More from Arts
Louis Theroux’s podcast reveals a master at work
I always want to know more about Louis Theroux, which is odd, since I’ve seen so much of him already.…
The best podcasts for all your corona-gardening needs
The American diet was probably at its healthiest in the second world war. Fearing interruption to supply chains, Washington launched…
Why haven’t podcasts cracked the recipe for audio drama?
In Beeb-dominated Britain, the commercial triumph of podcasting — epitomised by Spotify’s recent £100 million deals with Joe Rogan and…
Pointless but beautiful – and good for going to sleep to: Monument Valley reviewed
I was going to write about Monument Valley, and I suppose I will eventually, but first I have to write…
Why is Robert Burton’s masterpiece Anatomy of Melancholy being sold as self-help?
The BBC has been having a good pandemic. Stuck at home, a generation raised on podcasts and YouTube has discovered…
From Hogarth to Mardi Gras: the best art podcasts
If you study History of Art, people generally assume you’re a nice, conscientious, plummy-voiced girl. Sometimes, people are right. It…
The art of the incel
The roots of incel subculture – and its magnificent memes – stretch back to Goethe’s Werther and beyond, says Nina Power
The power of cheap music: pop podcast round-up
Noël Coward was so right that his words have become a cliché: it is indeed extraordinary how potent cheap music…
The problem with mystery podcasts like Wind of Change
Did the US secretly write a power ballad in order to bring down the Soviet Union? That’s the question behind…
Privatisation is the best option for the South Bank Centre
I must have written about this subject 100 times in 30 years and I’m still having to restate the bloody…
The Literary Disco podcast made me want to throw my laptop at the wall
One of the stranger things that happened in the period just before lockdown was the sudden disappearance of audiences from…
Why do they call it a game? It is servitude: Nintendo Switch’s Animal Crossing reviewed
Lynn Barber picks up a Nintendo Switch for the first time
The author who made a living measuring the legs of lice
Wilhelm Nero Pilate Barbellion, real name Bruce Frederick Cummings, earned his living measuring the legs of lice in the Natural…
The unstoppable rise of television-rewatch podcasts
Talking Sopranos — a new weekly podcast which launched this month— is another example of a seemingly unstoppable sub-genre occupying…
The importance of sadism in writing a great screenplay
How do you tell a great story? According to Craig Mazin, you have to be a sadist. ‘As a writer,…
The artist who left no physical record of her work
While locked-down galleries compete to keep their artists in the public eye — or ear — by uploading interview podcasts,…
How The Spectator discovered Helen Mirren
From Enoch Powell to Danny La Rue: Hilary Spurling looks back on her time in charge of the arts and books pages in the 1960s
The genius of Joe Rogan
Last month, just before coronavirus conquered the airwaves entirely, millions of Americans gave up two hours to hear a professor…
How to succeed in sculpture (without being a man)
Whee-ooh-whee ya-ya-yang skrittle-skrittle skreeeek… Is it a space pod bearing aliens from Mars? No, it’s a podcast featuring aliens from…
Are there ways in which virtual exhibitions are better than real ones?
Six months ago I published a book about travelling to look at works of art. One such journey involved a…
You’ll keep saying ‘I’m sorry, did I hear that correctly?’: Fiasco reviewed
Kevin Katke was quite a man. He had no military training, no political background and no espionage experience. Nonetheless, his…
Oracles, perverts and the Dirtbag Left
For 500 years the State Oracle of Tibet has worked as a kind of angry immortal advisor to the Dalai…
