An American Pickle

Slate's Spoiler Specials

Slate Podcasts

Film Reviews,, Tv & Film

3.6 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2020

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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, Dana Stevens, Slate’s movie critic, is joined by Isaac Butler, writer, theater director, and co-host of Slate’s podcast Working, to spoil An American Pickle. Seth Rogen stars as Herschel Greenbaum, a man who wakes up after being preserved in pickle brine for a century, and Ben Greenbaum, Herschel’s only living descendant. Can Herschel adapt to the contemporary world? Will Ben and Herschel bond despite generational and value differences? How convincing is Seth Rogen as both of these men?

You can read Marissa Martinelli’s interview with An American Pickle’s prop master here.

You can read Matthew Dessem’s piece on pickle related catastrophes here.

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

Email us at spoilers@slate.com.

Podcast production by Rosemary Belson.

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and access to exclusive shows like Dana Stevens’ classic movies podcast Flashback. Sign up now to listen and support our work.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:03.6	I want to tell you my secret now.
0:06.4	I see dead people.
0:09.4	Silent green is people.
0:13.3	No, I am the father.
0:16.6	Oh, gosh, but... What's in the box? What's in the box?
0:25.0	You made it!
0:26.9	You blew it up!
0:28.6	Damn, you all the hell!
0:32.9	Hello, and welcome to another Slate, spoiler special podcast.
0:36.2	Today, we're talking about the new Seth
0:38.4	Rogan Vehicle and American Pickle, which just came out on HBO Max this week. Joining me to talk about
0:44.8	the pickle guy is Isaac Butler, who is a writer, a theater director, and the co-host of Slate's
0:50.5	working podcast. I would also add that you're in the midst of writing a book about the history of the method,
0:55.2	correct?
1:10.2	That's true, yep. This may come up in my questions to you because we're talking about a dual role, and I think that's a great place to bring up acting questions. Yeah, totally. So, yes, very happy to have you on this spoiler. It's such a pleasure to be on Slate Spoiler Special. Have you done one before ever? I don't think you have with me.
1:10.8	I haven't.
1:12.2	When I got the email saying,
1:13.9	do you want to be on Slate Spoiler Special?
1:11.2	I was like, ah, finally, they have asked. No, I've always wanted to be on it. And it's, it's very exciting to be talking to you about this movie. If they could see you now, Isaac, doing a spoiler. So as always, I like to start out by just kind of asking your general thumbs up, thumbs down reaction to the movie.
1:29.1	So whatever we say next is sort of colored by knowing whether you cared for it or not, did you?
1:33.8	Oh, yeah. I really, really enjoyed it. I'm watching it by myself as a screener with my headphones on the laptop, which is not always the most conducive environment to comedy. But I laughed my head off. I really enjoyed it. I think it falters a little bit at the M, which I'm looking forward to talking about with you. But no, I was really pleased with it and surprised in some of the directions that it went. What about you? Yeah. Yeah. To my surprise, I mean, I was actually ready to start off with a defensive tone thinking there's so much to
	...

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