Culture Gabfest - Hard Sci-Fi
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2021
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week Steve, Dana, and Julia discuss the Netflix film Stowaway with Slate book and culture columnist Laura Miller. Then the panel dives into the French dramedy Call My Agent! with New Yorker staff writer Lauren Collins. Finally, the group discusses the social realities and challenges of the CDC’s new guidelines on masking outdoors.
In Slate Plus, the hosts discuss the ending to Stowaway and other spoilers from the film.
Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Rachael Allen.
Email the hosts at culturefest@slate.com
Endorsements
Dana: You Must Remember This podcast and Jacques d’Amboise, specifically Jacques d’Amboise in China
Julia: The Mirage Factory
Steve: “The Abiding Scandal of College Admissions” by Matt Feeney in the Chronicle of Higher Education
Further Reading
“'Dix pour cent’: les agents et leurs doubles” by Benjamin Locoge in Paris Match
“Fanny Herrero, créatrice de ‘Dix pour cent’: ‘Mon rêve est de faire une série d’auteur populaire’” in Les Inrockuptibles
Outro Music
"Go slow" by Daniel Fridell
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Stephen Maccalf, and this is the Slate Culture Gap Fest hard sci-fi edition. |
| 0:14.5 | It's Wednesday, May 5th, 2021. On today's show, Stowaway is the new Netflix movie about a mission to Mars that's been |
| 0:21.2 | badly compromised by the presence of a stowaway. |
| 0:24.0 | It's a twist on a classic sci-fi short story. |
| 0:26.7 | We will discuss with Slates, Laura Miller, and then Christmas is here at last. |
| 0:31.7 | We discuss Call My Agent the burbling and spicy French TV show. |
| 0:35.9 | I love it. |
| 0:36.3 | Oh, my God. |
| 0:36.7 | We'll be joined by |
| 0:37.5 | Amy DuBudcast and New Yorker writer Lauren Collins. And finally, if ever you needed proof |
| 0:43.5 | that the culture wars are as inane as they are inexorable, we will discuss the politics of mask |
| 0:48.9 | wearing. Joining me today is Julia Turner, the deputy managing editor of the LA Times. Hey, Julia. |
| 0:55.0 | Hello, hello. And of course, Dana Stevens, the film critic from Slate. Hey, Dana. |
| 1:00.4 | Hello, Stephen. All right, let's dig in. A skeleton crew of three astronauts has been launched on a two-year mission to Mars. |
| 1:07.9 | The trio features an experienced commander, played by the just |
| 1:11.8 | always delightful Tony Colette, this time speaking with her native Australian accent, a sober, |
| 1:16.9 | straight-laced scientist played by Daniel Day Kim, and a doctor-slash-researcher played by Anna Kendrick. |
| 1:22.6 | Three of them are going to Mars. As it turns out, however, there's a fourth, a stowaway, |
| 1:26.4 | played by Shamir Anderson. |
| 1:28.1 | Not only is he unaccounted for in their food and oxygen supplies, he's gone and broken the ship's |
| 1:32.9 | critical little CO2 thingy. And as the simple plot unfolds, this goes from being an engineering |
| 1:39.4 | problem. How can we somehow rejigger the ship and its contents in order to all of us |
... |
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