Culture File

‘To Olivia’ by Marian Balfe is a letter and a cheers to Olivia Whitmore Guinness, the matriarch of the Guinness family. Olivia's body and wealth were instrumental to history, but she is largely forgotten within the maelstrom of the Guinness Brand. This letter recounts Marian's search for her and considers how she is remembered. Marian Balfe is an artist from the Midlands of Ireland. She explores h...

What does a magazine sound like? The Mirror Lamp Press magazine showcasing work by Irish and international writers and artists usually exists in words and pictures. But for this edition, the artists have all created radio artwork. In To Olivia, Marian Balfe sends a letter to the overlooked Guinness matriarch, Olivia Whitmore Guinness; Niamh Moriarty & Ruth Clinton’s The Sorriest remixes the public...

Culture File presents Lisa Fingleton's seasonal tale of Walter, a man whose pursuit of everything might just have left him - and the rest of the world - with nothing. Written and performed by Lisa Fingleton.

Paddy Woodworth, the voice of Culture File's The Naturalist's Bookshelf, causes a chain reaction as he invites naturalists Richard Nairn, Jane Clarke and Tina Claffey to select their favourite volumes of nature writing. Recorded live at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin as part of Dublin Book Fair 2022.

On the program this week, the world's oldest voices recorded among the centenarians of the Talysh Mountains, the synthesised voice of her brother, David, in Holly Marie Parnell's documentary Cabbage, falling asleep to Joe Pera's voice in the comedian's new sleep podcast, and Orit Gat on art that smells. Photo: Marilena Umuhoza Delli

Football, football, football. How can this plaything of oligarch, and petrostates, this swamp of exploitation and discrimination, how can that be fit for our eyes and ears, never mind our love or inspiration? Critic and writer, Orit Gat, writer and filmmaker, Juliet Jacques and artist and author, Adrian Duncan join Luke Clancy for a kickabout. RTÉ lyric fm, Saturday 19 November, 6.30pm

How typographer, Thomas Phinney, earned himself the title the Font Detective. Originally broadcast Culture File, RTÉ lyric fm, 300913

If you think the football is alway on, things are about to get a whole lot worse when the World Cup kicks off Qatar this weekend, and the formerly beautiful game will explode from every screen, every earbud. But how can this plaything of oligarch, and petrostates, this swamp of exploitation and discrimination, how can that be fir for our eyes and ears, never mind our love? Orit Gat, writer and fil...

Director and creator of DTF show, Lost Lear, Dan Colley on a few of his favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling

W David Marx on how humans' constant struggle for status drives innovation, shaping our art and culture in the most surprising ways.

W David Marx on how the internet and omnivorous taste are remaking the function of culture. (Part 3 - Extended interview coming up in The Culture File Weekly, Sat 1st.)

How French sociologist, Pierre Bordieu helps us understand culture; plus where the freest jazz comes from, in the second part of our conversation with author, W David Marx. (part 2)

David W Marx's new book, Status and Culture looks at how human hunger for status can't help shaping the art and culture we produce. (Part 1)

For his latest radio poem, Tadgh O'Sullivan meditates on maps, war and the life of Hungarian poet, Miklós Radnóti.

Limerick playwright and curator of Bualadh Bos Children’s Festival, Liam McCarthy shares some of his favourite things.

Bicycle-based Ukrainian fusion band / song collecting project, Folknery on lost words and lost worlds.

Director and writer, Dan Colley's Dublin Theatre Festival show rehearses the good bits of King Lear in the service of caring for a woman with dementia.

...and Other Histories of Unreliable Origin is Stephen Brandes' vision of a dubious Irish tour by the Russian revolutionary and his wife.

"Telling the Bees": Jennifer Walshe on the Facebook bees of Co Meath.

Glassmaker, sound artist and healer, Karen Donnellan on a few of her favourite things in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.

Healing tones in the art of Karen Donnellan, Luke Fowler on filmmaker, Margaret Tait, performance poets Bambi & Dizarel and Paddy Woodworth on naturalist, John Hay.

Performance Poetry at WOMAD 22, with first timer, Bambi, and veteran of the UK scene, Dizreali.

After films on figures such as Cornelius Cardew and RD Laing, artist-filmmaker, Luke Fowler turns his attention to the Orkney poet and filmmaker, Margaret Tait.

Culture File back popping up in your podcast places each day, and on RTÉ lyric fm weekdays, 6.40pm - and for those who like the bigger gulp, The Culture File Weekly is Saturday, 6.30pm.

How the 528 Hz "miracle note" and other aspects of sonic healing inform the work of Irish artist, Karen Donnellan.