The Slate Culture Gift Guide
Slow Burn
Slate Audio
4.6 • 25.2K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hark, the holiday season is upon us—and with it the most solemn of festive traditions: a gift guide! In this video and podcast special, Slate hosts Dana Stevens, Chris Molanphy, and Willa Paskin beam-in from their collective hearths to deliver unto the internet their favorite gifts for culture lovers this holiday. In addition to sharing gifts, they also discuss the cultural artifact that is the “holiday gift guide,” and its history going back to the early 20th century, up to the modern day. See the entirety of the 1910 gift guide Our Special Holiday Gift-Book from Greenhut-Siegel Cooper, and Esquire’s ultra-mod gift guide from 1961.
Check out our gift recommendations below:
Dana Stevens’ Cozy Movie Night-In:
The Salbree Collapsible Silicone Microwave Popcorn Popper & Amish Country Popcorn
The Adventures of Antoine Doinel, The Criterion Collection Box Set
Chris Molanphy’s Hit Parade Collection:
Willa Paskin’s Fruit-Themed Trompe-l'œil Housewares:
The Slate Culture Gift Guide is produced for Slate Studios by Benjamin Frisch and Micah Phillips, with Meryl Bezrutczyk and Andrew Harding.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, Decoder Ring listeners, it's Willa. We've got something a little different for you today. It's not an episode of Decoder Ring. It's an audio and video holiday gift guide. Since it's just about the holiday shopping season, Dana Stevens, one of the co-hosts of the Slate Culture Gab Fest, Chris Malanfi, the host of Slate's hit parade, and I thought we'd trade gift |
| 0:21.8 | recommendations, things you or a loved one might like for the holiday season. We talked about |
| 0:26.8 | everything from the best popcorn maker to a toilet brush, I in particular find delightful, |
| 0:32.2 | but we also spoke about the history and appeal of gift guides themselves. It was a fun and |
| 0:37.4 | lively and hopefully helpful |
| 0:38.8 | conversation, and though the version of it you're about to hear is just audio, it also exists |
| 0:45.0 | as a video. So if you want to see some of the gifts and historical gift guides we talked about, |
| 0:51.1 | or, you know, just see our faces, you can go to slate.com slash culture gift guide. |
| 0:57.3 | Enjoy. |
| 1:02.4 | Hi, and welcome to the Slate Culture Gift Guide. |
| 1:07.8 | I'm Willa Paskin, the host of Decodering, and I'm joined today by Slate's |
| 1:11.0 | film critic and the host of the Culture Gab Fest, Dana Stevens. Hi, Dana. Hey, hey, Willa. And Chris |
| 1:16.6 | Malanfi, the host of Hit Parade. Hi, Chris. Hey, Willa. How are you? Chris, can you explain |
| 1:22.6 | why we're all here like some crossover MCU special, spectacular |
| 1:29.1 | to talk about gifts. What are we doing here? |
| 1:31.4 | I like to think of us as a Voltron that have joined forces. |
| 1:34.3 | But, you know, pick your metaphor. |
| 1:36.2 | Sure. So with the holiday season upon us, |
| 1:39.1 | we thought that we would gather to bring you |
| 1:41.7 | one of the seasons most cherished, most solemn traditions, a gift guide. |
| 1:46.7 | Today we're going to share with you some of our favorite gifts. |
| 1:49.8 | Nothing too expensive. We kept it around the $100 mark. So hopefully there's something here for |
... |
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