Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 456 with Isaac Butler, Stephen Metcalf, and Dana Stevens with the audio player below.
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On this week’s Slate Plus, Isaac, Dana, and Stephen are joined by our producer Ben to discuss the YouTube series Car Boys.
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On this week’s Slate Culture Gabfest, the critics discuss the new HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest about a daughter who murders her mother after years of abuse. They’re joined by journalist Michelle Dean, who wrote about the case for BuzzFeed. Next, they dive into the recent controversy of the Public Theater’s staging of Julius Caesar, which included a Trump-like protagonist and led some corporations to pull their funding for the production. Finally, the gabbers talk Hi-Phi Nation, a new podcast from Barry Lam, debating whether it treads too close to its public radio inspirations or transcends the form.
Links to some of the things we discussed this week:
- Mommy Dead and Dearest
- “Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter to Be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom to Be Murdered” by Michelle Dean in BuzzFeed
- “It’s Outrageous to Suggest That Any Production of Julius Caesar Could Glamorize Assassination” by Isaac Butler in Slate
- Julius Caesar starring Marlon Brando
- Hi-Phi Nation
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
- “What Errol Morris Thinks of Making a Murderer” by Isaac Butler
Endorsements
Dana: Hayao Miyazaki’s list of favorite books on Open Culture
Isaac: Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, and the movie Little Boxes
Stephen: The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
Outro: “Julius Caesar” by French Montana
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Benjamin Frisch. Our intern is Daniel Schroeder.
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