Culture Gabfest: The Creator of Succession Takes on the Broligarchy Edition

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this week’s show, longtime hosts Julia, Stephen, and Dana are all together in-person to talk about Mountainhead, the new HBO Max movie from Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession. Then, they dig into the new Amazon Prime series Overcompensating. Finally, they talk about the new PR junket, full of spicy food and odd quizzes, inspired by this Vulture article by Nicholas Quah. Endorsements: Dana: The Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt. Julia: Restauranteur Keith McNally’s memoir, I Regret Almost Everything. Stephen: Sarah Beckwith’s piece in The New Yorker, “Returning to the Scene of My Brutal Rape.” and the novel 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Want more Culture Gabfest? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Culture Gabfest show page. Or, visit slate.com/cultureplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	At Halford's, we want you to say yes to packing more into summer days with a great value roofbox or bike rack.
0:06.0	Say yes to freewheeling fun with bikes and gear for all the family.
0:10.0	Say yes to a perfectly polished car with our range of car cleaning products.
0:15.0	And say yes to easy breezy trips with a free aircon check.
0:19.0	Our experts are on hand with checks, advice and fitting. So pop into your local store or shop online and say yes to summer at Halford's.
0:27.4	Subject to availability, see Halvest.com for Fulties and Seas. I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slate Culture Gap Fest.
0:43.1	The creator of Succession takes on the Borreligarchy.
0:46.1	It's Wednesday, June 4th, 2025.
0:49.2	On today's show, Jesse Armstrong is the creative genius behind the TV show Succession.
0:53.9	He has a feature-length film now out on Max.
0:57.0	Mountain Head places four tech overlords in an ultra-lux mansion perched high on a snowy peak.
1:04.0	Over the course of a weekend, the only question facing them is which will they destroy first,
1:08.0	one another or humanity.
1:09.0	It stars Rami Youssef, Corey Michael Smith.
1:11.9	He was in the S&L movie, Steve Carell and Jason Schwartzman.
1:16.3	And then overcompensating is an Amazon Prime comedy.
1:20.0	It stars the comedian Benito Skinner.
1:22.6	As a freshman away at college who is gay, but desperately trying to hide the fact from himself and others. In no small
1:28.8	part by acting the part of a toxic bro, sensing a theme here. The show is created by Skinner. It also
1:35.4	stars Wally Barham and Adam DeMarco, among many others, a fun ensemble cast. And finally, PR used to be,
1:42.0	I guess, a relatively straightforward matter of inputs and outputs somewhat.
1:46.0	You could game it at least a little bit. You had a star, a project, instead of obvious outlets to plug it in.
	...

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