The Avengers, the future of e-book pricing, and rating your online clout.

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 189 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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In this week's Gabfest, our critics discuss Joss Whedon’s summer blockbuster, The Avengers. Also, they chat with Slate’s Matthew Yglesias about the future of e-books and the publishing industry. Plus, Slate’s Seth Stevenson discusses how the company Klout is now tracking our online clout.

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

• David Edelstein’s review of The Avengers for New York Magazine.
• James Sturm’s "Why I’m boycotting The Avengers" from Slate.
• Matthew Yglesias’s "Who Cares About E-Book Price Fixing?" from Slate.
• Seth Stevenson’s "What Your Klout Score Really Means" from Wired.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana’s Pick: Turner Classic Movies True Crime Series.

Julia’s Pick: The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them by Elif Batuman.

Seth’s Pick: Solomon Burke.

Stephen’s Pick: “Mad Girls Love Song” by Sylvia Plath.

Outro: “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” by Solomon Burke.

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Mark Phillips.

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