Hello Culture Gabfest listeners, this is Sam Adams, the editor of Slate's culture blog, Browbeat.

And I wanted to introduce the inaugural episode of a new podcast series I'm hosting that is exclusive for Slate Plus members.

It's called the Conspiracy Thriller's movie club, and it's a look at how conspiracy

thrillers, like all the President's men, the parallax view, and get out represent paranoia

and anxiety on the big screen. In each episode, I'll chat with other cultural critics to review the movies and talk about how they reflected our worst political and social fears of the time.

You can join the Conspiracy Thrillers Movie Club yourself by becoming a Slate Plus member.

You'll be able to join in on the conversation in a Facebook group and listen to all the upcoming

episodes.

Find out more at slate.com slash thrillers. But for now join me for the first episode on the

Manchurian candidate with my guest Mark Harris. Thanks for listening. And the Hi, I'm Sam Adams, the editor of Slates Browbeat Culture blog and your host for the Conspiracy Thrillers Movie Club.

Every two weeks I'm going to be talking with other culture critics about some of the best

conspiracy thrillers for the past few decades.

It's a great way to explore how movies can look beyond the surface of our world to show us,

or at least pretend to show us what's really going on, and whether our most paranoid fears are

actually the truth.

We have lots of great movies coming up, including all the President's Men and the Parallax view.

You can get all the details at slate.com slash thrillers.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get into our very first episode on the Manchurian

candidate.

When it was released in 1962, some critics faulted the Manchurian candidate for its lack of plausibility.

The story of a brainwashed American soldier who becomes an unwitting communist assassin was, wrote the New York Times

Buzzley Crowther, so fantastic that one is suspicious of the author's sincerity.

...