Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 387 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner

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This week on Slate Plus, avec l’esprit de l’escalier, the gabbers revisit some segments from the past few months to see if their opinions have changed.

On this week’s Slate Culture Gabfest, the gabbers discuss Love: the new Netflix original series created by Judd Apatow, Paul Rust, and Lesley Arfin. Is the genre of the manic pixie jerk girl comedy reinventing the “traditional” rom-com? Next up, the Oscar-nominated documentary Amy chronicles the brief and astonishing life and career of Amy Winehouse. How does it escape the well-worn tropes of movies about musicians? Finally, the critics discuss criticism, the critics of critics, the self-criticism of critics, and A.O. Scott’s new book, Better Living Through Criticism. Is criticism, itself, an art?

Links to some of the things we discussed this week follow:

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Endorsements:

Steve: Watching the Oscar-nominated animated shorts (especially World of Tomorrow) and the restaurant Grazin’ Angus Acres in Hudson, New York

Dana: Watching Slate writers act in the video series The Best Case for Best Picture

Julia: The photo correction in the New York Times article, “The Raven, the Original Goth, Makes a Home in New York”

Outro: “Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse

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This podcast was produced by Ann Heppermann. Our intern is Lindsey Albracht.

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