Culture Gabfest - Michael Jackson Moonwalks the Box Office Edition
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Dana, Steve, and Nadira Goffe assess if we as a culture can ever really escape Neverland— namely, the gigantic and fraught legacy of Michael Jackson. They unpack the biopic Michael. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, starring Jackson’s own nephew Jaafar Jackson, and produced by much of the Jackson family, the film is chock full of musical numbers and light on the troubling aspects of the singer’s life. Does it ever rise above King of Pop hagiography? They discuss.
Next, they take up Half Man, the new limited series from Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd. It’s a brutal look at a toxic male relationship. Is its unflinching eye too unflinching? Perhaps.
Finally, how can one become cultured? What does that even mean!? Such are the questions raised by T Magazine’s recent special issue “How to Be Cultured.” Our panel debates the package’s various high brow listicles, takes their quiz, and Nadira even makes her own culture list as rebuttal! (See below.)
In an exclusive bonus episode for Slate Plus subscribers, our hosts share which cultural figures they think would make for good biopic subjects.
Endorsements
Nadira: The new EP NAIL from Yves, particularly the title track, and Curtis Live! the live album by Curtis Mayfield, especially the song "The Makings of You."
Steve: The poem "Like the Train's Beat" by Philip Larkin.
Dana: The book On Michael Jackson by Margo Jefferson about Michael Jackson's complicated cultural place.
Nadira's Culture List:
(Editor’s Note: Nadira added two things since our discussion — we’re all still staying curious and expanding our cultural horizons!)
- “Throw Some Ds on It” — Rich Boy (Song; 2007)
- “Jealous Guy” — Donny Hathaway covering John Lennon live (Song; 1972)
- Any vlogger on YouTube, but particularly the work of Casey Neistat
- Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (TV Show; 1995)
- Fleabag (TV Show; 2016-2019)
- Monster (Anime Series, currently avail. on Netflix; 2004)
- Stop Making Sense (Movie; 1984)
- The Devil Wears Prada (Movie; 2006)
- Step Up 2: The Streets (Movie; 2008)
- Tampopo (Movie; 1985)
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Movie; 2018)
- Original Cast Album Company (Movie; 1970)
- Quo Vadis, Aida? (Movie; 2004)
- Playing in the Dark — Toni Morrison (Book; 1992)
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow — Gabrielle Zevin (Book; 2022)
- Any painting by Kerry James Marshall, but particularly “School of Beauty, School of Culture” and “Portrait of the artist as a shadow of his former self”
- Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright (Architecture; 1964)
--
Email us your thoughts at culturefest@slate.com.
Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Dana Stevens, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest, Michael Jackson Moonwalks the box office edition. |
| 0:16.8 | It's Wednesday, April 29, 26. |
| 0:19.7 | And this week, we'll be talking about, first off, Michael, the new Michael Jackson biopic from the director Antoine Foucault that stars Jackson's nephew, Jafar Jackson, as the pop star. |
| 0:29.6 | Over this past weekend, Michael set a record with the biggest ever box office opening for a biopic, not just a music biopic, but any kind of biopic. |
| 0:37.4 | But this film has also drawn |
| 0:38.7 | harsh criticism for what many see as its laundering of its subject's reputation. Next, we'll talk |
| 0:44.1 | about Half Man, a new limited series created by and co-starring the Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, |
| 0:49.8 | who made a splash in 2024 with the show Baby Reer, a semi-autobiographical account of his complex |
| 0:55.3 | attachment to his own stalker. We discussed that show at the time. It won six Emmys. Now, |
| 1:00.0 | Gad is back with an even darker show about two stepbrothers, played by Gad himself and by Jamie Bell, |
| 1:05.7 | who are locked in a toxic relationship over the course of decades. And finally, K. We have gotten together every week for the last, er, what, Steve, 18 years? |
| 1:18.2 | I don't say it out loud. Let's keep that between us. |
| 1:22.6 | Some, some unconscionable number of years verging on two decades. We've gotten together to discuss this word, |
| 1:28.5 | which is in the title of our podcast, yet can anyone actually say what it means? The latest issue |
| 1:33.6 | of the New York Times T magazine is entirely devoted to the question of what the word culture |
| 1:37.6 | does mean in 2026, and we will dive into that, including its extensive culture quiz, which we all took |
| 1:43.4 | ourselves. Joining me this week is Nadirah Go quiz, which we all took ourselves. |
| 1:50.6 | Joining me this week is Nadira Goff, Slate Culture Writer, Hi, Nadira. Hi, Dana. Very nice to have you here in studio. Thanks for having me, guys. And as ever, the critic Stephen Metcalfe joining |
| 1:56.2 | us sadly remotely this week. Hey, Steve. I am, I'm both and remote, but I'm so glad to be here. We have great, |
| 2:05.6 | very rich topics this week. Let's dig into the first and certainly box office-wise speaking the biggest. |
| 2:14.2 | As I said before, the biopic Michael had a record setting first weekend. At the box office, |
| 2:18.5 | it took in $217 million globally, and it hasn't even opened in Japan yet where Michael Jackson |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.