Slate Culture Feed

Joel Anderson, Stefan Fatsis, and Josh Levin discuss the 100th anniversary of baseball’s Negro Leagues. They’re also joined by the New York Times’ Rory Smith to talk about the Champions League. Finally, Louisa Thomas comes on for a conversation about the book Losers: Dispatches from the Other Side of the Scoreboard.Negro Leagues (03:35): How can MLB truly grapple with its segregationist past?Champions League (22:28): The storylines, the upsets, the excellent moments for North Americans.Losers (43:28): What makes a loser? What’s the difference between losing and failing?Afterballs (01:03:15): Joel on the Phoenix Suns and Stefan on the term “student-athlete.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The mullet, the love-to-hate-it hairstyle is as associated with the 1980's as Ronald Reagan, junk bonds, and break dancing. But in at least one major way, we are suffering from a collective case of false memory syndrome. In this episode we track the rise and fall of the mullet, and also the lexical quandary at its heart: who named the mullet?Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Dear Prudence and Slow Burn. Sign up now to listen and support our work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, Hit Parade listeners—we’ve got an unusual schedule for August. Today’s show is a recording of last week’s installment of Slate’s Wednesday Night Live, which was a live Hit Parade trivia edition. I was the host, and I got to quiz several Slate luminaries on Billboard chart brainteasers. We had a blast. Then, later this month, in the place where we would normally bring you a full-length story, we’ll instead be doing a super-sized edition of our regular Hit Parade—“The Bridge” show. We’ll be following up last month’s Yacht Rock episode with some very special guests. You won’t want to miss it.Like many media organizations at the moment, Slate is getting hit pretty hard by what's going on with the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We want to continue doing our work, providing you with all our great podcasts, news and reporting, and we simply cannot do that without your support. So we're asking you to sign up for Slate Plus, our membership program. It's just $35 for the first year, and it goes a long way to supporting us in this crucial moment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A story about what Alan Simpson, an expert on the federal deficit, taught me about love—and how it changed everything.Follow our show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @deathsexmoney. Got a story to share? Email us any time at deathsexmoney@wnyc.org. And support our work at deathsexmoney.org/donate.And stay in touch with us! Sign up for our newsletter and we'll keep you up to date about what's happening behind the scenes at Death, Sex & Money. Plus, we'll send you audio recommendations, letters from our inbox and a note from Anna. Join the Death, Sex & Money community and subscribe today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Plus preview, Joel Anderson, Josh Levin, and Slate’s Ben Mathis-Lilley talk about the battle over the 2020 college football season.To help support Hang Up and Listen and listen to every episode in full, sign up now for Slate Plus. Members get to skip the ads and get bonus segments and episodes on many Slate podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While spending the pandemic with his 95-year-old father in New Orleans, the actor is thinking hard about family and parenthood. Are you a new listener? Welcome! Check out our starter kit, which includes some of our favorite episodes of the show. It includes profiles of people like Bill Withers and Ellen Burstyn, stories about how race and class come up in our relationships, and some of our past series — like In New Orleans, which profiled five people who lived in the city during and after Hurricane Katrina. Follow our show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @deathsexmoney. Got a story to share? Email us any time at deathsexmoney@wnyc.org. And support our work at deathsexmoney.org/donate.And stay in touch with us! Sign up for our newsletter and we'll keep you up to date about what's happening behind the scenes at Death, Sex & Money. Plus, we'll send you audio recommendations, letters from our inbox and a note from Anna. Join the Death, Sex & Money community and subscribe today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, Steve, Dana, and Julia are joined by Slate’s music critic Carl Wilson to take on Taylor Swift’s Folklore. Then, the panelists discusses school reopenings, riffing off of Dana’s recent op-ed for the Washington Post. Finally, they break down this week’s comfort watch—the 1936 screwball comedy, My Man Godfrey.In Slate Plus, the hosts are joined by Slate staff writer Lili Loofbourow to discuss her recent pieces on cancel culture and online debate.Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on the Culture Gabfest each episode, and access to exclusive shows like Dana Stevens’ classic movies podcast Flashback. Sign up now to listen and support our work.Other items discussed in this show:“Taylor Swift’s New Album Reveals That Social Distancing Has Served Her Well” by Carl Wilson in Slate“Held back: As parents realize how badly the U.S. botched the next school year, we’re furious” by Dana Stevens in the Washington Post“The Cancel Culture Trap” by Lili Loofbourow in Slate“Illiberalism Isn’t to Blame for the Death of Good-Faith Debate” by Lili Loofbourow in SlateEndorsements:Dana: Dana’s original drink “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison,” inspired by a Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem. To make the cordial, boil a 2:1 ratio of lime juice to water on stove until reduced to half. Sweeten to taste. Mix with bourbon or rye whiskey. Throw in basil or mint leaf as garnish.Julia: Strand by the Spinanes, especially “Winter on Ice.”Steve: “Publish and Perish” by Agnes Callard in the Point.Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Rachael Allen.Outro Music: Back to Silence by OTE  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joel Anderson, Stefan Fatsis, and Josh Levin talk about the NBA’s strong restart and Major League Baseball’s disastrous season. They’re also joined by UCLA’s Otito Ogbonnia and Elisha Guidry for a conversation about the #WeAreUnited movement. Finally, they discuss Joel’s piece about Liberty University’s attempt to become a sports powerhouse—and why Black athletes have started leaving the school.NBA and MLB (02:42): What the NBA is doing right and what baseball is doing wrong.#WeAreUnited (22:46): How Pac-12 football players came together, and what reforms they want to see in college sports.Liberty (45:34): Can Jerry Falwell Jr.’s school overcome its racist past and present to become a college sports juggernaut?Afterball (01:05:07): Stefan on the Seattle Sockeyes’ romance novel roots. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today is July 31st—which means that for many people, rent is due tomorrow. But we know from watching recent data that a lot of people won't be able to pay by that deadline. According to a recent survey, nearly a third of Americans were late on their housing payments in July—or missed them altogether. And other research suggests that as many as 23 million renting families are at risk of losing their housing by October. That's 20% of all renters in the U.S. So if you’re worrying about how and if you're going to be able to stay in your place, we want to hear from you. If you’re managing to make rent, but it’s tight, what tradeoffs are you making to be able to pay? And if you think you might need to leave your place because of money, where do you think you might go? Tell us what’s going on for you by the end of the weekend. Record a voice memo and send it to us by Sunday night, at deathsexmoney@wnyc.org. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Like many media organizations at the moment, Slate is getting hit pretty hard by what's going on with the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We want to continue doing our work, providing you with all our great podcasts, news and reporting, and we simply cannot do that without your support. So we're asking you to sign up for Slate Plus, our membership program. It's just $35 for the first year, and it goes a long way to supporting us in this crucial moment.In the late ’70s and early ’80s, a scene and a sound cropped up on the West Coast: polished, perfectionist studio musicians who generated sleek, jazzy, R&B-flavored music. About a quarter-century later, this sound was given a name: Yacht Rock. The inventors of the genre name weren’t thinking about boats…well, unless the song was Christopher Cross’s “Sailing.” Yacht Rock was meant to signify deluxe, yuppified, “smooth” music suitable for playing on luxury nautical craft.Whatever you call it, this music really did command the charts at the turn of the ’80s: from Steely Dan to George Benson, Michael McDonald to Kenny Loggins, Toto to…Michael Jackson?! Believe it: even Thriller is partially a Yacht Rock album. This month, Hit Parade breaks down what Yacht Rock was and how it took over the charts four decades ago—from the perfectionism of “Peg,” to the bounce of “What a Fool Believes,” to the epic smoothness of “Africa.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.