Culture House Daily
Spectator competition winners: ‘O Walkman! O Walkman!’
The most recent challenge, suggested by Paul A. Freeman, asked for an elegy on a piece of obsolete technology. There’s…
Books Podcast: Jonathan Ames – from memoirs to graphic novels
In this week’s book’s podcast my guest is Jonathan Ames, a writer who has produced everything from memoir (Adventures of…
Spectator competition winners: an alternative to ‘Auld Lang Syne’
Your new year’s challenge was to supply an anthem to usher in 2019, starting with the first line of ‘Auld…
The Green Room, Spectator USA’s Life & Arts podcast: Anarchy and Empire with Robert Kaplan
This week, I’m casting the pod with author and foreign policy analyst Robert Kaplan. At the end of the Cold…
Books Podcast: Ed Vulliamy – how music helps me report from the frontline
In this week’s books podcast we’re going to the wars. My guest is Ed Vulliamy, the veteran war correspondent who…
Spectator competition winners: politically correct Christmas carols
The festive challenge was to submit a politically correct Christmas carol. One of Donald Trump’s election pledges was to end…
Books Podcast: conversing with Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick
In this week’s books podcast I’m talking to Chris Kraus — author of the semi-autobiographical cult novel I Love Dick…
The Green Room podcast: Auctions, sculptures, and horse flesh – the best art exhibitions in 2018
This week, I’m casting the pod with a congeries of crack art critics from The New Criterion: James Panero, Benjamin…
The Books Podcast: why runners up are more interesting than those who come first
In this week’s books podcast I talk to the great trivia expert Mark Mason about his new The Book of…
The Green Room, Spectator USA’s Life & Arts podcast: The Greek way of death
As the old year dies, our thoughts turn to what happens next. What better time, then, to cast a seasonally…
Spectator competition winners: ‘The mother of all horrors, what a comp’ (or Shakespearean characters hiding in sonnets)
This fiendishly difficult challenge, to submit a sonnet with the name of a Shakespearean character hidden in each line, pulled…
Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks: Our final interview
RIP Pete Shelley. I would suggest three minutes silence, but Buzzcocks would have said it all in 2 minutes and…
Reggae was sexist and homophobic – Unesco ‘safeguarding’ it is ludicrous and conservative
Until last week I believed that Unesco – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation – existed solely to…
Books Podcast: presidential lessons from Lincoln to Trump, with Doris Kearns Goodwin
In this week’s books podcast, I’m speaking to the Pulitzer-prizewinning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin about her new book Leadership: Lessons…
The Green Room: Spectator USA’s Life & Arts podcast: Talking blues with Chris Thomas King
This week on the Green Room, I’m talking the blues with Grammy-winning blues artist Chris Thomas King. Earlier this week,…
Spectator competition winners: misguided love poems
You seemed to embrace the latest challenge – to supply seriously misguided love poems – especially wholeheartedly, and I admired…
Books Podcast: Lee Child on Reacher, revenge, and writing without a plan
“I wondered what would happen if you made Goliath the hero…” In this week’s books podcast I’m talking to the…
The Green Room Podcast from Spectator USA: What do we get? Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks
Two poets named Shelley have graced the English language. One was Percy, and the other is Pete. Just as an…
Spectator competition winners: the beautiful poetry of Donald Trump
For this week’s challenge you were invited to submit poems by Donald Trump. The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump, which…
The Green Room podcast from Spectator USA: What a Performance!
‘You’re a comical looking geezer. You’ll look funny when you’re fifty,’ Chas the gangster says to Turner the rock star…
The Books Podcast: geopolitics, the new Silk Roads, and the falcon-shaped airport in Turkmenistan
In this week’s books podcast I’m talking to Oxford’s Professor of Global History Peter Frankopan about his follow-up to his…
Spectator competition winners: Franz Kafka goes phishing
The latest challenge was to submit a scam letter ghostwritten by a well-known author, living or dead. Falling for a…
‘The Green Room’ Podcast from Spectator USA: the virtue of nationalism, with philosopher Yoram Hazony
‘Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism,’ French president Emmanuel Macron said at last weekend’s Armistice Day ceremonies. ‘Nationalism is…
Books Podcast: reconciling guilt and patriotism in post-war Germany
In this week’s books podcast I’m talking to Nora Krug about her remarkable graphic work Heimat – in which this…
Spectator competition winners: 21st-century Gothic short stories
The spark for the latest challenge — to write a short story in the Gothic style with a topical twist…
