Slate's Culture Gabfest on Whatever Works, True Blood, and A Vindication of Love.

Slate's Culture Gabfest on Whatever Works, True Blood, and A Vindication of Love.

Slate's Culture Gabfest on Whatever Works, True Blood, and A Vindication of Love.

Slate's weekly roundtable.
June 24 2009 12:32 PM

The Culture Gabfest, the Failed Species Edition

Listen to Slate's show about the week in culture.

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The Culture Gabfest has moved! Find new episodes here.

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 40 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 your 14-day free trial from our sponsor Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audio book, here. (Audiobook of the week: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, written by Roald Dahl and read by Eric Idle.)

Find the Culturefest Facebook page here. Leave us a note and see what other Culturefest listeners have to say about the latest podcast.

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss Woody Allen's new film, Whatever Works; the HBO vampire drama True Blood; and A Vindication of Love, Cristina Nehring's defense of swooning passion.

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

The official site for Whatever Works.
Dana Stevens' review of Whatever Works.
Mark Harris' piece on Woody Allen and Larry David in New York magazine.
HBO's official site for True Blood.
Maureen Ryan's review of the second season of True Blood in the Chicago Tribune.
Video of the Hollywood Reporter's Emmy roundtable featuring True Blood's Alan Ball.
Meghan O'Rourke's review of Cristina Nehring's A Vindication of Love in Slate.
Katie Roiphe's review of A Vindication of Love in the New York Times Book Review.
Nehring's piece on the female orgasm in The Nation.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Julia's pick: a YouTube remix that wonders what would happen if Buffy the Vampire Slayer met Edward Cullen from Twilight.
Dana's pick: Nico Pitney's coverage of the postelection protests in Iran on the Huffington Post.
Stephen's picks: Pedro the Lion's album It's Hard To Find a Friend and Dmitri Shostakovich's "String Quartet No. 10."

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

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Posted on June 24 by Jacob Ganz at 12:32 p.m.

June 17, 2009

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 39 with Stephen Metcalf, Jody Rosen, Dana Stevens, Julia Turner, and Tom Vanderbilt by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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

Get your 14-day free trial from our sponsor Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audio book, here. (Audiobook of the week: the unabridged Ulysses by James Joyce, read by Jim Norton and Marcella Riordan.)

Find the Culturefest Facebook page here. Leave us a note and see what other Culturefest listeners have to say about the latest podcast.

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss Twitter's role in the post-election protests in Iran, nostalgia for a grittier New York City, and Times Square's pedestrian makeover.

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

Brad Stone and Noam Cohen's article in the New York Times about the Internet's role in protests by Iranians.
Conor Friedersdorf's blog post on the Atlantic's Special Ideas Report about Twitter and Iran.
Simon Robinson's article in Time wonders whether the election in Iran may have been rigged. In Slate, Jordan Ellenberg looks closely at the math behind the allegations.
Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty write in the Washington Post that Ahmadinejad's win may be legit.
James Wolcott's love letter to a grittier New York in Vanity Fair.
Jody Rosen's "Brow Beat" post raising some objections to Wolcott's rosy vision of NYC.
Tom Vanderbilt's piece on Times Square in Slate.
Times Square coverage from the New York Times' "City Room" Blog.
Michael M. Grynbaum's article in the New York Times about the rubber chairs in Times Square.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Julia's pick: the Genius playlist function in iTunes.
Dana's pick: the camera obscura tourist attraction in San Francisco.
Stephen's pick: EP+2 by the Scottish instrumental rock band Mogwai.

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

Posted on June 17 by Jacob Ganz at 11:51 a.m.

June 10, 2009

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 38 with Stephen Metcalf, June Thomas, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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

Get your 14-day free trial from our sponsor Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audio book, here. (Audiobook of the week: Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt.)

Find the Culturefest Facebook page here. Leave us a note and see what other Culturefest listeners have to say about the latest podcast.

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss Stephen Colbert's trip to Baghdad and his guest editorship of Newsweek, the Tony Awards and the year on Broadway, and the end of General Motors (and American car culture?) as we know it.

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

The Colbert Report's first broadcast from Baghdad.
Campbell Robertson's article in the New York Times on Colbert's trip.
Colbert's letter from the editor published in the newest issue of Newsweek.
A complete list of Tony Awards winners.
June Thomas' "Brow Beat" blog post on this year's Tony ceremony.
Dwight Garner's article in the New York Times on reading Tony-nominated plays.
P.J. O'Rourke looks back on the American auto industry in the Wall Street Journal.
Andrew O'Hagan's article in the London Review of Books on the end of GM.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

June's pick: The Tony podcast (and more) at the Web site BroadwayStars.com.
Julia's pick: The song "Car" by Built To Spill.
Stephen's pick: The film Comfort and Joy by Bill Forsyth.

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

Posted on June 10 by Jacob Ganz at 10:34 a.m.

June 3, 2009

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 37 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 your 14-day free trial from our sponsor, Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audiobook, here. (Audiobook of the week: Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates, read by the author, with guests.)

Find the Culturefest Facebook page here. Leave us a note and see what other Culturefest listeners have to say about the latest podcast.

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics (plus guest gabber Troy Patterson) discuss Conan O'Brien's first night as host of the Tonight Show, the reality show/tabloid phenomenon Jon & Kate Plus 8, and Up, from nonstop hit factory Pixar.

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

The official Web site of the new Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien.
Bill Carter's review in the New York Times' Artsbeat blog of Conan's debut.
Troy Patterson's assessment in Slate's "Brow Beat" blog.
Tom Shales pans Conan's first night in the Washington Post.
Lynn Hirschberg's profile of Conan in the New York Times Magazine.
The official site for TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8.
The Huffington Post's cornucopia of Jon & Kate news.
The official site for Pixar's Up.
Dana Stevens' review of Up in Slate.
Manohla Dargis' mezzo-mezzo review of Up in the New York Times.
Linda Holmes asks Pixar for female protagonists in NPR's Monkey See blog.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana's pick: RickyJay.com, the Web site of the actor/magician/magic historian.
Julia's pick: Slate's new culture blog, Brow Beat.
Stephen's picks: Grit, the low-rent-looking glossy magazine of rural America.

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

Posted on June 3 by Jacob Ganz at 12:32 p.m.

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

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.