
Decoder Ring The Slate Culture Gift Guide
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Nov 12, 2025 Chris Molanphy, host of Slate's Hit Parade, shares his musical expertise in this festive guide to gifts for culture lovers. He highlights the Beatles’ remastered Revolver box set, discussing its invaluable content. Additionally, Chris pitches the Mad Men Blu-ray collection, perfect for rewatching and understanding 1960s culture. The trio dives into the history of holiday gift guides, reflecting on their evolving nature from 1910 to the present, blending nostalgia with modern trends. It's a joyful exploration of unique gifts to celebrate this season.
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Gift Guides As Ambivalent Cultural Objects
- Willa Paskin finds gift guides deeply ambivalent: she loves curated ones but hates their capitalist flood.
- She sees them as both pleasurable window-shopping and an anxiety-inducing shopping apparatus.
Gift Guides Often Lead To Self-Shopping
- Gift guides often end up serving self-shopping more than helping buy for others.
- Chris Molanphy and Willa both admit they use guides to discover items they want for themselves.
Gift Guides Are Modern Ads With Deep Roots
- Gift guides have a long history as department-store advertorials dating to the early 1900s.
- Modern guides keep the same mechanics but amplified by internet incentives like affiliate links and algorithms.

