The Culture Gabfest, "Daddy, Can I Keep This Direwolf?" Edition

Listen to Slate's show about HBO's new fantasy series Game of Thrones, Will Ferrell's going-away party for Steve Carell on The Office, and the new documentary about "On the Street" photographer Bill Cunningham.

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 135 with Nina Shen Rastogi, John Swansburg, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics Dana Stevens and Julia Turner are joined by Slate culture blogger Nina Shen Rastogi to discuss HBO's new fantasy series Game of Thrones and Will Ferrell's send-off for Steve Carell on The Office. They're then joined by Slate culture editor John Swansburg to discuss New York Times "On the Street" photographer Bill Cunningham and the new documentary Bill Cunningham New York.

Here are some links to the things we discussed this week:

The official website for HBO's new fantasy series Game of Thrones.
The Wiki for the series of novels—A Song of Ice and Fire—that the series is based on.
Laura Miller's New Yorker article on George R. R. Martin and his impatient fans.
Troy Patterson's review of Game of Thrones in Slate.
Troy's "real review" (by popular demand) of Thrones' first episode.
Heather Havrilesky's column on Game of Thrones in the New York Times Magazine.
The announcement of Will Ferrell's guest appearances on The Office.
The latest episodes of The Office on Hulu.
Nina's Brow Beat recap of Ferrell's first episode on The Office.
New York's interview with Office showrunner Paul Lieberstein on replacing Michael Scott.
The official website for the documentary Bill Cunningham New York.
Nathan Heller's review of Bill Cunningham New York in Slate.
Cunningham's "On the Street" photographs (now in slideshows online).
An example of one of his "Evening Hours" spreads.
Cunningham's 2002 autobiographical column "Bill on Bill."

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana's pick: Eric Idle's charming audio book reading of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
John's picks: The four finalists for the Michael Kelly award (including Emily Bazelon's Slate series "What Really Happened to Phoebe Prince?"), and the winning series "Agents' Secrets" by Mandy Locke and Joseph Neff.
Nina's pick: The Punchdrunk theater company's immersive theater experience Sleep No More.
Julia's pick: The song "Voices Carry" by American New Wave group 'Til Tuesday (you can watch the video on YouTube).

Outro: "Voices Carry" by 'Til Tuesday.

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This podcast was produced by Jesse Baker. Our intern is Forrest Wickman.

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