The Slate Culture Gift Guide

The Slate Culture Gift Guide

Author: Slate Podcasts November 12, 2025 Duration: 48:09

Hark, the holiday season is upon us—and with it, the most solemn of festive traditions: a gift guide! In this video and podcast special, Slate hosts Dana Stevens, Chris Molanphy, and Willa Paskin beam in from their collective hearths to deliver unto the internet their favorite gifts for culture lovers. In addition to sharing gifts, they also discuss the cultural artifact that is the “holiday gift guide,” and its history going back to the early 20th century, up to the modern day. See the entirety of the 1910 gift guide Our Special Holiday Gift-Book from Greenhut-Siegel Cooper, and Esquire’s ultra-mod gift guide from 1961. 

Check out our gift recommendations below: 

Dana Stevens’ Cozy Movie Night-In: 

Chris Molanphy’s Hit Parade Collection: 

Willa Paskin’s Fruit-Themed Trompe-l'œil Housewares:

The Slate Culture Gift Guide is produced for Slate Studios by Benjamin Frisch and Micah Phillips, with Meryl Bezrutczyk and Andrew Harding.


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What makes a song a smash? Talent? Luck? Timing? All that—and more. Chris Molanphy, pop-chart analyst and author of Slate’s “Why Is This Song No. 1?” series, tells tales from a half-century of chart history. Through storytelling, trivia and song snippets, Chris dissects how that song you love—or hate—dominated the airwaves, made its way to the top of the charts and shaped your memories forever. Get more Hit Parade with Slate Plus! Join for monthly early-access episodes, bonus episodes of "The Bridge," and ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Hit Parade show page on...
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Podcast Episodes
Shake It Like a Polaroid Picture Edition Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:00
Talk about ’90s rap, and most music fans will throw around the word “gangsta” and talk about the East Coast–West Coast feud that tragically brought down Biggie and Tupac. But one rap group, OutKast, quite literally rose…
Lenny on Mars Edition Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:07
What do Lenny Kravitz, a hitmaker primarily in the ’90s and ’00s, and Bruno Mars, a 2010s–20s hitmaker, have in common? It turns out, a lot: Each man has a wide-ranging ethnic and musical background, with early exposure…
Lenny on Mars Edition Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:18
What do Lenny Kravitz, a hitmaker primarily in the ’90s and ’00s, and Bruno Mars, a 2010s–20s hitmaker, have in common? It turns out, a lot: Each man has a wide-ranging ethnic and musical background, with early exposure…
Yes We Can Can Edition Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:22
Today, the Pointer Sisters are mostly remembered for their flurry of ’80s hits, especially the “Excited” one about losing control and liking it. But their musical history is far more varied: jazz standards? Civil rights–…
Yes We Can Can Edition Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:34
Today, the Pointer Sisters are mostly remembered for their flurry of ’80s hits, especially the “Excited” one about losing control and liking it. But their musical history is far more varied: jazz standards? Civil rights–…
Champagne Supernova Edition Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:53
In the ’90s, U.K. rock was by Britons, for Britons. The music of the U.K. indie, Madchester and shoegaze scenes fused together into a new wave of guitar bands with punk energy, laddish lyrics and danceable grooves. They…
Champagne Supernova Edition Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:17
In the ’90s, U.K. rock was by Britons, for Britons. The music of the U.K. indie, Madchester and shoegaze scenes fused together into a new wave of guitar bands with punk energy, laddish lyrics and danceable grooves. They…
The British Are Charting Edition Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:58
Before 1964, British bands couldn’t get anywhere on the U.S. charts. Then suddenly, after a certain Fab Four broke, they were everywhere. By 1965, they had locked down our Top 10.In 1981, a new generation of U.K. acts ar…
The British Are Charting Edition Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:41
Before 1964, British bands couldn’t get anywhere on the U.S. charts. Then suddenly, after a certain Fab Four broke, they were everywhere. By 1965, they had locked down our Top 10.In 1981, a new generation of U.K. acts ar…
Raise Your Glass Edition Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:24
Alecia Moore was so fearless, they put an exclamation point in her name. Pink—a.k.a. P!nk—was full of bravado from the moment she broke at the turn of the millennium, singing a frothy style of teen pop&B. She was promote…