Life and Art from FT Weekend Financial Times

Billie Eilish’s new album Hit Me Hard and Soft has been hailed by critics as her best album yet. She describes it as an “album-ass album”, meant to be listened to in its entirety, but it’s also provocative: it takes on fame and body-shaming ("People say I look happy just because I got skinny") and women she wants to please (“I could eat that girl for lunch, she dances on my tongue”). So what do we think? Lilah is joined by two experts, the FT’s music writer Arwa Haider and US media business correspondent Anna Nicolaou, to discuss the role Billie plays in our pop pantheon.
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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. We’re on X @lifeandartpod and on email at lifeandart@ft.com. We are grateful for reviews on Apple and Spotify. And please share this episode with your friends!
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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 
– The FT’s four-star review of Hit Me Hard and Soft, by Ludo Hunter-Tilney: https://on.ft.com/4bP4rWH 
– Arwa’s latest review is of the album A La Sala by Khruangbin, a mash-up of “Iranian rock, Jamaican dub and Thai folk”:  https://on.ft.com/4dPdFnN 
– For more from Anna, listen to our recent episode ‘Why Olivia Rodrigo might be our last pop star’. Search where you get your podcasts or click here
– Arwa is on X @arwahaider. Anna is @annaknicolaou
More or less: 
– Arwa wants more Arabic diaspora voices. She recommends British-Lebanese DJ Salia (here’s Habibi Riddim), Lebanese singer songwriter Yasmine Hamdan and Palestinian-Canadian artist Nemahsis
– Lilah wants to see people use more stuff in your home: read your books, eat your food, wear your clothes. The book she picked up, which she recommends, is called Subway Lives: 24 Hours in the Life of the New York City Subway, by Jim Dwyer
– Anna wants less social media, especially around oat milk bashing. For more on oat milk, here’s a great recent FT Weekend magazine piece, ‘Vegan foods and the wild west of wackaging’: https://on.ft.com/451dn9q 
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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. Clips this week are courtesy of Interscope

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After more than 25 years reviewing art, the Financial Times’ US art critic Ariella Budick is full of sage advice on how to approach museums and exhibitions, and how to discover our personal taste. Her biggest tip is that art is a form of communication, “a cry in the wilderness”, and “you’re just listening”. So don’t run to the wall label and forget to look at the work. Approach the art first, then see if it sparks you to learn more.
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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. We’re on X @lifeandartpod and on email at lifeandart@ft.com. We are grateful for reviews on Apple and Spotify. And please share this episode with your friends!
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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 
– Ariella’s recent review of a Renaissance mysteries exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://on.ft.com/3WKBhUl
– Her take on the Joan Jonas retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York: https://on.ft.com/3K4SGzK
– The review of Hannelore Baron that she mentioned: https://on.ft.com/4bI9NCW 
– Ariella also recently published her MoMA top 10 picks: https://on.ft.com/3UIOSZK
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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

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This week, we're talking about 'La chimera', directed by Alice Rohrwacher and starring Josh O'Connor and Isabella Rossellini. The film follows a band of graverobbers on a quest for Etruscan treasures. But there's also a darker, more melancholy plot that makes you question what’s real and what’s symbolism. The FT's global head of audio Cheryl Brumley and audience engagement journalist Marianna Giusti join guest host Katya Kumkova to hash out what it all means.
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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. We’re on X @lifeandartpod and on email at lifeandart@ft.com. We are grateful for reviews on Apple and Spotify. And please share this episode with your friends!
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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 
– The FT’s four-star review of La chimera, by Danny Leigh: https://on.ft.com/3UZLo6z 
– An interview with filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher, by Simran Hans: https://on.ft.com/3WEiUk3 
– For more Italian summer content, check out Mari Giusti’s ‘Postcard from Sicily’: https://on.ft.com/3K8TZgM 
– Cheryl Brumley is on X @cherylbrumley. Marianna Giusti is @maupippa. 
More or Less:
– Cheryl wants more Eurovision  
– Katya wants to see more smell art. Check out this piece on The Met exhibition ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’: https://on.ft.com/3wu62lY 
– Mari wants more Isabella Rossellini, and recommends ‘Green Porno’. Here’s Rossellini’s Lunch with the FT from 2018: https://on.ft.com/4bERe2D 
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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

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Introducing Power for Sale, a new season of Untold from the Financial Times. In Untold: Power for Sale, host Valentina Pop and a team of FT correspondents from all over Europe investigate what happened in the Qatargate scandal, where EU lawmakers were accused of accepting payments from Qatar to whitewash its image.
Subscribe and listen on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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The Sympathizer, directed by Park Chan-wook and starring Robert Downey Jr and Sandra Oh, is one of the top-watched show on HBO right now. But before it was a television series, it was a novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Both the book and the series tell the story of the Captain, a communist mole in South Vietnam who comes to the US as a refugee as the Vietnam war is ending. On today’s episode, Lilah talks to Viet about the themes of The Sympathizer, and what it was like to help reimagine his book for a TV series. 
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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. We’re on X @lifeandartpod and on email at lifeandart@ft.com. We are grateful for reviews on Apple and Spotify. And please share this episode with your friends!
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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 
– The Sympathizer, starring Robert Downey Jr and Sandra Oh is available on HBO
–You can find Viet Thanh Nguyen’s book The Sympathizer and its sequel The Committed wherever books are sold
– Lilah’s interview with Nguyen about his recent memoir A Man of Two Faces was published as a Lunch with the FT: https://on.ft.com/3UtjDlm
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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
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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In a new season of Tech Tonic, longtime FT China reporter Jame Kynge travels around the world to see how China is pushing towards tech supremacy. Will China be able to get an edge in crucial technological areas? What does China’s attempt to leapfrog the west look like on the ground? A 6-part series looking at China’s tech industry.
Presented by James Kynge. Edwin Lane is the senior producer. The producer is Josh Gabert-Doyon. Executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco, with original music from Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

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