Slate Culture Feed

Technology keeps trying to “fix” every small inconvenience in our lives, which has rendered us completely unable to endure basic hurdles such as sitting in silence, navigating unfamiliar social social interactions, and doing any kind of creative thinking. To reverse this, Kathryn Jezer Morton, writer of The Cut’s “Brooding” column and author of the new book The Story of Your Life, proposes we “friction-maxx.” On today’s encore episode, Kathryn joins host Kate Lindsay to figure out how to rebuild our tolerance for the very things that, it turns out, make us human.

This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay.
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The bestselling novelist behind works like Amy and Isabelle and Olive Kitteridge discusses her excitement about turning 70, her reserved New England upbringing, and how death figures into her latest novel, The Things We Never Say. She also talks about her later start in publishing, her experience taking a stand-up comedy class, and her fascination with New York City’s loud, emotional straight talk.
Get more Death, Sex & Money with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of DSM and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Death, Sex & Money show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/dsmplus to get access wherever you listen.
If you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com.
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After a small business in Nantucket put a “no influencers” sign in their store, creators accused it of being sexist. The issue divided the internet, when really, both things can be true: Influencer culture is harmful, and “influencer” has become a pejorative word for any woman who posts online. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay talks with writer Kat Tenbarge about how the word “influencer” has belittled female creators since the beginning, and how male creators have escaped the same scrutiny.

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hank Green is finally burning out. After creating for the internet for almost 20 years, the YouTuber (and one half of Vlogbrothers) confessed to having a “not healthy” relationship with AI, relying on the tool to help him create more and more content. Viewers, however, feel betrayed, and worry they can no longer trust Hank’s work to be his own. In today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay talks with Charlotte Moore-Lambert, who like Hank is a science communications creator and mutuals with him on TikTok. She made her own video about the controversy, about how we got here, and why there’s no such thing as ethical AI.

Note: While preparing this episode, Hank Green dropped a new video about this controversy on the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel. You can watch it here.

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

McGruff the Crime Dog arrived on the scene at the dawn of the 1980s, just as a firehose of anti-drug PSAs was inundating the youth of America. These messages didn’t always work as intended—but they did work their way into the long term memories of the kids who heard them.
In the first of two episodes, originally released in 2022, we take a look at PSAs and their strange afterlife through the lens of a trench-coat wearing bloodhound and his bizarre, yet catchy anti-drug songs. We’ll talk to Dan Danger, Sherry Nemmers, Joseph Cappella, David Farber, Mike Hawes, and Robin Nelson to discover how the McGruff Smart Kids Album came to exist in the first place.
This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. We had production help from Sam Kim. Editing by Jamie York and Derek John. Decoder Ring is produced by Max Freedman and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Our intern is Phoebe Mulder.
Thank you to Wendy Melillo, Dan McQuade, Dale Mantley, Larissa Zargeris, Daisy Rosario, Dave Bledsoe, Larre Johnson, Duane Poole, Ari Merkin, Charles and Karen Rosen, and Eric Greenberg.
If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.
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