The FT’s US media correspondent Anna Nicolaou keeps hearing this lament from music executives: that Olivia Rodrigo could be the last pop superstar. They worry that no one has broken through with such ferocity since. On today’s show, Anna tells us what they mean, what the trends reflect, and whether she believes the prediction. Plus, Anna and Lilah reflect on why Rodrigo has gotten so big, and the gap she’s filling in our culture.

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email us at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews, on Apple, Spotify, etc.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– Anna’s column about Olivia Rodrigo is here: https://on.ft.com/3UgPFkp

– You can follow Anna on X @annaknicolaou

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The FT Weekend Festival is coming back, and will be in Washington on May 4. Speakers include Nancy Pelosi. To book tickets, go to ft.com/festival-us and use our exclusive discount code: weekendpodcast. 

Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

—

Clip in this episode is from Petroblivion on YouTube.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we’re discussing Taylor Swift’s new album 'The Tortured Poets Department', which is already the most-streamed debut in Spotify history. Lilah is joined by music critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney and life-long Swiftie Taylor Nicole Rogers to discuss their picks for best and worst songs, whether Swift’s personal life gets in the way of the music, and where she’ll go next.  

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email us at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews on Apple, Spotify etc.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ is available now on all streaming platforms. 

– Ludovic’s four-star review of the album is here: https://on.ft.com/4bf6289 

– Listen to our episode on the Eras tour, ‘Can Taylor Swift get any bigger?’ here or by searching in this feed. 

– Jo Ellison’s column from 2023, ‘Why I believe in Taylor Swift’: https://on.ft.com/49S6Xdh 

More or Less:

– Ludovic wants more rap beef, like the one happening between Drake, Rick Ross, Kendrick Lamar and more. You can read his article about the rap beef here. 

– Taylor wants to see more summer pop bangers. Keep an eye out for Ludovic’s review of Dua Lipa’s upcoming album ‘Radical Optimism’, which lands next Friday.  

– Follow Lilah on Instagram for some great springtime content.

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The FT Weekend Festival is coming back, and will be in Washington on May 4. Speakers include Nancy Pelosi. To book tickets, go to ft.com/festival-us and use our exclusive discount code: weekendpodcast. 

Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Clips this week are from Republic Records. 

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spring is upon us, which means a bounty of fresh, green seasonal vegetables, from asparagus to artichokes to ramps. To help inspire us to make our own spring feasts, Lilah invites Ayesha Nurdjaja into the studio. Ayesha is the executive chef and partner at Shuka and Shukette, two beloved New York restaurants. Shukette has been called “a Middle Eastern party”, both for its open kitchen and bountiful meals, and for its energy. Visitors are encouraged to mix and match kebabs, breads, herb-covered fish and more in an approach Ayesha calls the “rip and dip”. She shares tons of tips and recipes for spring, and talks about growing up in a household of great global cooks – where her mother’s Italian-American food melded with her dad’s Indonesian cooking. 

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email us at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews on Apple, Spotify, etc.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– Ayesha is on Instagram @ayesharare

– Her restaurants in New York are Shuka (in SoHo), and Shukette (in Chelsea)

– Last year we talked to Ayesha about balancing and building flavour for our food and drinks series. You can check out that conversation here: https://on.ft.com/3Up7mQe

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The FT Weekend Festival is coming back, and will be in Washington, DC, on May 4. Speakers include Nancy Pelosi. To book tickets, go to ft.com/festival-us and use our exclusive discount code: weekendpodcast. 

Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we talk about the new film ‘Civil War’, directed by Alex Garland, which depicts a future US that’s divided and decimated. It stars Kirsten Dunst as a veteran photojournalist, who is on a road trip with a ragtag group of colleagues. They’re driving through the war-torn north-east to reach the White House before it is stormed by rebel forces. The film has been highly praised as well as highly criticised. What is it trying to say about the state of America? Is it a war film, a political film, or both? The FT’s politics columnist Stephen Bush and US executive producer of audio Topher Forhecz join Lilah to discuss.

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email us at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews, on Apple, Spotify, etc.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– Danny Leigh’s review of Civil War (he liked it less than we did): https://on.ft.com/4aTzD6P 

– FT critic Leslie Felperin’s interview with Alex Garland: https://on.ft.com/3W03lmt 

– You can get a free trial of Stephen’s political newsletter Inside Politics – which includes a daily cultural recommendation – by clicking here

– Stephen Bush on X at @stephenkb.

– Listen to our episode ‘How to process the news when it all feels bad’, with FT foreign editor Alec Russell. You can find it in our feed

More or Less:

– Topher wants to see more interesting landmarks used in films, as in ‘North by Northwest’ and ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’

– Stephen wants to see no more ‘Ghostbusters’ ever. Here’s the FT’s 2-star review of ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’: https://on.ft.com/4aVOEot 

– Lilah wants fewer menus. She recommends 15 Fox Place in Jersey City, and Osteria 16 in Copenhagen

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The FT Weekend Festival is coming back, and will be in Washington on May 4. Speakers include Nancy Pelosi. To book tickets, go to ft.com/festival-us and use our exclusive discount code: weekendpodcast. 

Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

—

Clips this week are from A24

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the final episode in our special four-part series on design. Brands are everywhere and sometimes feel so omnipresent that it’s hard to know what counts as one. So we’ve invited designer, educator and Design Matters podcast host Debbie Millman to help us make sense of brands. At its core, Debbie says, branding is the process of manufacturing meaning to come up with a shared symbol. And it’s something we’ve been doing for thousands of years. Today, Debbie and Lilah discuss the history of branding and its relationship with design, and the relatively recent phenomenon of ‘personal brands’. Debbie also shares insights from nearly two decades hosting Design Matters.

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email the show at [email protected].

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– Lilah recommends Debbie’s interview with cartoonist Lynda Barry: https://www.designmattersmedia.com/podcast/2019/lynda-barry 

– Here are the latest episodes of Design Matters: https://www.designmattersmedia.com/ 

– Debbie has written seven books. Here’s Brand Thinking: https://www.debbiemillman.com/brand-thinking 

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The FT Weekend Festival is coming back, and will be in Washington, DC, on May 4! To book tickets, go to ft.com/festival-us and use our exclusive discount code: weekendpodcast. 

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The FT’s foreign editor Alec Russell has been reporting on crises around the world for more than 30 years. He was in Romania during the fall of the Ceaușescu regime, in South Africa for the fall of apartheid, and in 1994 he reported on the genocide in Rwanda. So when we recently felt ourselves losing hope at the news from Gaza and Ukraine, we decided to ask him: is this an especially tough time in history, or does it just feel that way? And what has he learned from being present for so much of history? Today, Alec gives us tips for finding perspective, and tells us where he finds hope. 

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email us at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews, on Apple, Spotify, etc.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– Alec’s piece commemorating 30 years since Rwanda’s genocide is here: https://on.ft.com/3QnQbfx

– You may also be interested in Alec Russell’s book After Mandela: the Battle for the Soul of South Africa

– Alec is on X @AlecuRussell

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The FT Weekend Festival is coming back, and will be in Washington, DC, on May 4! Speakers include Nancy Pelosi, Alec and Lilah! To book tickets, go to ft.com/festival-us and use our exclusive discount code: weekendpodcast. 

Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the third episode in our design series, we’re talking fashion design through the lens of the 2006 classic The Devil Wears Prada. The film is having a moment on the internet. We’re here to revisit it with fresh eyes, and with two experts in fashion: Jo Ellison, the editor of our luxury magazine HTSI, and Rob Armstrong, our men’s style columnist (OK, he’s also our US financial columnist). The film stars Meryl Streep as a powerful magazine editor based on Anna Wintour, and Anne Hathaway as a young, idealistic journalist who becomes her assistant. It’s a Y2K fairy tale about the fashion industry, magazine politics and power. How accurate was the film about fashion then, and why is it still resonating now?

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email us at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews, on Apple, Spotify, etc.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– The Devil Wears Prada is available on Netflix and Disney+ in the UK, and HBO/Max and Hulu in the US.

– Rob wrote his most recent fashion column about power dressing in The Devil Wears Prada: https://on.ft.com/4cS25Yr 

– Jo recently interviewed the actor Cillian Murphy. Read the interview here: https://on.ft.com/3vOnCRi 

– You can follow Jo Ellison on Instagram @jellison22 and on X @jellison. Rob is on X @rbrtrmstrng.

– Rob recommends the late André Leon Talley’s book The Chiffon Trenches. You can read the FT review here. 

More or Less recommendations:

– Rob wants to see more womens’ college basketball. This FT piece is on how star Caitlin Clark is changing women’s sport: https://on.ft.com/3Jbfehw 

– Lilah recommends the Apple TV documentary, ‘Steve! (Martin) A Documentary’. You can read Rob’s interview with Martin here: https://on.ft.com/440txzm 

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The FT Weekend Festival is coming back, and will be in Washington, DC, on May 4! Speakers include Nancy Pelosi, Jo, Rob and Lilah! To book tickets, go to ft.com/festival-us and use our exclusive discount code: weekendpodcast. 

Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

—

Clips this week are from 20th Century Studios

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Designer Jonathan Adler is known for a style that is classic but eccentric. Think gold chairs shaped like hands, vases shaped like heads, and beautiful cookie jars labelled ”quaaludes”. He got his start as a potter, but he now designs everything from furniture to dinnerware to custom upholstery, which are sold by hundreds of retailers around the world. In the second instalment of our design series, Jonathan talks to Lilah about how he developed his style and how we can develop ours. And his biggest piece of advice is to “turn it up”.

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email the show at [email protected].

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Notes: 

–Jonathan Adler has retail stores across the US (from New York to Dallas to Miami to Chicago) and in London

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do you get when you mix female bodybuilding, guns, and a twisted romance? You get Love Lies Bleeding, the latest film from director and co-writer Rose Glass. When she first emailed Kristen Stewart about appearing as its lead, Rose says she described the film as a “crime, romance, thriller, dark comedy, farce, surreal thing”. She talks with Lilah about how she developed the idea, and the kinds of stories she's drawn to as a creator. She also walks through the process of how the film got made – from the script to the final edit.

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email the show at [email protected].

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– The FT’s review of Rose’s first film, Saint Maud: https://on.ft.com/3PRIw8C

– Love Lies Bleeding is in theatres now in the US, and will be in theatres in the UK on May 3

– Saint Maud is on Amazon Prime in the US, and Apple TV in the UK

– Here’s a link to watch some of Rose’s short films: https://rose-glass.com/short 

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

------

Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Park your Lexus, throw your keys up, and let’s get into Cowboy Carter, the new genre-bending, country-angled album by Beyonce. Here are the facts: it’s the second instalment in her Renaissance trilogy. It features Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Post Malone and Miley Cyrus, and spotlights Black country artists such as Linda Martell. But what was Beyonce’s goal with this album? And how does it fit into her career arc? Lilah’s joined by the FT’s music critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney and US labour and equality correspondent Taylor Nicole Rogers to chat about the album.

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email us at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews, on Apple, Spotify, etc.

Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– Cowboy Carter by Beyonce is available to stream now. 

– Ludo’s review of Cowboy Carter is here: https://on.ft.com/3U3L0TW 

– His review of Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce is here: https://on.ft.com/3J3k54q 

– You can follow Ludo on X @ludohunter. Taylor is @TaylorNRogers. 

More or Less: 

– Taylor wants to see less wellness in culture. For more on the dark side of wellness, check out new FT podcast ‘Untold: The Retreat’ here, or by searching wherever you listen. 

– Ludo wants more David Lynch content. Read about David Lynch’s installation at the Milan furniture fair here: https://on.ft.com/3vvcOr7 

– Lilah wants to see more pubs in the US. While she was in London she had pints with our producer Lulu Smyth at The Hemingway near Victoria Park and at the The Eagle in Farringdon, and everyone had a swell time. Here’s a list of the FT’s best pubs in London’s West End: https://on.ft.com/4cJz94H 

– Relatedly, here’s a great piece, ‘Three Cheers for the pub’, by friend of the podcast Rebecca Watson: https://on.ft.com/4cXv6lN 

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.