Culture Gabfest - Does The Apprentice Make Trump Sympathetic?
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2024
⏱️ 62 minutes
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Summary
On this week’s show, Julia and Stephen are joined by Slate writer and senior editor, Sam Adams. Why do we tell fictional stories about real people? The panel ponders this question as they discuss two biopics: The Apprentice and Saturday Night. The Apprentice is an uncanny portrait of Donald Trump, a young striver under the tutelage – and spell – of his mentor, Roy Cohn. But does the film offer any new information or ideas? Saturday Night, on the other hand, is the often obnoxious tale of the frenetic 90-minute countdown before Saturday Night Live’s first broadcast in 1975. Finally, the panel is joined by The Atlantic staff writer Charlie Warzel to discuss his recent and prescient piece, “I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is.”
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel discusses f*cking profanity, a conversation inspired by a listener question from Jonathan.
Email us at culturefest@slate.com.
Endorsements:
Sam: Separated, a documentary by Errol Morris. (Read Sam’s review here.)
Julia: Ten, Nine, Eight, a wonderful children’s book by Molly Bang.
Steve: Laura Miller’s book review of Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell for Slate.
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 Julia Turner, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest. Does The Apprentice make Trump |
| 0:19.2 | sympathetic edition? It's Wednesday, October 16th, |
| 0:23.0 | 2004. And on today's show, we've got a double header, two films about influential, |
| 0:29.2 | inscrutable modern-day titans who got their start 50 years ago in the lurid squalor of New York City. |
| 0:35.7 | First up is The Apprentice, the controversial film about how Donald Trump became Donald Trump, |
| 0:41.0 | thanks to the molding of Roy Cohn. |
| 0:43.6 | And then Saturday night, a nerve-jangling portrait of S&L creator Lauren Michaels in the run-up |
| 0:49.2 | to the very first episode. |
| 0:51.5 | Then we'll be joined by Atlantic writer Charlie Worsell to talk about the |
| 0:55.0 | disturbing hurricane misinformation we have encountered in the culture in recent weeks. |
| 1:00.1 | Joining me today is Steve McCaff. Steve, guess where I was on Sunday night? |
| 1:04.7 | Sunday night. Let's see. Tuesdays ago. You watched the Dodgers steamroll, Zamboni, |
| 1:09.7 | the Mets. I was in Dodger Stadium with my Mets fan family. |
| 1:14.4 | Don't worry, Bostonians. |
| 1:15.7 | I have not a ban in the Red Sox, but I'm borrowing Mets fandom for the season. |
| 1:20.3 | And I've spent time as an opposing fan in stadiums before, and I've been to one LCS game before, |
| 1:26.2 | but I've never been an opposing fan |
| 1:27.8 | in an LCS stadium while my team is getting derubbed. But anyway, I thought of you as the actual |
| 1:36.1 | Mets fan on this show. I'm honored, yeah. And Dana is out this week, but we are joined today by |
| 1:41.0 | Slate writer and senior Editor Sam Adams. Welcome. |
| 1:45.7 | Hello, Julia. Hi, Steve. |
... |
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