Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 258 with John Swansburg, June Thomas, and Julia Turner with the audio player below.

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On this week’s episode, our critics discuss the The World’s End, the final film in Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy. The film follows five childhood friends who reunite in middle age to conquer the Golden Mile—a herculean beer binge across 12 pubs in the fictional Newton Haven, England—and find themselves in a position to save the world. The gabfest reviews the film and situates it among this summer’s other apocalypse parodies. Next, with the help of Slate critic Aisha Harris, the gabbers take on Miley Cyrus’ now-viral performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, which featured an African-American dance crew, a twerking Miley, and a foam finger in all the wrong places. Was it racist? Over-sexed? Or just terribly awkward? Lastly, the gabfest celebrates the end of summer with a discussion of amusement parks: their hedonism, romance, and iconic place in an American summer.

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

• The other films in the Cornetto Trilogy, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
• Dana’s review of The World’s End.
• Attack the Block.
• This is the End.
• Miley Cyrus at the 2013 VMAs.
• The official music video for “We Can’t Stop.”
• Jody Rosen’s analysis of Miley’s “minstrelsy” on Vulture.
• Britney Spears’ performance of “I’m a Slave 4 You” at the 2001 VMAs.
• The interview with Miley’s songwriters in which they claim that she requested a song that “feels black.”
• Hannah Montana.
• The interview in which Miley said she’d never heard a Jay Z song even though she sang about liking his music in her hit “Party in the USA.”
• Adventureland.
• Zombieland.
• Canobie Lake Park.

Endorsements:

June: The summer wardrobes on USA’s Royal Pains and Suits.

John: Good Humor’s King Cone.

Sam: “There Can Be Only One,” a new single off of Cass McCombs’ forthcoming album Big Wheel and Others.

Julia: The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson, 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction.

Outro: “There Can Be Only One,” by Cass McCombs.

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Dan Pashman. Our interns for this week are Sam McDougle and Anna Shechtman.

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