Culture Gabfest - Can Stolen Artifacts Return Time?
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2024
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s show, Slate senior editor Rebecca Onion sits in for Julia Turner. First, the hosts examine Dahomey, an audacious new documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Mati Diop (Atlantics.) With a one hour, eight minute run time, Dahomey is an incredibly rich text in a very small package, and contemplates the repatriation of 26 royal treasures plundered from the Kingdom of Dahomey as they journey back to their homeland, which now lies within the Republic of Benin.
Then, the three dive into Netflix’s Death, Let Me Do My Special, a one-woman show performed and written by Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.) The special is perceptive, macabre, and whimsical, as Bloom reflects on the pandemic years and the loss of her close friend and collaborator, Adam Schlesinger. Finally, what is Mark Zuckerberg wearing? That is the question Brendon Holder asks in a recent Substack essay and that is bewildering the panel. Is the Meta CEO simply trying to beat the dweeb allegations through oversized t-shirts and a boyish haircut? Or is there something more sinister going on here?
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel discusses the role TV plays in their lives, inspired by a recent mega-article published by GQ, “How to Watch TV.”
Email us at culturefest@slate.com.
Endorsements:
Dana: The AOC and Tim Walz Twitch stream, specifically, the moment when Walz calls Tony Hinchcliffe a “jackwad” following a racist comment.
Rebecca: The Voyage Home by Pat Parker.
Stephen: Todd Gitlin’s 2001 essay, “Unsafe in any state.”
Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This ad-free podcast is part of your Slate Plus membership. |
| 0:14.3 | I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest. |
| 0:17.7 | Should Stolen Artifacts Return Home Edition? It's Wednesday, October 30th, |
| 0:22.8 | 2004. On today's show, Dahomey is the new documentary from filmmaker Mati Diop, |
| 0:29.4 | follows the return of 26 plundered artifacts stolen by colonial France from Dahomey, now known as |
| 0:35.3 | the Republic of Benin. The film blends elements of fact and whimsy. |
| 0:39.9 | And then Rachel Bloom, the creator and star of the TV show, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, |
| 0:43.7 | returns with a Netflix special, Death Let Me Do My Show. |
| 0:47.2 | A reflection on the period in her life when in the early and most harrowing phase of the pandemic, |
| 0:51.7 | she gave birth to a daughter with postnatal complications and lost |
| 0:55.0 | her beloved collaborator, Adam Schlesinger, to COVID. And finally, what does Mark Zuckerberg's, |
| 1:02.2 | I don't know, I don't even describe it, like wildly dorky, weird, misbegotten new look. Tell us about fill in the blank. Zuck, Silicon Valley, |
| 1:14.0 | the state of Facebook on our godforsaken world. Joining me first is Rebecca Onion. She's a senior |
| 1:19.4 | editor at Slate. And of course, a writer for Slate, a wonderful writer for Slate and a historian. |
| 1:25.3 | Rebecca, welcome back to the show. |
| 1:28.3 | Oh, thanks so much. |
| 1:29.5 | I always love being on the show. Is it my imagination or has it been an eternity since I spoke to you? Yeah, because she was on recently, but you weren't on that episode. That's exactly it. All right, time to rectify. And, of course, Dana Stevens is the film critic for Slate. Hey, Dana. Hey, hey. All right, let's make a show. |
| 1:44.7 | Dahomi follows the return |
| 1:45.9 | of 26 artifacts from a museum in Paris to the Republic of Benin, where they were seized as colonial |
| 1:51.6 | plunder in the late 19th century. Running at a little over an hour, the film is a curious blend of |
| 1:57.8 | Frederick Weissman fly-on-the-wall style with camera as neutral observer we |
| 2:02.3 | watch as the items are packed up in France, unpacked in Benin, examined, cataloged, and then |
... |
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