Culture Gabfest - Zero Day Makes Robert De Niro a Befuddled President
Slate Books
Slate Podcasts
3.8 • 546 Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2025
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s show, no amount of star power can save a “screamingly stupid show.” (Sorry, Robert De Niro et al.)
With Sam Adams—Slate Senior Editor and Staff Writer—sitting in for Dana, the team talks about the Netflix political thriller series Zero Day. Then they remember the career of Gene Hackman and end with their thoughts about this Atlantic article on navigating optimism during times of crisis.
Endorsements:
Julia: Moist Peanut Butter Cake Recipe from Cakes By MK
Steve: The savage suburbia of Helen Garner: ‘I wanted to dong Martin Amis with a bat’ by Sophie Elmhirst for The Guardian
Sam: Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein (Again! After Julia endorsed it last week.)
Podcast production and research by Vic Whitley-Berry. Email us at culturefest@slate.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Julia Turner, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest. Zero Day makes Robert De Niro our befuddled |
| 0:18.7 | president edition. It's Wednesday, March 5th, 2025, and on today's show, |
| 0:24.4 | we're talking about Zero Day, the star-studded new Netflix thriller featuring Robert De Niro himself |
| 0:29.8 | as an ex-president who is thrust back into the spotlight after a catastrophic cyber attack |
| 0:35.0 | when he's named the head of an all-powerful commission, |
| 0:38.1 | trying to figure out who did it and make sure it never happens again. |
| 0:42.1 | Then, what was it about Gene Hackman? |
| 0:45.4 | We'll talk about the particular excellence of the great actor who was found dead last week in his Santa Fe home, |
| 0:51.1 | along with his wife and one of their dogs. |
| 0:53.6 | And finally, in a new Atlantic |
| 0:55.5 | piece, psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman writes about the problem with optimism in a crisis. We'll |
| 1:01.6 | tackle the virtues and pitfalls of looking on the brighter side during dark times in general, |
| 1:06.7 | and since we're a culture show culturally. Joining me today is Steve Metcalf. |
| 1:11.4 | Hello, Steve. |
| 1:12.4 | Hello, Julia. |
| 1:13.7 | And in for Dana is Slate's own Sam Adams. |
| 1:16.0 | Welcome, Sam. |
| 1:16.9 | Oh, thank you for having me, Julia. |
| 1:18.7 | Shall we dive in to the dark, mysterious world |
| 1:22.9 | where everything is stopped working and De Niro is in charge? |
| 1:29.7 | Wild enthusiasm on the Zune. |
| 1:33.8 | Fiction. |
... |
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