Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 451 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and John Swansburg with the audio player below.
And join the lively conversation on the Culturefest Facebook page.
Go to slate.com/cultureplus to learn more about Slate Plus and join today.
This week on Slate Plus, Dana, Stephen, and John discuss Stephen Colbert’s controversial joke about Trump and Putin.
On this week’s Slate Culture Gabfest, the critics are joined by books critic Laura Miller to discuss American Gods, the Starz television series based on Neil Gaiman’s 2001 novel of the same name. They talk about the series’ odd mixture of noir and fantasy in a world where ancient deities walk on modern American soil—but is the show too hard to follow for people who haven’t read the book? Then, the critics interview David Grann about his new book Killers of the Flower Moon, which tells the unlikely true story of the murder of Osage Indians in Oklahoma in the 1920s. Finally, Seth Stevenson joins the conversation to discuss Dove’s new body wash bottle shapes. Is this a marketing misstep on par with Pepsi’s?
We’re excited to be heading to Australia later this month! We’ll be at the Sydney Writers Festival on May 27 and in Melbourne at the Wheeler Centre on May 31.
Links to some of the things we discussed this week:
- Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
- “The Marked Woman” by David Grann in the New Yorker
- American Gods on Starz
- Laura Miller’s review of the television show in Slate
- American Gods by Neil Gaiman
- Laura Miller’s review of the book from 2001 in Salon
- The Sandman graphic novel series by Neil Gaiman
- Coraline
- “How Dove Ruined Its Body Image” by Ian Bogost in the Atlantic
Endorsements
Dana: “I Don’t Care” by Eva Tanguay, performed by Judy Garland, Mitzi Gaynor, and Eydie Gorme
John: The podcast Hit Parade
Stephen: The films of Bill Forsyth, including Gregory’s Girl, Local Hero, and Comfort and Joy
Outro: “I Don’t Care” by Eva Tanguay
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Benjamin Frisch. Our intern is Daniel Schroeder.
Follow us on Twitter. And please like the Culture Gabfest on Facebook.