Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 97 with Jessica Grose, Stephen Metcalf, Lev Grossman, John Swansburg 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  via iTunes or directly with our   RSS feed. Find the Culturefest Facebook page   here. Leave us a note and see what other listeners have to say about the latest podcast.

This episode is brought to you by Carbonite, the leader in online backup. Carbonite backs up your files automatically, whenever you connect to the Internet. Try Carbonite for free. Go to  Carbonite.com, and enter offer code SLATE. If you decide to buy the service (after the trial), you'll get two months free with offer code SLATE.

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics Stephen Metcalf and Julia Turner discuss the new Angelina Jolie blockbuster Salt with Jessica Grose, Comic-Con with Time's Lev Grossman, and Mad Men's Season 4 premiere with culture editor John Swansburg.

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

Slate's Dana Stevens' review of Salt.
The official Web site for Salt.
David Edelstein's review for New York.
Watch the trailer for Angelina's action film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
Lev Grossman's take on why he can't stand Comic-Con on the Techland blog.
The official Web site for the soon-to-be-released film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
Join the Mad Men TV Club on Slate.
Frank Rich's reference to the season premiere in the New York Times.
Book a room at the Melrose Hotel, formerly the all-female Barbizon Hotel.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

John's pick: Luca Guadagnino's film   I Am Lovestarring Tilda Swinton.
Julia's pick: Bravo's reality show Work of Art, especially judge Jerry Saltz's weekly recaps of the show.
Steve's pick: Phillip Noyce's 1989 thriller   Dead Calm.


Outro: Madder Men's "Mad Men Theme: A Beautiful Mine"

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

by Jesse Baker at 1:12 p.m., Wednesday, July 28, 2010.