interviews

RHLSTP #55: Andy Zaltzman - Pogo Stick Assassin. Rich has more ideas for terrorist atrocities and wonders if vitamin supplements might be the key to bringing down an aeroplane. His guest is crazy-haired satirist for hire, Andy Zaltzman. What would the TV rights to the destruction of the Houses of Parliament be? What's the best thing a terrorist has ever said? What's the appeal of cricket? Is a shed the ultimate goal for any writer? Is dating a six foot tall penis man really the best way to get over the death of one's wife? How different would the world be if John Oliver and Andy switched places like in the film Freaky Friday? It must be tough when your double act partner goes on to be much more successful than you. Poor Andy.

Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast - Episode 55 - Andy Zaltzman

Visionary and pioneering Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson performed for us recently and talked about Bach, Chopin and his rare condition called synesthesia which means he associates colours with pitch.

"I have this thing from when I was like five or six… I have perfect pitch or absolute hearing so when I would you know think about F minor that would be blue for me, I mean A major would be yellow, B major is purple."
VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON

If you missed our Vikingur Olafsson pre-concert talk watch here and to hear more from great pianists see our International Piano Series - https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/festivals-series/classical-season/international-piano-series

Vikingur Olafsson

We're celebrating 50 years of the Man Booker Prize this July with Man Booker 50 festival and it spurred us to look back on some of the previous Man Booker Prize winners we've had here in recent years.

In this first episode of Southbank Centre's Book Podcast, we bring together extracts from talks with four previous Man Booker Prize-winning authors here at Southbank Centre: Eleanor Catton, Richard Flanagan, Marlon James and George Saunders.

Man Booker 50 festival takes place at Southbank Centre from 6 - 8 July 2018 and is packed full of talks with some of the world's most celebrated novelists. Highlights include talks between Julian Barnes & Peter Carey, Hilary Mantel & Pat Barker, Kazuo Ishiguro & Michael Ondaatje, and the closing event of the festival, Golden Man Booker Live, which crowns the best of the winning novels from the last five decades.

Tickets to the events in Man Booker 50 festival are available here: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/festivals-series/man-booker-50?utm_source=Soundcloud&utm_medium=Lit%20podcast%20June&utm_campaign=SC%20Lit%202018

Four Man Booker Prize-winning novelists

In this episode, we bring you some of the highlights from Man Booker 50 festival at Southbank Centre, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Man Booker Prize.

We hear extracts from a talk with novelists Alan Hollinghurst and Marlon James; a debate about the meaning and importance of genres; the moment the winner of the Golden Man Booker Prize, Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, was announced; and interviews with judges Robert McCrum and Kamila Shamsie backstage after the announcement.

Man Booker 50 festival ran at Southbank Centre from 6 - 8 July 2018.

Backstage at Man Booker 50

In this episode we bring you highlights from author Matt Haig’s recent interview at Southbank Centre about his new book Notes on a Nervous Planet and musician and campaigner Jordan Stephens talks to Ted Hodgkinson about the relationship between mental health and creativity. 

"There's a lot of 'I' and 'self' wrapped up in the consumerist world we live in."
JORDAN STEPHENS

Following on from the mould-breaking memoir Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig’s new book is a personal look at living with anxiety in the age of social media. We bring you key moments from his conversation last month with Bryony Gordon, offering insights on the why staying happy is difficult in our comparative culture and the relationship between the internet and his writing process.


Jordan Stephens is best known as one half of the hip hop duo Rizzle Kicks and has since lead a range of campaigns challenging stigma about mental health including for YMCA and NHS. He talks candidly about the expectations of fame, masculinity and anxiety have shaped his life and fuelled his music.

Mental health and creativity featuring Matt Haig and Jordan Stephens

This episode looks at migration, civil war, and the power of stories and poetry to take us beyond the headlines.

Three years ago, the body of three-year-old Syrian refugee, Alan Kurdi was found on the beach in Turkey. This provoked Khaled Hosseini, best-selling author and Afghan refugee, to write the illustrated story, Sea Prayer.
Ted Hodgkinson had poet Nick Makola in the studio where they talked about politics, family and his experience of fleeing Uganda as a child.

"I connect with that man running from his country and not knowing he has to leave, with tears in his eyes, while he holds his mother's hand."
NICK MAKOLA

Literature and the refugee crisis featuring Khaled Hosseini and Nick Makoha

Hear Roger Daltrey in conversation with writer and presenter Will Hodgkinson.

He tells the inside story of the rise of British rock, becoming the vocalist in one of rock music’s era-defining bands and he separates myth from reality, reflects on his wild journey with the band through chart-topping hits, in-fighting, drugs, mayhem, trashed hotel rooms and the premature death of Keith Moon, and a life spanning a tumultuous time of change in Britain and America.

An Evening with Roger Daltrey

Ahead of the 2018 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, Southbank Centre welcomed the six shortlisted authors for an evening of live readings and discussion, hosted by writer columnist and playwright Damian Barr.

The Man Booker Prize is a byword for the finest literary fiction, with its list of past winners containing some of the greatest writers of the last five decades. In the running for this year’s award are the following authors, who joined us on Sunday 14 October, to read from their shortlisted novels.

Anna Burns (UK) – Milkman (Faber & Faber)
Esi Edugyan (Canada) – Washington Black (Serpent’s Tail)
Daisy Johnson (UK) – Everything Under (Jonathan Cape)
Rachel Kushner (USA) – The Mars Room (Jonathan Cape)
Richard Powers (USA) – The Overstory (William Heinemann)
Robin Robertson (UK) – The Long Take (Picador)

The 2018 Man Booker Prize winner is revealed on the evening of Tuesday 16 October at a special dinner at London’s Guildhall.

2018 Man Booker Prize Readings

Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2018, Anna Burns talks to Ted Hodgkinson about how she went about creating a story that won one of the most prestigious prizes in literature, why her characters don't need names and when her writing makes her feel 'angel shivers'.

"You only get the first step and then you have to trust and have faith that more steps will come, and it will all make sense in the end."
ANNA BURNS

You can subscribe to Southbank Centre's book podcast for more interviews with everyone from journalist Khaled Hosseini to Jordan Stephens from Rizzle Kicks.

Anna Burns: Milkman

Dissect the making and unmaking of civilisations and cultures at a conversation between MOBO award-winning hip-hop poet Akala and historian David Olusoga. Chaired by television broadcaster June Sarpong MBE.

This timely discussion explores everything from empire and race to culture and class, retracing and contextualising the roots of modern British society.

For more information and other events, go to: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Akala and David Olusoga: Striking the Empire

Ted Hodgkinson examines the different ways in which literature has interpreted the past, dissected the present and shaped the future of American politics. Guests feature authors Salman Rushdie and Marilynne Robinson, poet Terrence Hayes and academic Sarah Churchwell.

"The thing that is weirdest about this book is that, when I started writing it, nobody was thinking about Trump. And then when things started - the phenomenon of Trump. I realised that I had a character, who was a corrupt billionaire; who had made his name in the real-estate business; who liked to have his name on buildings; and had a much younger, eastern European trophy wife. I thought, what?!"
SALMAN RUSHDIE

American Dreams in the time of Trump

Inspired by the forthcoming Soundstate festival, Harriet Fitch Little is joined by Southbank Centre's Music Director, Gillian Moore; Susanna Eastburn, CEO of Sound & Music; and Dai Fujikura, composer of contemporary classical music. 

They discuss the trouble with genres, how writing music will never be the same and why they don't use the word 'classical'.

Think Aloud: Modern music – composing, curating and cl***ical

In this episode, Harriet Fitch Little is joined by paralympian, TV presenter and children’s author Ade Adepitan, and children’s book critic Imogen Russell Williams to talk about the lack of diversity in children’s literature.

“I suddenly started to get a perception that certain people did certain things, that main protagonists, that strong characters, that hero characters were all white, middle class.”
ADE ADEPITAN

They discussed why children’s literature is so behind, why we can’t eliminate the past and who should be dealing with this - the authors, the publishers or the parents?

Also, children's author and illustrator Nadine Kaadan answered the burning question: how do you create a character for children?

To see all the events at Imagine Children's Festival and to buy tickets, go to https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/festivals-series/imagine-childrens-festival

Think Aloud: Children's books – why literature for the future is stuck in the past

Malala Yousafzai's activist work championing the educational rights of girls led to her being shot by a Taliban gunman in 2012, when she was just 15 – but she refused to be silenced.

She came to the Southbank Centre to launch her memoir I Am Malala on Sunday 20 October 2013, appearing in conversation with former Southbank Centre Artistic Director Jude Kelly. The following year, Yousafzai became the youngest ever Nobel laureate. 

In our recording of that talk, hear Yousafzai speak about sibling rivalry, her love for the landscape of her home in Pakistan's Swat Valley, and, of course, her belief in the power of education.

'We need to change the ideology. We need to tell people what the real power is. You are not powerful if you have a gun, because through guns you can only kill. You are powerful when you have a book, when you have a pen, because through pens you can save lives. And that's the change that we want to bring in our society.'

Malala Yousafzai In Conversation with Jude Kelly

In 2019, Jean Paul Gaultier brought his Fashion Freak Show – called a 'fabulous fiesta of fabric and flesh' by The Guardian – to the Southbank Centre. 

But before his extravaganza exploded onto the stage at Royal Festival Hall, the designer himself appeared here in conversation with TV presenter Anita Rani, reflecting on his decades in fashion.

Born in a Paris suburb in 1952, Gaultier started his career at Pierre Cardin at the age of just 18. He has gone on to rise to the top of the fashion world with his own label, ruffling industry feathers and dressing huge stars – including Madonna in the now-infamous bustier – along the way. 

Hear him discuss his childhood inspirations, his love of British eccentricity and his vision for the future of the fashion industry in our podcast.

Jean Paul Gaultier in conversation

Some of the biggest and most influential names in modern literature, art, music and performance share their stories, thoughts and ideas.

Listen to the people shaping arts and culture today in podcasts which reflect our richly diverse events, exhibitions and festivals programme from the Southbank Centre and Hayward Gallery.

Vikingur Olafsson

Southbank Centre

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