The sugarcane fields! La casita! Piraguas! Lady Gaga! Ricky Martin! An actual wedding! Bad Bunny’s immense and boisterous Super Bowl Halftime show brought a whole Puerto Rican universe to Levi’s Stadium and into American viewers’ homes. Julia and guest hosts Nadira Goffe and Rebecca Onion revel in the joyful spectacle and are joined by Slate writer Joshua Rivera to decode the inclusive politics of this party. 

Next, the panel examines the bracing, anxiety-inducing film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. Starring a ferocious and funny Rose Byrne and directed by Mary Bronstein, it’s a jittery, intense portrait of motherhood.

Finally, they discuss the hugely popular podcast The Rest Is History and ponder how two British dudes—Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook—talking about things like the Battle of Carthage captured so much attention and admiration.

In an exclusive bonus episode for Slate Plus subscribers, it’s time for some Wednesday morning quarterbacking to size up the big game’s real players: the commercials.

Endorsements

Nadira: The new album of footwork music OVERTIME by the underground hip hop outfit usertime and Marsh crane as well as the new album URGH by the English–French noise rock band Mandy, Indiana.

Rebecca: The novel The Director by Daniel Kehlmann and the 2011 appropriately moody Bronte adaptation Wuthering Heights directed by Andrea Arnold.

Julia: The new cookbook by Joshua McFadden Six Seasons of Pasta — try all the absurd little steps at least once, the cheese gravel is good!

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Email us your thoughts at culturefest@slate.com. 

Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch.

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