Culture Gabfest - The 2025 Call-In Spectacular Edition
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 December 2025
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the waning moments of 2025, Julia, Dana, and Steve say goodbye to the year that was with a beloved annual end-of-year tradition… our listener call-in show! And you delivered some great queries, dear listeners.
The hosts tackle questions about everything ranging from under-dramatized historical eras to Wuthering Heights to wedding registry etiquette. They also zoom out to grapple with a fundamental philosophical question underlying this whole show’s existence and take a cue from Las Culturistas Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers for some Schimpfen und Toben.
No endorsements this week. But for listeners in the New York area, don’t miss Steve when he joins Booker Prize-finalist Ben Markovitz for a conversation about his new novel The Rest of Our Lives on January 5, 2026 at the Upper West Side Barnes & Noble.
For Slate Plus subscribers, the hosts delight in answering an additional listener question in an exclusive bonus episode. They share their ideal cultural outings with their co-hosts.
---
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 and welcome to this Slate Culture Gab Fest 2025. |
| 0:16.6 | Call in Spectacular Edition. |
| 0:20.6 | This is our annual tradition. |
| 0:22.3 | We get wonderful questions from you, our listeners, and then we kick them around. |
| 0:26.6 | And we are getting this one in Under the Wire. |
| 0:29.1 | We're coming to you on Wednesday, December 31st, 2025, the very last day of a very long year. |
| 0:43.4 | Good riddance. And hello to my darling co-hosts. |
| 0:48.6 | Dana, nice to be here with you. Hey, Julia. And Stephen, how are you? |
| 0:54.0 | I'm hanging in there. Lovely to be chatting. Do you got any last words for 2025? |
| 0:57.1 | I think you nailed it with good riddance. |
| 1:02.1 | Here's two fresh or newer, better things starting tomorrow. |
| 1:06.1 | And starting today, in fact, because we've got great questions here. |
| 1:07.0 | So we dive right in. |
| 1:08.0 | Let's do it. |
| 1:11.4 | This episode is brought you by Shopify. With Shopify, 2026 is the year's do it. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. |
| 1:15.3 | With Shopify, 2025 is the year you make it happen. |
| 1:19.5 | It gives you the tools to build your dream store, online and in person. |
| 1:24.0 | Plus, with marketing built in, it'll help you reach exactly who you need to. Join the millions who've already made the leap, like Jim Shark and all birds, |
| 1:29.0 | and ring in the new year with Shopify. Sign up for your £1 per month trial at shopify. |
| 1:35.3 | At shopify.com.uk.uk slash Spotify. Let's start with a very scintillating question from an |
| 1:41.5 | unnamed listener. Hi, Culture Gab Fest. My question is, I was |
| 1:46.9 | wondering if there is a historical moment that hasn't been turned into a movie that you would |
... |
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.