Monocle on Culture

Georgie Rogers and Fernando Augusto Pacheco join Robert Bound to look ahead to the most exciting albums of the coming months, including new releases from a Brazilian pop star, a classic British indie band and a camera-shy cowboy.

From team badges and strips to the architecture of stadiums, design has long been a major part of football. We visit a new exhibition at the Design Museum in London, ‘Football: Designing the Beautiful Game’, and speak to its assistant curator Rachel Hajek and fashion commentator Simon Doonan about the evolution of style and football.

While some of William Shakespeare’s plays are reproduced again and again, there are others that theatre companies tend to steer clear of. The Royal Shakespeare Company is undertaking the challenge of putting on ‘Henry VI: Part II’, renaming it ‘Henry VI: Rebellion’, which has the longest dramatis personae of any Shakespearean drama. We go behind the scenes and speak to those putting on this epic play.

Ossian Ward and Mia Levitin join Robert Bound in the studio for a rundown of the best of the season’s art and books.

A special edition of the show marking its partnership with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism. Robert Bound is joined by the chairman of the department, who explains his conviction that culture is at the heart of any progressive society. At this moment of reckoning in the world of so-called ‘big culture’, the ability to build new museums with fresh thinking is an opportunity not to be missed. The chairman explains why the wealth of forthcoming institutions at Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island could grasp that chance.

The 65-year old mainstay of the European cultural calendar, the Eurovision Song Contest, heads across the Atlantic this week. A new show will pit all 50 states, five US territories and Washington DC against each other in a spinoff of dazzling proportions. We chat to the show’s producers about the challenges of Americanising the format, and Robert Bound is joined by Emily Yahr and Fernando Augusto Pacheco to discuss what might be in store.

‘Red Rocket’ is the latest film from Sean Baker, who brought us ‘Tangerine’ and ‘The Florida Project’. The film tells the story of Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), a washed-up pornstar who returns to his hometown of Texas City, where he is quickly taken by Strawberry, the teenage employee of a doughnut shop. Robert Bound and guests Tim Robey and Hannah Strong discuss the performances and music, and ask whether Mikey really is as irredeemable as he appears.

Director and artist Derek Jarman is remembered for his unique ability to capture the natural world on the page, as well as the garden he created at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness. A new book, ‘Pharmacopoeia’, brings together the best of Jarman’s writing on nature. This week, we discuss Jarman and his legacy with author and curator Philip Hoare, and hear about a garden inspired by Jarman on the banks of Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

In 1980s New York, two notorious members of the city’s art scene have just met. Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat become close friends and collaborators as they plan to hold a joint exhibition, which promises to be the greatest in the history of modern art. ‘The Collaboration’, a new play at London’s Young Vic Theatre, tells this story. We speak to its writer, Anthony McCarten, director Kwame Kwei-Armah and stars Jeremy Pope and Paul Bettany.

Hip-hop has taken over the mainstream since it was born in the Bronx house parties of the 1970s. Sophie Bramly’s recent book of photography ‘Yo! The Early Days of Hip-Hop 1982-84’ documents its rise, while a new documentary ‘Jeen-Yuhs’ charts the contribution of one of the genre’s most important innovators, Kanye West. Robert Bound is joined by ‘The New Yorker’ staff writer Kelefa Sanneh to discuss the evolution of what is arguably America’s most significant cultural export.

Robert Bound is joined by film critic Anna Smith and Monocle 24’s Fernando Augusto Pacheco to discuss this year’s list of nominations. The panel debate the surprises and the snubs, the almost-guaranteed and the underdogs. Our guests highlight their top picks from the list, from the gentle joy of ‘Coda’ to the acclaimed ‘The Power of the Dog’, and predict who they think will get their hands on a golden statuette in March.

‘Sesame Street’ changed the world of children’s television when it arrived on our screens in 1969. The programme’s inception came from the unique collaboration between TV executives and child education specialists, and always had diversity at its core. A new documentary, ‘Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street’, tells the story of the show. Robert Bound speaks to the film’s director, Marilyn Agrelo, about what makes ‘Sesame Street’ so iconic.

In December 2021, we lost two of the West Coast’s literary greats: Eve Babitz and Joan Didion. This week, Robert Bound is joined by Lili Anolik, author of ‘Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of LA’, and David Ulin, books editor of ‘Alta Journal’, a quarterly publication that celebrates California and the West. They discuss the imprint that Didion and Babitz left on the Los Angeles literary scene and how they expanded what women’s writing was and could be.

Robert Bound is joined in the studio by Farah Nayeri, arts and culture writer for ‘The New York Times’ and host of the ‘Culture Blast’ podcast. Her new book ‘Takedown: Art and Power in the Digital Age’ looks back centuries, across Europe and America and throughout the art world. It draws on uproars and scandals to explore the reckoning of the Western world with politics, capitalism, religion, race, gender and art.

Robert Bound is joined by guests Fernando Augusto Pacheco and Laura Snapes to look ahead at some of this season’s most exciting music releases from the likes of Stromae, Cate Le Bon and Cecile McLorin Salvant.