Hello, I'm June Thomas. On the next afterward, I'll be talking with Christopher Bonanos, author of the new book, Instant, about the Polaroid company and The Wonders of Instant Photography.

You can hear our conversation Thursday, October 11th, on the Afterword.

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The following podcast contains explicit language.

I'm Stephen Metcalfe, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest, Your Big Mook Edition.

It's Wednesday, October 10th, 2012.

On today's program, Pitch Perfect, the new movie comedy about an acapella singing group.

Sounds incredibly stale.

It isn't, I don't think.

And then we'll talk about Seth MacBarlane. Is he taking over the known universe and finally al phil rice of the university of pennsylvania joins us to talk mook massive open online courses which are now available at

some of the country's best universities joining me today is slate's deputy editor julia turner hello julia

hi steve and slate's film critic d Turner. Hello, Julia. Hi, Steve. And Slate's

film critic. Dana Stevens. Hey, Dana. Hey, Steve. Dana. I'm going to start with you. Pitch Perfect is a new

comedy. It's directed by Jason Moore, who's known for directing Broadway shows, Avenue Q, and I believe

Les Miserables one time under his direction. It's written by Kay Cannon, who's best known for writing for 30 Rock.

I said in my intro, you know, at first blush, it sounds incredibly stale. It's a story of a college

...