Culture Gabfest: Can Materialists Revive the Rom-com Edition

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this week’s show, Steve and Dana are joined by guest host Dan Kois to weigh the suitability of Materialists as a rom-com for our transactional age. In choosing between suitors played by Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans, matchmaker Dakota Johnson must choose between love and money— but is there a soul beneath all this romantic calculation? They debate. Next, they return to the depths of a billionaire-backed fiasco in the new documentary Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster about the jaw-dropping 2023 submarine implosion. Finally, they remember and appreciate the life and ineffable, enduring work of pop music auteur, and Beach Boys, frontman Brian Wilson. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Steve, Dana, and Dan discuss Lauren Michelle Jackson’s New Yorker essay about “P.O.V.” videos and what they say about how we see the world. Want more Culture Gabfest? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Culture Gabfest show page. Or, visit slate.com/cultureplus to get access wherever you listen. Endorsements: Dana - The intimate and revealing 2021 documentary about Brian Wilson, Long Promised Road. Carl - Seeing the singular and surreal British musician Robyn Hitchcock live. And if he’s not coming to city near you, catching his performance in the Jonathan Demme-directed documentary Storefront Hitchcock. Dan - For deeper exploration of his body of work, Brian Wilson’s 1988 self-titled solo album. For an innovative portrayal of another eccentric musical genius the film Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. Steve - Roberto Bolaño's posthumous masterwork 2066, Netflix’s new mystery thriller Dept Q, and sticking with works of art beyond their initial chapters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Stephen McCaff, and this is the Slate Culture Gapfest. Can Materialists
0:14.1	revive the rom-com edition? It's Wednesday, June 18th, 2025. On today's show,
0:20.4	Materialists stars Dakota Johnson as a high-end
0:23.1	matchmaker in New York City, who finds herself caught between Pedro Pascal, an improbably decent,
0:28.7	private equity, rich guy, and her ex-boyfriend is struggling actor played by Chris Evans. The movie
0:34.4	is written and directed by Celine Song, known for her widely admired first feature
0:38.4	past lives. And then the Titan submarine fiasco seems like an all too perfect allegory for
0:43.9	the times, by which a rich dumb shit thinks he's going to disrupt the world of deep submersibles
0:48.8	only to end up killing himself and others. There is now a deep dive documentary on Netflix
0:53.8	about it. We discuss
0:54.7	Titan the Ocean Gate submersible disaster. And finally, Brian Wilson, one of American music's
1:01.3	true visionaries, it cannot be exaggerated enough. He is certainly on any Rushmore, however
1:06.4	you configured it, of American geniuses of pop music. Co-founder, of course, and principal songwriter behind the Beach Boys has died.
1:14.0	We will discuss with Slate's own Carl Wilson.
1:17.0	But first joining me is Dan Cois, Slate Writer Extraordinaire, and author of the novel Hampton Heights, among other books.
1:23.3	Dan, welcome back to the show.
1:24.9	Thanks for having me.
1:25.8	And of course, Dana.
1:26.7	Hey, Dana Stevens, film critic for Slate.
1:28.5	Hey, hey, hey, boring old me, still sitting over here.
1:33.2	Just happy to bring some fresh blood to the table.
1:38.6	That's really bad.
	...

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