Culture Gabfest - We’re Saving Our Own Lives
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2024
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s show, the panel returns to 1985 and reviews The Greatest Night in Pop, Netflix’s star-studded documentary about how “We Are the World” (a charity single performed by USA for Africa, a supergroup comprised of the most popular artists not only of the time, but arguably, ever) came to be and the legendary night it was recorded. Although it features cameos from Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Paul Simon, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper, and more, the documentary manages to be quite modest in its ambition. Then, the three discuss Rustin, director George C. Wolfe’s biopic about Bayard Rustin, an advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. whose legacy has often been glossed over. Rustin stars a fantastic Colman Domingo as its titular lead and is a celebratory example of the importance of telling gay/queer stories with queer creatives above and below the line of production. Finally, it’s the Slate True-Crime Canon! Cheyna Roth, contributor to the Canon and author of Between Two Wars: A True Crime Collection: Mysterious Disappearances, High-Profile Heists, Baffling Murders, and More joins to break down the monstrous endeavor.
(Roth’s other book is Cold Cases: A True Crime Collection)
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel discusses Super Bowl LVIII and analyzes the advertisements, Usher’s half-time performance, and the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce love story at the center of it all.
Email us at culturefest@slate.com.
Outro music: "Self Made Woman" by Katharine Appleton
Endorsements:
Dana: Her perfect plane movie, Dumb Money, which features a superstar cast that’s always in-sync.
Julia: Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane, an “all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston’s history.”
Steve: A liquidus piano album by Mary Lou Williams, Zodiac Suite. The 1945 album seamlessly mixes classical and jazz influences throughout 12 pieces, each named for a different astrological sign.
Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong.
Hosts
Dana Stephens, Julia Turner, Stephen Metcalf
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hayes Catering is a small company run by two brothers selling food at festivals |
| 0:06.9 | across the UK but when COVID struck the plug was pulled on live events. |
| 0:15.0 | To help fill the gap, Barclays provided them with a loan so they could diversify their business. |
| 0:20.5 | And now that live music is back, |
| 0:25.0 | So a Hayes catering. Grow your business. |
| 0:27.0 | Bank on Barclays. |
| 0:28.0 | Search Barclays business banking. |
| 0:31.0 | Let me count the ways I love thee. |
| 0:33.0 | I love thy bacon, the taste so crisp, your tomatoes and juicy, perfect off, yes! |
| 0:38.0 | Your smoky sauce, oh I adore. |
| 0:40.0 | But he'll just five weeks, eh, I want more. |
| 0:42.1 | I love you, be tasty, big tasty, big love. |
| 0:46.2 | Until the 12th of March from 11 a.m. |
| 0:49.0 | Participating restaurants only, subject to availability. I'm Stephen Maccath and this is the Slate Culture Gap Fest. We're saving our own lives |
| 1:06.1 | edition. It's Valentine's Day. It's Wednesday, February 14th. |
| 1:10.1 | 2024 on today's show The Greatest Night in pop is a documentary on Netflix. |
| 1:15.0 | It's a documentary about the We Are the World Charity Single, the Making of It, the Night that the biggest names in pop assembled, checked their egos at the door and ground it out |
| 1:25.4 | after hours, the enduring pop single for African famine relief, and then Rustin is, it's also on Netflix, it's a biopic of the great and unjustly forgotten Bayard Rustin. |
| 1:36.7 | It stars Coleman Domingo who is nominated for Best Actor. |
| 1:40.8 | And finally, gruesome, prurient, a little shameful perhaps, |
| 1:44.8 | Slate has published The True Crime Cannon, |
| 1:48.4 | which we discuss with one of its authors, |
... |
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