Calls to eliminate government funding for NPR and PBS may have reached a peak, but the two networks have been living under that threat for decades. Congressional Republicans have periodically attempted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the government-backed organization that administers hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding directed to public broadcasters … Read more
Last summer, the basketball podcast “Mind the Game” ended under unusual circumstances. The dynamic between its co-hosts had been transformed: After their ninth episode, one host, JJ Redick, became head coach of the other host, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers. It was not clear whether “Mind the Game” would continue; Mr. Redick, a … Read more
After spending the summer as a Redcoat, I arrived at Butlin’s Metropole hotel in Blackpool. As I walked in, the entertainments manager asked, without hesitation, “Can you do an act?” “No,” I said. “Shit,” he said, and the tale unravelled. The summer Reds had gone and we were starting up the winter season. But the … Read more
Like many British schoolchildren, Ava Pickett chanted the “Divorced, beheaded, died” rhyme about Henry VIII’s six wives – and it has stayed in her head ever since. So much so that her play 1536 pivots around the last days of the second wife, Anne Boleyn. Pickett’s history lessons covered Boleyn’s magnificent rise – which sparked … Read more
At the end of the first series of The Change we left our menopausal heroine (and never had those two words been seen together before Bridget Christie came along) in the Forest of Dean, dressed as the Eel Queen, finding joy in all her transitions. That is until her hapless husband showed up to drag … Read more
Marco Berger’s films often begin, in one way or another, with a knock on the door. A young gay man steps into a summer house, or sometimes a luxury villa, typically inhabited by a group of attractive young men on holiday. As homoerotic tension simmers, the hyper-masculine environment is charged with banter, dares, and provocative … Read more
The Buffalo Stance singer Neneh Cherry, Labour MP Yuan Yang and the doctor Rachel Clarke have been shortlisted for this year’s Women’s prize for nonfiction. Foreign policy expert Chloe Dalton, marine biologist Helen Scales and biographer Clare Mulley also remain in contention for the £30,000 prize. Quick Guide Women’s prize for nonfiction shortlist 2025 Show … Read more
‘If I could have a pound for every person who’s told me that the Frick is their favourite museum, I’d be able to retire already,” says Axel Rüger, the new director of the New York institution, who has just moved there from leading the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Part of the Frick’s appeal … Read more
What a punchy play. Rebecca Jade Hammond has written a disturbing county lines drama that questions our stereotypes of groomers, itemises insidious techniques of manipulation and considers the neglect that leaves children vulnerable. But Hammond has also written a boisterous comedy about teenage girls who take feet pics for OnlyFans and share TikTok dance crazes … Read more
Grayson Perry is fascinated by outsiders – outcasts, nonconformists, the marginalised and the deviant. He has frequently assumed the outsider position, delivering commentary on class, gender and Britons’ petty snobberies. Across his career, he has pronounced on how his medium of choice (ceramics), his crossdressing, or his engagement with popular culture have excited the disapproval … Read more