Culture Gabfest - You’re My Obsession Edition
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we’ve got an all-guest-host panel with Gabfest faves Isaac Butler, Sam Adams, and June Thomas guiding the discourse… straight to hell. In this case, hell is the romantic relationships depicted in the buzzy indie horror Obsession. This rom-com/horror mashup—marking Curry Barker’s impressive feature directorial debut—deals with questions of codependency and consent. But the real question: is Obsession worth the online obsession?
Next, they turn their gaze to the spooky titular island of Widow’s Bay and discuss the new series starring Matthew Rhys in another horror/comedy genre experiment. Finally, they debate whether most kids’ books are “crud?” Or really, is the recent online furor over comments in children’s book creator Mac Barnett’s new book Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children merited?
In a bonus episode for Slate Plus subscribers, the gang gather over the topic of book clubs.
Endorsements
June: Get In: The Inside Story of Labor Under Starmer by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund, a detailed and readable analysis of Keir Starmer's unlikely rise to power.
Sam: The latest film of indie, animated short auteur Don Hertzfeldt "Paper Trail."
Isaac: The novel The Oppermanns, a family saga by Lion Feuchtwanger written in real time during Hitler’s rise. (And, as a bonus peek into Feuchtwanger's post-war milieu, check out Salka Viertel’s autobiography The Kindness of Strangers.)
--
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 | Hello and welcome to the Slate Culture Gab Fest. You're My Obsession Edition. I am your host, Isaac Butler. On today's show, Obsession is the latest buzzy horror film from Blumhouse to dominate the box office and influence the discourse. |
| 0:24.1 | Is there meat on its bones? We'll discuss. |
| 0:27.0 | Then, Widows Bay is a new show from Apple TV, starring Matthew Reese and a whole bevy of talented character actors, |
| 0:33.2 | as the denizens of a charming New England island community that might very well be haunted. |
| 0:38.5 | Finally, the children's book author and National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, |
| 0:43.1 | Mac Barnett, has a new book out for adults called Make Believe. |
| 0:47.2 | It's about how Kid Lit works and why we should take it more seriously. |
| 0:51.3 | We'll discuss both the book and the surprisingly heated controversy it has generated. |
| 0:56.3 | This is in all guests week here at GabFest, and so I am joined by Sam Adams, a writer at Slate. |
| 1:02.0 | Sam, I got to ask, if you bought a wish-granting stick at a crystal store, would you use it? |
| 1:07.5 | Of course for the story. |
| 1:09.6 | Yeah, right. Okay, good. And we're also joined by one of Slate's most beloved alums, the always delightful, my former podcast battery mate at working June Thomas. |
| 1:20.0 | June, all the way from Scotland, would you vacation on a charming island that had a reputation for being cursed? |
| 1:26.6 | If it really did have 360 days of fog per year, then yes, because I'm a big fog fan. |
| 1:32.5 | I mean, you do sort of live on a giant cursed island that has fog 360 days a year, right? |
| 1:37.6 | Yeah, we have more stabbing in my island, too. |
| 1:40.0 | Ah, yeah, there you go. |
| 1:41.0 | All right, shall we make a show? |
| 1:42.5 | Yes, do it. |
| 1:44.4 | Obsession is the first feature film from 26-year-old YouTube phenom, Curry Barker. |
| 1:49.8 | It follows a young man named Bear who has been in love with his friend Nikki for years, but unable to tell her. |
| 1:55.6 | One day, he makes a wish using a supernatural toy that she would love him more than anyone in the world. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 11 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
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.