I'm Stephen Meckaff, and this is the Slate Culture Gap Fest.

Can Spinal Tap still go to 11 edition?

It's Wednesday, September 17th, 2025.

On today's show, Spinal Tap returns 40-some-odd years later with Spinald

Toe, The End Continues. It reunites Derek Smalls, Nigel Tafnall, and David St. Hubbins, and of course

Marty DeBergie with cameos by Maka and Elton. And then the summer of trash TV culminates with

The Girlfriend, stars Olivia Cook in the title role in Robin Wright.

As the would-be mother-in-law, she goes to psychological war with.

And finally, a true, true giant has died.

Robert Redford, a movie star of unrivaled stature in the 1970s and beyond, a director in the 80s.

And, of course, the very benign,

really beneficence, Bengali to a generation of indie filmmakers with the Sundance Institute.

To discuss all the above, joining me today is Dan Kois, the ex-slatesder, Dan.

What happened there?

I quit, man.

Yeah, but did you tell them to take this job and shove it? Did you get a golden handcuff, golden parachute?

No, I told them, thank you for the very nice job that I really enjoyed, but I'm off to different pastures.

Different pastures. One certainly is going to be bookwriting. You're the author of many books. The most recent, I should say, is Hampton Heights, one harrowing night in the most haunted neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A novel, of course. And you have a piece in The New Yorker, which we're going to discuss in the plus about Samin Osrat. I look forward to it very much. Thanks for coming on. And of course,

Dana Stevens is the film critic for Slate. Hey, Dana. Hey, still in the handcuffs. Not golden.

I was trying to go for, I guess, yes, the tin handcuffs and the golden parachute or the lead parachute and anyway, whatever. But thankfully, you're both here to discuss.

We have great topics, so let's get going.

The Monopoly game at McDonald's is back.

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