Rachael Steven, Deputy Editor at Creative Review, shares her podcast recommendations; from 1960s West Berlin to broken down music tracks.
After running a series last year, where we asked our artists to recommend their favourite podcasts, we decided to follow up on its popularity by running a second series. This time we’ve asked some of our clients and other friends what they listen to in their spare moments. This month our guest is Rachael Steven, Deputy Editor at Creative Review.
As many of you reading this will know, through its magazine, website and very own podcast, Creative Review explores the issues shaping the creative industries and how the truly great work gets made.
Here, Rachael shares some of the podcasts she’s been listening to over the past few weeks:
Launched in 2014, Hrishikesh Hirway’s podcast breaks down popular tracks and explains how they came to be. In each episode, a musician talks us through the making of one of their songs, and the experiences or ideas that inspired it. Featuring interviews with FKA twigs, Laura Marling, Tame Impala, and Fleetwood Mac, it covers a wide range of genres, and provides a whole new perspective on songs you might have heard dozens of times.
Interiors website Curbed and Vox Media’s podcast looks at failed attempts to create utopian communities, and asks what we can learn from them.
The series reveals the stories behind some fascinating social experiments and architectural projects – including a modernist city in Northern India, a self-sustaining ecosystem in the Arizonan desert, and a religious commune founded in New York in the 1800s – and examines where they went wrong, and how their failures and successes could inform the way we live in the future.
In Writing with Hattie Crisell
Journalist Hattie Crisell’s ten-part series explores how great writers work. In each episode, Crisell visits a writer in their home or office to talk about their career and creative process.
Her interviewees include novelists, poets, screenwriters and journalists – from Animals author Emma Jane Unsworth to Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker and Andrew Billen, who has interviewed celebrities and politicians for The Times. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to write a bestselling novel, or an award-winning TV show, this will give you a good idea. Conversations cover everything from crafting plots and characters to dealing with negative feedback and the dreaded writer’s block.
BBC Radio 4’s podcast tells the incredible story of Joachim Rudolph – a former engineering student who fled East Germany for West Berlin in the 1960s, and helped to build a tunnel underneath the Berlin Wall to help others escape. Narrated by journalist Helena Merriman, and based on extensive interviews with Rudolph, it’s a fast-paced series filled with unexpected twists and turns. Each episode is less than 20 minutes long – perfect if you’re short on time – and features some great sound design which helps bring Rudolph’s story to life.
Oh, and as mentioned above, The Creative Review also has its own podcast, available on iTunes, SoundCloud and Spotify.
Earlier this year, we asked Jennifer Higgie, editor-at-large at Frieze, about her favourite Podcast of the Month. You can find Jennifer’s recommendations here.