Slate Culture Feed

“Curtain for Zoosha! K-smog and Batboy caught flipping a grunt.” If that’s also what every headline sounds like to you, then you’re in the right place. Alex Earle and Stella Lefty are taking over For You Page discourse, but are two pop culture figures we somehow know everything and nothing about. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Hip Replacement’s Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick to get to the bottom of exactly who these women are, and how the ambient, “nothing” nature of their digital footprint is precisely the point.

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

How many apps does it take to raise a child in 2026? Not only are parents navigating countless WhatsApp groups and summer camp platforms, there’s also a whole world of Reels, subreddits, and Facebook groups filled with advice. Often, however, the answers just lead to more questions. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by What Next: TBD host Lizzie O’Leary to talk about the parenting side of the internet, and how understandable anxieties play out online.

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

Podcasts are everywhere. They’re more popular and influential than they’ve ever been. But at the same time, what makes a podcast a “podcast” has never been more confusing.

Until recently, the definition of “podcast” was clear: audio distributed over the internet. A podcast was something you listened to, not something you watched. But now, almost all of the most popular podcasts have video, too. And most of these podcasts share a video-friendly format: two or three people chatting behind big bulky microphones.

You may have noticed that our podcast, Decoder Ring, does not have video, so these developments have given our team, like many other podcast-makers, no shortage of anxiety. In this week’s episode, we’re embracing our inner chatcast: host Willa Paskin and supervising producer Evan Chung trace the history and evolution of podcasting through their own histories with the medium, and wrestle with their complicated feelings about the state of the format in 2026.

You can watch video of Willa and Evan’s conversation here:

https://youtu.be/JHhQM8IrK7k?si=aOv2BGoSuYhIGF-G

This episode was produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Our intern is Phoebe Mulder. Video production by Micah Phillips. Special thanks to Amanda Dobbins, Leon Neyfakh, Nick Quah, Ben Richmond, Amber Robinson, Susan Matthews, Mary Harris, and Mia Lobel.

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.

Sources for This Episode
“How YouTube Ate Podcasts and TV,” Galaxy Brain, Dec. 12, 2025.
Kang, Jay Caspian. “CNN’s ‘Podcast Look’ and the Slow Death of Cable News,” The New Yorker, March 24, 2026.
Quah, Nicholas. “Will Video Kill the Audio Star in 2025?” New York Magazine, Dec. 31, 2024.
Testa, Jessica. “It Was Just a Podcast. Now, It’s Kelce Land,” The New York Times, Apr. 24, 2026.

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The pay-what-you-want business model is mostly found in museums and churches, but this week we’ll hear from entrepreneurs and artists who are implementing it in unlikely places. Guests include: Katie Bishop, owner of Principles G.I. Coffee House in Brooklyn, musician Jeff Rosenstock of Bomb the Music Industry!, and Aimé Nuñez, owner of Pegasus Creative Reuse in Dallas.
We also hear from Shelle Santana, assistant professor of marketing at Bentley University, who studies the PWYW model and tells Anna why its success is so confusing to economists.
Podcast production by Cameron Drews.
Right now, we’re running a deal on Death, Sex & Money Plus memberships! Sign up to get bonus episodes of DSM and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Visit slate.com/dsmplus and use promo code DSM50 to get 50% off your membership – a full year of Death, Sex & Money Plus for $59.
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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Many women are hiding their boyfriends online, or losing followers if they hard-launch. Some go as far as to say having a boyfriend “feels republican.” Is this heterofatalism gone too far, or a long-overdue correction to the patriarchy? On today’s encore episode host Kate Lindsay was joined by writer and content creator Josh Lora, who also goes by TellTheBees. Josh’s Substack essay, Boyfriendland, was cited in the viral Vogue article written by Chanté Joseph, “Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?”

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