Life and Art from FT Weekend

We can't stop thinking about food: how to cook it, where to buy it, how many meals are too many meals and why everyone's making bread. This week, Lilah talks to Samin Nosrat, of bestselling cookbook and Netflix hit  Salt Fat Acid Heat , about tips for cooking in a pandemic, the meaning of comfort food, her next cookbook — and the long-term effects of coronavirus on the restaura...

Lilah chats with Ira Glass, the host of This American Life , the long running, seminal and wildly popular radio show that launched a genre of podcasting. But what does its name really mean? And what does American life look like today? They discuss reporting during a pandemic, whether the show has spurred or stifled creativity in audio, how having a more diverse staff has changed their stories — an...

Gris and Lilah here, coming to you between episodes to find out how you're holding up. As we live through this surreal pandemic together (and apart), we want to know what's going through your mind. What are you noticing around you? How have you seen culture already begin to adapt to this new reality? And what have you been watching, reading, listening to, crafting, cooking, etc to get through? Thi...

This week has been dominated by the spread of coronavirus. The situation is changing so fast that we decided to publish a couple of days early. In the first half of this episode, Gris and Lilah discuss how coronavirus is already changing daily life — and how it might impact culture in the longer term. Will we lose our fear of missing out? What will the 'experience economy' look like? And can the t...

To mark International Women's Day on March 8, and following Harvey Weinstein's recent conviction in New York, we're doing something a bit different. In this episode, Gris speaks to three of today's most compelling writers and campaigners about feminism now. They touch on everything from changing beauty standards to teens and social media to modern motherhood. Prepare to be surprised. Or as Lilah p...

Award-winning podcaster Kaitlin Prest (of The Heart and Mermaid Palace) is one of the most innovative people making audio today. She chats with Lilah about sex, power and the grey areas around consent—as well as how her collective of queer anarchist outsiders climbed to the top of the audio world. Plus: trend forecaster Emily Segal, known for coining the term 'normcore', stops by to share her...

We're back with a brand new season! In our pre-Oscars special, Gris talks to Noah Baumbach, director of the nominated film  Marriage Story , about love, divorce — and how Netflix is changing film. Plus: the FT's film critic Danny Leigh drops into the studio ahead of the Academy Awards. Who's going to win? Who really should win? And do the Oscars — for which no female directors and just one ac...

The season kicks off this Thursday, February 6! Join Gris and Lilah as they dig into the trends shaping life in the 2020s, interview the people breaking new ground and bring you behind the scenes of the Financial Times' Life & Arts journalism. In episode one, Gris speaks with director of Marriage Story Noah Baumbach, and our film critic stops by to chat about this year’s nominees. We also have...

From Lizzo and  Fleabag  to Greta Thunberg and the Impossible Burger, Lilah and Gris look back at the biggest themes, people and moments of the year. How did we go from talking about 'global warming' to the 'climate crisis'? How has technology opened up the generational divide? And how is culture reflecting the changing conversation around gender, race and representation? Plus: we asked...

You may have noticed the revival of astrology in recent years: meme accounts are accruing millions of followers, horoscope apps are raising millions of dollars in venture funding, and Americans are spending more and more on 'mystical services' (it's currently a $2.2b market). Lilah and Gris explore what this growing trend says about our culture, digging into the renaissance of birth charts and moo...

Ben Lerner is one of the most acclaimed American writers working today. Gris meets him to discuss good parenting, male rage and why "autofiction" (fiction infused with autobiography) isn't narcissistic, despite what people think.  One of the biggest books of 2019, Lerner's new novel  The Topeka School  is arguably his most ambitious to date. Set partly in Kansas in the 1990s, it tel...

Psychotherapist Esther Perel shot to fame with her TED talks and podcast on sex, infidelity, and the secret to long-term relationships. Lilah meets her in New York to learn about her latest podcast – How's Work? – which puts a microphone in her therapy sessions between co-founders. They discuss how the same dynamics that exist in our romantic relationships also exist in our professional lives...

Award-winning chef Danny Bowien has never fully fit in. Adopted from Korea, Bowien was raised by a white, Christian family in Oklahoma, in "the buckle of the Bible Belt." In 2010, as a young chef in San Francisco, he started the first pop up restaurant ever as an experiment – it became wildly popular for turning Szechuan Chinese food upside down. He now runs two successful Mission C...

At almost seven foot tall, Mark Bradford is one of the most towering figures in the art world, in every sense. Gris asks him how it felt — as a gay, black artist — to represent the US at the Venice Biennale in the era of Trump. Mark also discusses growing up in his mother's beauty salon in Los Angeles, his new exhibition in London, and how his foundation makes art accessible to everyone — not just...

How does evolutionary biology shape our attitudes towards desire? Is it always possible to confront your own prejudice? Gris talks to Sara Pascoe about making jokes in the age of woke speak, the highs and lows of life as a comedian, and her new book  Sex Power Money . We love hearing from you. Come chat with us @FTCultureCall on Twitter, and tell us about your favourite cultural trends at&nbs...

As The New Yorker magazine's go-to millennial, Jia Tolentino writes cultural criticism about the internet and how it affects us. She recently published  Trick Mirror , a wildly popular collection of essays that explores contemporary culture. On this episode, Jia speaks with Gris about how the internet is moulding us in its image ("and it's important to remember that we are very mouldable!")....

He opened the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with a love poem. His series Have You Heard George's Podcast? won multiple awards for its commentary on black inner city culture in the UK and beyond. George the Poet tells Gris about why he gave up rapping, and the privilege ⁠— and emotional toll ⁠— of representing his community. Later on, we discuss the latest mind-blowing discoveries...

Gris and Lilah return with a revamped show: welcome to Culture Call! Lilah visits New York Times feature writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner at home in suburban New Jersey to talk about how she constructs her viral celebrity profiles (think Gwyneth Paltrow and Nicki Minaj). We also discuss her first novel, Fleishman is in Trouble .  Good news: you can now find us on Twitter! It’s @FTculturecall...

We're changing our name to Culture Call! We'll be bringing you everything that was great about Everything Else, plus an added emphasis on conversations with people who are shifting culture — writers, musicians, chefs, comedians and more. For regular listeners, there's no need to re-subscribe: we'll be back in your feeds on August 13! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Three Women  is one of the most talked-about books of the summer: a true story of female desire that took eight years to write. Lilah talks to its author, Lisa Taddeo, about what it was like to report on real women's sex lives — and why Woody Allen was wrong: there  is  such a thing as a bad orgasm. Plus: Lilah and James Fontanella-Khan, FT corporate deals editor, discuss their inve...

Our big summer books episode! Plus, Simon Schama Looking for a book that will give you an existential crisis on holiday? Gris and Lilah talk with Innovation Editor John Thornhill about what this summer’s best tech books say about our cultural psyche. (John sees a future in which a machine can write about its experience being a machine.) Plus, a conversation with resident genius Simon Sch...

FT film critic Raphael Abraham brings us behind the scenes at Cannes — and recommends the best movies to see this summer. Plus: to welcome season two of HBO's Big Little Lies , Gris and Lilah unpack the changing role of the housewife, and what the new internet sensation 'the wife guy' is doing for modern feminism. Listen, subscribe, rate and review on  Apple Podcasts . Hosted on Acast. See ac...

Gris meets Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones, the pair behind Black Mirror , the hit Netflix show that explores the darker side of our relationship to technology; its latest season begins next week. Plus: FT fashion editor Jo Ellison tells us what it was like to interview Rihanna in Paris. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gris meets the author and podcaster Jon Ronson ( The Butterfly Effect , The Psychopath Test , So You've Been Publicly Shamed ) to ask him why he’s drawn to secretive subcultures — from sites like 4chan to the Ku Klux Klan — and to discuss his latest podcast, The Last Days of August , and the ethics of reporting on the death of a young porn performer. Listen, subscribe, rate and review on  App...

Gris meets the activist, podcaster and author of On the Other Side of Freedom to discuss rising police violence against African Americans, what he learnt from meeting Obama, what Extinction Rebellion can learn from Black Lives Matter, and the role of social media (DeRay has over 1m followers on Twitter, including Beyoncé). Plus: the FT's Alec Russell and India Ross discuss Game of Thrones . India...