Culture Gabfest - Walking into the Abyss
Slate Culture Feed
Slate Podcasts
4.2 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2020
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on the Culture Gabfest, Dana Stevens rejoins Stephen Metcalf and Julia Turner from her book leave for a few segments. First, Steve and Dana chat with Slate’s books and culture columnist Laura Miller about The Plot Against America. Next, Steve, Dana, and Julia talk about the power of walking, particularly in this time of quarantine, and the literary history that precedes the activity. Finally, Steve and Julia chat with Slate staff writer Dan Kois about the 1996 film Big Night, a delicious comfort watch.
On the Slate Plus segment this week, the panel checks in with each other about how they’re doing during this time of quarantine.
Podcast production by Jessamine Molli. Production assistance by Rachael Allen.
Outro Music: “Higher Love” cover from Kygo & Whitney Houston
Endorsements
Dana: “Kasha is the new nutmeg.”
Patti LuPone’s basement tours.
Julia: “Higher Love,” the Whitney Houston and Kygo remix.
Steve: “Buh Black Snake in New England,” by Benjamin Anastas in Oxford American.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Stephen Matt Kathen. This is the Slate Culture Gap Fest, Walking into the Abyss edition. |
| 0:16.7 | It's Wednesday, March 25th, 2020. On today's show, the Philip Roth novel, Plot Against America, |
| 0:21.9 | has been adapted by David Simon and Ed Burns, the geniuses behind The Wire. It's unsettlingly |
| 0:28.4 | topical counter history about a fascist America in the 1940s, and it's on HBO. We'll be joined by |
| 0:34.3 | Laura Miller to discuss it. And then during this period of self-isolation, |
| 0:38.5 | we're going to be talking about comfort culture, our go-to-movie, shows, books, etc., for dark times. |
| 0:43.9 | This week we talked Big Night, the 1996 movie starring Stanley Tucci, and that is Dan Coise's pick. |
| 0:49.5 | He'll join us to discuss. And finally, all truly great thoughts are conceived when walking. So said, |
| 0:55.6 | some bloke named Nietzsche. We will discuss walking as a way of maintaining our sanity, as well |
| 1:01.3 | as stimulating great thoughts and friendships during the coronavirus outbreak. As is probably true of all |
| 1:07.5 | the podcasts you're listening to now, We're recording remotely and from home on |
| 1:13.8 | Jerry Rigged Equipment. So the audio might sound a little different. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe it does, |
| 1:18.1 | but bear with us. And everyone, please stay safe. And here we go. Joining me today is Dana Stevens, |
| 1:24.4 | who is, of course, the film critic for Slate. Hey, Dana. Hey, good to hear your voice, Steve. Yeah, great to hear yours, as always. And Laura Miller, who is up in Maine, who is a book critic and general cultural commentatress for Slate. Laura, hey, welcome back to the show. It's great to be with you. It's great to have you, and I'm very psyched to talk about this particular topic |
| 1:44.3 | with you. So let's plunge in. Little could Philip Roth have known in 2004 when he published his novel |
| 1:50.1 | Plot Against America, what relevancies and dark resonances it would later take on. The book tells |
| 1:55.6 | the story, a counteractual history, kind of, in which the heroic aviator and notorious anti-Semite |
| 2:00.6 | Charles Lindberg |
| 2:01.3 | runs for president and defeats FDR in 1940. He runs sort of as an isolationist or at least |
| 2:06.8 | anti-war candidate and thus keeps America out of the war against the Nazis. I don't want to |
| 2:11.3 | give anything away, but as one character says in episode one, the Goyam are sharpening their knives |
| 2:15.8 | again. The adaptation comes courtesy of David Simon and Ed Burns, the guys behind what I think of |
... |
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