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 Steven Spielberg and his new film Disclosure Day. Starring Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt, it’s a sci-fi, action thriller about the longheld Spielbergian obsession: extraterrestrial life. Does it deliver that trademark Spielberg sense of wonder or tired cliches… or both?

Next, they welcome longtime friend of the program Isaac Butler to discuss his new book The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America's Culture Wars and threats to free expression past, present, and future. 

Finally, and for the final time, beloved chartologist Chris Molanphy joins the show to remember Summer Struts past and curate the ultimate shortlist of shortlists. The panel shares their most adored songs from previous years and the tracks that never made the list but should have.

Listen to the final, ultimate, best of Summer Strut shortlist here. And for even more struttin’, you can listen to ten years of Summer Strut shortlists in one playlist here.

For Slate Plus subscribers, our bonus episode includes even more propulsive, groovy tracks and reflective conversation about what was Summer Strut.

Endorsements

Dana: Slate’s Spielberg Week and the 2023 conversation between the three philosophers John Vervaeke, Iain McGilchrist, and Daniel Schmachtenberger on "The Psychological Drivers of the Metacrisis."

Chris: The 2025 music video, directed by Mike Mills and starring Saoirse Ronan, of the Talking Heads classic Psycho Killer.

Julia:  L.A. Material's upcoming Culinary Cup, a tournament of Los Angeles restaurants from the national diasporas represented in World Cup teams. 

Steve: Sports. (Latecomers and bandwagon fans welcome! Go Knicks!)

And don’t forget to preorder Isaac Butler’s book The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America's Culture Wars.

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Email us your thoughts at [email protected]. 

Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You know the Tootsie Shot. It’s that image that pops up all the time in movies set in a dense city: a really busy midtown street, everyone going somewhere—and smack in the middle of it all is the protagonist. You can find it in Working Girl, Midnight Cowboy, Wall Street, Heartburn, Elf, Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Devil Wears Prada, The Wolf of Wall Street, and so many more. But while it’s one of the most recognizable camera shots in all of film, it only amounts to a short, transitional moment, often in the middle of a montage, and sometimes lasting for a couple seconds. It is, after all, just someone walking down a crowded street. So why is it so sticky?

Some of the voices you’ll hear in this episode include James Sanders, author of Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies; cinematographer Adam Holender; producer Anna Wenger; assistant director Joe Reidy, author Christopher Bonanos, media and entertainment lawyer Sam Bayard, and location manager Mara Alcaly. Also thanks to Jason Bailey, Sam Levy, Glenn Kenny, Carlo Mirabella-Davis, J.D. Amato, David Sims, Bill Parker, Doug Brody, Sean Fennessey, and Jody Rosen.

This episode was produced by Willa Paskin and Benjamin Frisch. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.

If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at [email protected] 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.

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On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Slate staff writer Nitish Pawha to discuss his piece “Your TV Is Not Safe.” Apps like Instagram, Substack, and Spotify are making the leap from smart phones to smart TVs, as TVs attempt to compete against scrolling, and the nature of entertainment is changing. But giving over our TVs to these companies even further changes our relationships with technology, and even more, how we spend time with each other. 

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay, with help from A.C. Valdez.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Actor Peter Dinklage and playwright Erica Schmidt have been married for two decades, and even though they’ve collaborated on projects, it’s rare for them to do an interview together. That’s why we were so excited when they agreed to join Anna on stage at the Tribeca Festival to discuss how they balance privacy and family, why they wish interviewers would stop fixating on Game of Thrones, and how they met on a romantic evening when elephants walked through Manhattan. 

This episode was produced by Cameron Drews. Extra thanks to Alexandra Cohl and Katie Rayford, who helped with the live event, and Davy Gardner and Allyson Morgan, our talented friends at the Tribeca Festival. 

Get more Death, Sex & Money with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of DSM and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Death, Sex & Money show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/dsmplus to get access wherever you listen.

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 email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected]. 

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On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay speaks with Rachel Barker, host of Girl on Film on YouTube. The internet has been rich with horror content for decades, but only recently have iconic creepy stories and their creators finally gone mainstream. With movies like Obsession and Backrooms breaking box office records, are YouTubers the next breakout stars for Hollywood? 

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 Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay. Editorial support from A.C. Valdez.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you were watching cable TV around midday at the turn of the millennium, there’s a good chance you saw a commercial for a compilation CD called Monster Ballads. It promised you more than two hours of musical cheese—some of the most over-the-top, cornball, leather-clad romantic jams ever to grace the charts, from “Heaven” to “High Enough,” “Carrie” to “Amanda.”

There’s another, more common term for these rockin’ romancers: power ballads. And while this TV ad suggested the power ballad was perfected in the ’80s—preferably sung by a dude in spandex, with long, flowing locks—its roots go back decades earlier. Acts as seemingly mild as Roy Orbison, Harry Nilsson and even the Carpenters were pivotal to the way these mega-devotionals evolved. R&B divas would turn power vocals into an athletic sport, alongside hair-metal howlers. Eventually, power ballads colonized the charts in the ’80s, the ’90s and beyond.

Maybe they’re cheesy, cringeworthy and melodramatic—but power ballads have proven remarkably enduring, with even 21st-century Zoomer stars like Olivia Rodrigo offering their own variations. So, join Chris Molanphy as he brings on the heartbreak, finds thorns on every rose, explores feelings we can’t fight anymore and celebrates pop fans’ greatest love of all: the power ballad.

Podcast production by Kevin Bendis

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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 still got much to discuss!

On this special guest-packed show, Steve, Dana, and Nadira Goffe have the power! That is the power to get into it with VSFOP Jamelle Bouie about Masters of the Universe, the latest attempt by Mattel to launch their own cinematic universe. They assess the state of IP-driven superhero movies and whether this newest entry—starring Nicholas Galitzine, as the buff, loin cloth-wearing He-Man, and Jared Leto, as the slightly lascivious Skeletor—is more than brand management.

Next, they turn to the wild, surreal revenge thriller Is God Is, written and directed by Aleshea Harris based on her stageplay. They talk about how this tale of twin sisters seeking vengeance fits into the growing pantheon of Black horror as well as the ancient canon of revenge tragedies.

Finally, and for the final time, it’s time to talk about Taylor Swift. In the wake of her newest release, the song “I Knew It, I Knew You” for the Toy Story 5 soundtrack, the gang assembles one more time to take up the long-simmering Tay debate. Jody Rosen and Julia jump on the call/enter the Thunderdome for this, of course. 

In a bonus episode for Slate Plus subscribers, the panel pours one out for the recently shuttered Hampshire College and reflects on the changing landscape of the liberal arts.

Endorsements

Dana: The interactive, Jazz-playing, transit-obsessed, single purpose website Train Jazz. (Hat tip once more to Rusty Foster's Today in Tabs.)

Nadira: The Black Film Archive which showcases Black films made from 1898 to 1999 currently streaming. Also, the year 2016 in music. 

Jody: For some Gabfest replacement therapy, watching academic lectures on YouTube such as the lectures of art historian John Walsh at Yale Art Galleries—including ones on Vincent Van Gogh and Dutch masters— and cultural historian Eric Lott on Racial Masquerade in America and Philippe Petit's legendary tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. 

Julia: Patrick Radden Keefe's new book London Falling and the song "Come Tomorrow" by Patti Scialfa.

Steve: Following up on last week’s endorsement, Steve can confirm that Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee is, in fact, good. Also recommended: Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald.  

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Email us your thoughts at [email protected]. 

Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Rachel Karten, a social media consultant and the writer of Link In Bio. Storytimes and other caught-on-camera content frequently goes viral on social media, but now companies have started manufacturing their own skits to secretly advertise themselves. Countless “ambassadors” are telling the same fake stories all over TikTok, with links to brands in their bios but not disclosing that they are trying to get viewers to buy products. Even worse, people keep falling for it. The more we earnestly engage with these made-up scenarios, the more we push the secretly-sponsored content into people’s feeds. Will anyone stop them?

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay, with help from A.C. Valdez.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Theo Baker was seventeen when he enrolled at Stanford and stumbled into one of the biggest stories on campus: academic misconduct allegations against the university's president. His reporting eventually forced the president out. In this episode, Theo talks about breaking that story, navigating backlash from classmates and faculty, and what he's learned about the ways Silicon Valley's culture of ambition and power shapes college life.

Theo’s book is How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University 

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 [email protected].

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On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by writer Stephanie McNeal to discuss the internet phenomenon of “boy moms.” As an internet culture expert, and recent mother of a boy herself, Stephanie helps break down the reaction to a recent viral post from actress Jenny Mollen, who has publicly compared her sons to “toxic exes” and is already mourning losing them to their eventual marriages. But she is far from the only example of this trope on social media, and the more mothers fall into this trap, the more they legitimize a problematic dynamic.

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.