  The Good Guys,  Drop Dead Diva,  Burn Notice,  Rizzoli and Isles,  White Collar, and  Pretty Little Liars.
And Julia Turner's must-see summer show  Make It or Break It.
Troy Patterson's take on why  fireworks  are lame in Slate.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana's pick: David Garland's podcast of the radio show  Movies on the Radio on WQXR.
Julia's pick: Taio Cruz's song "Dynamite."
Steve's pick: Michael Chabon's book  Wonder Boys.

Musical Outro: Taio Cruz "Dynamite."

You can e-mail us at  culturefest@slate.com.

Posted by Jesse Baker on June 30 at 11:39 a.m.

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