Hi, I'm Dana Stevens, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest, Denzel and Spike remix a classic edition.

It's Wednesday, August 27th, 2025, and this week we we're going to be discussing first off, Weapons,

the horror thriller directed by Zach Kregor that's become one of the surprise hits of the summer.

Then we'll move on to another movie, Highest, Lowest, the new Spike Lee joint that marks the

director's first collaboration with Denzel Washington since Inside Man in 2006. It's an adaptation

of a 1963 thriller directed by Akira

Kurosawa, but Spike, of course, takes many liberties with that text. We'll get into it.

And finally, performative masculinity. Do these two words put together mean anything? Is this a genuine

sociocultural trend? Or is the New York Times simply trying to make fetch happen

with its recent article on the phenomenon of straight men who dress up and carry props

to play the part of sensitive feminist dreamboats whom women will want to date? To be discussed.

All right, well, we have a special panel today, not just the three of us, salty dogs, who've been hosting this show since 2009, but a fourth host who's someone I think of as a culture gab fest all-timer who seems to be on the show in spirit even when he's not here in the room as he is with me right now. And I think you are out there probably listening to us and maybe talking back to your podcast catcher, Wesley Morris.

Hi. I can't believe I'm a fourth person on this show.

Are we going to say the occasion of Wesley's coming on the show? Well, do you mean to celebrate his own new podcast at the New York Times?

Yes. I have a show. It's called Cannonball at the New York Times. But I mean, even if I didn't have that, and I'd still be here talking to you anyway, if you had me. If you wanted to have me on, I would just come anyway. So yes, although he's downplaying it, Wesley does have a great new podcast on The New York Times called Cannonball, which by the way is a great title for a podcast.

Whoever came up with that?

It was. He's down playing it. Wesley does have a great new podcast on The New York Times called Cannonball, which, by the way, is a great title for a podcast. Whoever came up with that.

It was it was me and my boyfriend. He started it and I picked up what he put down and was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is, this might actually work. And it did. And of course, as always, I am joined from L.A. by Julia Turner,

a fellow at the Annenberg School of Journalism. Hello, Julia.

Hi, Dana. Hello, everyone.

And remotely, we're joined by critic Stephen Metcalf. Hello, Stephen.

Hey, Dana.

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