Slate Culture Feed

Dana Stevens, Julia Turner, and Stephen Metcalf discuss the film If Beale Street Could Talk, the TV phenomenon The Masked Singer with The Gist's Mike Pesca, and finally they deconstruct "The Stew"—the viral recipe that's seemingly everywhere.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Josh Levin, NPR’s Gene Demby, and the New Yorker’s Vinson Cunninham discuss the big moves and non-moves at the NBA trade deadline. They also talk about Steven Soderbergh’s new NBA lockout movie High Flying Bird and the nascent Alliance of American Football. NBA trades (1:25): Anthony Davis isn’t going to the Lakers (yet) and Markelle Fultz is leaving Philly. How does that shift the league’s balance of power on the court and between players and management? High Flying Bird (22:05): A rare movie about sports and business with a pro-labor point of view, and that thinks seriously about race. AAF (39:56): Did this new spring football league learn from the XFL’s mistakes or is it doomed to repeat them? Afterball(51:45): Josh on the best comparison for Zion Williamson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The legendary poet talks with host Anna Sale in front of a live audience about standing up to her father, surviving breast and lung cancer, and why she now cries "over any damn thing." Have you ever been laid off? We want to hear about it—how you talked about it, how it changed your finances, and what helped you feel better. Take our survey at deathsexmoney.org/laidoff. Sign up for our newsletter! Every Wednesday we send out podcast listening recommendations, fascinating letters from our inbox and updates about the show. We also let our subscribers know about upcoming live events and ways you can contribute your stories to Death, Sex & Money. Sign up at deathsexmoney.org/newsletter.Want to tell us something? Email us any time at deathsexmoney@wnyc.org. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Slate’s Ben Mathis-Lilley discuss the Patriots’ putrid Super Bowl win over the Rams. The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis also joins to assess Tony Romo’s performance. Finally, they critique the Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis trade.Super Bowl (1:32): It was a bad game. Very bad. How did the defenses muck things up in such an offense-dominated season?Tony Romo (21:21): The CBS star didn’t have much great material to work with. Did he shine anyway?Porzingis (39:23): Ben says the Knicks’ move to deal their best player was “fandom-destroying.” Some smart analysts disagree. Who’s right?Afterballs (52:55): Stefan on Chip Oliver and Josh on “left, right, left, right, sit down!”This episode is brought to you by Capterra. Try it today, for free, at Capterra.com/HANGUP. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Brett Johnson was a career criminal: a fraudster, a con man, a cyber criminal, but now he’s a legal person operating on the right side of the law, helping companies stop people like he used to be. His story is the stuff of a movie like Catch Me iI You Can, it involves wild scams, narrow escapes, redemption, and even a trip to Disney World. Throughout his criminal career he defrauded people on the street, on eBay, on criminal web forums, within the justice system, and even inside the United States Secret Service. There’s great entertainment value in Brett’s story, but there’s also a great deal of complication to it, too. Real life isn’t as neat and tidy as a movie, and the ending is yet to be written. Today we explore Brett’s story, first by letting you enjoy it, and then we deconstruct it, to decide if we should.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Julia Turner, Dana Stevens, and Stephen Metcalf discuss the Oscar-nominated film Vice, the Netflix streamer Sexual Education, and what to make of Netflix's "ratings" numbers with Slate TV critic and the host of Decoder Ring, Willa Paskin. This episode is brought to you by Capterra. Try it today, for free, at Capterra.com/CULTURE.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stefan Fatsis and Josh Levin are joined by Courtney Nguyen to talk about Naomi Osaka’s Australian Open win. The Wall Street Journal’s Louise Radnofsky also joins to assess the U.S. figure skating championships, and the Washington Post’s Candace Buckner discusses NBA players’ feet. Naomi Osaka (6:22): The 21-year-old backed up her U.S. Open victory with a second grand slam title. Has Osaka matured in the last five months, and how should we reconcile her shyness and on-court toughness? Figure skating (22:50): What you need to know about U.S. champions Alysa Liu (she’s 13!) and Nathan Chen. Plus, Gracie Gold opened up about her battle with depression. NBA feet (44:01): Everything you maybe don’t want to know about basketball players’ disgusting toes. Afterballs(58:55): Stefan on the Dane who invented modern team handball and Josh on the biggest feet in NBA history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Star Is Born, the movie Hollywood can’t stop remaking, is a fairy-tale about the American dream factory. But it has also, always, been a reflection of the woman in the lead role—and the latest version stars a woman who has been playing a role for more than a decade: Stefani Germanotta, a.k.a. Lady Gaga. When Gaga scored her first No. 1 hit, “Just Dance,” 10 years ago this month, critics thought her fame might be short-lived. ButGaga had a lot to say about The Fame, and within a year she had shifted the sound of the Top 40 in her electro-pop direction. And then, in the mid-2010s, she shifted her own sound, belting out pop standards for everyone from Tony Bennett to Julie Andrews. What happens if this shape-shifter pivots from Grammys to Oscars? And what will that say about the themes of A Star Is Born: artifice, authenticity and agency?This episode is brought to you by Slack, the collaboration hub for work. Learn more at Slack.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're revisiting our most-listened to episode ever, about porn. Your stories about secret hard drives, fantasy plot lines, illegal downloads, titillating Tumblr feeds, and giving porn up completely.We're sharing this episode as part of our month-long series called Our Sex (Mis)Educations. Find the entire series here.Sign up for our newsletter! Every Wednesday we send out podcast listening recommendations, fascinating letters from our inbox and updates about the show. We also let our subscribers know about upcoming live events and ways you can contribute your stories to Death, Sex & Money. Sign up at deathsexmoney.org/newsletter.Want to tell us something? Email us any time at deathsexmoney@wnyc.org. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.