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Just a small note before I pass it to Steve and get this thing going.

This week's show actually is a bit longer than normal.

So if you're used to us filling a 35 to 50 minute window in your life,

just brace yourself that this week we do go a bit long.

Enjoy.

I'm Stephen Metcalfin. This is the Slate Culture Gab Fest featuring Mark Marin, Mark Marin, Mark Merin, Mark Merin, Mark Merin. Edition, it's Wednesday,

July 27th, 2011. On today's program, the new Errol Morris documentary tabloid, Spotify, Sweden's

Cloud Music Heaven finally wafts over to America. And we're joined, yes, it's true. We're joined by the miraculous Mark Marin of the What the Fuck podcast. Very, very exciting. Joining me today are Slate's deputy editor, Julia Turner. Hello, Julia. Hi, Steve. And of course, Dana Stevenson, Dana. Hey, Dana. Dana, you came down from my neck of the woods to record today. Yeah, I did. I'm on vacation with my family, not far from where you live, and it was just worth it to come down for this exciting slate today. To talk to Mark Marin, Mark Marin, Mark Marin. Yeah, Mark, I thought I could never have beef with Mark Marin because I did not grow up in the comedy clubs of New York City in the 1990s.

But we had a huge Twitter fight, a micro Twitter fight a couple weeks ago in which he hollered at me on Twitter for suggesting that listeners might skip the rant at the beginning of his show.

And then I hollered at him that listeners can make up their own minds about his rant.

And then he apologized for flipping out. And then I asked him to come on the show. And now he's coming on the show. So it's very exciting. All right. But we're going to, we'll contain our excitement and we'll go through the sort of zombie-like, go through the motions of the first two-thirds of our show before reanimating fully for the wonderful Mark Maron, Mark

Merron.

On Errol Morris's behalf, I contest that. Yeah, no, I do too. Actually, let's dig right in. So, Ariel Morris, of course, has become virtually a national treasure, right? He's the documentarian who became famous with a thin blue line. He has a very particular style of documentary filmmaking, Dana. He uses a machine of his own making in order to face his interviewers but have them looking... Directly into his eyes, the Antirotron. Right, the Interotron. Which I still have not seen... I'm sure this is out there somewhere. I've seen a lot of descriptions of it. I still haven't seen another camera filming someone being filmed by the Interatron to see how it works.

But, yeah, he basically uses mirrors so that you feel like you're addressing a person rather than a lens. And it really does make a big difference in the level of intimacy he achieved. It's because they haven't yet designed the meta-interatron. And it's just to capture it on. Anyway, let's move on. But anyway, Errol Morris, who's made many wonderful gripping movies, Dr. Death, Fast Cheapen Out of Control, which is a personal favorite, though Errol Morris people don't necessarily love that film. He's made a new one called Tabloid. The timing could not be more weirdly serendipitous. It comes out as the news of the world scandal, mushrooms out of control, completely out of control. Dana, I haven't read your review yet. Usually I don't read it before I see the film and talk to you. I didn't this time. I really want to know what you thought of it. I kind of loved it. What did you think of tabloid? Yeah, absolutely loved it. I mean, I don't know that it's... Set it up a little bit and say what it's... Sorry, I didn't really do that, right, but set it up and say what it's about, because the story itself is so tremendously gripping.

Okay, well you guys help me set it up because you've seen it more recently than I have.

But essentially he returns to a big tabloid scandal from the British media, although it's about an American woman, Joyce McKinney, who in

1975, I think it was, fell in love with a Mormon missionary or a young Mormon who was

about to become a missionary.

...