Culture Gabfest - Viral Songs and Quarantine Culture
Slate Culture Feed
Slate Podcasts
4.2 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2020
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on the Culture Gabfest, Stephen Metcalf, Julia Turner, and guest host and Slate staff writer Dan Kois talk about the film Spenser Confidential, starring Mark Wahlberg on Netflix. Next, they discuss Reply All’s recent episode “The Case of the Missing Hit.” Finally, the panel is joined by Dana Stevens to lay out how they approach culture during this time of quarantine. How much do we lean into escapism?
On the Slate Plus segment this week, the panel takes on Steve’s own “missing hit” mystery.
Podcast production by Jessamine Molli. Production assistance by Rachael Allen.
Outro Music: Lost Something in the Hills" by Sibylle Baier.
Endorsements
Dana: Colour Green by Sibylle Baier.
Dan: The “Sondheim at 90” package by the New York Times.
The album Side by Side by Sondheim.
Julia: The poem “My Heart Leaps Up” by William Wordsworth.
Steve: Always Narrating: The Making and Unmaking of Umberto Eco by Costica Bradatan in the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Stephen McHaff, and this is the Slate Culture Gapfest, viral songs and quarantine culture edition. |
| 0:18.6 | It's Wednesday, March 18th, 2020. On today show, Spencer Confidential is a Netflix |
| 0:24.1 | Mark Wahlberg joint. It updates the old Spencer for Higher character for a new era of streaming |
| 0:29.9 | and boutique TV. And then the podcast reply all has produced what some people have called |
| 0:35.2 | the most perfect podcast episode of all time. I'm so |
| 0:39.1 | jelly. We will discuss. And finally, comfort culture in an age of pandemic lockdown. Joining me today is |
| 0:46.3 | Dan Coyce. He is, of course, staff writer for Slade, an author of How to Be a Family the Year I dragged |
| 0:50.6 | my kids around the world to find a new way to be together. Dan, I assume you are |
| 0:54.4 | finding a new way to be together with your kids. Yeah, it's like going on a worldwide trip with |
| 1:00.1 | them, except without any of the fun stuff. Yes, I can only imagine. And we're joined, of course, |
| 1:05.8 | by Julia Turner, who is the deputy managing editor at the LA Times. Hey, Julia. Hello, hello. |
| 1:11.5 | How is it looking out in Los Angeles? |
| 1:14.1 | It's raining and we're not talking about it. |
| 1:16.8 | And that's how you know that it's a crazy time. |
| 1:20.4 | Yeah, got it. |
| 1:21.6 | One thing I should say up front is we are using all kinds of ad hoc fixes and patches in order to try to record without |
| 1:31.2 | forcing a producer to go into a studio. So the audio may be slightly different. Bear with us |
| 1:37.8 | and hope you enjoy. Spencer Confidential is a feature up now on Netflix. It takes a pretty deep rummage into the old |
| 1:47.3 | IP bin to come up with this character. Spencer, it's based on an old series of novels by Robert B. Parker. |
| 1:52.9 | It was also a TV show from my much younger year starring a TV handsome actor named Robert Urick. |
| 1:59.3 | It has since been rebooted by a novelist, |
| 2:01.9 | tapped by the Parker estate. |
... |
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