Culture Gabfest

This week, Dana and Stephen are joined by Supreme Friend of the Pod, Isaac Butler, who co-hosts Slate’s Working podcast and is the author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act (which is now available in paperback!). The panel begins by pondering Dream Scenario, a provocative new film from Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli. The nightmarish social satire stars Nicolas Cage as Paul Matthews, a hapless middle-aged biology professor who begins appearing randomly in people’s dreams in a tale about anonymity and the cycle of virality. Then, the three speak with the brilliant author and classicist Emily Wilson about her recent translation of Homer’s the Iliad, and her unique approach to metered verse and how she came to access the interior lives of Hector, Patroclus, Achilles, and more. Finally, the trio discusses Coyote vs. Acme, a completed film based on Ian Frazier’s 1990 comic in The New Yorker, that was shelved last week by Warner Bros. (reportedly in favor of a $30 million tax write-