The Culture Gabfest "Lust-Free Dinner With David Plotz" Edition

On this week's Slate Culture Gabfest, the critics discuss the mysterious new podcast S-Town, from the creators of Serial and This American Life, centered around a brilliant clock repairer stranded in an Alabama town. The podcast improves upon the Serial format--but is it satisfying? Next, Aisha Harris joins the show to talk about Ghost in the Shell, an adaptation of the 1995 anime movie of the same name. The film has drawn criticism for casting Scarlett Johansson as an originally Japanese character, but are the movie's problems the result of whitewashing, or is it just plain bad? Finally, the gabbers cover the controversy of Mike Pence's refusal to eat alone with any woman who is not his wife.