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“Summer in the City.” “I Feel the Earth Move.” “Bette Davis Eyes.” “Whoomp! There It Is.” “Get Lucky.” “Espresso.” What do these big summer hits all have in common? None of them was Billboard’s official Song of the Summer.

Wait…there’s an official Song of the Summer? Isn’t that something that just happens organically? Every year, it seems everybody has an opinion on this musical national pastime. But the Hot 100 often tells a different story. For every “Light My Fire,” “Bad Girls,” “Crazy in Love,” “California Gurls” or “Call Me Maybe”—a hot-weather hit that unites the charts and the punditry—there are confirmed summer smashes that no one would pick out of a lineup, from Zager and Evans to Iggy Azalea.

Join Chris Molanphy as he traces the tangled story of how America came to decide there should be one victorious summer hit to rule them all. And he counts down the best Songs of the Summer by decade. Is it getting “Hot in Herre,” or is it just us…?

Podcast production by Kevin Bendis.
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The weeks of Democratic hand-wringing ended suddenly on Sunday after President Joe Biden stepped out of the White House race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. Her young campaign has energized Democrats. But Harris has befuddled Republicans who don’t know how to attack her, and a media that doesn’t know how to define her. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson discusses Harris’s record and her prospects with political analyst Niambi Carter, a professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. 

Guest: Niambi Carter, political analyst and author of American While Black: African Americans, Immigration, and the Limits of Citizenship.

Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola

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In this episode, Arionne Nettles (author of We Are the Culture: Black Chicago’s Influence on Everything) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about how to keep composure when your soon-to-be sister-in-law shows up to your wedding in a thong, how to react when your husband’s comments oversexualize your teenage daughters’ friends, and ways to handle a sister-in-law whose unwanted body criticisms keep ruining family vacations.
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This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie and Anuli Ononye.
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On this episode: Lucy and Zak are joined by special guest host Chris Duffy to talk about the power of a painting. Our listener has a piece of art hanging on her wall that features some nudity — and it recently startled a crew of kids over for a playdate. Should the painting be moved, or taken down? Or is our listener just becoming the fabled Cool Art House?

We’ll also debrief with a round of parenting Triumphs & Fails, and share an update about the parent who sparked the great shorts under skirts debate.

Join us on Facebook and email us at careandfeedingpod@slate.com to ask us new questions, tell us what you thought of today’s show, and give us ideas about what we should talk about in future episodes. You can also call our phone line: (646) 357-9318.

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Podcast produced by Maura Currie.
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It's halfway through the year, and hosts June Thomas and Isaac Butler are putting themselves back under the microscope to see which of their New Year's resolutions they’ve stuck with and which they’ve let peter out. June still wants to work more sustainably, and Isaac comes clean about his lapsed French studies. They get into routines that have truly worked out and how to let go of the goals that were far too lofty. 

Do you have questions or advice of your own about the creative process? Reach out at (304) 933-9675 or email us at working@slate.com.  

Podcast production by Kevin Bendis and Cameron Drews.
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On this week’s show, the panel gets swept up by Twisters, and begins by discussing director Lee Isaac Chung’s standalone sequel starring Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones. (For the record, the original 1996 disaster flick, Twister, is a near-perfect, Gabfest-approved comfort watch). Sure, Chung’s reboot isn’t as weird as the original, and the modern-day renderings of completely plausible natural disasters are alarming, but Twisters did what it was supposed to do: deliver a good, generic summer movie where Glen Powell can be, well, Glen Powell. (Read Dana’s review! And Sam Adam’s take on the film’s approach to climate change.) Then, the three dissect Sorry Not Sorry, a documentary from the New York Times that examines Louis C.K.'s public fall from grace in 2017 and the comic’s recent comeback, but disappointingly offers little new insight. Finally, the trio tackles gambling and its increasing presence in modern life, inspired by an essay by Christine Emba for The Atlantic. “Suddenly, gambling seems to be everywhere,” Emba writes. “This sort of vice creep, a societal normalization of what used to be seen as unsavory habits—gambling, smoking marijuana, watching porn—is accelerated by people’s addiction to devices, in this case giving casual bettors the tools to become compulsive wagerers and easing the way for gambling to become a constant part of life.” 
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel discusses a recent New York Times interactive and dives deep into their relationships with the grocery store.
Email us at culturefest@slate.com.
Endorsements:
Dana: Inspired by today’s gambling segment, Dana endorses Owning Mahowny, director Richard Kwietniowski 2003 film based on the true story of a Toronto bank employee (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who embezzled more than $10 million to feed his gambling addiction. 
Julia: An open call! Please send Julia your recommendations for great children’s books that discuss the weather or the changing seasons to culturefest@slate.com. (And read Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson!)
Stephen: “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo,” a set of 118 woodblocks by 19th century Japanese landscape master Utagawa Hiroshige, which is currently on display at the Brooklyn Museum through August 4th. 
Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong. 
Hosts
Dana Stephens, Julia Turner, Stephen Metcalf
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