In this week’s essay, John discusses the art of attention and how to develop the skill of slow-looking.

Notebook Entries:

Notebook 75, page 8. September 2021

1016

Notebook 1, page 54. June 1990

-       Magna carta 1215 at Salisbury

-       Girls skipping

-       The Haunch of Venison

-       Chris

References:

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

A Little History of the World by E.H Gombrich

Artist Jeff Koons

“The Art of Divination: D.H. Lawrence on the Power of Pure Attention” by Maria Popova for The Marginalian

“Gabfest Reads: A Woman’s Life in Museum Wall Labels” for Political Gabfest 

One Woman Show by Christine Coulson

“Grammy-winning artist Jason Isbell talks about the craft of songwriting and his latest music” for CBS News

A Journey Around My Room by Xavier De Maistre

“Just think: The Challenges of the Disengaged Mind” by Timothy Wilson, et.al for Science

“Our Rodent Selfies, Ourselves” by Emily Anthes for the New York Times

One Man’s Meat by E.B. White

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.

Email us at [email protected]

Want to listen to Navel Gazing uninterrupted? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock ad-free listening to Navel Gazing and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/navelgazingplus to get access wherever you listen.

Host

John Dickerson

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When you hear “boy band,” what do you picture? Five guys with precision dance moves? Songs crafted by the Top 40 pop machine? Svengalis pulling the puppet strings? Hordes of screaming girls?

As it turns out, not all boy bands fit these signifiers. (Well…except for the screaming girls—they are perennial.) There are boy bands that danced, and some that did not…boy bands that relied entirely on outside songwriters, and those that wrote big hits…boy bands assembled by managers or producers, and quite a few that launched on their own.

From Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers to New Kids on the Block, the Monkees to the Jonas Brothers, Boyz II Men to BTS, New Edition to One Direction, and…yeah, of course, Backstreet Boys and *N Sync, boy bands have had remarkable variety over the years. (In a sense, even a certain ’60s Fab Four started as a boy band.)

Join Chris Molanphy as he tries to define the ineffable quality of boy band–ness, walks through decades of shrieking, hair-pulling pop history, and reminds you that boy bands generated some of our greatest hits, from “I Want You Back” to “I Want It That Way,” “Bye Bye Bye” to “Dynamite.” Help him “bring the fire and set the night alight.”

Podcast production by Kevin Bendis.

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On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: nobody wins with two parties.

A competitive presidential election draws closer every day – and as ever, every vote will count. So is it fair to accuse third-party voters of wasting a vote, as often happens? Or are third-party candidates actually preserving what little we have left of a competitive democracy? 

Bernard Tamas of Valdosta State University joins us to make the case for the power of the third party.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

Podcast production by Maura Currie.

Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.

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In this week’s essay, John dives deep into the loss of his beloved dog, George, the essayist’s dilemma, the comfort of quiet mornings, and more.

Notebook Entries:

Notebook 75, page 5. September 5, 2021

I go to the morning alone.

Notebook 75, page 6. September 6, 2021

Phantom nails on the stairs

References:

“Every Dog Is a Rescue Dog” by John Dickerson for The Atlantic

“Oxytocin-gaze positive loop and the coevolution of human-dog bonds” by Miho Nagasawa et.al for Science

Haikus by Jennifer Gurney

“Which Pet Will Make You Happiest?” by Arthur C. Brooks for The Atlantic

“The Family Dog Is in Sync With Your Kids” by Gretchen Reynolds for The New York Times

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.

Email us at [email protected]

Want to listen to Navel Gazing uninterrupted? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock ad-free listening to Navel Gazing and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/navelgazingplus to get access wherever you listen.

Host

John Dickerson

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John Dickerson talks with author David E. Sanger about his new book, New Cold Wars. They discuss how Russia and China came to reach their new levels of power, the role the Middle East and Obama Administration played in all of this, and more.

Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at [email protected]. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.

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This week Bryan talks to writer Neil J. Young about his new book Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right. They dig into some of the inherent contradictions of the Gay Right and the pillars of their political strategy and reveal how central whiteness and maleness is to their politic. 

Podcast production by Palace Shaw.

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April is Autism Acceptance Month, and how we’ve come to understand autism has evolved over the past several decades. 

For years, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was thought of as something that needed to be cured. Through better data and years of activism, that misunderstanding is changing.

On this week’s episode of Well, Now we discuss that evolution with Sara Luterman, caregiving reporter for The 19th.

Podcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry and Ahyiana Angel with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.

Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to [email protected] 

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In this week’s essay, John remembers dropping his son off at college, and trying to hold onto moments and feelings while you can. 

Notebook Entries:

Notebook 75, page 6. September 2021:

They chose you.

Notebook 15, page 4. April 2004:

Sitting with Brice by waterfall. Throwing rocks in stream. Loading sand from dump truck and loader and back again.

References:

What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith

Songwriter Nick Cave

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.

Email us at [email protected]

Want to listen to Navel Gazing uninterrupted? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock ad-free listening to Navel Gazing and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/navelgazingplus to get access wherever you listen.

Host

John Dickerson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you hear “boy band,” what do you picture? Five guys with precision dance moves? Songs crafted by the Top 40 pop machine? Svengalis pulling the puppet strings? Hordes of screaming girls?

As it turns out, not all boy bands fit these signifiers. (Well…except for the screaming girls—they are perennial.) There are boy bands that danced, and some that did not…boy bands that relied entirely on outside songwriters, and those that wrote big hits…boy bands assembled by managers or producers, and quite a few that launched on their own.

From Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers to New Kids on the Block, the Monkees to the Jonas Brothers, Boyz II Men to BTS, New Edition to One Direction, and…yeah, of course, Backstreet Boys and *N Sync, boy bands have had remarkable variety over the years. (In a sense, even a certain ’60s Fab Four started as a boy band.)

Join Chris Molanphy as he tries to define the ineffable quality of boy band–ness, walks through decades of shrieking, hair-pulling pop history, and reminds you that boy bands generated some of our greatest hits, from “I Want You Back” to “I Want It That Way,” “Bye Bye Bye” to “Dynamite.” Help him “bring the fire and set the night alight.”

Podcast production by Kevin Bendis.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Magazines have fallen on hard times – especially the weekly news, fashion, and celebrity mags that once dominated newsstands. The revenue from magazine racks has plummeted in recent years, and many magazines have stopped appearing in print or shut down altogether.

And yet, there is something growing in the checkout aisle: one-off publications, each devoted to a single topic, known as “bookazines.” Last year, over 1,200 different bookazines went on sale across the country. They cover topics ranging from Taylor Swift, Star Wars, the Kennedy assassination, K-pop, the British royal family, and as host Willa Paskin recently observed, the career of retired movie star Robert Redford.

In today’s episode, Willa looks behind the racks to investigate this new-ish format. Who is writing, publishing, and reading all these one-off magazines – and why? Is the bookazine a way forward for magazines, or their last gasp?

Voices you’ll hear in this episode include Caragh Donley, longtime magazine journalist turned prolific writer of bookazines; Eric Szegda, executive at bookazine publisher a360 media; and Erik Radvon, comic book creator and bookazine fan.

This episode was produced by Max Freedman and edited by Evan Chung, who produce the show with Katie Shepherd. Derek John is Executive Producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.

If you haven’t yet, please subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends.

If you’re a fan of the show, please sign up for Slate Plus. Members get to listen to Decoder Ring and all other Slate podcasts without any ads and have total access to Slate’s website. Your support is also crucial to our work. Go to Slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today.

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Cover songs once had a simple playbook: Artists would faithfully rerecord a song—note for note and word for word. They might modernize the instrumentation. If they were feeling radical, they’d punch up the vocals a bit.

Now it’s hard to say what a cover is anymore. If Ariana Grande turns “My Favorite Things” into “7 Rings,” does that qualify? When Drake says he’s “Way 2 Sexy,” is he covering Right Said Fred?

The recent chart success of “Fast Car”—country star Luke Combs’ very traditional take on Tracy Chapman’s folk classic—has reinvigorated interest in cover songs. Sometimes, isn’t just remaking the song as-is enough?

Join Chris Molanphy as he explains the chart considerations and artistic motivations that rebooted the cover song, and whether a straight-up remake will ever top the Hot 100 again. We’re long past the days of “Twist and Shout,” “Venus” and “I’ll Be There.”

Podcast production by Olivia Briley.

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