Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 90 with Michael Agger, Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics Michael Agger, Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner try to determine what's so great about author Stieg Larsson's Swedish trilogy, whether the Internet is making us dumber (Part 2), and how Americans really feel about the World Cup.

Here are some links to the things we discussed this week:

The New York Times profile of Swedish author Stieg Larsson.
In Salon, Laura Miller tries to figure out why Larsson now dominates the world.
Nicholas Carr's article in Wired on what the Internet might be doing to your brain.
Michael Agger's explanation of how we read online and his review of Carr's new book The Shallowson Slate.
A New York Times game that tests your focus and its article on what computers do to your head.
Nike's new World Cup ad and ESPN's Thomas Paine ad.
Seth Stevenson's ode to the great Nike ad.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana's pick: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson performing Handel's Arias.
Michael's pick: David Markson's book Reader's Block.
Julia's pick: The album Strand by the Spinanes.
Steve's pick: The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris and unchicken wrap from the vegan cafe Perelander in Brooklyn.

Musical outro: The Spinanes "Winter on Ice"

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

Posted on June 9 by Jesse Baker at 11:15 a.m.