Slate Culture Feed

Stefan Fatsis is joined by ESPN’s Dave McMenamin to break down the epic buzzer-beater by LeBron James in Game 3 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference playoffs and by hockey writer Sean McIndoe to discuss the Stanley Cup playoffs. Slate’s Christina Cauterucci and Juliet Macur of the New York Times talk about the exploitative treatment of NFL cheerleaders. And ESPN’s Sam Miller explains how there were more strikeouts than hits in the major leagues in a month for the first time ever.LeBron (3:15): Stefan and ESPN’s Dave McMenamin conduct a forensic breakdown of LeBron James’s seemingly impossible game-winning shot against the Toronto Raptors.NHL playoffs (21:39): Stefan and hockey writer Sean McIndoe discuss the Vegas Golden Knights, the Winnipeg Jets, a rare playoff suspension, and Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins licking his opponents.Cheerleaders (43:50): Slate’s Christina Cauterucci and Juliet Macur of the New York Times talk with Stefan about Juliet’s reporting on the treatment of cheerleaders for Washington’s NFL teamBaseballs (1:01:32):  ESPN’s Sam Miller talks with Stefan about the decade-long rise in strikeouts and whether Major League Baseball needs to do something about it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thousands paid off. Cuts to the beauty budget. A foster daughter. Our listeners share what's happened since appearing in our student loans episodes last year.Subscribe to our weekly email newsletter, if you haven't already. Every Wednesday we send out podcast listening recommendations, fascinating letters from our inbox and updates from the show. Sign up at deathsexmoney.org/newsletter.And follow the show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Got a story to share? Email us any time at deathsexmoney@wnyc.org. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Josh Levin, Wosny Lambre, and Ethan Sherwood Strauss discuss the NBA playoffs. They also talk about Meek Mill’s release from prison and his relationship with the 76ers, and they ponder quarterback Josh Allen’s old, racial-slur-laden tweets. NBA playoffs (2:20): Josh, Wos, and Ethan assess the state of the Oklahoma City Thunder and the NBA’s most polarizing player, Russell Westbrook. They also examine LeBron James’ latest triumph and check in on the state of the Golden State Warriors. Meek Mill (22:35): Upon his release from prison, the Philadelphia rapper headed straight to the Sixers’ game against the Miami Heat. How did Mill forge such a tight connection with the team, and how did he become a cause célèbre for criminal justice reformers? Josh Allen (37:23): The Wyoming quarterback’s tweets were publicized the night before the NFL draft. Should we care about Allen’s social media misadventures, and how should we think about athletes’ old tweets more broadly? Afterballs (56:00):  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.Welcome to Decoder Ring! Decoder Ring is a monthly podcast about cracking cultural mysteries. Every episode we’ll take on a cultural object, idea, or habit and speak with experts, historians and obsessives to try to figure out where it comes from, what it means and why it matters. Why do we get so invested in fictional romances? What does it mean to wear a baseball hat backwards? Why do we clap? What do people think about all day? Decoder Ring explores questions and topics you didn't know you were curious about.In our first episode, we ask: What happened to the laugh track? For nearly five decades, it was ubiquitous, but beginning in the early 2000s, it fell out of sitcom fashion. What happened? How did we get from Beverly Hillbillies to 30 Rock? We meet the man who created the laugh track, which originated as a homemade piece of technology, and trace that technology’s fall and the rise of a more modern idea about humor. With the help of historians, laugh track obsessives, the showrunners of One Day at a Time and the director of Sports Night, we wonder if the laugh track was about something bigger than laughter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bon Jovi are many things: platinum-selling, chart-topping and now, Hall of Fame–inducted. That angers music critics, who have been slagging off this band of hard-rock prom kings since the 1980s. Among the haters is Hit Parade host Chris Molanphy, who has loathed Bon Jovi since high school. But even he can’t deny it: Bon Jovi are hugely influential. In the wake of their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Chris puts aside his animus to explain how the biggest band in hair metal have remained strangely relevant—thanks to their deathless hits, their album sales and, more recently, their influence on a certain hair-metal-loving Swedish pop producer. Email: hitparade@slate.com   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Josh Levin and Stefan Fatsis discuss the NBA playoffs with Slate’s Nick Greene. The Irish Times’ Ken Early joins to talk about Arsene Wenger’s departure as Arsenal’s manager, and the MMQB’s Tim Rohan explores the history of the mock draft. NBA playoffs (2:00): The hosts are joined by Nick Greene to assess the first round, which has featured standout play from the Philadelphia 76ers, a shocking sweep by the New Orleans Pelicans, and LeBron James’ efforts to drag a subpar supporting cast past the Indiana Pacers. Arsene Wenger (21:25): Ken Early explains why the legendary Arsenal manager’s tenure went south and what his legacy will be in the Premier League. Mock drafts (40:30): Where did mock drafts come from and how have they eaten the world? Tim Rohan, who did an oral history of the mock draft for Sports Illustrated’s MMQB, comes on the show to explain. Afterballs (53:25):  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Think you know music? Hit Parade, the pop-chart history podcast from Slate, is rolling out a new feature. Every month, the show will test a listener contestant in a special mini episode called The Bridge.  Host Chris Molanphy will invite one person onto the show to play some music trivia, and contestants have the opportunity to turn the tables on him: They’ll get a chance to try to stump Molanphy, a music journalist for the last 25 years, with their own trivia question.  If you want to play along at home and quiz yourself, listen to the first episode of The Bridge here. If you’d like to be a contestant on an upcoming show, sign up for a Slate Plus membership, and then enter as a contestant here. You can also enter if you’re already a Slate Plus member.  Email: hitparade@slate.com  Podcast production by T. J. Raphael Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A 22-year-old who calls herself a “professional sugar baby” explains why she goes on dates with much older men for money—and why the men don’t always think of her as a sex worker.Subscribe to our weekly email newsletter, if you haven't already. Every Wednesday we send out podcast listening recommendations, fascinating letters from our inbox and updates from the show. Sign up at deathsexmoney.org/newsletter.And follow the show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Got a story to share? Email us any time at deathsexmoney@wnyc.org. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Josh Levin and Stefan Fatsis discuss the musical Small Ball with Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey. ESPN’s Bill Barnwell joins to talk about why the NFL is bad at scouting quarterbacks, and The Good Place’s Mike Schur explains his love for Dan Le Batard. Small Ball (1:55): The day after the Rockets’ win in Game 1 of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, general manager Daryl Morey talks about his passion for musical theater, which led him to commission a basketball-themed musical. Quarterbacks (18:00): Why can’t the NFL separate the Akili Smiths from the Carson Wentzes? Bill Barnwell crunched the numbers for ESPN and joins the show to theorize about why the league can’t figure out which signal-callers to draft. Dan Le Batard (37:39): Mike Schur, the creator of Parks and Recreation and The Good Place, discusses why he’s obsessed with the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz and what makes it such a special radio show. Afterballs(57:17):  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Josh Levin and Stefan Fatsis discuss Patrick Reed’s Masters win with Slate’s Jim Newell. The Toronto Star’s Bruce Arthur also joins to talk about the Humboldt bus crash, and the Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh helps assess Shohei Ohtahi’s amazing week. Masters (1:36): Jim Newell explains why first-time major champion Patrick Reed is so widely loathed, and they discuss whether we should be repulsed by Reed or feel bad for him. Canadian hockey tragedy (20:43): The bus crash in Saskatchewan that killed 10 youth hockey players and five adults joins a long list of horrifying sports accidents. Bruce Arthur and the hosts talk about the legacy of those events and the special place junior hockey holds in Canadian society. Baseball (31:26): Ben Lindbergh prognosticates about whether Los Angeles Angels phenom Shohei Ohtani can keep up his amazing pitching and hitting. They also chat about Giancarlo Stanton’s slow start and Gabe Kapler’s bizarre managing decisions. Afterballs(51:37):  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.