On this week’s show, it’s one of the Gabfest’s most cherished traditions: the yearly call-in show. Dana, Julia, and Stephen answer listen-submitted questions that run the gamut – can cooking for one be a joy? Should philosophy be studied more? And how did you make your most recent friend? In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel gets into Lena Dunham's latest addition to the canon of "writers writing about moving out of New York." Email us at [email protected]. Podcast production by Ja...
May 07, 2025•1 hr 9 min
On this week’s show, Julia Turner is joined by Slate’s own Dan Kois and Sam Adams. They start by talking about the second season of Andor, the Star Wars series that might have more in common with The Wire than The Mandalorian. Then, they talk about The Wedding Banquet, a remake of the Ang Lee classic. Finally, they get into the story of the discovery of a new color called olo. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Julia, Sam, and Dan answer a listener question about a piece of art that they appre...
Apr 30, 2025•1 hr 9 min
On this week’s show, Julia, Stephen, and Dana are together and talk about Sinners with Slate Culture Writer Nadira Goffe. Then, they talk about a new animated series from Ramy Youssef called #1 Happy Family USA. Finally, they take a listener's suggestion and listen to a few episodes of the new podcast, Good Hang with Amy Poehler. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Nadira rejoins the panel to go deep on Sinners. Email us at [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr 11 min
On this week’s show, Julia, Stephen, and Dana are reunited! The panel starts with Apple TV+’s new prestige offering, Your Friends and Neighbors, starring Jon Hamm. Then, they talk about A Minecraft Movie, already the most financially successful movie of the year. Finally, they bat around the purpose of, and responses to, the all-female Blue Origin flight that happened on Monday. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, a conversation about The Pitt season finale. Email us at [email protected]. E...
Apr 16, 2025•1 hr 11 min
On this week’s show, Slate’s own Sam Adams sits in for Julia as they discuss the new Michelle Williams limited series “Dying for Sex,” about a woman who leaves her husband to experience a sexual awakening after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. Then, the trio discuss the documentary “Secret Mall Apartment” about a group in Rhode Island who managed to keep an apartment in a busy mall for years in the early aughts. Finally, Carl Wilson joins for a conversation about the new album from Lucy Dacu...
Apr 09, 2025•1 hr 2 min
On this week’s show, the hosts discuss Apple TV’s latest ode (tragic comedy?) to the movie industry with The Studio. Then, they step up to the plate and take a swing at the baseball film Eephus. Finally, they invite Slate’s Rebecca Onion to discuss the new edition to Panem’s dystopia: Suzanne Collin’s Sunrise on the Reaping. Endorsements: Dana: A French Village Podcast Steve: “Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship” by Hannah Arendt Dan: Sky Daddy by Kate Folk Podcast production and research...
Apr 02, 2025•1 hr 14 min
On this week’s show, Slate’s Rebecca Onion sits in for Julia. The team discusses Netflix’s current number 1 program Adolescence and what it says about how the descent into incel culture starts young. They then invite Chris Molanphy to talk about Lady Gaga’s new album, MAYHEM. They close out with a discussion on Trump's continued assault against DEI, this time holding funding over the heads of public universities if they don’t end programs that they say advance "racial preferences and stereotypes...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 13 min
On this week’s show, Slate’s Dan Kois sits in for Stephen Metcaff. The hosts discuss the new Mr. & Mrs. Smith-like film Black Bag, starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. Then they dive into the “inconvenient” Hulu show Deli Boys. They end by discussing the legacy of Dave Eggers’ phenomenal memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Endorsements: Dana: The television show A French Village Dan: Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood Julia: LATimes article “I'm a martini purist. He...
Mar 19, 2025•1 hr 11 min
On this week’s show, we throw a flower-sprinkled dinner party for a space clone (personal beehive not included). Slate culture staff writer Nadira Goffe sits in for Dana, and the hosts discuss the new Bong Joon Ho film Mickey 17, followed by Meghan Markle's uncanny homemaking show With Love, Meghan on Netflix. Finally, we invite Slate writer Dan Kois to discuss his new cover story “How Giant White Houses Took Over America.” Endorsements: Julia: The Slate article “Cracking the Code” by Henry Grab...
Mar 12, 2025•1 hr 14 min
On this week’s show, no amount of star power can save a “screamingly stupid show.” (Sorry, Robert De Niro et al.) With Sam Adams—Slate Senior Editor and Staff Writer—sitting in for Dana, the team talks about the Netflix political thriller series Zero Day. Then they remember the career of Gene Hackman and end with their thoughts about this Atlantic article on navigating optimism during times of crisis. Endorsements: Julia: Moist Peanut Butter Cake Recipe from Cakes By MK Steve: The savage suburbi...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 10 min
On this week’s show, we preview the Oscars and Trump’s demolition throughout renowned institutions of art. Isaac Butler — author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act and host of the new Criterion Channel series, The Craft of Acting — sits in for Stephen Metcalf. First, the hosts discuss I’m Still Here and the continued addition of non-English speaking films getting some of the biggest Oscar buzz. Then we tackle the latest Trump shakeups at the National Endowment for the Arts a...
Feb 26, 2025•1 hr 13 min
On this week’s show, Slate Business and Tech reporter Nitish Pahwa sits in for Julia. The panel discusses Severance season 2 from Apple TV+. They then talk about the Oscar-nominated film No Other Land – a Palestinian documentary following a young activist fighting his community's mass expulsion by Israeli occupation. They end by discussing Nitish’s recent reporting on Buzzfeed’s upcoming AI-infused social media platform, BF Island. Endorsements: Dana: The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller and A...
Feb 19, 2025•1 hr 2 min
On this week’s show, the hosts reflect on 50 years of music, culture, and comedy with the 50th anniversary of SNL and QuestLove’s new documentary Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music. For that, the team is joined by Jason Zinoman, critic at large for culture at The New York Times. Then they discuss the Oscar-nominated animated film Flow – where we follow the adventures of an unlikely group of animals led by a curious black cat. Finally, Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe joins to talk about K...
Feb 12, 2025•1 hr 17 min
On this week’s show, the hosts discuss Max’s new medical drama The Pitt – a show that we legally can’t call an ER reboot but does have Noah Wyle donning scrubs and handling the next bodily emergency yet again. Our regular hosts also discuss an article from the Intelligencer, The Cruel Kids’ Table about how young Republicans now feel empowered to bring cruelty back into public discourse. Finally, we welcome LA Film Critic Amy Nicholson to discuss the Oscar-nominated film September 5 about the hos...
Feb 05, 2025•1 hr 8 min
On this week’s show, Dan Kois sits in for Dana Stevens. First, the hosts discuss One of Them Days, a new buddy comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA that’s quickly becoming a critical darling — and a box office success. Then, they dive into Asura, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Netflix show that’s about the dynamics between three sisters and is “totally uninterested in the rhythms of a TV show.” Finally, it’s time to explore the “manosphere.” The trio dissected a deftly reported package fro...
Jan 29, 2025•1 hr 7 min
On this week’s show, the hosts dive into A Complete Unknown, director James Mangold’s surprisingly charming Bob Dylan biopic that’s all about fame and what it looks like to be adjacent to it. Then, the three explore Dick Wolf’s latest project: On Call, a half-hour cop procedural set in Long Beach, California that’s streaming on Prime Video. Finally, the trio remembers David Lynch, the iconic, singular filmmaker who passed away last week at the age of 78. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the ...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 21 min
On this week’s show, Slate staff writer Nadira Goffe sits in for Stephen. First, the panel explores Babygirl and its kinks. The latest feature from Dutch writer-director Halina Reijn stars Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson, and is fascinated by sex (mostly, as a concept.) Then, the three puzzle over Nickel Boys and the film’s audacious use of first-person point-of-view in filmmaker RaMell Ross’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Nickel Boys. Finally, what does a ...
Jan 15, 2025•1 hr 18 min
On this week’s show, it’s an all-movie week! Isaac Butler — author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act and host of the new Criterion Channel series, The Craft of Acting — sits in for Stephen Metcalf. First, the panel explores The Brutalist, director Brady Corbet’s two-part epic following the life of László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust then emigrates to the United States. Then, the three unpack Carry-On, an action thriller s...
Jan 08, 2025•1 hr 13 min
On this week’s show, it’s one of the Gabfest’s most cherished traditions: the yearly call-in show. Dana, Julia, and Stephen answer listen-submitted questions that run the gamut – can cooking for one be a joy? Should philosophy be studied more? And how did you make your most recent friend? In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel dishes about pottery. Listener Dave asks: “what's your relationship to pottery? How do you drink your hot beverages in the morning or throughout the day? And then,...
Jan 01, 2025•1 hr 7 min
On this week’s show, the hosts indulge in the cozy pleasures of A Man on the Inside, a six-part Netflix series from showrunner and feel-good sitcom vet Michael Schur. Ted Danson stars as a grieving retired professor who is offered the chance to start life anew – and goes undercover inside a San Francisco retirement home. Then, the trio dives into The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s most daring — and most dangerous — film yet. Finally, the panel considers Kyle Chayka’...
Dec 18, 2024•1 hr 9 min
On this week’s show, the hosts chew over Nightbitch, Marielle Heller’s (Queen’s Gambit, Can You Ever Forgive Me, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, MacGruber), fourth feature film. Amy Adam stars as “Mother,” a former artist who has given up her creative pursuits to care for her infant son full-time — a transition so taxing, that she begins dissociating and transforming into a dog at night. And while there’s a lot to like here (it’s an adaptation of Rachel Yonder’s magical realism novel of the same na...
Dec 11, 2024•1 hr 1 min
On this week’s show, Slate experts June Thomas (author of A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women's Culture) and Dan Kois (author of Hampton Heights: One Harrowing Night in the Most Haunted Neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) fill in for Dana and Julia. First, the trio tackles Blitz, director Steve McQueen’s new film about the German bombings of London during World War II, which stars Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, and randomly, Paul Weller. For a McQueen movie, it’s quite tra...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 2 min
On this week’s show, the hosts consider ‘Glicked’ (or is it ‘Wadiator’? ‘Gladicked?’), the Wicked and Gladiator II double feature that promised to be this year’s ‘Barbenheimer.’ But did it deliver? Or even come close? First, the trio inspects Wicked, which won the weekend by a long shot (and broke a few records along the way.) At times, director Jon M. Chu’s film adaptation of the famed Broadway musical (which is, itself, an adaptation of a series of novels inspired by Frank Baum’s The Wonderful...
Nov 27, 2024•1 hr 2 min
On this week’s show, Isaac Butler (Supreme Friend of the Show and author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act) sits in for Dana. First, the panel is quite verbose about Say Nothing, a limited series that takes place over four generations and is set during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. By dramatizing the real-life events recounted in Patrick Radden Keefe’s 2018 bestseller, the adapted limited series achieves something quite rare: enriching the original text and imbuing it ...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 5 min
On this week’s episode, the hosts tackle A Real Pain, writer-director Jesse Eisenberg’s tale of two cousins (played by himself and Kieran Culkin) who travel to Poland to honor their late grandmother and, in the process, come to understand their family’s history through a new lens. Then, the three drop into the lush, sumptuous world of Like Water for Chocolate, Max’s new six-part limited series adapted from Laura Esquivel’s best-selling novel (which later became a critically acclaimed and intern...
Nov 13, 2024•1 hr 12 min
On this week’s show, Extremely Musical Friend of the Pod (EMFOP) Chris Molanphy joins to memorialize pop’s Renaissance Man, Quincy Jones, who passed away on November 3, 2024. The legendary producer worked with every star under the sun, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Chaka Khan, and created the best-selling album in history. (“Thriller,” maybe you’ve heard of it?) Then, the trio mulls over Conclave, a sumptuous new film by director Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) abou...
Nov 06, 2024•1 hr 13 min
On this week’s show, Slate senior editor Rebecca Onion sits in for Julia Turner. First, the hosts examine Dahomey, an audacious new documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Mati Diop (Atlantics.) With a one hour, eight minute run time, Dahomey is an incredibly rich text in a very small package, and contemplates the repatriation of 26 royal treasures plundered from the Kingdom of Dahomey as they journey back to their homeland, which now lies within the Republic of Benin. Then, the three dive into Netf...
Oct 30, 2024•1 hr 1 min
On this week’s show, the panel falls for Anora, a new movie from writer-director Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project) that’s as arrestingly tender as it is sexy, funny, and unpredictable. The whirlwind Cinderella story won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, and will likely become an Oscar frontrunner due to its star-making performances and humanistic depiction of life on the margins and sex work. One host calls it “the best American movie in the past 25 years.” Then, the three discuss Ma...
Oct 23, 2024•59 min
On this week’s show, Julia and Stephen are joined by Slate writer and senior editor, Sam Adams. Why do we tell fictional stories about real people? The panel ponders this question as they discuss two biopics: The Apprentice and Saturday Night. The Apprentice is an uncanny portrait of Donald Trump, a young striver under the tutelage – and spell – of his mentor, Roy Cohn. But does the film offer any new information or ideas? Saturday Night, on the other hand, is the often obnoxious tale of the fr...
Oct 16, 2024•1 hr 9 min
On this week’s show, Dana and Stephen are joined by Supreme Friend of the Podcast (SFOP) Isaac Butler, author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act. The trio first explores The Wild Robot, DreamWork Animation’s handcrafted, lovingly made film that’s the surprise of the year. Lupita Nyong’o voices ROZ, an old-fashioned robot powered by supremely advanced A.I. who must learn about and adapt to her new wild surroundings. Then, they dissect Nobody Wants This, a new Netflix series...
Oct 09, 2024•1 hr 4 min
