Culture Gabfest

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For over a decade, Brett Johnson was a cyber criminal, a scammer, and a con man, but now he's a good guy, helping companies stop people like who he used to be. His story is the stuff of a prestige TV anti-hero drama, but real life is more complicated than a story.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julia Turner, Dana Stevens, and Stephen Metcalf discuss the Oscar-nominated film Vice, the Netflix streamer Sexual Education, and what to make of Netflix's "ratings" numbers with Slate TV critic and the host of Decoder Ring, Willa Paskin. This episode is brought to you by Capterra. Try it today, for free, at Capterra.com/CULTURE.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Star Is Born, the movie Hollywood can’t stop remaking, is a fairy-tale about the American dream factory. But it has also, always, been a reflection of the woman in the lead role—and the latest version stars a woman who has been playing a role for more than a decade: Stefani Germanotta, a.k.a. Lady Gaga. When Gaga scored her first No. 1 hit, “Just Dance,” 10 years ago this month, critics thought her fame might be short-lived. But Gaga had a lot to say about The Fame, and within a year she had shifted the sound of the Top 40 in her electro-pop direction. And then, in the mid-2010s, she shifted her own sound, belting out pop standards for everyone from Tony Bennett to Julie Andrews. What happens if this shape-shifter pivots from Grammys to Oscars? And what will that say about the themes of A Star Is Born: artifice, authenticity and agency? This episode is brought to you by Slack, the collaboration hub for work. Learn more at Slack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dana Stevens, Julia Turner, and Sam Adams discuss the dueling Fyre Festival documentaries on Netflix and Hulu with Slate writer Shannon Palus, Glenn Close best actress vehicle The Wife, and the 2019 Academy Award Nominations. This episode is brought to you by Slack, the collaboration hub for work. Learn more at Slack.com.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Spoiler Specials, Sam Adams teams up with Slate Senior Editor Jeffrey Bloomer and the Editor in Chief of Screen Crush, Matt Singer to discuss the new M. Night Shyamalan movie, Glass. This is the third film in a trilogy that began with Unbreakable in 2000 and picked up again in 2016’s Split. The premise of all three movies is that comic-book-like superheroes live among us and have for centuries, but they keep a low profile and sometimes don’t even know they have powers. Does this film have the power to sway the favor of Sam, Jeffrey and Matt? This show gives you the power to find that out! Podcast production by Phil Surkis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julia Turner, Dana Stevens, and Stephen Metcalf discuss the Golden Globs-conquering film Green Book with Vanity Fair's K. Austin Collins, Netflix's Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, and the art of the pan and the state of the bad review in criticism.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Spoiler Specials, Sam Adams and Vulture staff writer Kathryn Van Arendonk discuss the new Black Mirror interactive episode “Bandersnatch”. Do we really want interactive content from Netflix? Is there a base version of “Bandersnatch”? Does Black Mirror have to always assume the worst possible outcome? Make the decision and listen to them discuss! Podcast production by Danielle Hewitt. This episode is brought to you by Slack, the collaboration hub for work. Learn more at Slack.com.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Life Effects, a podcast from Slate Studios and Teva Pharmaceuticals. In this episode, we enter the world of caregivers: the relatives and close friends who step up when sick family members need support. Often, it’s a full-time job, so it's not surprising that these caregivers can end up neglecting their own health. Host Sara Ivry discusses this dilemma with guests Kate Schrock and Dr. Sandy Butler. In a rapid turn of events, Kate Schrock became a single mom raising a newborn and the primary caregiver to her ailing mother. Sara and Kate are also joined by Dr. Sandy Butler, a professor in the School of Social Work and a Resident Scholar at the Center on Aging at the University of Maine. Her primary focus is the health needs and social welfare experiences of low-income women. The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.

Julia Turner, Dana Stevens, and Stephen Metcalf discuss the court farce The Favourite, the awards frontrunner Roma, and the year in movies and Slate's Movie Club. This episode is brought to you by Slack, the collaboration hub for work. Learn more at Slack.com. Doctors Without Borders, donate today at doctorswithoutborders.org. Fabletics, get two leggings for just $24 at fabletics.com/culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dana Stevens hosts a selection of a few of our favorite Slate Plus bonus segments, offering them to our regular listeners for the first time. You'll hear Steve, Julia and Dana on being reunited with favorite childhood books, the great book vs. movie debate, the pain of writing a book with Sam Anderson, and whether to power through a book you don't like with Willa Paskin. This episode is brought to you by Doctors Without Borders. Donate today at doctorswithoutborders.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Spoiler Specials, Dan Kois and TV editor at the New York Times, Aisha Harris, discuss Mary Poppins Returns. How does the film stack up to the original? How bad is Lin Manuel-Miranda’s cockney accent? Is there a bigger conspiracy behind Julie Andrews declining to cameo? Listen to them discuss! Podcast production by Danielle Hewitt. This episode is brought to you by Helix, a new kind of DNA testing. Try today for a deep discount at helix.com/spoilers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Metcalf, Julia Turner, and Dana Stevens gather around the holiday hearth to answer listener questions in our annual call-in special! They answer questions about hobbies, British imports (with guest June Thomas), how having children has changed their cultural diet, and much more. Due to some technical difficulties, we connected to Julia for the introduction and first question on a phone line before restoring her regular recording setup. This episode is brought to you by the following advertisers: Helix, a new kind of DNA testing. Try today for a deep discount at helix.com/culture. Warby Parker, try their home try-on program for free today at warbyparker.com/CULTURAL. Fabletics, get two leggings for just $24 at fabletics.com/culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the UK, the No. 1 song the week of Christmas is a big deal. The media breathlessly covers the contest, and there are even wagers placed on what song will reach the top of the charts as pop stars and record labels jockey for position. While there are patterns to the kinds of songs that tend to do well in this perennial sweepstakes, often the winner is a fluke: Everything from Queen to the Flying Pickets to Bob the Builder has taken the crown. It was even parodied in the smash British Christmas comedy film Love, Actually—and one year in the late aughts, the British public rebelled en masse against a music-TV impresario, making a statement with the unlikeliest Christmas topper ever. But in an age when songs sell less than they stream, and hits tend to snowball, will the sun set on the fluky British Christmas No. 1 empire? Email: hitparade@slate.com This episode is brought to you by Sunbasket, learn more at sunbasket.com/parade and get $35 off your first order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon

Dana Stevens, Stephen Metcalf, and Julia Turner discuss the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, reappraise the Christmas film classic Love, Actually, and the year in TV. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Spoiler Specials, Dana Stevens discusses The Favourite with Washington Post columnist, Alexandra Petri.  Podcast production by Danielle Hewitt. This episode is brought to you by the following advertisers:  Slack, the collaboration hub for work. Learn more at Slack.com.  Helix, a new kind of DNA testing. Try today for a deep discount at helix.com/spoiler.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julia Turner, Stephen Metcalf, and Dana Stevens discuss Ralph Breaks the Internet, the Netflix documentary Dogs and the use of cliches in speech and writing.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julia Turner, Stephen Metcalf, and Dana Stevens discuss the film Support the Girls, the LeCarre TV adaptation Little Drummer Girl, and the saga of a writer at Thrillist who may or may not have killed a great burger joint.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer Aniston’s story had it all: Heartbreak, secrecy, sex, betrayal. But what it also had was a new kind of tabloid: Us Weekly and its copycats. Brad Pitt leaving Jennifer Aniston for Angelina Jolie would have been a huge Hollywood scandal no matter when it happened, but it became an even bigger one because it was turbocharged by these tabloids. Almost 15 years later, the tabloid In Touch ran an issue with the headline “Brad Stuns Jen! Marry Me again!”  What is going on? How is it still going on? Why is it still going on?  This is the last episode of Decoder Ring for 2018. See you in the new year.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Spoiler Specials, Sam Adams discusses The Ballad of Buster Scruggs with the author of The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together, Adam Nayman. Podcast production by Danielle Hewitt. This episode is brought to you by the following advertisers: I Travel For, a new podcast that explores what inspires us to travel. Listen and subscribe today at https://apple.co/2DPEWJE. Helix, a new kind of DNA testing. Try today for a deep discount at helix.com/hanngup.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices