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The following podcast contains explicit language.

I'm Stephen McHap, and this is the Slate Culture Gap Fest.

First We Kill All the Cats Edition.

It's Wednesday, January 30th, 2013.

On today's show, Macklemore, he's young, gifted

and white, and we'll talk about his monster hit thrift shop with Slate's music critic Jody Rosen.

And then the new wave of indie B movies, our own Dana Stevens, has dubbed, Artisanal Horror.

We'll take an especially close look at one called John Dives at the end. And finally, cats,

should we kill them all? A New Zealand researcher says yes. Joining me today is Slate's deputy editor Julia Turner. She's coming to us remotely. Hello, Julia. Hi, Steve. And Slate's film critic, Dana Stevens. Hey, Dana. Hello, Steve. And Jody, welcome to the show. Thanks, Steve. All right, well, Jody, MacLamore is the stage name of a guy named Ben Haggerty.

He's an approaching 30-year-old MC from Seattle. He started out doing DIY internet-only releases.

He raps approvingly about gay rights, disapprovingly about materialism and branding, and he's white.

His new song, Thrift Shop, has been viewed 70 million plus times on YouTube.

It's approaching about 2 million in sales, which makes him the first indie artist to chart top in two decades.

All of this obliges us to discuss MacLamore, so we brought you in.

All right, Jody, before we dive in and discuss it, why don't we listen to a clip from the song? I'm going to hop some tags. Only got $20 in my pocket. I'm hunting. Looking for a cummer. This is fucking awesome. What you know about rocking the wolf on your noggin? What's you knowin' about wearing a fur box? skin. I'm digging. I'm digging.

...