Slate Culture - Podcast Rankings and reviews

I fell in love with podcasts in the 2000s, and this podcast was one of my first go-tos. Stephen, Dana, and Julia always seem as though they’ve done plenty of background work—true reporting—on the works they cover in each episode. They are thoughtful and smart, and they make connections I might not on my own. They select topics carefully and invite outside guests to discuss them when it is called for and when those guests enhance the discussion.

I’ve had one or two occasions when I’ve wished they had pulled in people more representative of groups represented in works under discussion, especially groups who haven’t been well represented in the mainstream cultural canon until recently (sorry to be blanking on specific examples). But that takes funding as well as connections, and I know the whole Slate enterprise has been cash-strapped recently. Plus, I can say as a white cis-gender pansexual woman in a long-term relationship with a man, and as a listener who is in many ways quite similar culturally to the hosts, I think everyone is finally getting better on this front in white-dominated American popular culture. So maybe just a future direction for more improvement?

For years I’ve loved how members of the panel trio balance and complement each other. They remind me sometimes of musicians who have played together for years in their chemistry and the history you can feel under their exchanges.

To podcast peruser: Do it. They are brilliant to a person. Even when you disagree it’ll be interesting. They don’t interrupt each other. Fantastic mix of topics. They give a sh** about the world. Probably not for you if you just want updates on reality shows—although they do weirdly seem to keep coming back to the bachelorette (not my thing but I appreciate whatever they’re doing). You will find things you will love forever.

To gabbers: I still make that chickpea recipe occasionally (with actual chickpeas, weirdos) and Sharon Van Etten rocks my world. Please change nothing, make the show forever, give us plenty of notice to see you live, keep raising up underrepresented voices, and accept our thanks.

Great interviews that always contain useful and motivating content. Like a helpful, humble, honest pep talk.

I used to adore this podcast, recommend it others, even joined the FB group (but probably never posted anything..), but all that is to say I was once enthusiastic. I used to take notes on their recommendations as things they covered. I found Steve charming as a pompous white man in the hudson valley is...but he is brilliant, so the pompousness felt earned, or that’s what I thought. Dana’s insights and love for cinema was evident in her reviews, and I found her personable, energetic, and smart as hell. It was Julia who felt like the weak link, like she was more a half-focused consumer of culture, a movie watcher always on her phone, but not a deep thinker behind it. And I too have a young child, so I got the kid stuff, but that’s not an excuse to approach the show unrigorously. Back when there were fewer podcasts with POC or even magazines and papers regularly publishing POC, this podcast made more sense. Think of the target reader of the New Yorker and Paris Review. If that’s you, you may love it. If you are someone who is more excited about queer or POC or international or working-class perspectives, this podcast is not for you. And frankly, given that two of the hosts are based in NYC, in a POC-majority city, and international city, it really feels like they aren’t invested in the most vital and strongest culture that is thriving. Take a look at what’s happening in American poetry, television production, visual art—its voices and cultures that are not represented here, and when it is, there is so much white guilt and not action. the podcast is fine, it may be enjoyable, it’s competent. But it in 2020, it’s not about CULTURE. In one episode a few years they talked about their make-up, and Dana said, if we made room for someone else, a person of color, who would go? I don’t want to go. This is a paraphrase but it was so memorable to me. And if anyone asked me, Dana should stay. She seems the most thoughtful and engaged in the culture of the current moment. But then again, maybe keep the slate as is, as the podcast space is expansive and there are so many excellent voices that represent the communities that make American culture so rich and exciting. Don’t feel bad if it’s not for you. It’s them. Not you.

I really enjoy the Culture Gabfest, but just be aware that if you subscribe, Slate will fill your phone with dozens of other unrelated shows such as Thirst Aid Kit, Working, Decoder Ring, etc. I don’t want to listen to these. Please stop pushing them in this feed.

In the Ep, “America’s Obsession with Trans Women”, reduced own arguments to nothing when she resorted to name calling and rudeness towards whole groups of people with one person as an example (“mids”, celebrities are all dumb, etc). Would have been much more effective to practice the respect for all that you ironically were preaching. What a shame, because I think approached differently, this could have been a good episode and an opportunity to teach rather than a turn off.