Radio
Joni Mitchell, in her own words
There’s always been something at once girlish and steely about Joni Mitchell, the stellar Canadian whom Rolling Stone called ‘one…
I’m not convinced Thomas Heatherwick is the best person to be discussing boring buildings
Architects are often snobby about – and no doubt jealous of – the designer Thomas Heatherwick, who isn’t an actual…
A Radio 3 doc that contains some of the best insults I’ve ever heard
A recent Sunday Feature on Radio 3 contained some of the best insults I have ever heard. Contributors to the…
The Stradivarius of models
‘What advice would you give to your younger self?’ has become a popular question in interviews in recent years. It’s…
No balls
The first episode of George Osborne and Ed Balls’s new podcast, Political Currency, opened with an old clip of the…
Poetry please
It’s now been ten years since Seamus Heaney died, and after a great poet’s death it’s natural, I suppose, that…
Vampire diaries
The Immortals, which begins on Radio 4 this week, is not for the faint-hearted. While it professes to be about…
Between two worlds
The playwright Carlo Gozzi marvelled at ‘The spectacle of women turned into men, men turned into women, and both men…
Pain without gain
It is the stuff of nightmares, or a queasily dystopian film plot. A woman is undergoing a surgical procedure in…
Of mice and men
I’m listening to John Cleese talking to Justin Welby in the new series of The Archbishop Interviews when the thought…
Going viral
It’s the whodunnit – or whatdunnit – that has kept scientists, politicians, journalists and armchair sleuths speculating ever since the…
All the rage
Welcome back to Room 101, which has returned to the radio – after nearly 30 years on TV – and…
Lost worlds
One so often hears about famous people who are horrible when they think no one important is looking – barking…
Early birds
As the owner of a radio alarm clock, I could theoretically start listening to the Today programme before I’m even…
Nuttier and nastier
I was making my way slowly through one of my dismally prosaic little to-do lists – ‘pay the water bill’…
Lost Seoul
Ask a member of Generation Z where in the world they would most like to live, and chances are they…
Whisky and cordite
Most of us are familiar with the notion of writer’s block, that paralysis of invention induced by the appalling sight…
Overseas aid
Is the World Service superfluous, or a vital adjunct of British diplomacy, wonders Oscar Edmondson
Moomin minded
One of the lesser-known schools of modern philosophy is the Philosophy of Moomin. Like Cynicism or Epicureanism, it is difficult…
Barbarous and mundane
The debate sparked by Josh Baker’s BBC podcast on Shamima Begum, and her teenage flight to join Isis, has divided…
Ice cream and pickles
Can you ever truly know a poet? The question arises every time one publishes a collection that looks vaguely confessional.…
His dark materials
Radio works its strongest magic, I always think, when you listen to it in the dark. The most reliable example…
A frog’s-eye view
Whenever I listen to Great Lives on Radio 4, which is often, I am reminded of the gulf between fame…
Historical lucky dip
Like so many of history’s great catastrophes, the story begins with an eccentric Victorian Englishman. Francis Galton was a maker…
