Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 30 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

You can also download the program here, or you can subscribe to the Culture Gabfest podcast feed in iTunes by clicking here.

Get your14-day free trial from our sponsor Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audio book, here. (Audiobook of the week: Poetry on Record.)

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss Paul Rudd and Jason Segel's bromance in the new movie I Love You, Man; the implications of the Obamas' vegetable garden; and the off-the-record media listserv JournoList. And as a bonus, Stephen Metcalf interviews David Grann, the author of The Lost City of Z, after the show.

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned:

The official Web site for the movie I Love You, Man.
Dana Stevens' Slate review of I Love You, Man (where you can also find the Spoiler Special podcast on the movie).
Leslie Fiedler's classic Love and Death in the American Novel,which examines male friendship in American literature.
The New York Times piece on the Obamas' vegetable garden (see map).
Andrew Martin's NYT article about the state of the sustainable food movement.
Mark Bittman's NYT article about the false belief that organic equals healthy.
Michael Calderone's article about JournoList on Politico.com.
Reihan Salam's response to the Politico article on the Atlantic's Web site.
Slate's Mickey Kaus blog entries about the JournoList dust-up.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana's pick: the remarkable  work of YouTube Bollywood translation artist Buffalax.
Julia's pick: David Byrne and Brian Eno's album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.
Stephen's pick: Henri-alban Alain-Fournier's Le Grande Meaulnes.

You can e-mail us, and send us your thoughts on how to pronounce the name of Alain-Fournier's book, at culturefest@slate.com.

Posted on March 25 by Jacob Ganz at 11:26 a.m.

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 29 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below: 

You can also download the program here, or you can subscribe to the weekly Culture Gabfest podcast feed in iTunes by clicking here.

Get your14-day free trial from our sponsor Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audio book, here. (Audiobook of the week: Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys.)

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss the new movie version of the classic graphic novel Watchmen; Elaine Showalter's new book on the canon of female American writers, A Jury of Her Peers; and a 'tween-style makeover for kiddie cartoon hero Dora the Explorer.

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned in the show:

Dana Stevens' Watchmen review.
"What if Woody Allen Had Directed Watchmen?"—a slide show on Slate.
Katha Pollitt's Slate review of A Jury of Her Peers.
Laura Miller's Salon review of A Jury of Her Peers.
Katie Roiphe's New York Times review of A Jury of Her Peers.
A Washingtonpost.com piece about Dora the Explorer's makeover.
Brendan I. Koerner's Slatecolumn about Dora's rise to power.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana's pick: Alison Bechdel's graphic novel Fun Home.
Julia's pick: David Segal's segment of the "My Big Break" episode of This American Life.
Stephen's picks: For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver (however you pronounce it) and The Queen Is Deadby the Smiths.

 
You can e-mail us at culturefest@slate.com.

Posted on March 11 by Jacob Ganz at 12:39 p.m.

Feb. 25, 2009

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 28 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

You can also download the program here, or you can subscribe to the Culture Gabfest podcast feed in iTunes by clicking here.

Get your14-day free trial from our sponsor Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audio book, here. (Audio book of the week: Steve Martin's Born Standing Up.)

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss the Oscars, the rant of CNBC commentator Rick Santelli, the adventures of Octomom, and the Tropicana juice carton revolt.

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned in the show:

Dana Stevens and Slate TV critic Troy Patterson's discussion of the Oscars.
Julia Turner and Amanda Fortini's discussion of Oscar fashions.
Ron Rosenbaum's Slate piece on The Reader.
Rick Santelli's CNBC rant.
John Dickerson's Slate piece on Santelli's rant and the White House response to it.
A New York Times piece on the Tropicana packaging retraction.
The (possibly fake) Pepsi Co. branding memo unearthed by Gawker.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana's pick: Ricky Gervais' podcast.
Julia's pick: A tolerable romantic comedy: Definitely, Maybe.
Stephen's pick: The Danny Boyle film Shallow Grave.

You can e-mail us at culturefest@slate.com.

Posted on Feb. 25 at 1:28 p.m. by Julia Turner.