Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia · Slate Podcasts

The Slate Culture Gift Guide

·50 min·4 clips

Discover how Yellow Submarine started as a sad John Lennon song before becoming a Beatles classic.

This special episode features Slate podcast hosts Chris Molanphy from Hit Parade, Willa Paskin from Decoder Ring, and Dana Stevens from the Culture Gabfest sharing their curated holiday gift picks. The hosts discuss the cultural phenomenon of gift guides before revealing their own selections, all priced around one hundred dollars. Willa Paskin opens by expressing a deep ambivalence toward gift guides, loving well-crafted examples but feeling overwhelmed by their modern proliferation and commercial incentives. She notes that gift guides originated over a century ago as advertisements for department stores like Greenhut, Siegel, and Cooper. Chris Molanphy highlights a 1910 gift guide item: a luxurious robe priced at $3.95 that resembles drapery or papal vestments. Dana Stevens points to a "child's fur set" from the same era, a fake ermine accessory with animal heads and tails marketed to make a "little lady intensely happy." The conversation shifts to a 1961 Esquire guide featuring an $85.50 portable tape recorder, illustrating how technology prices sometimes resist inflation. Chris Molanphy's first gift is the Beatles' "Revolver" 50th-anniversary box set, remastered by Giles Martin, which he calls the most revelatory of the series. He describes hearing early, morose versions of "Yellow Submarine" and clarifies the song was a Lennon-McCartney composition written for Ringo Starr to sing. Dana Stevens' theme is "movie night," and her first pick is a silicone microwave popcorn bowl that requires no oil and creates minimal cleanup. She pairs it with colorful, high-quality kernels from Amish Country Popcorn, praising its tender texture. Willa Paskin recommends a set of ceramic cantaloupe bowls from a Portuguese company, Bordallo Pinheiro, which are part of a line of dishware designed to look like various fruits and vegetables. Chris Molanphy's second suggestion is the "Mad Men" complete series Blu-ray set, which he used for research and praises for its deep special features and cultural accuracy. Dana Stevens suggests a cozy, hole-knit cotton blanket from La Gatte as an essential for a winter movie night. Willa Paskin's final pick is a set of decorative candles shaped and colored to look like real oranges, playing into her fondness for objects that mimic other things. The hosts share a lighthearted, conversational tone while weaving in historical trivia and personal anecdotes. Listeners who enjoy cultural commentary, holiday shopping ideas, and playful banter between critics will appreciate this episode. Those seeking a standard music history deep-dive from Hit Parade may want to skip this crossover gift guide special.

As heard by us

A holiday gift-guide crossover that keeps the recommendations lively without losing its easy pop-music touch.

Hit Parade shifts into a holiday gift-guide crossover with Slate colleagues Willa Paskin and Dana Stevens, and the easy back-and-forth gives the conversation a relaxed, familiar rhythm.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A Slate crossover that turns holiday shopping into a pop-culture hangout.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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