Culture Gabfest

The Culture Gabfest, “I’m Doing The World a Favor” Edition

Listen to Slate’s show about J.J. Abrams’ Super 8, viral book Go the F**k to Sleep, and the latest in America’s battle over bike lanes.

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 143 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below or opening this player in another tab:

Don’t miss a single episode of the Culture Gabfest. Subscribe to the free Culturefest podcast in iTunes or directly with our RSS feed. You can also download this week’s episode here. And join the lively conversation on the Culturefest Facebook here:

This podcast is brought to you by Bing. Wondering which summer movie to see? Which summer festival to go to? Which new album to buy? Bing will help you decide. Just click the “entertainment” button on the Bing home page to get the latest on music, movies, TV and video games. Plus, with Bing’s social search feature, your Facebook friends’ “likes” will show up right there on your Bing search results. The Culture Gabfest thanks Bing for its support.

In this week’s Culture Gabfest, our critics Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner discuss J.J. Abrams’ new Spielberg-inspired sci-fi adventure film Super 8, Adam Mansbach’s viral book blockbuster Go the Fuck to Sleep, and the YouTube video that’s rekindling America’s battle over bike lanes.

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

The official website of J.J. Abrams’ new Spielberg-inspired sci-fi film Super 8.
Dana’s review and spoiler special for Super 8 in Slate.
Spielberg and Abrams’ interview with the L.A. Times about Super 8’s origins.
Frank Bruni’s NYT Magazine profile of director J.J. Abrams.
Slate’s Elizabeth Weingarten on how Kodak’s super 8 film changed filmmaking.
Tom Shone on Super 8, X-Men: First Class and this summer’s other retro blockbusters in Slate.
The Amazon page for Adam Mansbach’s blockbuster book Go the Fuck to Sleep.
The New York Times on how Go The Fuck went viral.
Tom Scocca on what the popularity of GTFTS says about modern parenthood.
Parenting book satire Let’s Panic About Babies!
Casey Neistat’s viral video about bike lanes.
Neistat’s HBO series The Neistat Brothers.
The Culture Gabfest’s previous discussion of the pedestrian makeover of Times Square.
Anthony Weiner’s comments about his opposition to New York City’s new bike lanes.
Christopher Beam on pro-cycling “facilitators” and anti-cycling “vehicularists” for Slate.
Slate’s Tom Vanderbilt on whether cities should build specialized roadways for cyclists.
Slate V’s viral videos of “the stupidest bike lanes.”

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana’s pick: Rob Reiner’s 1985 romantic comedy The Sure Thing, starring John Cusack.
Julia’s pick: Bill Carter’s book The War For Late Night, a thrilling blow-by-blow account of the 2010 feud between Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno.
Steve’s picks: DevaCurl’s Low-Poo daily shampoo, the Gourds’ cover of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” (which you can hear on YouTube), and the New York Timeseconomics blog Economix (especially Bruce Bartlett’s analysis of what Europeans get for their higher taxes).

Outro: “Bonafied Lovin” by Chromeo.

You can email 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.