{"podcast":{"title":"Culture Gabfest","slug":"culture-gabfest-830145","podcast_index_feed_id":830145,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/69612bcd1f21449d6dec2ccb","website_url":"https://slate.com/podcasts/culture-gabfest","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/69612bcd1f21449d6dec2ccb/show-cover.jpg","author":"Slate Audio","episode_count":870,"summary":"New York Times critic Dwight Garner says “The Slate Culture Gabfest is one of the highlights of my week.” The award-winning Culturefest features critics Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner debating the week in culture, from highbrow to pop. For more of Slate’s culture podcasts, check out the Slate Culture feed. Get more Culture Gabfest with Slate Plus! Join to unlock weekly bonus episodes—plus ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from our show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/cultureplus to get access wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/culture-gabfest-830145"},"episode":{"title":"James Bond’s Sexistential Retreat Edition","slug":"james-bond-s-sexistential-retreat-edition","published_at":"2026-04-01T07:10:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/culture-gabfest-830145/james-bond-s-sexistential-retreat-edition","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/culture-gabfest-830145","url":"https://shows.acast.com/culture-gabfest/episodes/james-bonds-sexistential-retreat-edition","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/69612bcd1f21449d6dec2ccb/e/69cc1c4292d007a7658ff4a7/media.mp3","summary":"On this week’s show, Dana is joined by Slate’s own Nadira Goffe and Richard Lawson, of the Critical Darlings podcast. Their first agenda item is Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat , the second installment of the workplace comedy/reality show hybrid which places an unknowing everyman in a made-up scenario populated entirely by actors. Does the second season deliver a heart-warming moral test in the form of comedy or a manipulative prank? They discuss. Next for more funhouse mirror television, they take up Bait , the Riz Ahmed-starring and created show about a Riz Ahmed-like actor vying for the role of James Bond. The show is stuffed with ideas and Ahmed’s charm, but they debate whether its conceptual martini sufficiently shaken or stirred. Finally, it’s time to go out, wear something nice, and push as they take a listen to Sexistential , the new album by Swedish dance pop queen Robyn. Though the “Dancing On My Own” singer has a new partner on the dancefloor in her young son, motherhood and midlife make for some real club classics. On a bonus episode for Plus subscribers, they take up the question, as posed in a recent New Yorker article, of whether “plagiarism is that bad?” Endorsements Richard :  The compulsively watchable time travel family drama The Way Home , a Hallmark Channel Original. (And subscribing to Critical Darlings ) Nadira : The ten minute disco cover of \" Bridge Over Troubled Water \" by Linda Clifford and the album WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA by Slayyyter.  Dana : The new book by Mason Currey Making Art and Making a Living as well as his newsletter Subtle Maneuvers . -- Email us your thoughts at culturefest@slate.com .  Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you sub…","meta_description":"On this week’s show, Dana is joined by Slate’s own Nadira Goffe and Richard Lawson, of the Critical Darlings podcast. Their first agenda item is Jury Duty…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3183,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/culture-gabfest-830145/episodes/james-bond-s-sexistential-retreat-edition/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/culture-gabfest-830145/james-bond-s-sexistential-retreat-edition.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}