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On this week’s episode, the critics discuss The Fosters, an ABC Family teen drama about an interracial lesbian couple and their motley household of biological, adopted, and foster children. June Thomas, editor of Slate’s LGBTQ blog, joins the critics to discuss the show’s charms and to debate its political progressivism. Next, the gabbers turn to an essay by Ginia Bellafante in the New York Times, in which she criticizes sentimental New Yorkers for petitioning to save the Kentile Floors sign and other vestiges of Brooklyn’s industrial working-class past. Where is the line between cultural preservation and false nostalgia? And finally, after weeks of collecting listeners’ summer strut-worthy songs, the critics present a playlist of their favorites.

Links to some of the things we discussed this week follow:

• Willa Paskin’s review of The Fosters on Slate
• June talks to the show’s openly gay showrunners on Slate
• ABC Family’s Make It or Break It
• The Cosby Show
• Dawson’s Creek
• The Brady Bunch
• Ginia Bellafante’s New York Times essay decrying the fetishization of Brooklyn’s industrial signs
• The Gothamist reports on the dismantling of the Kentile Floors sign
• Colson Whitehead writes in the New York Times about developing New York City nostalgia
• Learning From Las Vegas by Robert Venturi
• CityLab collects “gorgeous, nostalgic” photos of New York’s old Penn Station
• The 2014 Culture Gabfest “Summer Strut” Spotify playlist
• “Water Fountain” by Tune-Yards
• “She’s a Bad Mama Jama” by Carl Carlton
• “25 Miles” by Edwin Starr
• “Baby” by Carla Thomas
• “Make It Fast, Make It Slow” by Rob
• “Iyongwe” by John Wizards
• “H.S.K.T.” by Sylvan Esso
• “Hurricane Season” by Trombone Shorty
• “Chandelier” by Sia
• “L8 CMMR” by Lily Allen
• “Habits (Stay High)” by Tove Lo
• “Fuck Love” by Iggy Azalea

Endorsements:

Dana: The music video for Sia’s “Chandelier” and its 11-year-old dancing phenom Maddie Ziegler.

Julia: Scriptnotes, John August and Craig Mazin’s podcast about the process of screenwriting.

Steve: “Missing You” by John Waite, and Jody Rosen’s New York magazine tour de force “In Defense of Schlock.”

Outro: “You’re So Good to Me” by the Beach Boys

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Ann Heppermann. Our intern is Anna Shechtman.

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