Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 505 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens and Julia Turner with the audio player below.
On this week’s Slate Plus, Stephen, Dana, and Julia debate laurel vs. yanny.
Go to Slate.com/cultureplus to learn more about Slate Plus and join today.
This week, the critics talk to Simon Doonan about the royal wedding, the performative nature of getting married, and the role of the monarchy in 2018. Even with Meghan Markle entering the family, can the royals stay relevant? Then, Laura Miller joins to talk about literary giant Tom Wolfe’s death and his influence on fiction and nonfiction writers alike. Finally, the gabbers discuss Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which was canceled by Fox and then rescued by NBC after a spirited fan campaign. The gabbers wonder: Why do we seem to care more about great shows after they’re gone?
Links to some of the things we discussed this week:
- The royal-wedding video
- “I’m a Royals-Hater, Yet Even I Loved This Royal Wedding” by June Thomas in Slate
- “The Best Hats and Most Flamboyant Fascinators From the 2018 Royal Wedding” by Marissa Martinelli in Slate
- “Tom Wolfe Helped Ignite an Explosion in 21st-Century Fiction. It Just Wasn’t His Novels That Did It.” by Laura Miller in Slate
- “Tom Wolfe’s Legacy in Journalism: Great Details and Questionable Tactics” by Elon Green in Slate
- “Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast” by Tom Wolfe in Harper’s
- The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
- Radical Chic by Tom Wolfe
- The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
- White Teeth by Zadie Smith
- “Perchance to Dream” by Jonathan Franzen in Harper’s
- The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine
- “The Story Behind How Brooklyn Nine-Nine Was Canceled and Rescued in 31 Hours” by E. Alex Jung in Vulture
- WKRP in Cincinnati
Endorsements:
Dana: “Watch Like an Egyptian” by Bruce Handy in Vanity Fair
Julia: Mary Steenburgen’s interview on WTF With Marc Maron
Stephen: “Royal Bodies” by Hilary Mantel in the London Review of Books
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Benjamin Frisch. The production assistant is Daniel Schroeder.
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