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
Monocle’s Summer Festival Guide
In the first of a series of summer culture guides we speak to Luke Turner, associate editor at the Quietus and Fiona Stewart, director of Green Man Festival about what makes a good festival, which countries are doing them best and the ones we should keep an eye out for…
Can documentaries change the world?
We talk to Joshua Oppenheimer about his candid films, ‘The Act of Killing’ and ‘The Look of Silence’, which deal with the Indonesian genocide of the mid-1960s. Plus we head to the Bertha DocHouse in London – the only documentary cinema in Great Britain – where Elizabeth Wood tells us…
Do albums need notes to help us understand them?
We speak to Ashley Kahn who won the 2015 Grammy award for his liner notes in John Coltrane’s ‘Offering: Live at Temple University’. We also investigate the golden age of album-sleeve note writing with ‘The Times’ rock and pop critic Will Hodgkinson and discuss the art of the album cover…
How close are fact and fiction?
We look at the blurred lines between fact and fiction with novelist and former travel writer Lawrence Osborne, comedian Mark Watson and journalist and author Adam LeBor.
Where did all the good adverts go?
As AMC’s ad drama ‘Mad Men’ draws to a close, Robert Bound asks: “Where did all the good adverts go?” He speaks to Peter Mead, chairman and founder of Abbott Mead Vickers; Richard Brim, executive creative director at Adam and Eve DDB; writer and broadcaster Sam Delaney; and cultural commentator…
How do you write a biography?
Robert Bound is joined in the studio by ghostwriter Fanny Blake and Cathy Rentzenbrink, books editor at ‘The Bookseller’. Up for discussion is how to choose your subject, adopt their voice and dig up the most salacious stories possible. Plus we hear from Kim Jong-il’s biographer and about a Brazilian…
Who still writes letters?
We speak to Christopher Howse about the letters to the editor section in ‘The Telegraph’, Julien Planté about making letters relevant to a new audience through ‘Letters Live’ and our Hong Kong bureau chief Aisha Speirs heads to Saigon to meet the city’s last remaining professional letter writer.
How do you reboot a classic?
Great works and well-loved products are always being rewritten, redesigned, remixed or remade. But how do you do this successfully? How subtle or brash should you be about reworking something the public are so au fait with? We pose the question, ‘How do you reboot a classic?’ to a few…
Whatever happened to fanzines?
Will Hodgkinson from ‘The Times’ and British Undergound’s Crispin Parry talk about the romance of waxing lyrical about your favourite bands in a homemade mag and whether fanzines can only exist in print. Plus we open the topic up beyond music with a ’zine dedicated to people who have been…
Is acoustic on its way out?
To answer this week’s question on Culture, we discover the ‘yaybahar’ – a new acoustic instrument from Istanbul that sounds electronic – we speak to oboe makers Howarth of London, piano-making masters Steinway & Sons and a woman in San Francisco who makes instruments out of whatever she can get…
