The Culture Gabfest “Talk of Shame” Edition
A special call-in edition of the Slate Culture Gabfest! On: parenthood, imaginary language knowledge, film festivals, and more.
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This week is the special call-in edition, aka the Hungover Mohonk Show! The gabbers answer some burning questions from loyal listeners. First up, Sarah from Massachusetts asks about maintaining an actual human inner life while also being a “good” “parent.” Next up, James from Seattle asks: What language would you speak, for seven days only? Jordan from Boston has the next question, about film festival season. Is it worth anything, or is there such a thing as “festival grade inflation”? Next, Sam from New York asks: What is the most salient cultural sensibility of our day? Then, Little Fur Family purchaser Brett in New York inquires about children’s literature. He asks: What kind of TV do the gabbers let their kids watch? Laura from Wisconsin has the penultimate question and wants to know: What’s the best part about getting older? Finally, Peter from D.C. asks whether the critics have ever just kept an endorsement for themselves. Thank you to everybody that called in, we wish we could have answered you all.
Links to some of the things we discussed this week follow:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon
- Don DeLillo’s White Noise
- Heidegger’s Being and Time in German
- Dana’s review of Boyhood on Slate
- The Hidden Persuaders, by Vance Packard
- … and its inheritor, Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point
- Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion
- 365 Takes: The Andy Warhol Museum Collection
- Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro
- Teletubbies
- Mary Poppins
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
- The Marx Brothers
- Some highlights of Buster Keaton
- Diane Keaton’s Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty
- Herman Melville’s Typee
Endorsements:
Dana: Moby Dick, particularly the last three chapters
Julia: (Dancing to) Beyoncé’s “XO”
Steve: The Lunchbox
(Almost) every product recommended on every Slate podcast since the dawn of creation.
Outro: The Kinks’ “Party Line”
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Andy Bowers and Ann Heppermann. Our intern is Josephine Livingstone.
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