Slate Culture

After dating influencer TheWizardLiz revealed she had been cheated on, her viral tips for how to “keep” a man rang hollow. Candice Lim fills in Kate Lindsay on all the Wizard Liz lore, and how TikTok dating gurus are this decade’s Carrie Bradshaws. But with so much more of our lives on display, it’s riskier than ever for anyone to claim they’ve figured out the secret to love. Have these creators really cracked the code for a successful relationship, or are they just pickup artists in a new font?  This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, Candice Lim, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

On the final episode of Dear Prudence, Jenée is joined by Lonnae O’Neal – a senior writer for ESPN/Andscape and the author of the forthcoming book Bibb Country: Unearthing My Family Secrets of Land, Legacy and Lettuce [https://www.amazon.com/Bibb-Country-Uncovering-Familys-Lettuce/dp/1368089380]. Together, they’ll answer questions like: what do you do when your friends’ husband calls you his wife’s hot lookalike? Is it worth taking a self-esteem hit to attend your 10-year high school graduation? How do you break it to your clingy best friend that you need some alone time? And how do you handle your dad maybe-cheating on your hospitalized mom?  And: Jenée offers up some parting words about what’s next for Dear Prudence. If you loved this show, she hopes you’ll check out How To! [https://slate.com/podcasts/how-to] and Care & Feeding [https://slate.com/podcasts/care-and-feeding].  Want more Dear Prudence? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/prudie-plus [http://slate.com/prudie-plus] to get access wherever you listen. This week’s podcast is produced by Jenée Desmond Harris, Maura Currie, and Daisy Rosario, with special thanks to Anuli Ononye. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

On this episode: Zak, Elizabeth and Lucy talk about executive functioning. Listeners reliably chime in when Elizabeth and Lucy talk about their planners, their calendars, and their methods of staying sane… so today, we’re diving into the ways we keep track of everything. Most of the time. After that, of course, we’ll circle up for a round of triumphs and fails. Join us on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1ExZ5atkpG/] and email us at careandfeedingpod@slate.com to ask us new questions, tell us what you thought of today’s show, and give us ideas about what we should talk about in future episodes. You can also call our phone line: (646) 357-9318. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get to hang out with us on the Plus Playground every week for a whole additional grab-bag of content — and you’ll get an ad-free experience across the network. And you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Care and Feeding. Sign up now at slate.com/careplus [http://slate.com/careplus] – or try it out on Apple Podcasts. Podcast produced by Maura Currie.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Kate Lindsay and Candice Lim break down the wedding weekend heard round TikTok starring one of r/NYCInfluencerSnark’s main characters. Jazmyn Smith (better known as @justjazzzyidk [https://www.tiktok.com/@justjazzzyidk/video/7508469008618786078]) got married after a year-long engagement that was rife with criticism surrounding her relationship, her fiancé’s financial status, and more. But instead of burying the wedding, she brought her followers along by posting in real time, creating TikTok spreadsheets, and having her assistant run her account while she got married. So why are her haters still mad? Plus, how an influencer sued another content creator for stealing their “sad beige” aesthetic, and why the lawsuit sounds a lot like the plot of Ingrid Goes West [https://slate.com/culture/2017/08/8-instagram-influencers-on-what-ingrid-goes-west-gets-right.html?pay=1748973469347&support_journalism=please]. This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Decoder Ring is marking its 100th episode this year. To celebrate, we’re revisiting our very first episode from 2018, which asks: What happened to the laugh track? For nearly five decades, the laugh track was ubiquitous, but beginning in the early 2000s, it fell out of sitcom fashion. What happened? How did we get from The Beverly Hillbillies to 30 Rock? In this episode we meet the man who created the laugh track, which originated as a homemade piece of technology, and trace that technology’s fall and the rise of a more modern idea about humor. With the help of historians, laugh track obsessives, the showrunners of One Day at a Time and the director of Sports Night, this episode asks if the laugh track was about something bigger than laughter. You can read more in Willa’s article “The Man Who Perfected the Laugh Track [https://slate.com/culture/2018/04/charlie-douglass-and-his-laff-box-invented-the-laugh-track-as-we-know-it.html]” in Slate. Links and further reading on some of the things we discussed on the show: * Interview with Ben Glenn II [https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/conversation-5-ben-glenn-ii-television-historian-and-expert-on-canned-laughter]on the history of the laugh track in McSweeney’s * See a Charlie Douglas Laff Box [http://www.pbs.org/video/antiques-roadshow-appraisal-1953-charlie-douglass-laff-box/] on Antiques Roadshow * More of Paul Iverson’s work [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0PX5uYBuDiG7VEwvT6NbIg] restoring laugh tracks and inserting them into new shows * The sitcom One Day at a Time [https://www.netflix.com/title/80095532] * Friends without a Laugh Track [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BFSZ8XzWOM] by Sboss * “The Okeh Laughing Record” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BavE2cFUT54] * Tommy Schlamme and Aaron Sorkin’s Sports Night [https://www.amazon.com/Pilot/dp/B008F9SRTO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524842783&sr=8-1&keywords=sports+night+season+1] This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was produced and edited by Benjamin Frisch, who also created the episode art. Decoder Ring is produced by Katie Shepherd, Max Freedman, and our supervising producer Evan Chung. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com [DecoderRing@slate.com], or leave a message on the Decoder RIng hotline at 347-460-7281. We love to hear any and all of your ideas for the show.  Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decoder-ring/id1376577202] show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus [https://slate.com/podcast-plus?utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=plus_pod&utm_content=Decoder_Ring&utm_source=episode_summary] to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]