Culture Gabfest

One Oscar After Another Edition

On this week’s show, our panel gab about the new Pixar joint Hoppers, the limited series DTF St. Louis, and the 2026 Oscars.

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Episode Notes

On this week’s show, Dana and Steve are joined by long-time FOP Isaac Butler (and author of the forthcoming book The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America’s Culture Wars.) They step into this week’s cultural trenches by way of an animatronic beaver den in Pixar’s Hoppers. Does the kooky eco-romp revive Pixar from its much-discussed slump? They discuss.

Next, they step to the frontlines of middle-age malaise in the new HBO limited series DTF St. Louis, a sex comedy and meditation on male friendship mashed up with a murder mystery starring Jason Bateman, David Harbour, and Linda Cardellini.

Finally, they debrief on the various battles for golden men in a recap and analysis of the 98th Academy Awards. Are the Oscars a real measure of artistic value? What do this year’s ceremony and winners say about the state of cinema? Why are they so long? Your questions answered here.

In an exclusive bonus episode for Slate Plus subscribers, the panel takes up a recent excerpt from Michael Pollan’s new book A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness.

Endorsements
Isaac: An earlier instance of Jason Bateman playing sinister, the 2015 thriller The Gift, directed by Joel Edgerton. (Also, don’t forget to pre-order The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America’s Culture Wars)

Steve: The work of the recently deceased philosopher Jürgen Habermas. As a starting off point, read the Wikipedia page of his early work The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. 

Dana: For more beaver-related slapstick, the exceedingly low-budget 2022 debut—produced for just $150,000— of director Mike Cheslik Hundreds of Beavers.

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Email us your thoughts at culturefest@slate.com.

Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch.

Bonus Episode

Bonus: Experiencing Ego Death with Michael Pollan’s A World Appears

How do you deconstruct the self? Michael Pollan says cultivate a “don’t know mind.”

About the Show

New York Times critic Dwight Garner says, “The Slate Culture Gabfest is one of the highlights of my week.” The award-winning Culturefest features Slate culture critics Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner debating the week in culture, from highbrow to pop.

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Hosts

  • Dana Stevens is Slate’s movie critic.

  • Isaac Butler is the co-host of Slate’s Working podcast. He is currently working on his third book, The Perfect Moment: The Religious Right, American Art, and the Dawn of the Culture Wars.

  • Stephen Metcalf is Slate’s critic at large. He is working on a book about the 1980s.