Life and Art from FT Weekend

Women’s basketball is having a big moment. Take this stat: the final game in the US women’s college NCAA playoffs in April had more viewers than the Academy Awards. And those college stars, such as Caitlin Clark, have just brought that rabid fandom to the professional league. The WNBA has seen a huge rise in viewers, ticket sales and fans. So what impact is this having on culture? The FT’s US sports business correspondent Sara Germano brings Lilah to a WNBA game to explore how women’s basketball became so popular, and what it all means.-------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!-------Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): – Sara’s article about the WNBA and superstar Caitlin Clark: https://on.ft.com/457HTym– Here is the WNBA schedule in case you’re considering seeing a game in person: https://www.wnba.com/schedule?season=2024&month=all– Sara is on X @germanotes-------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

The spicy Netflix series Bridgerton is currently the most-watched show globally on Netflix, after the first half of season three dropped this month. The period drama, produced by Shonda Rhimes, came out in 2020 with some wink-to-camera self- awareness. But this season feels more earnest. Why is the show so popular, and what are we craving from period dramas now? Lilah is joined by the FT’s US financial editor and historical romance expert Brooke Masters and work and careers writer/TV buff Emma Jacobs, to chat through it. -------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!-------Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): – The first 4 episodes of Bridgerton season 3 are available now on Netflix. The next four will air on June 13.– The FT’s review of Bridgerton is here: https://on.ft.com/452Gs45 – Listen to our episode with Brooke Masters on Jane Austen here, or by searching ‘Jane Austen, forever’ wherever you listen.– Brooke Masters is on X @brookeamasters. Emma Jacobs is @emmavjMore or Less: – Emma wants to see fewer recipes with maple syrup on Instagram. Read more on the ‘maple-pocalypse’ here– Brooke wants fewer musicals based on classic films. Our Mean Girls episode is here– Lilah wants more cooking with eggplant 🍆. Her eggplant dip recipe: grill the eggplant whole, to an inch of its life (no tautness!). Grill some garlic, too. Peel the eggplant, chop it into cubes, add the garlic (minced), chopped fresh white onion, lots of salt, too much lemon, good olive oil, and some parsley. Let it sit for a bit, then eat!Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Actress Gaby Hoffmann grew up in New York in the 1980s, in the famed Chelsea Hotel, among misfits and creatives. In the new Netflix series Eric (out May 30) she plays the mother of a young child who goes missing, also in 1980s New York. The show stars Benedict Cumberbatch among others, and explores what happens when adults, and city institutions, fail children. She joins Lilah to talk about similarities between this series and her own childhood and how good acting can help “invite people deeper into themselves”.-------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!-------Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): – Eric is on Netflix May 30– The Joan Armatrading song is called ‘Love and Affection’ (1976): https://youtu.be/sBohO1zr7jw – Gaby’s sister Alexandra Auder wrote a book about growing up in the Chelsea Hotel. It’s called Don’t Call Me Home– Here’s the Fresh Air episode Lilah mentioned: https://www.npr.org/2016/10/10/496958090/i-never-set-out-to-be-an-actor-says-transparent-star-gaby-hoffmann -------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 GiovincoAudio credits this week go to A&M Records and UMG RecordingsRead a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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.-------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!-------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 @annaknicolaouMore 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.-------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. Clips this week are courtesy of InterscopeRead a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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.-------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!-------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-------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 GiovincoRead a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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.-------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!-------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 -------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 GiovincoRead a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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.

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. -------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!-------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-------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/lifeandartRead a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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.