Slate’s Culture Gabfest’s 2018 Summer Strut playlist and Cardi B vs. Drake for song of the summer.

Which Summer Jam Has the Most Swagger?

Which Summer Jam Has the Most Swagger?

Slate's weekly roundtable.
July 25 2018 11:58 AM

The Culture Gabfest “Summer Strut 2018” Edition

Slate’s Culture Gabfest on this year’s candidates for song of the summer and our annual Summer Strut playlist.

The Culture Gabfest has moved! Find new episodes here.

180725_POD_gabfestSongs

Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Coachella, Kevin Winter/Getty Images, and Elsa/Getty Images.

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 514 with Stephen Metcalf, Chris Molanphy, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner with the audio player below.

Or find the Culture Gabfest via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Advertisement

On this week’s Slate Plus, Dana, Julia, Stephen, and Chris discuss more of their personal favorites from among the 450-plus songs nominated by listeners for Summer Strut.

Go to Slate.com/cultureplus to learn more about Slate Plus and join today.

This week, Chris Molanphy joins the gabbers to discuss the candidates for 2018’s song of the summer, unpacking the rise of Cardi B and the enduring popularity of Drake. Then, they sift through the more than 450 songs nominated by listeners to select the finalists for this year’s Summer Strut playlist.

Links to some of the things we discussed this week:

Advertisement

Summer Strut 2018 Shortlist on Spotify:

Summer Strut 2018 Shortlist:

Advertisement

Listen to the full Culture Gabfest Summer Strut 2018 playlist on Spotify.

Past “Summer Strut” Gabfests are available here: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017.

Endorsements

Dana: Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life and its score, particularly François Couperin’s “Les Barricades Mystérieuses” as performed by Angela Hewitt

Advertisement

Chris: The experience of seeing Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade with an eighth-grader

Stephen: Jacquelyn Ardam’s “Real Toads at the International Cryptozoology Museum” on the blog for the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Marianne Moore’s poem “The Fish

Outro: “Time to Strut 3” by Gunnar Johnsén

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Benjamin Frisch. Our production assistant is Alex Barasch.

Follow us on Twitter. And please like the Culture Gabfest on Facebook.

Stephen Metcalf is Slate’s critic at large. He is working on a book about the 1980s.

Chris Molanphy is a feature writer and critic who writes widely about music and the pop charts. Follow him on Twitter.

Dana Stevens is Slate’s movie critic.

Julia Turner, the former editor in chief of Slate, is a regular on Slate’s Culture Gabfest podcast.