Slate Culture Feed

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by writer of Garbage Day and host of Panic World, Ryan Broderick. Ryan has been tracking the metrics of prominent right-wing creators like Ben Shapiro and Tim Pool over the past year or so, and noticed a surprising trend: once lauded as an unbeatable force of political influence, these creators are struggling with both their views and finances. Is this a sign of the tide turning, or was the right wing media ecosystem never as powerful as we thought it was?

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

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The opening riff of “White Wedding” is instantly recognizable—a skittering, syncopated guitar line quickly swallowed by pummeling drums. But the song itself is a bit of an enigma. Is it rock? Pop? New wave? Rockabilly punk? Like much of Billy Idol’s career, the song exists somewhere in between. Idol was a shape-shifter, blurring genre lines in pursuit of bigger hooks, bigger audiences and, eventually, pop stardom.

Raised near London and running with the Sex Pistols’ inner circle, Idol arrived with genuine punk bona fides. But with the rise of MTV and the explosion of new wave, he refashioned himself as the bleach-blond, leather-clad rock crooner who sneered his way to the top of the charts.

Join Chris Molanphy as he traces the rise, reinvention and Rock Hall canonization of an original MTV icon.

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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 star-studded cozy murder mystery based on a best-selling book about ungulate sleuths… and yeah, it might just be the surprise word-of-mouth delight of the season.

Next, they take up the proverbial conch shell to assess Lord of Flies, the new Netflix limited series adaptation of William Golding’s classic novel from the creator of Adolescence.

Finally, they’re joined by longtime Slate book reviewer Laura Miller who understandably has some thoughts and feelings about the recent piece by New York Times book critic Dwight Garner “Where Have All the Book Reviews Gone?”

In an exclusive bonus episode for Slate Plus subscribers, Laura sticks around to report back from her viewing of the strange mess that is the new Animal Farm adaptation.

Endorsements

Laura: The new book by philosopher and polymath C. Thi Nguyen The Score: How To Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game. 

Steve: The music of the Brazilian recording artist Sessa and the chamber music piece Quartet for the End of Time by Olivier Messiaen.

Sam: The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann.

Dana: The audiobook Patrick Stewart Performs the Complete Sonnets of William Shakespeare. 

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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 journalist and creator Princess Weekes to discuss the ethics of consuming leaks. Ten years ago, a fan with access to leaked material from their favorite artist or creator was considered elite. But now, fandoms like Avatar: The Last Airbender worry that watching the now-leaked most recent film is a slap in the face to the artists. But if the choice is between exploiting an artist’s work, and being exploited by the streaming services and corporations that are making ethical consumption even more expensive, then does anyone win? 

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

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

Tim Friede grew up in a strict, religious household with an obsession for science and a knack for breaking rules. He became fixated on a particular problem: roughly 120,000 people die from venomous snakebites every year worldwide.

He developed a theory that if he could become immune to snakebites, then his blood could be used to develop a better antivenom. So, he got to work. Over nearly two decades, while working odd jobs in factories and as a window washer, he allowed himself to be bitten over 200 times by the world's deadliest snakes, which he kept in his basement. Many of the people closest to him thought he was crazy, until his scheme worked. 

Podcast production by Zoe Azulay. 

More episodes around risk and self-experimentation:

Why Jeb Corliss Jumps Off Cliffs

Hard: Little Pill, Big Pharma

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 Pitchfork news director Alex Suskind to talk about why musicians keep coming down with “blue dot fever.” Stars like Meghan Trainor and Post Malone are among many in recent months who have cancelled entire tours, seemingly due to a lack of ticket sales. Has social media changed what it means to be famous, or have things like Ticketmaster finally made concerts too expensive to attend? Or are we, the audience, to blame? 

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

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

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 package with Slate’s music critic Carl Wilson. 

Twenty years on, we return to the world of The Devil Wears Prada. In the sequel, Andy, Anne Hathaway’s character, must save Runway Magazine from the forces of capital, who are selling the Vogue-analogue for parts, as Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly struggles to hang on to her own power. The movie has a lot to say about the state of journalism and media with plot lines seemingly ripped from the gossip pages, but does it all come together in the edit? We discuss. 

Then, the second season of A24’s anthology series BEEF stars Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan as a volatile millennial couple who enter into a feud with a younger couple, played by Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton. Set at a rich Californian golf resort and its environs, the show satirizes class and generational resentments as the characters scramble to claim the scraps of their betters at the expense of everyone else. The characters are mostly unlikeable, and the premise might be a little less original than the first season, but given BEEF’s stacked cast and pedigree, does the show sizzle? 

Finally we’re joined by Carl Wilson, Slate’s music critic and author of the newsletter “Crritic!” to discuss the New York Times package: The 30 Greatest Living Songwriters. Carl submitted a ballot for the list, and the polished version isn’t too far from his submission. He gets into his picks and discusses what the list is saying about the field of songwriting and the idea of a songwriter as it’s been expanded to include non-traditional instrumentation and digital composition. But like all lists it has sparked debate about the inclusions (Carole King, Stevie Wonder) the exclusions (Randy Newman, Liz Phair, David Byrne) and whether Taylor Swift’s inclusion was solely to get an interview. Together with Carl, we try and make sense of the list and talk about our favorites. 

As promised, here is Carl’s full ballot (The asterisks indicate people who Carl voted for but who have since died):

Willie Nelson

Smokey Robinson 

Bobby Braddock 

*Brian Wilson

Bob Dylan

Carole King

Randy Newman

Dolly Parton

Stevie Wonder

*Sly Stone

The Flatlanders (Butch Hancock/Jimmie Dale Gilmore/*Joe Ely)

Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan

Nile Rodgers

David Byrne

Mark Eitzel

Chuck D & the Bomb Squad

Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis

Stephin Merritt

Liz Phair

John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats)

Missy Elliott & Timbaland

The Love Junkies (Hillary Lindsey/Lori McKenna/Liz Rose)

Outkast (Big Boi/Andre 3000)

Josh Osborne/Brandy Clark/Shane McAnally

Phoebe Bridgers

Endorsements: 

Julia: The SNL sketch featuring Teana Taylor, Grandpa At The Wedding.

Rebecca: The new Lord Of The Flies adaptation on Netflix. 

Dana: The article in Vogue: Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour on Power, Fashion, and Acting the Part by Chloe Malle.

Email us your thoughts at [email protected]. 

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

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We are lucky to get fantastic questions from our listeners here at Decoder Ring, and in this episode, we’re going to open up our mailbag to answer three of them. What are the origins of an eerie horror film string motif? Why do companies insist on telling callers to “listen closely” to menu options that could not possibly have changed? And when did we start using the indispensable eye roll?

In this episode, you’ll hear from historical musicologist Frank Hentschel, as well as Eli Spindel, artistic director of the String Orchestra of Brooklyn. We also speak with writer Nick Greene, Holdcom CEO Andrew Begnoché, and linguist Dr. Rebecca Clift.

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

Special thanks to Nicole Holliday, and to Leilehua Lanzilotti, whose website Shaken Not Stuttered is a fantastic resource about extended techniques for strings.

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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On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Andrea González-Ramírez, a senior writer at The Cut whose recent piece explores why so many people have stopped reading the news. Instead, we’re “numbing out” after years of constant bad news on social media, to the point that even an assassination attempt on President Trump doesn’t earn a mention in our group chats. But how do we draw the line between necessary self care and privileged ignorance? 

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

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