NPR's tedious letter-writers, B. R. Myers' "Moral Crusade Against Foodies," and the mystery of Stephen Metcalf's sleepy shrinks on this week's Culture Gabfest podcast.

NPR's tedious letter-writers, B. R. Myers' "Moral Crusade Against Foodies," and the mystery of Stephen Metcalf's sleepy shrinks on…

NPR's tedious letter-writers, B. R. Myers' "Moral Crusade Against Foodies," and the mystery of Stephen Metcalf's sleepy shrinks on…

Slate's weekly roundtable.
March 9 2011 11:59 AM

The Culture Gabfest, "How Does That Make You Feel?" Edition

Listen to Slate's show about NPR listener kvetching, the moral case against foodies, and Stephen Metcalf's sleepy shrinks.

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In this week's Culture Gabfest, Mike Pesca, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner are joined by Slate's Farhad Manjoo to discuss his tirade against NPR listeners' tedious complaints. They then discuss gourmets, gluttons, and B.R. Myers' Atlantic article, "The Moral Crusade Against Foodies." Finally, they're joined by extra-special guest Stephen Metcalf to discuss his recent New York essay, "The Sleeping Cure."

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

Farhad Manjoo's tirade against NPR letter-writers in Slate.
Examples of NPR complaint letters.
Conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe's attempted video sting of NPR.
Slate's Timothy Noah on "The Art of the Gripe."
B.R. Myers' Atlanticarticle "The Moral Crusade Against Foodies."
Myers' 2007 review of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.
Food writers Anthony Bourdain, Alice Waters, and Michael Pollan.
The National Pork Board's new slogan "Pork: Be Inspired."
David Mamet's play Glengarry Glen Ross.
Stephen Metcalf's essay "The Sleeping Cure" in New York.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana's pick: Alec Baldwin's promotional spots for NPR, and Alice Bradley and Eden M. Kennedy's parenting book parody Let's Panic About Babies!
Mike's pick: The podcast WTF with Marc Maron (available on iTunes).
Steve's pick: Janet Malcolm's collection of essays on psychoanalysis, The Purloined Clinic.
Julia's pick: "Sugar" by Trick Daddy.

Outro: "Sugar (Gimme Some)" by Trick Daddy.

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

This podcast was produced by Jesse Baker. Our intern is Forrest Wickman.

Follow us on the new Culturefest Twitter feed. And please Like the Culture Gabfeston Facebook.

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Farhad Manjoo is a technology columnist for the New York Times and the author of True Enough.

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

Mike Pesca is the host of the Slate daily podcast The Gist. He also contributes reports and commentary to NPR.

Dana Stevens is Slate’s movie critic.

Julia Turner, the former editor in chief of Slate, is a regular on Slate’s Culture Gabfest podcast.