Culture Gabfest: Trump Goes on Down to South Park Edition

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this week’s show, Dana, Steve and guest host Nitish Pahwa summon their critical superpowers to assess Marvel’s Fantastic Four: First Steps. Can the charms of Pedro Pascal and company mixed with a Jetsons-style retrofuturism energize this long-troubled comic book IP? They discuss. Next, they’re joined by Euny Hong, author of The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture, to unpack why KPop Demon Hunters is such a record-breaking hit. Finally, they revisit a little town called South Park to talk about the long-running animated series’ latest episode which brutally satirizes President Trump. In an exclusive Slate Plus bonus episode, the panel takes a look at the confusing messaging in advertisements for A.I. products. Endorsements: Nitish - The music of the late, great musical satirist and mathematician Tom Lehrer, who recently passed. His archive is available for free at tomlehrersongs.com. Steve - The great spy thriller The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carré. Dana - Tim Maia's irresistible "Do Leme Ao Pontal." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Dana Stevens, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest.
0:13.6	Trump goes on down to South Park Edition.
0:16.0	It's Wednesday, July 30, 2025.
0:18.6	This week we'll be discussing, first off, The Fantastic Four, the new Marvel release
0:22.6	that's an attempt to reboot a 1960s comic book franchise that's previously only met with Doom
0:28.2	at the 21st Century box office. Next, we'll discuss K-pop Demon Hunters, an animated
0:34.1	Netflix movie that pits a trio of supernaturally gifted Korean pop singers against a rival boy band that turns out to be made up of demons in disguise.
0:42.8	And finally, the recently released first episode of the 27th season of South Park,
0:47.4	a show that has long distinguished itself by its defiant lack of taste,
0:50.4	has made headlines by caricaturing Donald Trump as a needy, insecure bobblehead
0:54.8	with a minuscule penis and a sexual relationship with Satan. It's an episode whose satire is
1:00.1	crude and scabrous, even by South Park's notoriously high standard, we'll discuss. I'm joined
1:05.7	today by Nittish Pawa filling in for Julia Turner. Nittish is a staff writer at Slate and happy to have him on this week. Hi.
1:12.5	Hi. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, we're here in studio together in New York and joining us from afar.
1:18.4	I think from some enviable vacation spot is Stephen Metcalf. Steve, where are you?
1:23.4	I am in Brooklyn, New York, Dana Stevens. Oh, that's enviably so.
1:28.6	Actually, in today's weather, it's extremely unenviable, but we're all stuck in that.
1:34.8	Every great business starts as a dream, but turning that dream into reality, that's where Shopify comes in.
1:41.8	Shopify is proud to power many sources of UK e-commerce from brands like
1:45.9	Mattel and Jim Shark to new entrepreneurs. Worried about building a website, Shopify's ready-to-use
1:51.8	templates help bring your brand to life. Need a handwork content. Shopify's AI tools generate
1:57.7	product descriptions, headlines, and even enhance your images.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 17 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.