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This week on Slate Plus, Dana and Julia share the books that everybody needs to read.
On this week’s Slate Culture Gabfest, the critics discuss the legacy of the late great filmmaker Jonathan Demme, exploring what made him such a prolific creator and how his vision shaped much of modern cinema. Then, they’re joined by Adam Leon to discuss his new caper Tramps which was recently acquired by Netflix. They talk about the differences between Netflix’s distribution model versus typical theatrical distribution, weighing advantages and disadvantages of each and how they affect the state of indie film.
Finally, the gabbers dig into conservative columnist Bret Stephens’ recent op-ed in the New York Times questioning the consensus on climate change. Is a diversity of opinions always a good thing, or should fudging the facts or being deliberately provocative be called out for what it is?
We’re excited to be heading to Australia in 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:
- Stop Making Sense
- Rachel Getting Married
- Philadelphia
- The Silence of the Lambs
- Swimming to Cambodia
- Tramps
- Gimme the Loot
- The Informant!
- “Pay Attention to Movies Released on Streaming Platforms” by Richard Brody in the New Yorker
- “Climate of Complete Certainty” by Bret Stephens in the New York Times
- “Who’s Afraid of Bret Stephens?” by Jack Shafer in Politico
- “Bret Stephens’ First Column for the New York Times Is Classic Climate Change Denialism” by Susan Matthews in Slate
Endorsements
Dana: JBL Bluetooth speakers
Julia: “Ugly Buttons” by Dan Engber in Slate, Better Call Saul, and the Better Call Saul podcast
Stephen: “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?” By Bruno Latour
Outro: “Philadelphia” by Bruce Springsteen, covered by Ryan Adams
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Benjamin Frisch. Our intern is Daniel Schroeder.
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