Slate Culture Feed

Latest Episodes:

A Word: A Video Vault of Black Excellence May 21, 2021

Show notes

Whoopi Goldberg’s early views, Barack Obama’s youthful indiscretions, Diahann Carroll’s big break. Those stories and thousands more have been preserved by The HistoryMakers, a video archive of notable African Americans. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson speaks with the founder and president of The HistoryMakers, Julieanna Richardson, about the project’s mission, and the urgency of preserving Black history during Covid crisis.

Guest: Julieanna Richardson, founder and president of The HistoryMakers

Podcast production by Ahyiana Angel and Jasmine Ellis

You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for just $1 for your first month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hit Parade: Blame It on the Feign, Part 1 May 20, 2021

Show notes

For a musical project that’s synonymous with deceit, Milli Vanilli sold an awful lot of records. They also have quite a legacy: a blend of pop, dance and rap that now seems commonplace but was still relatively novel in 1989. If you’ve danced to Europop that fronts like hip-hop, you’re living in a world Milli Vanilli helped create.

In this episode of Hit Parade, Chris Molanphy breaks down the history of Milli Vanilli mastermind Frank Farian’s musical career: from his days with Boney M, a hit-making, half-real, half-fake group that was a precursor to his later scheme; to his enlistment of European model–dancers Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan to be the faux-frontpeople of Milli Vanilli. From MTV News to Behind the Music, the Milli Vanilli story has been told and retold. But the Billboard chart feats achieved by Rob and Fab, and their accomplices, reveal just how addicted America was to their music—and maybe, how they won that Grammy.

Hit Parade episodes are now split into two parts, released two weeks apart. For the full episode right now, sign up for Slate Plus and you'll also get The Bridge, our Trivia show and bonus deep dive. Click here for more info.

Podcast production by Asha Saluja with help from Rosemary Belson.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Outward: ACT UP History and Queer Portraits May 19, 2021

Show notes

This month, Christina, Bryan, and Rumaan are joined by Sarah Schulman, whose new book Let the Record Show sets out to correct inaccurate representations of ACT UP New York, its tactics, and its philosophy of direct action in response to the AIDS epidemic. Then they discuss three collections of photographs of LGBTQ people. Who are they for, and will they be seen by the people who need them most?

Items discussed on the show:

"How to Be a Queer Person in the World Post-Quarantine," by Naveen Kumar

The section of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass that begins, "I have perceived that to be with those I like is enough.”

Let The Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-93, by Sarah Schulman

Sarah’s appearance on the June 10, 2020, episode of Outward, “ACT UP and Larry Kramer's Legacy”

The ACT UP Oral History Project

Self Evident Truths: 10,000 Portraits of Queer America, by IO Tillett Wright

Queer Love in Color, by Jamal Jordan

Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians, by JEB (Joan E. Biren)

Gay Agenda

Bryan: Taylor Mac’s "Whitman in the Woods"

Christina: Call My Agent

Rumaan: Halston

This podcast was produced by Margaret Kelley.

Please send feedback, topic ideas, and advice questions to outwardpodcast@slate.com.

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Culture Gabfest: Godot vs. the Machines May 19, 2021

Show notes

This week Steve, Dana, and Julia discuss Netflix’s animated film The Mitchells vs. the Machines. Next, the panel dives into the cultural resonances of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck aka “Bennifer.” Finally, the group is joined by Isaac Butler, co-host of Slate’s Working podcast, to talk about the latest Zoom version of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

In Slate Plus, Isaac Butler joins the hosts to talk about the state of theater and what its reopening will look like in the coming months.

Email us at culturefest@slate.com

Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Rachael Allen.

Outro music: "You Know What I Want" by Staffan Carlen

Endorsements

Dana: “The Trees”by Philip Larkin

Julia: Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener

Steve: “Arendt and Roth: An Uncanny Convergence” by Corey Robin and DeFazio’s Pizzeria in Troy, NY

Further Reading

“What Everyone Forgot About Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez” by Heather Schwedel in Slate

“Why is Bennifer 2.0 so exciting? Because last time, we screwed it up” by Meredith Blake in the LA Times

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and a bonus segment in each episode of the Culture Gabfest. Sign up now at slate.com/cultureplus.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ICYMI: Should You Post That Israel-Palestine Meme? May 19, 2021

Show notes

For the past week, while the violence between Israel and Palestine has escalated, a separate battle has accelerated on social media, one fought with rocket emojis instead of rockets and celebrities like Israeli actress Gal Gadot and Palestinian-American model Bella Hadid getting involved. If you don’t post, are you tacitly anti-Palestine? Anti-semitic? If you do post and you fumble some of your history, are you nothing but a hashtag activist? (What about if you get right?) In this episode, Madison and Rachelle survey a week’s worth of controversial celebrity statements and the evolution of one particular viral infographic to ask who these memes and Instagram posts really serve and how to avoid the 2021 equivalent of posting black squares.

Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Derek John.

Support ICYMI and listen to the show with zero ads. Sign up to become a Slate Plus member for just $1 for your first month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Working: How "Bookstagrammer" Jordan Moblo Crafts His Posts May 16, 2021

Show notes

This week, host Rumaan Alam talks to Jordan Moblo, the man behind the Instagram account @jordys.book.club, which features artful photos of both fiction and nonfiction books, as well as short reviews of titles Jordan feels like promoting. In the interview, Jordan discusses the creative decisions that go into his posts and explains what it was like to grow an audience of 69,000 followers. He also talks about balancing his Instagram hobby with his full-time job.

After the interview, Rumaan and co-host Isaac Butler discuss Jordan’s decision to never post negative reviews of books.

In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Jordan lists some of his favorite book covers and talks about the hashtag #bookstagrammademedoit.

Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675.

Podcast production by Cameron Drews.

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and the Culture Gabfest—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ICYMI: Chrissy Teigen Was Never the Good Guy May 15, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode, Rachelle and Madison discuss the latest news about Chrissy Teigen and Courtney Stodden. Earlier this week, Stodden, who rose to fame as a teenager in the early 2010s after marrying middle-aged character actor Doug Hutchison, came forward saying that they had been harassed on Twitter by Teigen, who sent tweets wishing for their death. Teigen has since apologized, but this news highlighted the disgusting ways people used to talk about young girls on the internet, and how Teigen’s online presence has never been as kind and lovable as she’d want you to believe.

Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Derek John.

Support ICYMI and listen to the show with zero ads. Sign up to become a Slate Plus member for just $1 for your first month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Word: White Here, White Now May 14, 2021

Show notes

Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility climbed back on the best-seller charts after George Floyd’s murder. On today’s episode of A Word, she talks with Jason Johnson about what white allyship looks like after Derek Chauvin’s conviction, and the challenges of building an anti-racist society. The two originally spoke at the Crosscut Festival, an online conference that took a hard look at the people, policy and events that shape our lives.

Guest: Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility

Podcast production by Ahyiana Angel and Jasmine Ellis

You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for just $1 for your first month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spoiler Specials: Woman in the Window May 14, 2021

Show notes

On the Spoiler Special podcast, Slate critics discuss movies, the occasional TV show, and, once in a blue moon, another podcast, in full spoiler-filled detail. This week, Slate’s Brow Beat nights and weekends editor Matthew Dessem is joined by Slate books and culture columnist Laura Miller to spoil Woman in the Window, the new Netflix thriller based on the book by A. J. Finn.

Agoraphobic Dr. Anna Fox (Amy Adams) witnesses something she shouldn't while keeping tabs on the Russell family, the seemingly picture perfect clan that lives across the way. What could possibly go wrong?

Note: As the title indicates, this podcast contains spoilers galore.

Email us at spoilers@slate.com.

Podcast production by Morgan Flannery.

Hosts

Laura Miller is a books and culture columnist for Slate

Matthew Dessem isSlate’s Brow Beat’s nights and weekends editor

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ICYMI: Sorry SNL, Gen Z Didn’t Invent That Slang May 12, 2021

Show notes

Rachelle and Madison discuss Elon Musk’s episode of Saturday Night Live. Specifically they break down the ”Gen Z Hospital” sketch, where everybody seems to be speaking in internet slang, and the backlash to it. Rachelle explains how all the language used isn’t just from the internet or from Zoomers but from African-American Vernacular English. This isn’t a new thing, of course—white Americans have been appropriating Black culture for as long as America has been around—but as this Paper magazine article by Rob Dozier points out, the internet has made it particularly easy for those words to lose their original context.

Podcast Production by Daniel Schroeder and Derek John.

Support ICYMI and listen to the show with zero ads. Sign up to become a Slate Plus member for just $1 for your first month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected