‘Outward: the inherent queerness of poetry’ is the title of one episode - hahahaha!!!!!

The zone of interest episode was amazing from start to finish—including the Holocaust, Barbie, House of Gucci, and Solnit’s essay on San Francisco.

Barry Mauer is spot on about the delusional nature of Trump supporters. The host of this segment is what is wrong with American media. She still can’t say Trump supporters are delusional & in a death cult?? Still???

Hey, ICYMI hosts! Stop literally like saying “like” every third word in a like sentence? And every like sentence you like say isn’t like a question? So like please like maybe like don’t like speak like that? It’s literally like literally like so like annoying? And maybe like literally learn the like definition of like literally literally is?

In the Ep, “America’s Obsession with Trans Women”, reduced own arguments to nothing when she resorted to name calling and rudeness towards whole groups of people with one person as an example (“mids”, celebrities are all dumb, etc). Would have been much more effective to practice the respect for all that you ironically were preaching. What a shame, because I think approached differently, this could have been a good episode and an opportunity to teach rather than a turn off.

Tried the podcast, but felt the interviewer’s questions to their Make Live, Not Porn guest were judgmental.

There is nothing insightful offered. But the premise is good.

I’ve been listening to the Culture Gabfest for many years and Steve, Dana and Julia feel like old friends who guide me through whatever is new, trendy or worth paying attention to.

I love hearing the wordy and deeply considered critique from the hosts. Julia in particular is my hero!

The hosts are brilliant It’s so current and keeps me up to date Their smartly formed opinions help me understand what’s going on in the world! Thank you

Great interviews that always contain useful and motivating content. Like a helpful, humble, honest pep talk.

I appreciate this podcast, but after recently listening to the hosts analysis of Office Space I had to play it for several friends.I don’t thinkI’ve ever heard a more out of touch understanding of white collar versus blue collar work. Clearly you do not understand where Mike Judge comes from or why this movie is so popular amongst regular people like myself. Exhibit A: The hosts claim that Peter makes significantly more money than his neighbor, simply because he is a construction worker. This might be true in New York City for a computer programmer in the late 90s, but even in the film theater and his neighbor live in the exact same apartment complex. How is that not landing with the hosts? God I don’t even know where to start. I know my point is probably going to fail in the short review, but I will try to summit up. These hosts are clearly out of touch with the working class.

It’s not helpful to listen to someone who is not a lover of film or a legit film critic trash a movie because it didn’t touch his heart. I have my friends for amateur bitchy film “commentary”

Big Timber companies are logging our planet to death. I’m a years-long listener to all Slate podcasts and am sickened that you would force Dana and Jude to recite such harmful lies. Please stop taking money from them, please stop advertising their misinformation. Thank you -from the logging lands of the Pacific Northwest

wow the ICYMI Kardashian episode was so terrible.

Don’t support Slate. Their contrarian credentials have been revoked.

You all are doing a great job of alienating some good people that have listened since day one.

I just want to listen to Culture, Money and Mike Pesca, and now I can’t even do one of those things...

That’s all. Just plain smug shade.

I really enjoy the Culture Gabfest, but just be aware that if you subscribe, Slate will fill your phone with dozens of other unrelated shows such as Thirst Aid Kit, Working, Decoder Ring, etc. I don’t want to listen to these. Please stop pushing them in this feed.

I used to listen to the culture gabfest every week but I stopped when the feed became jam packed with other shows. Why did this feed get cannibalized?

To podcast peruser: Do it. They are brilliant to a person. Even when you disagree it’ll be interesting. They don’t interrupt each other. Fantastic mix of topics. They give a sh** about the world. Probably not for you if you just want updates on reality shows—although they do weirdly seem to keep coming back to the bachelorette (not my thing but I appreciate whatever they’re doing). You will find things you will love forever. To gabbers: I still make that chickpea recipe occasionally (with actual chickpeas, weirdos) and Sharon Van Etten rocks my world. Please change nothing, make the show forever, give us plenty of notice to see you live, keep raising up underrepresented voices, and accept our thanks.

Trying to subscribe to the Gabfest, but I’m getting feeds for a dozen other slate podcasts that l don’t listen to

My favorite time of the political cycle is when democrats take a break in calling everyone racist during the primaries, and call each other racist for political gain. Camala called her running mate racist. And he is. Then she took it back.

No surprise here but these are the people you went to college with who looked down on you then for not being highbrow enough. Guess what? They hate all things pop culture. If you *actually* like pop culture, don’t waste your time here. You’ll just be told how your choices are low class, uneducated, insufficient and *YAWN* BOOOOORING! Dana is the worst. I get it. You’re “smarter than the rest of us”.... you must be a real hit at parties. No longer interested in a podcast that judges me and the other listeners ... Also the lack of diversity of voices is deafening.

I used to adore this podcast, recommend it others, even joined the FB group (but probably never posted anything..), but all that is to say I was once enthusiastic. I used to take notes on their recommendations as things they covered. I found Steve charming as a pompous white man in the hudson valley is...but he is brilliant, so the pompousness felt earned, or that’s what I thought. Dana’s insights and love for cinema was evident in her reviews, and I found her personable, energetic, and smart as hell. It was Julia who felt like the weak link, like she was more a half-focused consumer of culture, a movie watcher always on her phone, but not a deep thinker behind it. And I too have a young child, so I got the kid stuff, but that’s not an excuse to approach the show unrigorously. Back when there were fewer podcasts with POC or even magazines and papers regularly publishing POC, this podcast made more sense. Think of the target reader of the New Yorker and Paris Review. If that’s you, you may love it. If you are someone who is more excited about queer or POC or international or working-class perspectives, this podcast is not for you. And frankly, given that two of the hosts are based in NYC, in a POC-majority city, and international city, it really feels like they aren’t invested in the most vital and strongest culture that is thriving. Take a look at what’s happening in American poetry, television production, visual art—its voices and cultures that are not represented here, and when it is, there is so much white guilt and not action. the podcast is fine, it may be enjoyable, it’s competent. But it in 2020, it’s not about CULTURE. In one episode a few years they talked about their make-up, and Dana said, if we made room for someone else, a person of color, who would go? I don’t want to go. This is a paraphrase but it was so memorable to me. And if anyone asked me, Dana should stay. She seems the most thoughtful and engaged in the culture of the current moment. But then again, maybe keep the slate as is, as the podcast space is expansive and there are so many excellent voices that represent the communities that make American culture so rich and exciting. Don’t feel bad if it’s not for you. It’s them. Not you.

A competent podcast about culture in America needs to include someone who is not white, cis, and straight. Duh. Also SM is a pretentious blowhard without interesting opinions. Please replace him.

I fell in love with podcasts in the 2000s, and this podcast was one of my first go-tos. Stephen, Dana, and Julia always seem as though they’ve done plenty of background work—true reporting—on the works they cover in each episode. They are thoughtful and smart, and they make connections I might not on my own. They select topics carefully and invite outside guests to discuss them when it is called for and when those guests enhance the discussion. I’ve had one or two occasions when I’ve wished they had pulled in people more representative of groups represented in works under discussion, especially groups who haven’t been well represented in the mainstream cultural canon until recently (sorry to be blanking on specific examples). But that takes funding as well as connections, and I know the whole Slate enterprise has been cash-strapped recently. Plus, I can say as a white cis-gender pansexual woman in a long-term relationship with a man, and as a listener who is in many ways quite similar culturally to the hosts, I think everyone is finally getting better on this front in white-dominated American popular culture. So maybe just a future direction for more improvement? For years I’ve loved how members of the panel trio balance and complement each other. They remind me sometimes of musicians who have played together for years in their chemistry and the history you can feel under their exchanges.

I usually love culture gabfest, but they dismissed Tiger King WAY too quickly. It just felt contrarian and dismissive and they totally failed to address the pop culture moment of the show itself. We get it. You’re too good to enjoy trash with the rest of us. Like they enjoyed the Circle and couldn’t deign to discuss Tiger King holistically? I’ve also been annoyed at all of the presenters making little side comments that make it seem like they’re not wealthy. I think Steve or Dana were saying something about having to pay off their student loans. HA! Nice try distancing from your bougie selves. There’s just such a lack of self awareness, especially with Steve.

i'm a longtime listener, and i've always resented stephen and his flat boring pretentious het white man takes, but dana and julia more than compensated with their intelligence and insights. but these recent weeks brought a series of ignorant, privileged takes on the coronavirus, and have anchored stephen firmly at the center of the show. this was a podcast i used to look forward to; now i can't even get through a single segment without tuning out in disgust. can we get rid of stephen and replace him with, say, a person of color? queer? woman? anyone. please consider for the sake of your show's quality.

The Whitney Houston episode was one of the best and most thoughtful listens. I was in tears by the end.

I stopped in the middle of most recent episode on "Cheer" and am deleting from my feed after trying to like this podcast (I used to enjoy it a few years back). Dana and Julia didn't even watch most of the series! Why discuss something you haven't even watched!! And its a documentary! Complaining about a clip of a conservative teacher at a small town Texas junior college? Should the documentarians have scripted that instead?

Dana Stevens is a treasure. That’s all you need to know.

Useful hot takes

For the most part I really enjoy the show but, my god, why is the music mixed so low relative to the host’s vocal? Every music clip sounds like it was mistakenly or hurriedly inserted at half volume. Could this possibly be an aesthetic choice? I keep waiting for it to be fixed but it looks like this is just how it is. It’s extremely distracting.

yeah I bet

I’m sorely disappointed at the other content that consistently sneaks through. Or rather, *that* other content sneaks through. I’m busy and subscribed to get and enjoy the content I want. Instead in besieged by shows I would never come near (looking at you thirst aid kit). It’s frustrating to have to wade through flotsam to reach the only material you signed up for.

This has become a feed to launch other podcasts. Only about 20% of the downloads are actually the gabfest. Infuriating.

Yes, SM sounds like a pompous professor of comparative lit you had to take as an undergrad, and the show sometimes sounds like the Yale English department graduate student lounge. Sure, not every topic is interesting. In fact many are insufferably dull and pointless. But that’s life sometimes. Go ahead and skip a few weeks because when they have an interesting topic, it’s a pretty good discussion. Having said all that, I agree with most recent reviewers that the flood of other podcasts is annoying AF. It’s cool to let us know about them, but don’t automatically assume we’re interested in those podcasts, like when U2 put their new album on everyone’s iTunes, whether you like U2 or wanted the new album or not.

why slate culture gabfest do you post exponentially more content from podcasts other than your own? and you made an announcement you’d stop, stopped for about a week, and then went back to that same annoying model of promotion. over it.

Get rid of all the other crap. It seems like it’s rarely just Julia, Dana and Steve. Can these other podcasts get their own feed. Oi. Just not interested in them. So much is happening each week culturally and yet its given so little time for these weird look backs at old hits or quirky minutia about... ? What? I don’t even know. The money feed is NOT pop culture. Should be it’s own feed. Especially since there are much better money shows offered by other producers. Ready to unsubscribe because the original, advertised show is now a rarity. Moving on.

If that’s what you’re looking for, this is the show for you. I can never shake the feeling that this group listens to the Ringer podcasts first and then tries to emulate them. The problem is the Slate staff doesn’t have the chemistry or the comedy chops to make their shows appointment listening. I’d recommend “The Watch” and “The Big Picture” as substitutes.

I enjoyed this podcast for years. But recently episodes became a chore to finish. I’m not articulate enough to pinpoint exactly what’s wrong. But I’ve unsubscribed, and I want the hosts to know that I miss what “we” once had. Fondly and respectfully, T

Interesting topics? They got it. Dufflebags of cash for production and editing? Check. Enough clout to find guests for one-in-a-million interviews? Checkaroni. With all this potential the pod somehow manages to only sort of capitalize on it. The show generally has vibes that range from “I only got 4 hours of sleep, better use 25 cent words to obscure that fact” to canned laughter and palpably fake enthusiasm to the anti-charisma of a desperate dentist. I am being a little hard on them but I expect podcasts to have genuine value, not just be white noise that makes car rides go faster. Life is too short to waste on something unironically called a “Gabfest”.

Only 20% of the episodes are actually Culture Gabfest. The rest is promotional trash. If I wanted to subscribe to the Spoiler Special podcast, I would—yet it appears in this feed. If I wanted to subscribe to Hit Parade, I would—yet it also appears in this feed. If I wanted to subscribe to Flashback, I would. If I wanted to subscribe to Slate money, I would. If I wanted to subscribe to Decoder Ring... oh wait I do. And yet, it appears in this feed as well. There’s a lot of junk that comes up that requires skipping and deleting. As for the show itself: good discussions and I like the culture they choose to dive into.

The constant ruminating about race is beyond nauseating. It’s not honest, and even worse, it’s not entertaining. If you really felt that way, you’d stop virtue signaling and quit. There are more deserving black culture critics who can be funny and entertaining about pop culture without burdening the rest of us with their insecurities and self-loathing.

Once again Julia has nothing to add. This time she endorsed a deep sea mussel ... as culture. Another time it was a children’s book. Come on, do some homework, Julia. You’re getting paid for this. Also Steve got butt-hurt for being wrong. Hilarious.

Unsubscribing today after more than 6 years of listening each week. The topics seemed to grow increasingly tone deaf and myopic. I went from feeling stimulated intellectually each week to fighting boredom and fast forwarding through each episode more and more. Today I couldn’t even get through the second segment. Sadly, SM, Dana and Julia all seem to feel they are phoning it in too...

I still listen for the sake of hearing Dana Stevens’ takes on things, but I would be much happier with 80-100% less of Stephen. He interrupts constantly! I’m sure that he has some rapport with his co-hosts, but it is not readily apparent to the listeners and it is uncomfortable to listen to him condescend to others. He practically threw a temper tantrum this week when someone disagreed with him (and that’s not the first time). I don’t think I can continue to listen if I have to suffer through his commentary.

Why doesn’t Stephen have to perform ad reads? I’m not saying it’s sexist, but I’m not NOT saying it’s sexist. Make him sling some sheets or courses for once!