Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 136 with Daniel Engber, Adam Goodheart, Stephen Metcalf, 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 Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner discuss Atlas Shrugged Part 1, the new film adaptation of Ayn Rand's hugely influential capitalist novel. They are then joined by Slate senior editor Daniel Engber to chat about Gary Taubes' much-discussed New York Times Magazine article "Is Sugar Toxic?" For their final segment, they are joined by historian and New York Times columnist Adam Goodheart to discuss his new book 1861 and his writing for the New York Times' acclaimed Civil War blog Disunion.

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

The official website for the new Ayn Rand film adaption Atlas Shrugged Part 1.
The wiki for Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged.
The wiki for the film Atlas Shrugged Part 1.
David Weigel's review of Atlas Shrugged Part 1for Slate.
Johann Hari on the compelling biographies of Ayn Rand in Slate.
Gary Taubes' New York Times Magazine cover story "Is Sugar Toxic?"
The Robert Lustig YouTube video—"Sugar: The Bitter Truth"—that inspired Taubes' article.
Osagie K. Obasogie's Slate article on the Federal government's new guidelines regarding salt.
Gary Taubes' controversial 2002 New York Times story, "What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?"
A post on Taubes' story (and his response to that post) at the Knight Science Journalism Tracker.
The New York Times Civil War blog Disunion.
Adam Goodheart's New York Times Magazine article "How Slavery Really Ended in America."
David Plotz's Slate interview with Goodheart.
Ken Burns' epic documentary film The Civil War.
The wiki for Civil War general Benjamin Butler.
Goodheart's new book 1861: The Civil War Awakening.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana's pick: The photo blog Rides A Bike, curated by Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Steven Rea.
Julia's picks: The song "If Sugar Was As Sweet As You" as performed by Rockpile, and the indie rock song "Web in Front" by Archers of Loaf.
Adam's pick: North Carolina folk rock band The Avett Brothers.
Steve's picks: The song "Clementine" by Elliott Smith (from his self-titled album Elliott Smith), and Paul Krugman's New York Times blog "The Conscience of a Liberal."

Outro: "Clementine" by Elliott Smith.

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

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

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