I'm Stephen McHaff, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest, Cool Cats and Kittins edition.

It's Wednesday, April 1st, 2020.

On today's show, we couldn't not do it.

Tiger King is as big as streaming sensation as any I can really recall.

We discussed the Netflix true crime documentary about the incestuous, possibly murderous subculture of big cat breeders and private zoos.

And then this week's comfort culture pick.

It came down to me. I picked the greatest movie of

the 21st or really any century. That, of course, is Paddington too. And then finally, we talk

about IHeart Radio's Living Room Concert for America and James Corden's Home Fest as part of a larger

discussion about celebrity culture and the age of pandemic. And I want to say, as always,

our audio may be a little dicey. I think we're going to be improving it very soon. And we will

have two sets of guests today. We're going to start with Daniel Schrader and Sam Adams. And then

later in the program, I'll be joined by Julia and Dana. All right, here we go.

Tiger King is a seven-part docu-series on Netflix.

It defies quick summary, but if I were absolutely forced to get it down to a single description,

and this is very negotiable, I'd say it's an expose of the subculture of the big cat, wildcat,

breeders, and zoos, But that doesn't do it justice.

But it does focus on one character above all the so-called Tiger King, aka Joe Exotic. Self-described as a gay gun-carrying redneck with a mullet. He runs a for-profit wildlife menagerie, the kind of

place where you can cuddle tiger kittens and

have your photo taken with big cats. His is down in Oklahoma. But this is really only where the

crazy starts. And who knows where it ends? I've never seen anything quite like this. The howls

of incredulity and I guess sort of sickening delight that came from the other room when my kids were watching it.

...