Slate Culture Feed

This week’s episode journeys to dystopian corporate hellscapes present and future as Julia, Dana, and Steve dissect the horror and philosophical underpinnings of Alien: Earth, Noah Hawley’s new series adapting the Ridley Scott sci-fi masterpiece.Next, they set their course to Arlen, Texas where they’ll assess the return of Hank, Peggy, and Bobby in Mike Judge’s rebooted King of the Hill. Finally, they venture to Hollywood and greet its “new face” and the medical specialists who reconstructed it in their discussion of the Hollywood Reporter’s special issue on cosmetic surgery. In an exclusive Slate Plus bonus episode, it’s time for lunch as they chat about Lauren Collins’s recent New Yorker piece “The Case for Lunch.”Email us your thoughts at culturefest@slate.com. Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch.Endorsements:Dana: A request seeking a good book about the cultural impact of Napoleon.Steve: The poem “Empathy and New Year” by James Schuyler.Julia: Crate diving into your own ancestry and visiting places significant to your family's history—Ancestry proves to be a useful tool to track down public records. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Casey Johnston grew up in a family where being thin mattered. In college, the internet told her to eat 1,200 calories and do endless cardio if she wanted to lose weight. That habit followed her into her late twenties, until she came upon a Reddit post about weightlifting that changed her relationship to her body and just about everything else.Casey Johnston is the author of Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting, and she writes the substack, She’s a Beast.Podcast production by Zoe Azulay Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus.And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Ben Lindbergh, and Lindsay Gibbs speak to the Athletic’s Carson Kessler about her recent investigative series on the rise of stalking in sports. The panel then previews the upcoming college football season before welcoming golf journalist Brendan Porath to break down the Ryder Cup and the drama around Keegan Bradley potentially being the first player-captain since the early 1960s.On the bonus episode available exclusively for Slate Plus members, Ben explains how the Milwaukee Brewers unexpectedly became the best team in baseball.Sports Stalkers (3:50): The chilling rise in disturbing fan behavior.CFB preview (23:30): What we love and hate going into week zero.Ryder Cup (50:48): Is Keegan Bradley teeing up to fail?(Note: time codes are only accurate for Slate Plus members, who listen ad-free.)Get more Hang Up and Listen with Slate Plus! Join for weekly bonus episodes of Hang Up and Listen and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Hang Up and Listen show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or visit slate.com/hangupplus for access wherever you listen.You can email us at hangup@slate.com.Podcast production and editing by Kevin Bendis, with production assistance from Patrick Fort. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Slate senior writer Scaachi Koul to talk about the return of the girlboss. Over five years after various exposes exposed their poor management and, in some cases, racism, former it-girls like The Wing’s Audrey Gelman and Outdoor Voice’s Ty Haney are back in the spotlight. Their new projects, however, are falling flat. Is there any room for redemption in 2025, or is time to leave girlbosses behind for good?Get more of ICYMI with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of ICYMI and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the ICYMI show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/icymiplus for access wherever you listen.This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay, with help from Kevin Bendis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sped-up voices. Wacky instruments. Songs about cavemen, bathtubs, bikinis, and mothers-in-law. From the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll through the 1970s—the age of streaking, CB radios, disco and King Tut—novelty songs could be chart-topping hits. But by the corporate ’80s, it was harder for goofballs to score hits on regimented radio playlists. Until one perm-headed, mustachioed, accordion-playing parodist who called himself “Weird” rebooted novelty hits for the new millennium. In this encore episode of Hit Parade, Chris Molanphy explores the history of novelty hits on the charts.Podcast production by Justin D. Wright and Kevin Bendis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario to talk about Kendra, the woman whose 25-part TikTok series about falling in love with her psychiatrist has captivated the internet. However, what viewers thought would be the next Reesa Teesa “Who The Fuck Did I Marry?” series turned out to be something much more complicated, as Kendra’s story went from suspicious to downright troubling. Now, TikTok is diagnosing Kendra with mental health issues, while still consuming her content like entertainment.One part of the episode uses audio from this TikTok by user @tayyy.jpegGet more of ICYMI with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of ICYMI and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the ICYMI show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/icymiplus for access wherever you listen.This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s show, Julia Turner is joined by guest hosts Nadira Goffe and Dan Kois to answer the urgent question: is The Naked Gun starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson the vital satire we need for our time? (Answer: No, but does that matter? The joke-dense spoof reboot directed by Akiva Schaffer is a hoot.)Next, they turn to tropical shores and talk about Chief of War, the epic series about Hawaiian history starring and produced by Jason Momoa. Finally, the panel examines the legacy of the musical Hamilton on its ten-year anniversary. Is it a naive Obama-era cringefest or an enduring piece of theater that still has much to say about American democracy?In an exclusive Slate Plus Bonus episode, Julia and Nadira grill Dan about the creation of Slate’s newest game Pears and discuss the state of the internet game ecosystem.    Email us your thoughts at culturefest@slate.com. Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch.Endorsements:Nadira: The new album BLACKSTAR by Ghanaian and American singer and songwriter Amaarae.Julia: Jurassic Park at the Hollywood Bowl accompanied by the LA Philharmonic. If not that, stream on a screen near you.Dan: Quitting your job. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Experimental archeology is, simply put, archeology that involves running experiments. Where traditional archaeologists may study, research, analyze, and theorize about how artifacts were made or used, experimental archaeologists actually try to recreate, test, and use them to see what they can learn. In doing so, they have given the field a whole new way to glean clues and get insights into the lives of our ancestors.Sam Kean is the author of a new book all about experimental archaeology called Dinner with King Tut. With help from him and a few archaeologists, we dig into a number of puzzles that experimental archaeology has helped solve—conundrums involving ancient megafauna, bizarre cookware, and deep sea voyages.In this episode, you’ll hear from archaeologists Susan Kaplan of Bowdoin College and Karen Harry of University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Native Hawaiian activist and storyteller Nāʻālehu Anthony.To learn more about the story of Hokule’a and its first navigator, Mau Piailug, watch Nāʻālehu Anthony’s 2010 documentary, Papa Mau: The Wayfinder, as well as The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific.This episode was produced by Katie Shepherd and Max Freedman. Decoder Ring is also produced by Willa Paskin and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. We had mixing help from Kevin Bendis.We’d also like to thank Metin Eren and Paul Benham.If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adonis Williams has been a mover in New York City for 20 years. He says he's moved about 3,500 people, and with each move, he catches a glimpse of a life in transition. There are the happy moves: getting a bigger place, couples moving in together, kids going off to college. There are also the sad moves: divorce, breakups, eviction. Adonis says he talks with his customers about it all. "You become the bartender or the taxi driver that they need to vent to." In this episode, Adonis explains why he didn't charge money for the first five years of being a mover and what he's observed on the job about relationships, family, and the cost of living in New York.You can hear more Adonis in this episode, where he talked with one of his moving clients, and you can reach Adonis for a move on his website.  Podcast production by Zoe AzulayDeath, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus.And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Ben Lindbergh, and Lindsay Gibbs are joined by Cowboys beat writer RJ Ochoa to dissect the messy public contract negotiations between Jerry Jones and superstar Micah Parsons. The panel also discusses the relocation dispute between the Connecticut Sun and the WNBA, plus Jen Pawol becoming the first female umpire in MLB. On the bonus episode available exclusively for Slate Plus members, the panel talks about the Kansas City Chiefs not being favored to win the Super Bowl this season.Jerry Jones (4:29): The drama king digs in his heels.The Connecticut Sun (24:20): Will Boston finally have its WNBA team?Jen Pawol (43:25): Baseball’s umpire glass ceiling is finally broken.(Note: time codes are only accurate for Slate Plus members, who listen ad-free.)Get more Hang Up and Listen with Slate Plus! Join for weekly bonus episodes of Hang Up and Listen and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Hang Up and Listen show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or visit slate.com/hangupplus for access wherever you listen.You can email us at hangup@slate.com.Podcast production and editing by Kevin Bendis, with production assistance from Patrick Fort. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.