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On this week’s Slate Culture Gabfest, Willa Paskin joins to discuss How to Get Away With Murder and to help the critics make sense of the Shondaverse. How does Shonda Rhimes’ serious engagement with issues like race and sexuality mesh with the show’s soapy chaos? Next, the gabbers break their solemn vow to not mention Taylor Swift on the show as they discuss Ryan Adams’ cover of 1989 with guest Jody Rosen. Is a song’s portability a measure of its worth, and if so, how portable is Taylor Swift’s music? Finally, the critics and guest Dan Pashman weigh in on the cultural phenomenon of pumpkin spice.
Links to some of the things we discussed this week follow:
- How to Get Away With Murder
- Scandal
- Grey’s Anatomy
- Dallas
- Dynasty
- Moonlighting
- Willa Paskin’s review of How to Get Away With Murder from Season 1 in Slate
- Empire
- “Viola Davis as You’ve Never Seen Her Before: Leading Lady!” by Amy Wallace in the New York Times
- The “Why is your penis on a dead girl’s phone?” clip that Willa references from How to Get Away With Murder
- Ryan Adams’ 1989
- Taylor Swift’s 1989
- “Shake It Off” by Ryan Adams vs. “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift
- “Bad Blood” by Ryan Adams vs. “Bad Blood” by Taylor Swift
- “Blank Space” by Ryan Adams vs. “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift
- Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen
- Ryan Adams by Ryan Adams
- Songbird by Willie Nelson
- “Why Doesn’t Pitchfork Review Artists Like Taylor Swift (Unless They’re Covered by Ryan Adams)?” by Forest Wickman in Slate
- “No Blank Space, Baby: Taylor Swift is the Soul of Ryan Adams” by Ann Powers on NPR
- The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky
- “Sh-Boom” by the Chords
- “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes
- Father John Misty’s cover of “Blank Space” and “Welcome to New York”
- “Dylan Hears a Who” by Kevin Ryan
- The “All Along the Watchtower” cover by Jimi Hendrix
- “To Autumn” by John Keats
- “It’s not just lattes: How pumpkin took over cat food, cheese, vodka, and everything else” by Drew Harwell in the Washington Post
- The Sporkful with Dan Pashman
- “Pizza Farm With Nick Offerman” on Funny or Die
- “Starbucks is Adding Actual Pumpkin to Its Pumpkin Spice Latte. That’s a Terrible Idea.” by L.V. Anderson in Slate
This episode of Slate’s Culture Gabfest is sponsored by Open Account, a podcast series created by SuChin Pak and Umpqua Bank. Open Account explores, through honest and sometimes comical interviews, our uncomfortable silence around money. It is available now on iTunes. The Culture Gabfest is also sponsored by Beech Nut Organics. Go to BeechNutGabFest.com and enter to win a year’s worth of food.
Endorsements:
Dana: Cat Power’s cover of “Wonderwall”
Julia: Johnny Cash’s American III: Solitary Man
Steve: Little Ghent Farm, the band Spiritualized, and Richard Thompson’s cover of “Oops! I Did It Again”
Outro: “Green Eggs and Ham” from Kevin Ryan’s Dylan Hears a Who
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Jayson De Leon. Our intern is Lindsey Albracht.
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