Academy Awards, “Harlem Shake,” and HBO’s Enlightened: Slate’s Culture Gabfest weighs in.

Slate’s Culture Gabfest on the Academy Awards, “Harlem Shake,” and Enlightened

Slate’s Culture Gabfest on the Academy Awards, “Harlem Shake,” and Enlightened

Slate's weekly roundtable.
Feb. 27 2013 12:34 PM

The Culture Gabfest: We Saw You’re a Boob Edition

Slate's podcast about the 2013 Academy Awards, the “Harlem Shake” Internet meme, and the HBO series Enlightened.

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On this week’s episode, the Gabfesters are joined by Slate music critic Jody Rosen to discuss the 2013 Academy Awards. They consider the career trajectory of Ben Affleck, canned acceptance speeches, the alleged sexism of Seth MacFarlane’s opening number, and the overall gestalt of the broadcast. They then discuss “Harlem Shake” in its current iteration as an Internet meme as well as its origins as a dance popularized in the early 2000’s by P. Diddy and his Bad Boy Records crew. They also consider the relationship between online popularity and chart success. Finally, our critics are joined by Slate Brow Beat editor David Haglund to talk about the HBO series Enlightened, and how its lead character Amy Jellicoe breaks the alpha male anti-hero mold.

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

Endorsements:

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Dana’s pick: 2013’s Oscar-nominated short films.

David’s pick: The soul singer Bettye Swann, who languishes in unjust obscurity, particularly her songs “Make Me Yours” and “Then You Can Tell me Goodbye.”

Stephen’s pick: The video “The Evolution of Mom Dancing” with Jimmy Fallon and Michelle Obama. Even if you’ve seen it 10 million times, watch it again.

Outro: “Make Me Yours” by Bettye Swann

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Julia Furlan. Our intern is Sally Tamarkin.

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David Haglund is the literary editor of NewYorker.com. 

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

Jody Rosen is critic at large for T: The New York Times Style Magazine.

Dana Stevens is Slate’s movie critic.