Culture Gabfest

Announcing: Julia's New Show!

L.A. World is a new weekly podcast from L.A. Material, the local news outlet that Julia Turner helped launch earlier this year. The show helps you understand what's happe

So Long, and Thanks for All the Granola Edition

A eulogistic weepfest? A “valediction forbidding mourning”? A conscious unthroupling? All of the above? Believe it or not, the time has come for Steve, Dana, and Julia t

Toy Story 5 Crushes It at the Box Office Edition

The Gabfest’s end is nigh but we’ve still got a few bits of culture to gab upon. This week, Steve and Dana are joined by longtime Gabfest star pinch hitter Dan Kois.  Fi

One Last Strut Edition

Steve, Dana, and Julia gather once more—for almost the last time—to unpack the week’s culture. This week, conversation has to include the cultural, cinematic juggernaut S

One Last Taylor Swift Throwdown Edition

As you may have heard in last week’s episode, the Culture Gabfest is hanging up its microphones after 18 years of cultural commentary. But before our final episode, we’ve

Stuck in the Backrooms Edition

This week Steve, Dana, and Julia convene once again—this time with some big news. Also, they make a classic Gabfest episode.  First up, it's the alienating fluorescent b

I Love Boosters Heightens the Contradictions Edition

This week, the OG three Steve, Dana, and Julia dig into the visually stuffed, Marxist smorgasbord that is Boots Riley’s latest film I Love Boosters. Starring Keke Palmer

You’re My Obsession Edition

This week, we’ve got an all-guest-host panel with Gabfest faves Isaac Butler, Sam Adams, and June Thomas guiding the discourse… straight to hell. In this case, hell is th

Lord of the Sheep Edition

On this week’s show, our panel of Dana, Steve, and Sam Adams are on the case. The case: is the movie Sheep Detectives a real movie and is it any good? The answer: it’s a

Somehow, Miranda Priestly Returned Edition

This week, Julia Turner and Dana Stevens are joined by Slate’s own Rebecca Onion to discuss The Devil Wears Prada 2, BEEF season 2, and the NYT’s best living songwriters

Michael Jackson Moonwalks the Box Office Edition

This week, Dana, Steve, and Nadira Goffe assess if we as a culture can ever really escape Neverland— namely, the gigantic and fraught legacy of Michael Jackson. They unpa

Mother Troubles Edition

Steve, Dana, and Julia convene once more for a rousing Gabfest. First up, it’s Mother Mary. David Lowery’s strange psychodrama centers on a pop star, played by Anne Hatha

Richard Pryor: The Truth Teller Who Changed Comedy Forever | From Big Lives

Richard Pryor redefined comedy by telling the truth, even when it scorched him.Today, we’re sharing a preview of a new podcast, Big Lives, and a special episode about Pry

There Are No Small Parts Only Miniature Wives Edition

On this week’s show, Dana, Steve, and Dan Kois get into cultural topics of various scales. First, they examine The Christophers, the latest film from Steven Soderbergh. T

The Drama Surrounding The Drama Edition

What’s the worst thing Steve, Dana, and Julia have ever done? And would you still love them if you knew the answer to that question? That’s not a subject for today’s epis

James Bond’s Sexistential Retreat Edition

On this week’s show, Dana is joined by Slate’s own Nadira Goffe and Richard Lawson, of the Critical Darlings podcast. Their first agenda item is Jury Duty Presents: Compa

Money On Film: Spirited Away

 Welcome to a very special Money On Film miniseries! Over three episodes, Slate Money’s Felix Salmon and Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe revisit three films at the int

Ryan Gosling’s Pet Rock Edition

This week, Dana, Julia (fresh from the launch of her new media venture L.A. Material), and guest host Dan Kois set their gaze to the heavens with a discussion of the lost

Money On Film: Materialists

Welcome to a very special Money On Film miniseries! Over three episodes, Slate Money’s Felix Salmon and Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe revisit three films at the inte

Money On Film: Margin Call

Welcome to a very special Money On Film miniseries! Over three episodes, Slate Money’s Felix Salmon and Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe revisit three films at the inte