Stephen Metcalf, Julia Turner, and Dana Stevens discuss the movie Booksmart, what it's like to lose 250 thousand dollars on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on the occasion of its cancelation with Slate's Justin Peters, and Dana's new podcast Flashback with K. Austin Collins. In Slate Plus: the panel picks their favorite TV show endings. 
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Culture Gabfest: Barbie Body Dream Sequence Edition

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In this episode, Bassey Ikpi (New York Times bestselling essay collection, I’m Telling the Truth but I’m Lying) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about an international sisters’ trip gone awry, a husband’s struggle to live with his wife’s mental health issues, and an uncomfortable situation between coworkers.
If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members.
Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months.
This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie.
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Dear Prudence: My Wife’s Bipolar Diagnosis Is Creating A Rift in Our Marriage. Help!

Nostalgia for the 1990s is everywhere, and for a generation of African Americans, perhaps nothing symbolizes the fun of that decade more than Freaknik. A sprawling days-long festival of all the good –and bad– of spring break behavior, at its height, Freaknik drew tens of thousands of partiers each year from around the country to Atlanta. So why did the party stop, and is there any way it could ever come back again?

On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson discusses the Hulu documentary Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told with director P. Frank Williams and executive producer Geraldine Porras..


Guests: P. Frank Williams and Geraldine Porras, the director and executive producer of Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told on Hulu.

Podcast production by Ahyiana Angel

Want more A Word? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/awordplus to get access wherever you listen.
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A Word: Freaknik: Party in the Black

For this week’s episode of Working Overtime, hosts Ronald Young Jr. and Isaac Butler examine a listener’s question about tackling the stickiest aspects of collaborating on a creative project. Both hosts have had their fair share of nightmare scenarios, but they agree that some of the best practices for collaborating involve having frank conversations before a project begins. 

Do you have questions or advice of your own about the creative process? Reach out at (304) 933-9675 or email us at working@slate.com. 

Podcast production by Kevin Bendis and Cameron Drews.
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Working: Collaborating Through Conflict

On this week’s show, Slate culture writer (and Very, Very Good Friend of the Show, a.k.a. VVGFOP) Nadira Goffe sits in for Dana Stevens. The three begin with Civil War, writer-director Alex Garland’s (Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men) dystopian travelog starring Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, and Wagner Moura that imagines a burned out, bombed out America in the throes of a raging internal conflict. But who is fighting whom? Our panel discusses. Then, they examine Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, an eight-part series on Max depicting a very different civil war. Here, the exemplary sit-down stand-up comedian goes to war with himself, his public image, and the very nature of “reality.” It’s “Seinfeld meets reality TV meets Sylvia Plath,” and is a painfully naked confessional that begs the question: “Is Jerrod Carmichael trolling us?” (Read Nadira’s fantastic piece, “Who Did People Think Jerrod Carmichael Is?” Finally, the trio turns to “gaslighting,” the pop psychology term up for debate in Leslie Jamison’s essay for The New Yorker, “So You Think You’ve Been Gaslit.” Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year in 2022, is “gaslighting” a handy term used to describe harmful behavior? Or has “gaslighting” become so ubiquitous, it’s lost all meaning? The panel gets into it. 
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the hosts explore stuffed animals (including but not limited to: Squishmallows, Jelly Cats, and “lovies”), the difference between a blanket and blankie, and the joys of embracing one’s inner child, inspired by Valerie Trapp’s essay for The Atlantic, “Welcome to Kidulthood.” 
Email us at culturefest@slate.com. 
Outro music: "200 Dont's" by Conditional
Endorsements:
Nadira: (1) The Wiz revival on Broadway. 
(2) Costco! 
(3) Willow Smith’s new song, “b i g f e e l i n g s” off of her upcoming album, empathogen. 
Julia: G. T. Karber’s book of puzzles, Murdle: 100 Simple to Impossible Mysteries to Solve Using Logic, Skill, and the Power of Deduction. “It’s a cross between an LSAT logic puzzle and a murder mystery.” 
Stephen: Becca Rothfeld’s debut essay collection, All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess. (Becca will be on the show next week to discuss! For extra credit, grab a copy of her book and come prepared.)
Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong. 
Hosts
Nadira Goffe, Julia Turner, Stephen Metcalf
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Culture Gabfest: Civil War, What Is It Good For?

Candice Lim is joined by We Signed An NDA co-host Ann Maddox, who you may know as Tom Sandoval’s former personal assistant. In March 2023, Maddox was teaching improv to a middle school in Japan when she found out Sandoval and his then-girlfriend Ariana Madix had split. At first, Maddox assumed this was simply routine tabloid fodder, which often plagued her employers as long-time cast members on Vanderpump Rules. But one specific photograph made her realize the rumors were true, which escalated into one of 2023’s biggest online watercooler moments: “Scandoval.” Maddox joins the show to discuss how she got into this line of work, what she knew when Scandoval went down, and what it’s like to have your personal and professional life dissected online.
This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim and Rachelle Hampton.
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Culture Gabfest: Barbie Body Dream Sequence Edition

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