Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 520 with Julia Turner, Dana Stevens, and Stephen Metcalf with the audio player below.
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This week, Julia, Dana, and Steve take on BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee’s new film based on the memoirs of a black police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan. How much of the incredible story is true, and how does that affect the way we experience it? Next, they talk about Making It, the crafting competition show co-hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, and what it says about the state of celebrity in 2018. Finally, the hosts are joined by Mauricio Santoro from the State University of Rio de Janeiro to discuss the tragic fire at Brazil’s National Museum, which destroyed roughly 90 percent of its collections. They learn about the museum’s place in Brazilian history and culture, the circumstances that led to the loss, and what comes next for the institution.
Links to some of the things we discussed this week:
- BlacKkKlansman
- Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer
- “BlacKkKlansman Finds a Way to Make Even White Supremacists Entertaining” by Inkoo Kang in Slate
- Black Klansman: A Memoir by Ron Stallworth
- “What’s Fact and What’s Fiction in BlacKkKlansman” by Jasmine Sanders in Slate
- Making It
- “The Hosts Make Making It” by Willa Paskin in Slate
- “Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman Talk Reuniting for ‘Making It,’ Exploring Unscripted TV” by Kirsten Chuba in Variety
- “Fire at Brazil’s National Museum Threatens Hundreds of Years of History” by Ernesto Londoño and Shasta Darlington in the New York Times
- “Brazil’s national museum: what could be lost in the fire?” by Martin Bellam in the Guardian
- “Fire Devastates Brazil’s Oldest Science Museum” by Michael Greshko in National Geographic
Endorsements:
Dana: An Epicurious recipe for ratatouille, with one amendment: salt the eggplant
Julia: Gillian Robespierre’s Landline and an anti-endorsement of jumbo marshmallows
Stephen: Vanderbilt Lakeside in Philmont, New York, and George Blaustein’s “My Fellow Prisoners” in n+1
Outro: “Dot the I’s and Cross the T’s” by Frook
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Benjamin Frisch. Our production assistant is Alex Barasch.
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