Culture Gabfest - The Drama Surrounding The Drama Edition
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2026
⏱️ 62 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What’s the worst thing Steve, Dana, and Julia have ever done? And would you still love them if you knew the answer to that question? That’s not a subject for today’s episode, but these three do get into The Drama, the dark, polarizing rom-com directed by Kristoffer Borgli starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson which is animated by such disquieting inquiries.
Next, it’s time for elk meat, Montana golden hour, and feckless city slickers as our hosts take on Taylor Sheridan’s latest The Madison. Starring Michelle Pfeiffer, our hosts agree it’s an effective Western soap opera but is its Red State agitprop worth the price of admission?
Finally… there’s good boy. With their curly mop tops and wet eyes, doodle dog hybrids have nuzzled their way into Americans’ hearts. What does that say about us? The hosts discuss these questions and more raised in a recent New Yorker piece by John Seabrook, How Doodles Became the Dog du Jour.
In a bonus episode for Slate Plus subscribers, they have a spoiler-rich conversation divulging all of The Drama’s dirty secrets.
Endorsements
Dana: The latest from children's book author (and Dana's partner) Rowboat Watkins, Mousestache, Mooosestache about a riotous world overrun with mustaches.
Julia: The memoir The Wanderers by immigration journalist Daniela Gerson detailing her unlikely family history.
Steve: Book three of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay and the work of singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith, including his cover of Bob Dylan's "Tight Connection to My Heart" and his self-titled debut album.
--
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 | I'm Stephen McHaff, and this is the Slate Culture Gap Fest, the drama surrounding the drama |
| 0:14.2 | edition. It's Wednesday, April 8th, 2006. On today's show, the drama stars Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as a couple who get engaged, |
| 0:23.0 | only to have the bride to be revealed her deepest, darkest secret the week before the ceremony. |
| 0:28.0 | It's written and directed by Christopher Borgley, a Norwegian filmmaker whose dream scenario we discussed a few years ago. |
| 0:34.7 | And then, Taylor Sheridan is the creator of such hits as Yellowstone and Landman. |
| 0:38.6 | Now he gives us the Madison. It stars Michelle Pfeiffer is a matriarch determined to move her spoiled |
| 0:44.0 | and overly citified family to Montana to honor the memory of her late husband. |
| 0:48.8 | Stars Kurt Russell as that husband. He appears copiously in flashbacks. He's a fully formed, |
| 0:53.8 | fully presented character within the context of the show in these flashbacks. |
| 0:58.3 | And Bo Garrett and various others star in it. |
| 1:01.1 | And finally, good dog. |
| 1:03.7 | He's such a good dog. |
| 1:06.0 | I'm sorry. |
| 1:06.5 | Anyway, any excuse to talk about dogs, but this is a particularly good one, a New Yorker article entitled How Doodles became the Dog Dujure. |
| 1:15.2 | Dana, I'm correct that your dog is technically a doodle. |
| 1:18.1 | Yep. |
| 1:18.6 | In fact, we'll get into this in the segment, but part of my initial resistance to reading this article was, is this going to be an anti-doodle article? |
| 1:26.5 | And the answer is complex, |
| 1:28.5 | but I will not have any dissing of doodles on this show. Me neither. The love of my life was my |
| 1:34.1 | late, great, Labradoodle Felix. Anyway, I'm joined today by Julia Turner. Now, I don't know if I |
| 1:40.8 | have your titles, right? Are you a founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief? Are you all those? No. What are you? The co-founder and editor-in-chief. Okay. Co-founder and editor-in-chief of L.A. material. Why don't you describe it, but it's like a kind of wonderful, I've been reading it. It's a wonderful publication out of L.A. It's, uh, you're exploring for profit models for journalism in order to |
| 2:06.7 | put journalism itself on a lasting footing, but you're also starting in a community and of a |
... |
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.