
Monocle on Culture
Robert Bound and guests explore what’s new in art, film, books, and media. Expect lively discussions, in-depth interviews, and expert insights.
Latest Episodes

Michael Peppiatt: what is a head?
What is a head? That’s the question we’re asking this week’s guest, art historian, writer and curator Michael Peppiatt, who has put together an exhibition at Ben Brown Fine Arts that explores exactly that, through the art of Tony Bevan and Frank Auerbach. Peppiatt chats to Robert Bound about what…

Peggy Seeger
Robert Bound meets the legendary folk singer as she releases her brand-new album ‘First Farewell’. They discuss family, age and the folk scene over her 60-year career.

‘Creation Stories’
Robert Bound is joined by Tim Robey, film critic for ‘The Telegraph’, and Will Hodgkinson, chief rock and pop critic for ‘The Times’, to review ‘Creation Stories’, a biopic of Creation Records boss Alan McGee. The notorious British record label represented some of the biggest names in indie, rock and…

Patricia Lockwood
US poet and author Patricia Lockwood is known for her memoir, ‘Priestdaddy’, as well as her social-media presence – she has been nicknamed the ‘poet laureate of Twitter’. Her first novel, ‘No One is Talking About This’, is about the internet and human connection, online and offline. She talks to…

Gabriele Finaldi: how do you run an art institution in a pandemic?
Robert Bound speaks to Gabriele Finaldi, the director of London’s National Gallery, about the obstacles in the past year and what they have taught him. Plus: the gallery’s plans for its bicentenary celebrations and the pieces of art that he visits the most when he wanders the building alone.

Adam Curtis’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’
Is documentary-maker Adam Curtis a journalist or an artist? Who is he making films for and what does he want to teach them? As his new series, ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ hits BBC iPlayer, Robert Bound puts these questions to critics, Ed Cumming and Susannah Butter.

Iceland’s art scene
While many galleries and museums are still closed across Europe, we head to Iceland – where coronavirus cases are low, arts centres are open and the government’s interest in visual art is growing – to see how the past year has affected its scene. Kimberly Bradley meets various artists, directors…

Dolly Parton: ‘She Come by It Natural’
As the paperback of Sarah Smarsh’s book ‘She Come by It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs’ has recently been released, Robert Bound is joined by literary critic Mia Levitin and country music aficionado Baylen Leonard to discuss the mega country star and how her story…

‘One Night in Miami’: Kemp Powers
Playwright and screenwriter, Kemp Powers talks to Robert Bound about the new film adaptation of his play ‘One Night in Miami’, directed by Regina King. It imagines the conversations that were had between Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, singer Sam Cooke and NFL player Jim Brown during an evening they spent…

Monocle recommends
As many nations face at least the next few weeks stuck inside, we’ve enlisted TV critic Scott Bryan and music journalist Georgie Rogers to tell us the best things that are on television, streaming and coming out on record over the next month or so – all to be enjoyed…