Slate Culture

Writer Casey Johnston on how gym weights broke her out of diet and fitness hell.

One of the most improbable blockbuster successes of the ’90s was Hootie and the Blowfish: a South Carolina bar band fronted by a Black lead singer that played jangly alt-pop. That singer, Darius Rucker, built a career that’s one of a kind. Rucker’s tastes growing up were eclectic, as were the influences on his young bandmates. Their Cracked Rear View album took a year to catch on, but then it dominated the charts...

The original “Green Book” was a literal life-saver for Black travelers.

How One Self-Described ‘Lady Comic’ Lives as an adult with ADHD.

For this week’s episode of Working Overtime, hosts Karen Han and Isaac Butler respond to listener Emily’s question about how best to plan out a period of creative freedom she’s been given through a writing grant. It can be a challenge to find motivation while working on spec, or without concrete deadlines, but Isaac and Karen share ideas for psyching yourself into a creative routine...

Plus, drama in the TikTok food world.

This week, Dana, Julia, and Stephen start by talking about the new AppleTV+ series Shrinking. Then they discuss the Oscar-nominated film Triangle of Sadness. Finally, they chat about modern etiquette, inspired by The Cut’s piece on the topic. In Slate Plus, the panel talks about the closing of the “World’s Best Restaurant” Noma.    Email us at culturefest@slate.com. Endorsements:  Dana: I have great, great affection for Jason Segel. Nobody is talking about his children’s books...

Joel Anderson and Stefan Fatsis are joined by NPR’s Gene Demby to discuss the trade of talented, problematic superstar Kyrie Irving from the Brooklyn Nets to the Dallas Mavericks, and to preview the Super Bowl match-up between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. Also, Sabreena Merchant of the Athletic helps explain what an unprecedented free-agent frenzy means for the WNBA.    Kyrie Irving (5:05): The perpetually disgruntled superstar is on the move again...

This week, host Isaac Butler talks to V.V. Ganeshananthan, author of the book Brotherless Night, which takes place during the Sri Lankan Civil War and was recently featured on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. In the interview, Ganeshananthan discusses her experience in journalism school and explains how it laid the foundation for her fiction writing...

Plus, Mittens the cat is a viscous chess bot.