Culture Gabfest - Brad Pitt’s Victory Lap Edition
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 July 2025
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s show, Steve, Julia, and guest host Sam Adams are off to races with F1:The Movie, the new Brad Pitt racing vehicle featuring lots of racing vehicles. Is the thrill ride more than the sum of its sports movie cliches, high-octane action sequences, and perpetually handsome movie-star? Does the answer even matter?
Next, they’re joined by Slate senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario to decode the particularly British charms of Taskmaster, the UK panel/game-show now in its 19th season. Finally, what’s more fun to pick apart than a best of list? Dana Stevens hops in to dissect the New York Times’s 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century interactive feature.
In an exclusive Plus bonus episode, the topic is: sex! Specifically, the hosts discuss the status—and seeming decline—of sex in Hollywood movies.
Endorsements:
Sam: Drinking the anise-flavored aperitif pastis, the French brand Henri Bardouin is a good one to try.
Julia: The delicious Los Angeles restaurant Tomat in the most unlikely of locales: a strip mall by LAX International Airport.
Steve: The album Cunningham Bird by Andrew Bird and Madison Cunningham and the song Sara by Fleetwood Mac.
Dana: The production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It available to stream on National Theatre at Home.
Our Panelist’s Top Ten(ish) Movies of the 21st Century:
Dana:
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
The Act of Killing
Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)
Bright Star
Children of Men
Grizzly Man
Parasite
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Moonlight
There Will Be Blood
Julia:
I’m Still Here
Mean Girls
Get Out
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Zombieland
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Erin Brockovich
The Act of Killing
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Sam:
In the Mood for Love
The Act of Killing
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Gleaners and I
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
A Serious Man
It’s Such a Beautiful Day
The New World
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
The Death of Stalin
Stephen:
Anora
Spotlight
Toni Erdmann
The Lives of Others
Paddington 2
Meyerowitz Stories
Spirited Away
Get Out
There Will Be Blood
Mulholland Drive
Parasite
A Separation
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest, Brad Pitt's Victory |
| 0:14.6 | Lap edition. It's Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025. On today's show, F1 stands for Formula One. Cargo Vroom Vroom is about my level |
| 0:24.8 | of understanding here, just stipulated. It's also the title of the new Brad Pitt blockbuster. |
| 0:30.2 | Technically, it's Formula One, the movie in which he plays Sonny Hayes, who, though ancient by the |
| 0:36.5 | standards of the sport, returns to competition. |
| 0:39.9 | It also stars Javier Bardem and Kerry Condon and Dems and Idris. And then Taskmasker is what's |
| 0:46.3 | called in Britain a panel show, maybe here as well. I think it's more common there. In this instance, |
| 0:51.5 | a group of celebrities participate in a series of wildly |
| 0:54.4 | silly, competitive tasks, then too much hilarity they discuss. This particular show is in its |
| 1:01.1 | 19th iteration. It's 19th series. It's having a moment. And we'll be joined by Daisy Rosario, |
| 1:06.6 | who in addition to being a super fan of Taskmaster is a senior supervising producer at Slate. |
| 1:11.3 | And finally, the New York Times has its list of 100 best movies of the 21st century. |
| 1:15.8 | We bring our quibbles, outrages, and Hosanas to bear upon it, |
| 1:20.0 | as well, of course, as our own lists. |
| 1:21.6 | And I'm delighted to say, Dana, who is not on the show this week, |
| 1:24.8 | will be joining us for that segment. But first, before we make a show, let me introduce Sam Adams, Slate, writer, and editor who is in the studio today. |
| 1:32.1 | Hey, Sam. |
| 1:32.8 | Hello. |
| 1:33.6 | Vroom, vroom to you, Stephen. |
| 1:34.6 | Yeah, vroom, vroom. |
| 1:35.3 | I'm a delightful to be face to face with you here. |
| 1:39.2 | And then, of course, Julia Turner is a fellow at the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California. |
... |
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