Culture Gabfest: Anger Management, busy trap, summer strut.

Culture Gabfest: Anger Management, Busy Trap, Summer Strut

Culture Gabfest: Anger Management, Busy Trap, Summer Strut

Slate's weekly roundtable.
July 11 2012 4:26 PM

The Culture Gabfest, “Summer Strut” Edition

Listen to Slate's show about Charlie Sheen’s new sitcom Anger Management, the recent New York Times op-ed about the “ ‘Busy’ Trap,” and the Summer Strut 2012 playlist.

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Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 199 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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The sponsors of today’s show are Stamps.com and Grisly Meter, Amazon’s collection of gruesome summer reads. Go to Stamps.com and use the promo code “CULTUREFEST” for your no-risk free trial and bonus offer. For a selection of frightful summer reads, visit Grisly Meter.

Strut along to the Summer Strut 2012 playlist on Spotify!

On this week’s Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss Charlie Sheen’s new sitcom Anger Management and the show’s inescapable meta-commentary on its star’s very public 2011 meltdown. The Gabfesters then consider Tim Kreider’s New York Times op-ed “The ‘Busy’ Trap” and whether we’re all actually too busy for chilled pink minty cocktails or if overscheduling ourselves is merely a way to mask our existential anxiety. Finally, they pick out and play favorites from the listener-sourced Summer Strut 2012 playlist and debate the qualities that make a song ideal for a summer strut.

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

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The Summer Strut favorites (and unfavorites) talked about today include:

Strut along to the Summer Strut 2012 playlist on Spotify!

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Endorsements:

Stephen’s picks: Blondie’s 1999 Reunion Concert, Kitty Pryde’s song “Okay Cupid,” and David Auerbach’s recent N+1 article “The Stupidity of Computers

Julia’s pick: Seeking out an architectural lesson about your everyday landscape (inspired by a recent architectural tour of her own neighborhood)

Dana’s pick: XTC’s summertime concept album Skylarking

Outro: XTC’s “Summer Cauldron”

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Dan Pashman. Our intern is Sally Tamarkin.

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

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

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.