<p>This week, the OG three Steve, Dana, and Julia dig into the visually stuffed, Marxist smorgasbord that is Boots Riley’s latest film <em>I Love Boosters</em>. Starring Keke Palmer and Demi Moore, the candy-colored agitprop is about exploitation, the fashion world, shoplifting as class warfare, and— as they discuss—perhaps more than one movie can handle.&nbsp;</p><br><p>Next they turn from Marx to Freud and analyze the critically adored reality TV phenomenon <em>Couples Therapy</em>,<em> </em>now entering its fifth season. Is the office of Dr. Orna Guralnik a site of transcendent psychological revelation or panoptic exploitation? They unpack.</p><br><p>Finally, they talk <em>lingvo </em>itself by way of <a href="https://harpers.org/archive/2026/06/love-language-katie-thornton-esperanto/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a recent article in <em>Harpers </em>by Katie Thornton</a> about the unlikely resurgence of interest in the artificial language Esperanto.&nbsp;</p><br><p>In a bonus episode for Slate Plus subscribers, they answer a listener question about what long-running pieces of culture they’ve stuck with over years.</p><br><p><em>Ĝuu</em>!</p><br><p><strong>Endorsements</strong></p><br><p><strong>Dana</strong>: The book <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/9780631154877/Artificial-Language-Movement-Large-Andrew-0631154876/plp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>The Artificial Language Movement</em></a> by Andrew Large about the centuries-long history of utopic language projects.</p><br><p><strong>Julia: </strong>Lena Dunham’s memoir <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/famesick-a-memoir-lena-dunham/051a699f988a479a?ean=9780593129326&amp;next=t" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Famesick</em></a> and <a href="http://dialed.gg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dialed.gg</a>, the internet’s latest color perception test.</p><br><p><strong>Steve</strong>: The music of the indie shoegaze band Slowdive—particularly the album <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4i21O3uVh5palcfFhCjlT7?si=ON6QAmsBStW_ippYKoZuig" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Souvlaki</em></a>—and the solo efforts of its frontman Neil Halstead—particularly the song “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7nQDSyEeO2pZOjRmOkTzLD?si=87c52bac77574620" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Witless or Wise”</a> and the album <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6nWn2IqFMPLfo5fEi42XOe?si=Bt2O8G1_ScqqLQxmN78XhA" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Palindrome Hunches</em></a>; check out Steve’s <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/453gxQVv3s8pzCTXahnjlw?si=cac23533443d43d9" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mega playlist for more</a>.</p><br><p>---</p><br><p>Email us your thoughts at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[email protected]</a>.&nbsp;</p><br><p>Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>