Culture Gabfest

James Bond’s Sexistential Retreat Edition

On this week’s show, Dana is joined by Slate’s own Nadira Goffe and Richard Lawson, of the Critical Darlings [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critical-darlings/id1885681327] podcast. Their first agenda item is Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat, the second installment of the workplace comedy/reality show hybrid which places an unknowing everyman in a made-up scenario populated entirely by actors. Does the second season deliver a heart-warming moral test in the form of comedy or a manipulative prank? They discuss. Next for more funhouse mirror television, they take up Bait, the Riz Ahmed-starring and created show about a Riz Ahmed-like actor vying for the role of James Bond. The show is stuffed with ideas and Ahmed’s charm, but they debate whether its conceptual martini sufficiently shaken or stirred. Finally, it’s time to go out, wear something nice, and push as they take a listen to Sexistential, the new album by Swedish dance pop queen Robyn. Though the “Dancing On My Own” singer has a new partner on the dancefloor in her young son, motherhood and midlife make for some real club classics. On a bonus episode for Plus subscribers, they take up the question, as posed in a recent New Yorker article, of whether “plagiarism is that bad?” Endorsements Richard:  The compulsively watchable time travel family drama The Way Home [https://www.hallmarkplus.com/details/TV_SHOW/collection/WAYHNA00/the-way-home], a Hallmark Channel Original. (And subscribing to Critical Darlings [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critical-darlings/id1885681327]) Nadira: The ten minute disco cover of "Bridge Over Troubled Water [https://open.spotify.com/track/1O5KH9jazzisCNv2AXOUyo]" by Linda Clifford and the album WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA [https://music.apple.com/us/album/wor%24t-girl-in-america/1867530577] by Slayyyter.  Dana: The new book by Mason Currey Making Art and Making a Living [https://bookshop.org/p/books/making-art-and-making-a-living-adventures-in-funding-a-creative-life-mason-currey/48d2061522305029?ean=9781250824523&next=t] as well as his newsletter Subtle Maneuvers [https://masoncurrey.substack.com/]. -- Email us your thoughts at culturefest@slate.com [culturefest@slate.com].  Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Money On Film: Spirited Away

Welcome to a very special Money On Film miniseries! Over three episodes, Slate Money’s Felix Salmon and Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe revisit three films at the intersection of culture and finance. On this episode, Nadira and Felix take a trip to a bathhouse for spirits in 2001’s Spirited Away. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the film follows a girl named Chihiro, who becomes trapped in the spirit world and must save her parents, encountering soot sprites, river spirits, a giant baby, and many more wonderful and terrifying beings along the way. The film is a masterpiece of storytelling and technical animation, but as Felix explains, it also works as a highly developed metaphor for capital and the Japanese economy at the close of the millennium: the bathhouse stands in for a stable but exploitative economic system, beset by outside capital forces, with workers stripped of their names and identities. This is the final episode of the Money On Film miniseries. Thanks for listening! ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Ryan Gosling’s Pet Rock Edition

This week, Dana, Julia (fresh from the launch of her new media venture L.A. Material [https://lamaterial.com/]), and guest host Dan Kois set their gaze to the heavens with a discussion of the lost-in-space adventure yarn Project Hail Mary. Based on the book by Andy Weir and directed by genre movie savants Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the sci-fi blockbuster stars Ryan Gosling and a big rock creature puppet. Next, they hop across the pond for the launch of SNL UK, the British revamp of the venerable American comedy institution. Slate UK contributor and author of Deep Down [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/deep-down-the-intimate-emotional-and-witty-2023-debut-you-don-t-want-to-miss-imogen-west-knights/ecfdde4e4a08dc27?ean=9780349727097&next=t&], Imogen West-Knights joins to share her two pence on the show’s local reception. Finally, the panel turns to Dan Kois’s epic, 8,500 word Slate essay on… bar soap [https://slate.com/life/2026/02/bathroom-soap-bar-cleaning-health-america.html]. His opus—or “soapus," if you will— makes a persuasive case for why bar soap is a superior form of foam. In an exclusive Slate Plus bonus segment, the gang gets into a listener question about analog media. Endorsements Julia: In addition to subscribing to L.A. Material [https://lamaterial.com/], the great American junk food that is the corndog—the vibes and graphic design of Hot Dog on a Stick [https://hotdogonastick.com/] at the Santa Monica Pier are swell but seeking listener recommendations for the very best place to get a corndog. Dan: For some '"higher gossip " and a bit of 1800s history, the book Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages [https://bookshop.org/p/books/parallel-lives-five-victorian-marriages-phyllis-rose/9a523f5a6a2a3fe1?ean=9780394725802&next=t] by Phyllis Rose. Dana: The work of voice actor Ray Porter in the audiobook of Project Hail Mary [https://www.audible.com/pd/Project-Hail-Mary-Audiobook/B08G9PRS1K?srsltid=AfmBOoooJFJjFr9fC7oqObtuT7TXzmLjsUygw-FS7lBHGx90ZjDlUCLF] and the interview Porter gives on the book podcast Off the Shelf [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/38-how-ray-porter-created-the-voices-of-project-hail-mary/id1800771701?i=1000754828349]. -- Email us your thoughts at culturefest@slate.com [culturefest@slate.com].  Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Money On Film: Materialists

Welcome to a very special Money On Film miniseries! Over three episodes, Slate Money’s Felix Salmon and Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe revisit three films at the intersection of culture and finance. On this episode, Felix and Nadira discuss dating and money in Celine Song’s 2025 romantic comedy Materialists, which centers on a love triangle between a millionaire matchmaker (Dakota Johnson), a hunky financier (Pedro Pascal), and an old flame and out-of-work actor (Chris Evans). While not particularly romantic or comedic, the film raises questions about the role money plays in modern dating, how we select partners based on financial viability, and whether romance itself might be a bit overrated. Next time on Money On Film: Spirited Away. See you then! ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Money On Film: Margin Call

Welcome to a very special Money On Film miniseries! Over three episodes, Slate Money’s Felix Salmon and Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe revisit three films at the intersection of culture and finance. On this episode, we’re headed to Wall Street to watch a Felix Salmon favorite: Margin Call, the 2011 thriller-drama starring a long list of famous people, including Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany, Stanley Tucci, Demi Moore, and yes, Kevin Spacey. Directed by J. C. Chandor, the film takes place at an investment bank on the brink of the Great Financial Crisis, as financiers struggle to maintain their balance sheets against the greatest villain of the aughts: mortgage-backed securities. Coming up on Money On Film: the 2025 rom-com Materialists, followed by the animated masterpiece Spirited Away from 2001. See you next time! ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.