The Culture Gabfest “We Are 100 Percent All Going to Die Someday” Edition
Slate’s Culture Gabfest on Penny Dreadful, Chipotle’s new literary branding, and net neutrality.
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On this week’s episode, the critics discuss Penny Dreadful, a lush Showtime drama set in 1890s London. A mash-up of gothic tropes—from Frankenstein to Dorian Gray—the show may be too gloomy. Next the gabbers turn to Chipotle’s new marketing campaign, which features original stories by acclaimed authors like Jonathan Safran Foer and Toni Morrison on their cups and bags. But do we really need our burritos with a side of erudition? And finally, the critics welcome David Auerbach, Slate’s Bitwise columnist, to discuss the FCC’s latest proposals, which may jeopardize net neutrality. David explains what the future of the web could look like under the proposed rulings and how we’ve been taking the Internet for granted.
Links to some of the things we discussed this week follow:
- June’s interview with Penny Dreadful’s creator John Logan on Slate
- Willa Paskin’s Penny Dreadful review on Slate
- Gladiator, written by John Logan
- Hugo, written by John Logan
- Skyfall, written by John Logan
- True Blood on HBO
- The Orphanage, a horror film directed by Juan Antonio Bayona
- The Impossible, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona
- Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, co-starring Eva Green
- Chipotle unveils its new literary campaign with interviews from its essayists on cultivatingthought.com
- Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran-Foer
- Gustavo Arellano points out in the OC Weekly that none of Chipotle’s authors are Latino, despite the chain’s Mexican fare
- Bob Dylan’s Victoria Secret ad of 2004, a hallmark moment of “selling out”
- David Auerbach writes about the stakes for consumers if net neutrality disappears on Slate
- Timothy Lee at Vox provides a useful net neutrality primer
Endorsements:
Dana: Catherine, a 12-part Web series starring Jenny Slate. It’s ominous, avant-garde, and surprisingly addictive.
June: The Pen Addict and Erasable, two podcasts devoted to pens and pencils respectively.
David: Utopia, a British conspiracy thriller series written by Dennis Kelly.
Julia: Today in Tabs, a daily newsletter based on the tabs that you might have open in your Web browser but never get around to reading.
Outro: “You’re Gonna Miss Me (When I’m Dead and Gone)” by Muddy Waters
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Ann Heppermann. Our intern is Anna Shechtman.
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