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On this week’s episode, the critics talk about Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Is the movie’s array of great motion-capture acting a strength or a weakness? Next, one man has attained Internet notoriety by raising tens of thousands of dollars on Kickstarter for the financing of potato salad. The critics assess Kickstarter’s reputation as a democratizing force in business. Finally, trends come and go, stars rise and fall, but “Weird Al” Yankovic remains. Slate’s music critic Carl Wilson joins the gabbers to talk about Weird Al’s 14^th studio album, Mandatory Fun.

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

• Dana’s review of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes on Slate
• 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Zack Danger Brown’s Potato Salad Kickstarter
• Zach Braff’s crowdfunded movie I Wish I Was Here
• The Coolest Cooler Kickstarter
• Carl Wilson’s review of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Mandatory Fun
• Weird Al’s “Tacky”—a spoof of Pharrell’s “Happy”
• “Word Crimes”—Weird Al’s version of “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke
• “Foil”—Weird Al’s send-up of Lorde’s “Royals”
• Musical TV show Flight of the Conchords

Endorsements:

Dana: The Best and Worst of Tom Lehrer, a double album of the comic’s darkly funny songs.

Julia: Marcella Hazan’s recipe for potato salad, from her book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

Steve: New jazz pianist Eldar and McCoy Tyner’s classic album Reaching Fourth.

Outro: “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” by Tim Lehrer.

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Ann Heppermann. Our intern is Josephine Livingstone.

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