Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 310 with David Haglund, John Swansburg, and Julia Turner.

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On this week’s episode, Julia is joined by Slate senior editor David Haglund and deputy editor John Swansburg to talk about the many joys and sorrows of The Simpsons, on the occasion of FXX’s syndication and complete rerun of the show. Next up, Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass star in the surreal romance The One I Love. Can surrealism and romance reach a happy equilibrium, or is this movie just too strange to be good? Finally, the gabbers take on the ice bucket challenge. It might be impossible to critique a charitable enterprise without veering into gauche territory, but they give it their best shot.

Links to some of the things we discussed this week follow:

• David Owen profiled George Meyer for the New Yorker back in 2000
• A.O. Scott on The Simpsons in the New York Times in 2001
• Laugh-track-free comedy The Office
• 30 Rock
• Roseanne
• Married With Children
• Trivial Pursuit Genius IV
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• The Duplass brothers: Jeff Who Lives at Home, Baghead
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Drinking Buddies
• Mark Duplass on how to get by in the movie industry at ScreenCrush
• Obvious Child
• Felix Salmon argues against donating to disease-specific charities on Slate
• Josh Levin on the origin of the ice bucket challenge on Slate
• Some highlights from the ALS ice bucket challenge: Amy Schumer, Foo Fighters, Tom Cruise, Judy Greer, Anna Wintour
• Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech                
  

Endorsements:

David: David Simon’s recollection of working with Robin Williams on Homicide: Life on the Street and Buddy Guy’s “Feels Like Rain.”

John: Comedy podcast The Champs, especially the episodes featuring Blake Griffin, MC Serch, Arsenio Hall, and Chris Rock.

Julia: “See My Vest” from the “Two Dozen and One Greyhounds” episode of The Simpsons.

Outro: Buddy Guy, “Feels Like Rain”

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Ann Heppermann. Our intern is Josephine Livingstone.

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