Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 340 with Stephen Metcalf, Julia Turner, and Dana Stevens with the audio player below.

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This week on Slate Plus, listen to Steve, Dana, and Julia reveal their own celebrity impressions.     

Also, New York listeners can join Julia Turner, John Swansburg, and other Slatesters to watch the premiere of the final half-season of Mad Men at the Bell House in Brooklyn on April 5. The event is FREE! Slate Plus members can arrive at 8 p.m. for preferred seating and a cocktail hour with Julia and Slate writers and editors. General admission is at 9. RSVPs required: Go to slate.com/madmen for details.

On this week’s Slate Culture Gabfest, the critics gab about the new HBO documentary It’s Me, Hilary about Hilary Knight, the illustrator who drew the popular children’s book, Eloise. Next up, cultural critic and Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis wrote an article critiquing what she calls the “melodramatic” discourse surrounding campus sexual assault and romantic student-teacher relationships. A backlash ensued, and the critics weigh in: Are students being overly sensitive? Finally, what makes mimicry into a work of art? Guest Jacob Rubin, author of the new novel The Poser about a talented impressionist, joins to discuss celebrity impersonation.  

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

• Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak
• Eloise book series
• Angelina Ballerina book series
• Madeline book series
• Laura Kipnis’ article, “Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe,” in the Chronicle of Higher Education
• Northwestern University student statement condemning Laura Kipnis’ article
• “The Stanford Undergraduate and the Mentor,” Emily Bazelon’s piece in the New York Times
• Jacob Rubin’s series in Slate about the art of celebrity impressions
• Jacob Rubin’s book, The Poser
• The Hans and Franz “Pump You Up” clip
• Conan O’Brien’s Arnold Schwarzenegger 
• Dan Aykroyd’s Julia Child impersonation 
• Eddie Murphy’s impression of his father
• Bill Hader’s James Carville 
• Phil Hartman’s Bill Clinton at McDonald’s
• “The Sinatra Group” skit 
• Dana Carvey impersonates Johnny Carson on Letterman
• Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin 
• Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin in Game Change
• Rickie Lee Jones’ cover of “Walk Away Renée”

Endorsements:

Dana: Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel

Julia: A New York Times post on “journalese” and “mayhem,” and the film Working Girl

Steve: Bill Wyman’s blog post about “Walk Away Renée”

Outro: “Walk Away Renée” by Billy Bragg

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Joel Meyer. Our intern is Lindsey Albracht.

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