The following podcast contains explicit language.

I'm Stephen Meckhaff, and this is the Slick Culture Gap Fest, Chalkboard Ninja Edition.

It's Wednesday, January 25th, 2017.

What's that? Happy Birthday? Oh, thank you so much.

Very speed of you. On today's show. Happy birthday tomorrow, Steve. I'm sorry we didn't sense it

psychically. Exactly. Hidden Figures tells the once unknown story about three African-American

women whose considerable mathematical talents helped NASA put America ahead of the Soviets at a crucial juncture in the space race.

And then the Oscar nominations are out just this morning.

They are fresh there like hot little biscuits fresh out of the oven.

I can't wait to put them under Dana Stevens' nose, have her sniff them and tell us what she thinks.

Biscuit sniffing to come.

And finally, is it okay to punch a Nazi?

We're joined by Slate's own chairman Jacob Weisberg to discuss.

And joining me today is Slate's editor, Julia Turner.

Julia, how are you, sweetheart?

Hi, happy birthday to you.

I am not well, and I'm going to do a couple segments and leave you guys on your own for the other. I didn't anticipate. I thought I was on the upswing of an ailment, but I am on the down swing, so I will gravelly talk about a couple of things. I'm also sad. I'm infect Dana. Hello. That's how I am. Hello.

How rogue of you to come in at all and great that you're here? And of course, Dana Steven Slate's film critic. Hey, Dana. Hey, Steve. All right. Before we dig in, Dana, do we have any business we need to get to first? Our only business, Steve, is to talk about the content of today's Slate Plus segment.

So if you are a member of Slate Plus, Slate's membership program, you can hear our extra segment about the march. I myself took the bus down to D.C. and went to the Women's March on Washington. Steve went to a local march up where he is in Hudson, is that right, Steve? Was that where it was called? I went to the March in Hudson and my wife and two daughters went to the one in D.C.

Great. So we'll have a lot to talk about. I want to hear about their experiences. We'll talk about mine. And maybe we can talk a little more broadly about the huge worldwide turnout for these marches and what it means for the Trump administration.

So again, if you are a member of Slate Plus, that will be an extra fourth segment you'll hear at the end of this show. And if you're not a member but you want to join, go to slate.com slash culture plus to join and support Slate and the journalism that we do. Superb. All right, moving on. Hidden Figures tells the story of the African-American women mathematicians who played a formerly obscured role in the space program, focuses in particular on Catherine

Goebbels, a math prodigy, who grew up in segregated America to help put John Glenn into orbit,

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