The 2025 Call-In Spectacular Edition

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Dec 31, 2025

As 2025 winds down, the hosts dive into listener questions on untold historical eras, debating cinematic adaptations from Mesopotamia to Toussaint Louverture. They navigate wedding registry etiquette with plenty of humor and tackle how to explain culture to kids. A fun rant segment surfaces, addressing everything from hyphen pet peeves to the importance of airplane window shades. Plus, they recommend thoughtful literary pairings for Wuthering Heights and explore their quirky book collections. It's a lively farewell to the year!

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INSIGHT

Explaining Culture To A Child

Dana defines culture as shared habits, traditions, and experiences within groups and families.
She suggests explaining culture to children using local, concrete examples like school or holiday rituals.

insights

INSIGHT

Immersive History Over Biopic Templates

Mike Leigh's historical films feel immersive rather than like reconstructed Wikipedia tableaux.
Dana wants a director with that transportive quality applied to far-removed eras like ancient Mesopotamia.

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ADVICE

Don't Hyphenate -ly Adverb Phrases

Avoid hyphenating adverbs ending in -ly to link them to adjectives, it's incorrect usage.
Rely on standard grammar: adverbs already modify adjectives without a hyphen.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Which historical moment should become a film

01:36 • 5min

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Directors for period stories and Los Angeles history

Wedding registries and honeymoon funds

15:52 • 9min

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How to explain 'culture' to a child

A short rant segment idea

33:23 • 4min

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Dana's hyphen pet peeve

37:44 • 3min

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Julia's window-shade rant

40:20 • 2min

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Dana on window seats and travel wonder

42:11 • 2min

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Stephen's anti-Google-Translate gripe

43:51 • 1min

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Odd shelves: books that reveal you

How the show picks ad music

57:03 • 4min

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Shazam listener question about ad music

01:00:50 • 18sec

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Reading Wuthering Heights: pairing recommendations

01:01:08 • 7min

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Broader reading pairings and recommendations

01:07:40 • 5min

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Closing and Slate Plus tease

Right, wrong, and risky

Mark Davidson

#47784

The Brontes : Wild Genius on the Moors

• Mentioned in 2 episodes

Naples 44

War, liberation and chaos

Keith Lowe

#89

• Mentioned in 165 episodes

The artist's way

a spiritual path to higher creativity

Ada Arbós Bo

Julia Cameron

This book presents a comprehensive method for artists to recover their creativity from various blocks such as limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, and other inhibiting forces. It is designed to help individuals discover and develop their artistic potential, whether as writers, painters, poets, or musicians. The book emphasizes the connection between creativity and spirituality, providing step-by-step exercises to nurture creative expression as a consistent part of daily life.

#2892

• Mentioned in 14 episodes

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Anne Brontë

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, published in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell, is the second and final novel by Anne Brontë. The story is framed as a letter from Gilbert Markham to his friend and brother-in-law, detailing his encounters with Helen Graham, a mysterious and secretive widow living at Wildfell Hall with her son. As Gilbert's fascination with Helen grows, he discovers through her diaries the details of her tumultuous past, including her marriage to the abusive and alcoholic Arthur Huntingdon and her subsequent escape to protect herself and her son. The novel is a classic of English literature, known for its unflinching portrayal of social issues such as marital cruelty, infidelity, and the rights of women to choose their own path in life.

#1237

• Mentioned in 28 episodes

Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantel

Set during the English Reformation, 'Wolf Hall' brings to life the opulent and brutal world of the Tudors. The novel focuses on Thomas Cromwell, who rises from humble origins to become a powerful advisor to King Henry VIII. It explores themes of ambition, power, politics, religion, identity, and loyalty and betrayal, all set against the backdrop of Henry VIII's desire to marry Anne Boleyn and break from the Roman Catholic Church. Mantel's vivid imagery and sensory details create a rich sense of time and place, making historical characters relatable to contemporary readers.

#303

• Mentioned in 76 episodes

Jane Eyre

Edmund Morrison Wimperis

Edmund H. Garrett

Jant van der Weg-Laverman

Charlotte Brontë

The novel follows Jane Eyre from her childhood at Gateshead Hall, where she is mistreated by her aunt and cousins, to her education at Lowood School, and later her employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall. There, she falls in love with her enigmatic employer, Edward Fairfax Rochester, but discovers a dark secret about his past that forces her to make a difficult choice. The novel explores themes of love, independence, and social justice, and is known for its realistic portrayal of the inner life of a woman during the Victorian era.

#3221

• Mentioned in 13 episodes

The Warmth of Other Suns

The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

Isabel Wilkerson

In 'The Warmth of Other Suns', Isabel Wilkerson provides a detailed historical account of the Great Migration, a movement of approximately six million African Americans from the Southern United States to the Midwest, Northeast, and West between 1915 and 1970. The book follows the lives of three primary subjects: Ida Mae Gladney, George Starling, and Robert Foster, illustrating the broader historical context of the migration. Wilkerson examines the social, economic, and political factors that drove this migration, including economic opportunities in Northern industrial cities, escape from Jim Crow laws and racial violence in the South, and the impact of World War I and II on labor demands. The book is notable for its blend of historical analysis and narrative storytelling, making complex historical events accessible through the personal and societal perspectives of those who lived through the Great Migration.

#62029

Warren

Warren Buffett

In the waning moments of 2025, Julia, Dana, and Steve say goodbye to the year that was with a beloved annual end-of-year tradition… our listener call-in show! And you delivered some great queries, dear listeners.

The hosts tackle questions about everything ranging from under-dramatized historical eras to Wuthering Heights to wedding registry etiquette. They also zoom out to grapple with a fundamental philosophical question underlying this whole show’s existence and take a cue from Las Culturistas Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers for some Schimpfen und Toben.

No endorsements this week. But for listeners in the New York area, don’t miss Steve when he joins Booker Prize-finalist Ben Markovitz for a conversation about his new novel The Rest of Our Lives on January 5, 2026 at the Upper West Side Barnes & Noble.

For Slate Plus subscribers, the hosts delight in answering an additional listener question in an exclusive bonus episode. They share their ideal cultural outings with their co-hosts.

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Email us your thoughts at culturefest@slate.com.

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

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