The Culture Gabfest “Babbling Brooks” Edition
Slate’s Culture Gabfest on Snowpiercer, Vicious, and David Brooks’ guide to emotional depth.
The Culture Gabfest has moved! Find new episodes here.
Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 303 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and June Thomas with the audio player below.
And join the lively conversation on the Culturefest Facebook page here:
The sponsor of this week’s show is Audible. Get a free audiobook from Audible’s collection of more than 150,000 titles and a subscription to a daily audio digest when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audiblepodcast.com/culturefest. This week’s pick for the Culture Gabfest Bucket List—the books you’ve got to read to be a smarter culture hound—is The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux, read by Frank Muller.
This week Slate Plus listeners will hear the gabbers discuss their favorite vacation reads and where they read them. Go to slate.com/cultureplus to learn more about Slate Plus and join today. (You’ll also see a video from Steve, Dana, and Julia welcoming you to the program.)
Culturefest is on the radio! “Gabfest Radio” combines Slate’s Culture and Political Gabfests in one show—listen on Saturdays at 7 a.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m. on WNYC’s AM820.
And don’t forget you can find Culture Gabfest T-shirts for sale in the Slate store.
On this week’s episode, the critics discuss Bong Joon-ho’s new film Snowpiercer, a dark political allegory with the action sequences and budget of a summer blockbuster. Next, the gabbers turn to the British sitcom Vicious, starring Ian McKellan and Derek Jacobi as two “vicious queens” who have lived together for almost fifty years. And finally, the critics take on David Brooks, who spoke at this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival about our culture’s overvaluation of shallow success. Is a wildly successful apologist for unfettered capitalism the appropriate advocate for emotional depth?
Links to some of the things we discussed this week follow:
- Dana’s review of Snowpiercer on Slate
- Dana and Forrest Wickman discuss the film on a Slate Spoiler Special
- Slate’s J. Bryan Lowder reviews Vicious
- June interviews Vicious creator Gary Janetti on Slate
- Rising Damp, starring Frances de la Tour
- Absolutely Fabulous
- Married … With Children
- Gary Janetti calls Vicious a “marmite comedy” when talking to the New York Times’ David Itzkoff
- David Brooks speaks about depth at the 2014 Aspen Ideas Festival
- Uri Friedman summarizes Brooks’ guide to depth in the Atlantic
- Brooks’ New York Times column from March “The Deepest Self”
- Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by David Brooks
- Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
- The Concept of Mind by Gilbert Ryle
Endorsements:
Dana: Albert Coffee, aka “the Real Indiana Jones,” an archeologist and tour guide in Guanajuato, Mexico.
June: These Things Happen by Richard Kramer, a funny novel about coming out in Manhattan.
Steve: “Rene and George Magritte With Their Dog After the War” by Paul Simon.
Outro: “Rene and George Magritte With Their Dog After the War” by Paul Simon.
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Ann Heppermann. Our intern is Anna Shechtman.
Follow us on Twitter. And please Like the Culture Gabfest on Facebook.