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I'm Dana Stevens, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest, Rambo-in-Blush edition.

It's Wednesday, August 25th, 2010, and on today's program, we're going to talk about 20-somethings.

What's their story anyway?

The new Slice Stallone movie The Expendables and the new arcade fire album, The Suburbs. Joining me is Slate for an editor, June Thomas. Hi, June. Hey, Dana. And our music critic, Jody Rosen, hey, Jody. Hi, Dana. And also today in the studio, we're joined by Jessica Gross, an associate editor at Slate.

Hey, Jessica.

Hey.

So you, Jessica, are here to help us understand this long Sunday Times Magazine piece by Robin Morantz Henning that appeared in the last Sunday magazine. So the piece is called What Is It About 20 Somethings? And the thesis that Henning advances, well, maybe you can help us figure it out. She's

trying to decide whether or not this generation coming up in their 20s now is entering adulthood

in some way that's substantially and interestingly different from the way previous generations

had done. Sure. She sort of makes the argument that there may be a new life stage called

emerging adulthood.

And that's sort of late teens and early 20s.

And it's the argument based on some sociological research and then some neurological research

about whether there should be a distinct stage after adolescence and before actual you know, actual adulthood.

And she makes some arguments about the way that 20-somethings today may be different from 20-somethings in the past, some more compelling than others.

And I am here to be the generational envoy to describe what is up with 20-somethings. I should mention as well that there's a reaction to this on Slate.

There's a dialogue among mainly 20-something slate employees about this on Slate right now.

...