Slate Culture

David Plotz talks with author Carl Hiaasen about his new book, Fever Beach [https://carlhiaasen.com/books/fever-beach/]. Fever Beach is a political satire that follows a couple of dimwitted white supremacists, a corrupt congressman, and the people that try to take them all down. They discuss the real-life racist event Hiaasen witnessed that inspired a central scene in the novel, how Matt Gaetz factors into the book, Hiaasen’s next moves, and more.   Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest [https://twitter.com/slategabfest?lang=en] or email us at gabfest@slate.com [gabfest@slate.com]. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)   Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Candice Lim and Kate Lindsay are joined by New York Times reporter and former ICYMI host Madison Malone Kircher to break down the internet history of Jojo Siwa. The 22-year-old got her start on Dance Moms over ten years ago, and has gone on to be a singer, performer, and serial reality TV show contestant. During this time she came out as queer, and attempted to have her own Miley Cyrus Bangerz rebrand. Now, with a new single and a new boyfriend, Jojo is entering yet another era, prompting the question: Who is Jojo Siwa, anyway? This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, Candice Lim, and Kate Lindsay, with help from Benjamin Frisch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

When Kendrick Lamar took the Super Bowl halftime stage in 2025 and had the stadium chanting along to “Not Like Us”, it was clear: diss tracks had gone stratospheric. The Kendrick vs. Drake beef echoes legendary rap rivalries like Biggie vs. Tupac and Jay Z vs. Nas—but diss tracks stretch back through a century of American pop, long before hip-hop, all the way to the days of Tin Pan Alley. From Eddie Cantor and James Brown, to John Lennon and Carly Simon, to Kool Moe Dee and Lauryn Hill, artists have been turning personal grudges into hits for over a century. Step this way and join Chris Molanphy as he traces the history of answer records, diss tracks and rap beefs that shaped the charts and the culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Kate Lindsay and Candice Lim parse through the annoying practice of logging in [https://embedded.substack.com/p/stop-making-me-log-in-to-everything] and downloading apps. From hiking in the woods to brushing our teeth [https://bsky.app/profile/robmesure.bsky.social/post/3lqcn6kq5oc26], it seems like we can’t do anything online these days without being prompted to make an account or download an app. Why do tech companies pressure us to log in all the time? And if we log out, why do they shame us into downloading apps for fast food places and refrigerators? But first, what’s the “Gen-Z Stare [https://www.tiktok.com/@trevonwoodburyy/video/7526263930897878302]” and is this simply TikTok creating another intergenerational conflict?  Get more of ICYMI with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of ICYMI and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the ICYMI show page on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/icymi/id1554115325] or Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/6bo1EK9sElQV8DqzO0HLac]. Or, visit slate.com/icymiplus [https://slate.com/podcast-plus?utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=plus_pod&utm_content=ICYMI&utm_source=show_notes] for access wherever you listen. 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]

In this episode we’re opening our mailbag to answer three fascinating questions from our listeners. How did “ass,” a word for donkeys and butts, become what linguists call an “intensifier” for just about everything? How do pharmaceuticals get their wacky names? And why do we all seem to think that aliens from outer space would travel to Earth just to kidnap our cows? In this episode, you’ll hear from linguistics professor Nicole Holliday [https://nicolerholliday.wordpress.com/], historians Greg Eghigian [https://history.la.psu.edu/directory/greg-eghigian/] and Mike Goleman, and professional “namer” Laurel Sutton [https://catchwordbranding.com/team/laurel-sutton/]. This episode of Decoder Ring was produced by Willa Paskin, Max Freedman, and Katie Shepherd. Our supervising producer is Evan Chung. Merritt Jacob is Slate’s Technical Director.  If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email us at DecoderRing@slate.com [DecoderRing@slate.com], or leave a message on our hotline at 347-460-7281. 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 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decoder-ring/id1376577202] or Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/3vYNA0Ki5sUHnYC9QwQnKl]. 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] for access wherever you listen. Sources for This Episode Bengston, Jonas. “Post-Intensifying: The Case of the Ass-Intensifier and Its Similar but Dissimilar Danish Counterpart [https://tidsskrift.dk/lev/article/download/125257/172074/263732],” Leviathan, 2021. Collier, Roger. “The art and science of naming drugs [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4188646/],” Canadian Medical Association Journal, Oct. 2014. Eghigian, Greg. After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/after-the-flying-saucers-came-9780190869878], Oxford University Press, 2024. Goleman, Michael J. “Wave of Mutilation: The Cattle Mutilation Phenomenon of the 1970s [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3098/ah.2011.85.3.398],” Agricultural History, 2011. Karet, Gail B. “How Do Drugs Get Named? [https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/how-do-drugs-get-named/2019-08]” AMA Journal of Ethics, Aug. 2019. Miller, Wilson J. “Grammaticalizaton in English: A Diachronic and Synchronic Analysis of the "ass" Intensifier [https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/theses/dr26xz79k],” Master’s Thesis, San Francisco State University, 2017. Monroe, Rachel. “The Enduring Panic About Cow Mutilations [https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/the-enduring-panic-about-cow-mutilations],” The New Yorker, May 8, 2023. A Strange Harvest [https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Harvest-Linda-Moulton-Howe/dp/B09Q3NDMQ1], dir. Linda Moulton Howe, KMGH-TV, 1980. “United States Adopted Names naming guidelines [https://www.ama-assn.org/about/united-states-adopted-names-usan/united-states-adopted-names-naming-guidelines],” AMA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]