Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 473 with Isaac Butler, Stephen Metcalf, and Dana Stevens with the audio player below.
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On this week’s Slate Plus, Dana, Stephen, and Isaac discuss the Rick and Morty Szechuan sauce debacle.
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This week, the critics discuss the new film Blade Runner 2049, directed by Denis Villeneuve. It’s been 35 years since the original Blade Runner. How does the sequel stack up against the revered sci-fi classic? Then the gabbers turn their attention to the latest season of Amazon’s Transparent, which follows the Pfefferman family to Israel. They explore how the series has evolved over the past four years and talk about the political discourse that Transparent has embraced. Finally, the critics tackle the sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood culture that made his actions possible, and the way forward for the film industry. [Editor’s note: Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker piece with additional allegations against Harvey Weinstein was published while this episode was taping. As a result, it is not referenced in our conversation.]
Links to some of the things we discussed this week:
- Blade Runner 2049 trailer
- Dana’s review of Blade Runner 2049 in Slate
- Dana discusses Blade Runner 2049 with Forrest Wickman and Sam Adams for Slate’s Spoiler Special podcast
- Blade Runner
- Transparent
- “Transparent Is the Most Profoundly Jewish Show in TV History” by Isaac Butler in Slate
- Our discussion of the Transparent pilot from 2014
- “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades” by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey in the New York Times
- “Harvey Weinstein and the Silence of the Men” by Lena Dunham in the New York Times
- “Hollywood Men Silent Over Weinstein Allegations as Women Speak Out” by Sam Levin and Julia Carrie Wong in the Guardian
- “The Human Stain: Why the Harvey Weinstein Story Is Worse Than You Think” by Lee Smith in the Weekly Standard
- “Harvey Weinstein’s Media Enablers? The New York Times Is One of Them” by Sharon Waxman in the Wrap
- “Here’s Why So Many Women Knew the Rumors About Harvey Weinstein” by Anne Helen Petersen in BuzzFeed
Endorsements
Dana: “ ‘Our Minds Can Be Hijacked’: the Tech Insiders Who Fear a Smartphone Dystopia” by Paul Lewis in the Guardian, and the campaign for a new Buster Keaton Studios commemorate plaque on Indiegogo
Isaac: Not Two by Amir ElSaffar and Rivers of Sound, and My Favorite Thing is Monsters Vol. 1 by Emil Ferris
Stephen: Tom Petty singing “Cry to Me” live, Sunhee’s Farm & Kitchen in Troy, New York, and the band Yumi Zouma
Outro: “Persephone” by Yumi Zouma
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Benjamin Frisch. Our intern is Daniel Schroeder.
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