Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 483 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner with the audio player below.
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On this week’s Slate Plus, Stephen, Dana, and Julia answer a listener’s question about how the show is recorded and produced.
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This week, the critics discuss the latest installment in the Star Wars franchise, The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson. They dig into its stunning visuals, examine how it fits into the wider Star Wars universe, and unpack the online backlash to the film. Then, Slate’s culture editor, Forrest Wickman, joins the conversation to talk about the new trivia app HQ Trivia and its live game-show style. Finally, the gabbers discuss internet memes, what gives some of them such longevity, and how they influence cultural discourse.
Links to some of the things we discussed this week:
- Trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi
- “The Last Jedi Brings Fresh Ideas Not Just to Star Wars but to the Whole Universe of Movies” by Sam Adams in Slate
- Dana’s Spoiler Special podcast on Star Wars: The Last Jedi
- The “milkshake duck” tweet
- “HQ Isn’t Fun Anymore” by Lizzie Plaugic in the Verge
- “CEO of HQ, the Hottest App Going: If You Run This Profile, We’ll Fire Our Host” by Taylor Lorenz in the Daily Beast
- “HQ Trivia’s Founders Are Facing Fundraising Roadblocks After Investors Learned of Alleged Bad Behavior” by Kurt Wagner in Recode
- “A Unified Theory of Meme Death” by Lauren Michele Jackson in the Atlantic
- “Jump-Rope Songs Were Once a Cornerstone of American Folklore. Now It’s Memes.” by Jacob Brogan in Slate
Endorsements
Dana: Rian Johnson’s interview with Paul Thomas Anderson on the Director’s Cut podcast
Julia: “Fever” by Carly Rae Jepsen
Stephen: Simon Wren-Lewis’ blog Mainly Macro
Outro: “Fever” by Carly Rae Jepsen
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Benjamin Frisch. Our production assistant is Daniel Schroeder.
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