HOME / culture gabfest: Slate's weekly roundtable.

The Culture Gabfest, "I've Got 10 Cartridges of Toner in My Pants" EditionListen to Slate's show about the week in culture.

By Stephen Metcalf, Jody Rosen, Dana Stevens, and Julia TurnerUpdated Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, at 12:58 PM ET

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 69 with Stephen Metcalf, Jody Rosen, Dana Stevens, 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.

Get your 14-day free trial from our sponsor Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audio book, here. (Audio book of the week: Born on a Blue Day: A Memoir, written by Daniel Tammet and read by Simon Vance.)

Find the Culturefest Facebook page here. Leave us a note and see what other Culturefest listeners have to say about the latest podcast.

RSS

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss NBC's Leno-Conan switcheroo, the late French director Eric Rohmer, and The Simpsons' 20^th anniversary.

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned in the show:

Conan O'Brien's letter to "the people of Earth" stating his refusal to host The Tonight Show if NBC pushes it to 12:05 a.m.
The official Web sites for The Jay Leno Show and The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien.
David Carr's New York Times piece on NBC's midlife crisis.
Adam Sternbergh's post on New York's Vulture blog advising Conan to go to Fox.
French film director Eric Rohmer's obit in the New York Times.
Great Rohmer films for neophytes to watch: Autumn Tale, My Night at Maud's, Chloe in the Afternoon, A Tale of Winter, and Claire's Knee.
Stephen Metcalf's tribute to the director in Slate.
Mr. Burns singing "See My Vest" on The Simpsons.
Apu singing "Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?" on The Simpsons.
Dustin Hoffman as the substitute teacher of Lisa's dreams on The Simpsons.
The essay "Simpsonian Sexual Politics" by Dale E. Snow and James. J. Snow.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Julia's pick: The mashup of Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" and the Notorious B.I.G's "Party and Bullshit."
Dana's pick: The blog Letters of Note.
Stephen's picks: The fact that sports radio morning show The Boomer and the Carton acknowledged the death of Anne Frank protector Miep Gies. Marvin Gaye's rendition of the "National Anthem" at the 1983 NBA All Star Game. The Duke Ellington album Such Sweet Thunder.

You can e-mail us at .

Posted on Jan. 13 by Jesse Baker at 1 p.m.

Jan. 6, 2010

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 68 with Adam Gopnik, Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner and 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.

Get your 14-day free trial from our sponsor Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audio book, here. (Audio book of the week: Angels and Ages, written and read by Adam Gopnik.)

Find the Culturefest Facebook page here. Leave us a note and see what other Culturefest listeners have to say about the latest podcast.

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss Katie Roiphe's New York Times Book Review piece on sex scenes in modern literature, Virginia Heffernan's New York Times Magazine piece on magazines and the Web, and Adam Gopnik's New Yorker piece on van Gogh's ear.

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned in the show:

From the New York Times Book Review, Katie Roiphe on the dearth of sex scenes in modern literature.
Author Normal Rush's novel Mating.
Virginia Heffernan's take on the fate of online magazines in the New York Times Magazine.
Slate's timeline for the first 10 years of the online magazine.
Julia Turner's slide-show history of the teeny weenie bikini for Slate.
New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik's piece on van Gogh's ear.
The official Web site for the film Defiance.
Bernard William's philosophical definition of "moral luck."

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Julia's pick: Slate's "Movie Club."
Adam's pick: The Metropolitan Museum of Art's special exhibit "Art of the Samurai."
Dana's pick: Charlie Rose's interviews with Dolly Parton, Meryl Streep, and Helen Mirren on Audible.
Stephen's pick: The Wonderful World of Jazz and the Web site hotchickswithdouchebags.com.

You can e-mail us at .

Posted on Jan. 6 by Jesse Baker at 12:05 p.m.

Dec. 30, 2009

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 67 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and June Thomas 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.

Get your 14-day free trial from our sponsor Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audiobook, here. (Audiobook of the week: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, written by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith and read by Katherine Kellgren.)

Find the Culturefest Facebook page here. Leave us a note and see what other Culturefest listeners have to say about the latest podcast.

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss Nancy Meyers' latest yuppie comedy It's Complicated, the loss of singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt, and predictions for the decade to come.

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned in the show:

Dana Stevens' Slate review of It's Complicated.
The official Web site and trailer for It's Complicated.
Wikipedia's entry for The Philadelphia Story.
Lambchop's official Web site.
Sweet Relief II, a tribute album for Vic Chesnutt.
The official Web site for the Spanish film The Sea Inside, based on the life of Ramon Sampedro.
See Vic Chesnutt play a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR.
Anne Applebaum's take in Slate on what the next decade will bring.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana's picks: Vic Chesnutt's interview with Terry Gross on NPR and the Harry Nilsson album of children's folklore The Point!
June's picks: the Spanish historical epic film Bloody May, directed by Jose Luis Garci; and The Last Cargo Cult, created and performed by Mike Daisey.
Stephen's picks: writer Jonathan Raban's piece "Sarah and her Tribe," in the New York Review of Books, and Vic Chesnutt's album West of Rome.

You can e-mail us at .

Posted on Dec. 30 by Jesse Baker at 11:57 a.m.

Dec. 23, 2009

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 66 with Jessica Grose, Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, June Thomas, and Julia Turner and 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.

Get your 14-day free trial from our sponsor Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audiobook, here. (Audiobook of the week: To The Lighthouse, written by Virginia Woolf and read by Virginia Leishman.)

Find the Culturefest Facebook page here. Leave us a note and see what other Culturefest listeners have to say about the latest podcast.

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss June's list of the best TV of the year and decade, Dana's take on the best films of the year and decade, and the MTV reality show Jersey Shore.

Lifetime's show Drop Dead Diva.
Burn Notice on USA.
Edie Falco in Nurse Jackie on Showtime.
CBS's The Big Bang Theory.
Kyra Sedgwick in TNT's The Closer.
The Canadian television series Slings and Arrows.
Michael Kitchen in the British detective drama Foyle's War.
New York magazine's Emily Nussbaum on when exactly TV became brain candy.
Dana's official "best of the decade" list on Slate.
June's favorite movie of the decade: the Spanish film Solas. (Slight disclaimer: It was released in 1999.)
Director Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood.
For the back episodes of Jersey Shore, MTV's official site for the reality show.
The SNL's "poof" skit that inspired the title of this week's podcast.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Julia's pick: The Replacements song "Alex Chilton."
Jessica's pick: Netflix's movie streams for your Playstation3.
Dana's pick: The films that didn't make her best in the decade list: the Brad Bird film Ratatouille, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the Coen brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Spike Lee's Inside Man.
Stephen's pick: Sandy Denny singing "Who Knows Where the Times Goes" and just about anything from the band My Morning Jacket.

You can e-mail us at .

Posted on Dec. 23 by Jesse Baker at 11:02 a.m.

E-MAIL

RECOMMEND... Get Slate RSS Feeds

Stephen Metcalf is Slate's critic at large. He is working on a book about the 1980s. Jody Rosen is Slate's music critic. He can be reached at slatemusic@gmail.com. Dana Stevens is Slate's movie critic. Julia Turner is Slate's deputy editor. You can e-mail her at or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/juliaturner.

Illustration by Robert Neubecker.

What did you think of this article?

Join The Fray: Our Reader Discussion Forum

POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES