Slate Culture Feed

In 1979, Sister Sledge changed the sound of wedding receptions forever with “We Are Family.” Believe it or not, the Chic-penned banger never made it to No. 1. Steely Dan helped invent Yacht Rock with 1977’s jazzy bop “Peg.” (They would have loved it better if it had cracked the Top 10.) And in 1972, Elton John told a timeless tale of a blue-jean baby, “Tiny Dancer.” Casey Kasem never counted it down.

Today on Hit Parade: Chris Molanphy celebrates “near misses”—now-ubiquitous hits that missed the mark on the pop charts, stalling out at No. 2, No. 11, or No. 41. In this episode, Chris zooms in on near-misses from the 1970s, including songs from Paul McCartney, the Spinners, Jackson Browne, Cat Stevens, Diana Ross, and Michael Jackson.

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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 and Demi Moore, the candy-colored agitprop is about exploitation, the fashion world, shoplifting as class warfare, and— as they discuss—perhaps more than one movie can handle. 

Next they turn from Marx to Freud and analyze the critically adored reality TV phenomenon Couples Therapy, now entering its fifth season. Is the office of Dr. Orna Guralnik a site of transcendent psychological revelation or panoptic exploitation? They unpack.

Finally, they talk lingvo itself by way of a recent article in Harpers by Katie Thornton about the unlikely resurgence of interest in the artificial language Esperanto. 

In a bonus episode for Slate Plus subscribers, they answer a listener question about what long-running pieces of culture they’ve stuck with over years.

Ĝuu!

Endorsements

Dana: The book The Artificial Language Movement by Andrew Large about the centuries-long history of utopic language projects.

Julia: Lena Dunham’s memoir Famesick and Dialed.gg, the internet’s latest color perception test.

Steve: The music of the indie shoegaze band Slowdive—particularly the album Souvlaki—and the solo efforts of its frontman Neil Halstead—particularly the song “Witless or Wise” and the album Palindrome Hunches; check out Steve’s mega playlist for more.

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Email us your thoughts at [email protected]. 

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

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Earlier this year we debuted Decoder Rings Back, our new feature exclusively for Decoder Ring Plus subscribers. In each installment, Willa gets a listener on the phone and tries her best to answer their question about a cultural mystery. We have been having a blast making these episodes, and if you haven’t heard them, we think you’re missing out. So in the hopes of instilling some FOMO that motivates you to support the work we do here by becoming a Decoder Ring Plus subscriber, here’s a sneak peek at the latest installment.

This time, we hear from Julia Latino in Massachusetts who’s been baffled for years by a strange sight: dozens of tiny rubber duckies riding on the dashboard of Jeeps. What started this craze, and why Jeeps of all cars?

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 New York Magazine features writer Lane Brown whose latest piece breaks down the “clipping economy,” which has become the backbone of the entire internet. Cheaper than traditional advertising, people and companies employ bots and users to generate fake hype for everything from music to TV shows to SNL performances. The internet has become so saturated with this content that now almost everyone has to do it to compete. But if you take away clipping, does any real internet remain? And if everything is marketing, is anything online real?

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

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Anna talks to Alexis, a parent whose 8 year old son has an anxiety disorder, about what it was like attending a therapy program designed for parents of anxious children. Plus, Anna talks to the founder of the program, Dr. Eli Lebowitz, Director of the Program for Anxiety Disorders at the Yale Child Study Center, and author of Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD: A Scientifically Proven Program for Parents.

Podcast production by Zoe Azulay

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 Daysia Tolentino to discuss whether influencers serve us at all in 2026. James Charles faced backlash for publicly mocking a recently laid-off woman who DMed him for support. And in response, some users are questioning why they even support influencers. While some creators offer niche content or services, many in the A-list are now simply famous for being famous. Meanwhile, the average American is struggling with the rising cost of living. Which begs the question: can we any longer be entertained by watching privileged people doing privileged things? 

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

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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 the romantic relationships depicted in the buzzy indie horror Obsession. This rom-com/horror mashup—marking Curry Barker’s impressive feature directorial debut—deals with questions of codependency and consent. But the real question: is Obsession worth the online obsession? 

Next, they turn their gaze to the spooky titular island of Widow’s Bay and discuss the new series starring Matthew Rhys in another horror/comedy genre experiment. Finally, they debate whether most kids’ books are “crud?” Or really, is the recent online furor over comments in children’s book creator Mac Barnett’s new book Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children merited?

In a bonus episode for Slate Plus subscribers, the gang gather over the topic of book clubs.

Endorsements

June: Get In: The Inside Story of Labor Under Starmer by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund, a detailed and readable analysis of Keir Starmer's unlikely rise to power.

Sam: The latest film of indie, animated short auteur Don Hertzfeldt "Paper Trail."

Isaac: The novel The Oppermanns, a family saga by Lion Feuchtwanger written in real time during Hitler’s rise. (And, as a bonus peek into Feuchtwanger's post-war milieu, check out Salka Viertel’s autobiography The Kindness of Strangers.)

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Email us your thoughts at [email protected]. 

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

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Like the palm tree, the Everglades, Disney World, and the “Florida Man,” the orange is a classic symbol of the Sunshine State. But maybe not for much longer. Production has declined to catastrophic levels, a decrease of more than 95% in less than 25 years. It’s a produce murder mystery—and Decoder Ring is tagging along with reporter Alex Sammon to crack the case. The suspects include insects, hurricanes, mortgage-backed securities, and the American habit of not reckoning with enormous, load-bearing flaws until it’s way too late.

In this episode, you’ll hear from Alex, a feature writer at Slate, who visited Florida to check on the orange and write about its demise. You’ll also hear from Gary Mormino, Florida lover, expert, and professor emeritus of Florida Studies at the University of South Florida.

This episode was produced by Katie Shepherd and Evan Chung, Decoder Ring’s supervising producer. It was edited by Josh Levin. Decoder Ring is also produced by Willa Paskin and Max Freedman. 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.

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Sources for This Episode

Hamilton, Alissa. Squeezed: What You Don't Know about Orange Juice, Yale University Press, 2010.

Hussey, Scott D. “The Sunshine State's Golden Fruit: Florida And The Orange,1930-1960,” USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Apr. 2, 2010.

McPhee, John. Oranges, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1967.

Mormino, Gary. “The enduring but endangered symbol of Florida,” The Gainesville Sun, Apr. 3, 2016.

Sammon, Alex. “Who Killed The Florida Orange?” Slate, Apr. 20, 2026.

Walkey, Will and Amory Sivertson. “The fall of Florida citrus,” On Point, Aug. 19, 2025

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On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by writer and comedian Matt Buechele to talk about how the etiquette around phones is shifting, with previously phone-free spaces now welcoming them into the room. In almost all cases, this makes the experience worse for everyone else, but rather than rebelling, people are starting to accept this as a fact of life. Enough! Let Kate watch Hokum in peace!

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

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The actor and travel writer Andrew McCarthy used to be a member of one of pop culture’s most famous friend groups: The Brat Pack. He starred in movies like Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo’s Fire and palled around with actors like Rob Lowe and Emilio Estevez.

Four decades later, in middle age, he found himself nearly friendless and set out on a cross-country road trip to reunite with the buddies he missed the most. This week on DSM, he tells Anna about the awkward conversations and tender moments that led to his new book Who Needs Friends: An Unscientific Examination of Male Friendship Across America. 

This episode was produced by Cameron Drews. 

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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