Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 215 with David Haglund, Stephen Metcalf, Jody Rosen, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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On this week’s Culturefest, our critics are joined by Slate music critic Jody Rosen to discuss Twitter as both hyperlocal newswire and social media rumor mill during Hurricane Sandy. The Gabfesters then consider the new ABC drama Nashville and whether its music offers a realistic and compelling portrait of the country music scene. Finally, Slate Brow Beat editor David Haglund joins the conversation to talk about the scholar D. Michael Quinn and the controversy over the study of history within the Mormon church.

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

• The video of a ConEd transformer exploding in Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy.
• The fake photo of the Statue of Liberty that went viral during the storm.
• The BuzzFeed article that outed @ComfortablySmug, the former hedge-fund analyst who used Twitter to intentionally spread false rumors about the storm as it was happening.
• Will Oremus for Slate on misinformation about Hurricane Sandy that originated from police scanners.
• With its tendency to self-correct hoaxes and falsehoods, Twitter as self-cleaning oven.
• For Slate, Jody Rosen on how Twitter helped him recover his stolen bike.
• Hayden Panettiere as Claire Bennet in the TV series Heroes.
• The real-life singers on whom Nashville’s main characters are loosely based: Faith Hill and Taylor Swift.
• The 2010 movie Country Strong.
• R.J. Cutler, director of Nashville’s pilot and producer of the documentaries The War Room and The September Issue.
• The TV series The Wire and the movie Nashville, thickly descriptive pieces on American cities that precede Nashville.
• T. Bone Burnett, Nashville’s executive music producer and the man behind the music in many Coen brothers movies.
• The song “No One Will Ever Love You” sung by the characters Rayna James and Deacon Claybourne.
• The movie musical Dreamgirls.
• Acuff-Rose, the famed Nashville-based music publishing company.
• David Haglund for Slate on D. Michael Quinn and Mormon intellectualism.
• Jack Mormons and ex-Mormons.
• The September Six, Mormons who were excommunicated in 1993 for publishing scholarly work about the Mormon Church.
• D. Michael Quinn’s 1981 lecture, “On Being a Mormon Historian.”
• Controversial Mormon Church leader Ezra Taft Benson.

Endorsements:

Julia’s pick: The movie Broadcast News, which offers a refreshing dramatization of a woman’s commitment to her career.

David’s pick: The Welsh singer-songwriter Katell Keineg. If you like Jeff Buckley and Joni Mitchell, start with her album Jet.

Stephen’s pick: Donald Hall’s essay on the history of poetry readings, including his own anecdotes from a lifetime of reading his poetry for audiences.

Outro: “Leonor” by Katell Keineg

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Dan Pashman. Our intern is Sally Tamarkin.

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