Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 322 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner with the audio player below.

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This week, Slate Plus listeners will hear a special showdown debate, designed to finally determine who is the greatest Slate podcaster of all time.

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This week’s episode is a special superpodcast co-starring Hang Up and Listen, the Political Gabfest, and host Dan Kois. First up, the politics crew discusses Obama’s plans for immigration reform. Is this a dangerous amplification of executive powers, a smart play for votes, or something else entirely? Next, our own culture trio discusses emoji: its rise, its poetry, its complexity. Will Steve admit this low-culture medium into his arcane heart, or will Julia be waving her wheatgrass in the wind alone? Then, the Hang Up and Listen crew debates NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s call to legalize betting on sports. There next follows a special segment, in which Dan Kois pits teams of two podcasters against one another to debate a question. Are bees better than dolphins? What about Billy Joel vs. Beethoven? Finally, we get some answers. We close out with some questions from the crowd in Brooklyn. Thank you all for coming out!

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

• Slate’s Betsy Woodruff on the coming immigration war.
• Slate’s Jamelle Bouie argues that the GOP should’ve partnered with President Obama on immigration.
• Adam Sternbergh’s New York story on emoji.
• Follow Emojitracker to watch real-time emoji use on Twitter.
• Hannah Rosefield asks at Vice, “Could Emoji Ever Be a Language?”
• The emoji Moby Dick, Emoji Dick.
• Adam Silver’s New York Times op-ed argues that sports gambling should be legalized.
• Mavericks owner Mark Cuban supports Silver.
• Other sports commissioners aren’t following Silver’s lead.
• New Jersey is in the midst of a court battle over legalizing sports betting.
• Betting companies sponsor four Premier League teams.

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Mike Vuolo.

Our intern is Josephine Livingstone.

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