Culture Gabfest - Roald Dahl, Wes Anderson Style
Slate Culture Feed
Slate Podcasts
4.2 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2023
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, the panel begins by reviewing The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar, Wes Anderson’s faithful adaptation of a 1977 Roald Dahl short story, that doubles as a sumptuous meta-commentary on the director’s exacting approach to his craft. Then, the three discuss The Super Models, Apple TV+’s docu-series that glossily chronicles the lives and careers of Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, and Linda Evangelista, a.k.a. The It Girls of ‘90s fashion. Finally, they puzzle through a controversy sweeping the behavioral science community: What happens when so-called “lying experts” falsify their own data? Recent allegations against well-known thought leaders in the field, Francesca Gino and her frequent collaborator, Dan Ariely, have unleashed a host of ethical issues and questions within the academic sphere.
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel honors Spooky Season by sharing their first encounters with terrifying movies.
Email us at culturefest@slate.com.
Endorsements:
Dana: Joni Mitchell, the celebrated singer-songwriter, recently released Archives – Volume 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975), a five-CD box set of archival treasures: never-before-heard demos, unearthed session outtakes, and recordings of live performances. (Also, if you’re not a Mitchell fan, what are you even doing here?)
Julia: Julia has doubled down and listened raptly to every episode of Strike Force Five, the late-night host podcast from Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver. Apparently, the men eventually found their groove! It’s an unusual product that reveals much about their respective talents.
Stephen: Lydia Loveless, an amazing alt-country songwriter, and her superlatively strong sixth album, Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again. Stephen endorses Loveless so enthusiastically, he’s even created a playlist of his favorite songs of hers: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3vAPq5ZGCRB3kJLOFzZ4rF?si=4a4d5619bb6e40c0&nd=1
Outro music: “Break The Line” by Coma Svensson
Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Kat Hong.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows. You’ll also be supporting the work we do here on the Culture Gabfest. Sign up now at Slate.com/cultureplus to help support our work.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm Steven McCaffin, this is the Slay Culture Gap Fest, |
| 0:13.0 | Raul Dal, Wes Anderson style edition, it's Wednesday, October 11th, 2023. |
| 0:19.7 | On today's show, the director Wes Anderson, he brings his highly distinctive visual style |
| 0:25.2 | to four short films, they're on Netflix. |
| 0:27.5 | We discuss the first, which is the wonderful story of Henry Sugar, |
| 0:32.5 | stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Ben Kingsley and Dev Patel. |
| 0:36.8 | And then I can list them from memory, I bet many of you can to the four super famous |
| 0:42.2 | supermodels from the 80s and 90s, so we'll get into it. |
| 0:45.4 | But anyway, supermodels, in some sense, a documentary about why I know those names, |
| 0:51.4 | and it's a four-parter on Apple TV about the rise to rock stardom in those decades |
| 0:57.0 | of the so-called four supermodels. |
| 1:00.6 | And finally, behavioral science for 20, 30 years has represented the intersection of |
| 1:06.1 | pop, book publishing and academia, think Alcom Gladwell, Freakonomics. |
| 1:11.2 | How much of it was based on lies we will discuss some recent scandalous revelations. |
| 1:17.5 | First joining me is Julia Turner of the L.A. Times. |
| 1:20.8 | Hey, Julia. |
| 1:21.8 | Hello. |
| 1:22.8 | Hello. |
| 1:23.8 | And of course, Dana Stevens is the film critic for sleight.com. |
| 1:27.1 | Hey, Dana, how's it going? |
| 1:29.2 | Hey, greetings. |
| 1:30.2 | That's going good. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.