Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 361 with Stephen Metcalf and Julia Turner with the audio player below.
Subscribe in iTunes ∙ RSS feed ∙ Download ∙ Play in another tab
And join the lively conversation on the Culturefest Facebook page here:
Go to slate.com/cultureplus to learn more about Slate Plus and join today.
This week on Slate Plus, the critics talk about their cultural triumphs and fails with Allison Benedikt.
On this week’s Slate Culture Gabfest, David Simon’s new HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero tells the true story of the reception of a federally mandated housing integration order in Yonkers, New York. The gabbers discuss the show with Jamelle Bouie. Next, John Swansburg joins the show to discuss Straight Outta Compton, the new biopic about the rise of West Coast rap pioneers NWA. Is it a sign of progress that a movie about gangsta rap dominated the box office last weekend? Finally, Allison Benedikt joins to discuss a recent New York Times piece about working at Amazon. Is it the hellscape reporters have claimed it is?
Links to some of the things we discussed this week follow:
- Show Me a Hero
- The Wire
- Treme
- Generation Kill
- Nevermind by Nirvana
- In Utero by Nirvana
- Ex Machina
- Straight Outta Compton, the movie
- Straight Outta Compton, the album
- Empire
- John Swansburg’s Straight Outta Compton review in Slate
- Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang
- Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday
- “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace” by Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld
- “Amazon’s Relentless Work Culture Is Because It’s the Startup That Never Grew Up” by Matt Yglesias in Vox
- “Working Anything but 9 to 5” by Jodi Kantor in the New York Times
- Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
Endorsements:
Allison: “The Problem We All Live With” the first episode in a two-part series about school integration on This American Life
Julia: Giants of Land, Sea & Air Past and Present by David Peters
Steve: Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang and Slate for hiring Laura Miller
Outro: NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton”
- The Culture Gabfest is brought to you by Harry’s, the company that delivers excellent razors to your mailbox. Harry’s starter kit is just $15 and includes a razor, three blades, and your choice of shave cream or foaming shave gel. Plus, enter coupon code CULTURE at checkout for $5 off the starter set.
- This episode is also brought to you by Braintree: a simple payments solution. With simple integration, you can offer your customers every way to pay. To learn more, and for your first $50,000 in transactions fee-free, go to braintreepayments.com/culture.
This podcast was produced by Ann Heppermann. Our intern is Lindsey Albracht.
Follow us on Twitter. And please like the Culture Gabfest on Facebook. You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
