5x15
676 episodes - English - Latest episode: 29 days ago - ★★★★ - 7 ratings"A pleasingly simple concept... one of the best things I've come upon in the last six months" (The Telegraph - 'Best Podcasts')
5 speakers, 15 minutes each. Script free and against a less-than-precise clock, some of the world's leading figures in the arts and sciences deliver talks about their enduring achievements, wildest moments or deepest passions. It's inspiring, informative, provoking, and above all, entertaining. Based in London but making forays to Sydney, New York and Milan, 5x15 has featured Joanna Lumley, Brian Eno, Jonathan Safran Foer, Jung Chang, Ruby Wax and Alain de Botton.
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Episodes
Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys - Viv Albertine
July 21, 2014 13:41 - 16.6 MBViv Albertine grew up in London. After forming The Flowers of Romance with Sid Vicious in 1976, she joined The Slits in 1977 and became a filmmaker in 1987. After a considerable interlude, she is now back making art and music. Recent projects include a starring role in Joanna Hogg's film Exhibition, and the release of her autobiography Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys (2014). 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions an...
Folk singing and song collecting - Sam Lee
July 21, 2014 13:40 - 14.8 MBSam Lee burst onto the music scene in 2012 with his aptly named debut album, ‘Ground of its Own’. This startlingly original work garnered instant acclaim, an Album of the Year nomination from the prestigious Mercury Music Prize, three BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominations and was awarded Roots Magazine Album of the Year. Ahead of the release of his much anticipated second album in October 2014, Sam Lee and Friends have released a taster 4-track EP in May, ‘More For To Rise’, developed from songs...
The story of Frank Sidebottom - Jon Ronson
July 21, 2014 13:39 - 19 MBJon Ronson's nonfiction books, The Psychopath Test, Them: Adventures with Extremists, Lost at Sea and The Men Who Stare At Goats have all been international and New York Times bestsellers. The Psychopath Test spent nearly two years on the UK bestseller list and ten weeks on the New York Times list. The Men Who Stare At Goats was adapted into a film starring George Clooney. His most recent book is FRANK: The True Story That Inspired The Movie, telling the story of his work with musician and co...
The voice in music - Jocelyn Pook
July 21, 2014 13:39 - 17.7 MBJocelyn Pook talks about the importance of the voice in music. Jocelyn Pook is one of the UK’s most versatile composers, having written extensively for stage, screen, opera house and concert hall. She has established an international reputation as a highly original composer winning her numerous awards and nominations including a BAFTA, Golden Globe, Olivier and two British Composer Awards. Often remembered for her film score to Eyes Wide Shut, which won her a Chicago Film Award and a Golden ...
Prosperity, growth, capitalism and giraffes - Tim Jackson
July 02, 2014 15:04 - 14.9 MBProfessor Tim Jackson offers insight into prosperity, growth and the relationship between capitalism and giraffes... 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories
Introducing doughnut economics - Kate Raworth
July 02, 2014 15:03 - 12.6 MBKate Raworth explains the concept of the doughnut and how to rewrite economics with just a pencil. Kate Raworth is an economist focused on the rewriting of economics to reflect this century’s realities and challenges, and is a senior visiting research associate and lecturer at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute. She is currently writing a book, Doughnut Economics, exploring how to think like a 21st century economist. Until 2013, she was Senior Researcher at Oxfam, where she ...
A girl called Jack - Jack Monroe
July 02, 2014 14:52 - 13.9 MBJack Monroe was born in Southend on Sea, Essex, in 1988. She attended Westcliff High School For Girls in Essex, gaining 4 and a half A*-C GCSEs. She left at the age of 16 and worked full time in ‘odd jobs’, retail and coffee shops and waitressing, before joining Essex County Fire and Rescue Service in 2007 to work in their control room. She left in November 2011, unable to work the night shifts as a single parent to a then 20 month old son. Jack started writing her blog, A Girl Called Jack, i...
Capitalism and the natural world - George Monbiot
July 02, 2014 14:52 - 17.5 MBGeorge Monbiot reflects on capitalism and the natural world. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories
Capitalism and our way of thinking - Danny Dorling
July 01, 2014 12:34 - 14.4 MBProfessor Danny Dorling explains how capitalism warps our thinking. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories
The story of the horseboy - Rupert Isaacson
June 18, 2014 13:09 - 14.1 MBThe Horse Boy – Rupert Isaacson’s story of a father’s quest to find healing for his autistic son through a crazy horseback journey across Mongolia from shaman to shaman – shot to the bestseller lists around the world. The accompanying feature documentary also titled 'The Horse Boy' premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and then appeared in cinemas and on TV across the world. Rupert Isaacson is founder of The Horse Boy Foundation, both a US and UK charity which works with autism families u...
The forgotten story of D-Day - Paddy Ashdown
June 18, 2014 13:09 - 12.8 MBLord Paddy Ashdown tells a little-known story of D-Day and the French Resistance. Paddy Ashdown was born in New Delhi in 1941. At 4 years old, his family returned to Britain, and between 1959 and 1972 he served in the Royal Marines and saw active service as a Commando Officer in Borneo and the Persian Gulf. He was elected to Parliament in the 1983 General Election and was elected Leader of the Liberal Democrats in July 1988. Paddy stood down as the leader of the Liberal Democrats in 1999 an...
A life in interviews - Lynn Barber
June 18, 2014 13:08 - 12 MBJournalist, interviewer and author of 'An Education' tickles with tales of her curious career, including a four-day bender courtesy of Salvador Dali... 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories
A Spy Among Friends - Ben Macintyre
June 18, 2014 13:07 - 14 MBBen Macintyre thrills with a story of espionage and Soviet mole Kim Philby.
The poetry of W.B Yeats - Fiona Shaw
May 28, 2014 10:07 - 12.8 MBFiona Shaw is an Irish actress and director, and one of the most recognised performers of her generation. A star of both stage and screen, she has numerous film credits, including diverse roles in My Left Foot (1989), Three Men and a Little Lady (1990) and a turn as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter series, to name but a few. She has worked extensively with the National Theatre, and received several awards for her work on stage, including three Laurence Olivier awards for best actress. She ...
Charles Dickens and theatre - Simon Callow
May 21, 2014 07:54 - 15 MBThe legendary Simon Callow on Charles Dickens and the theatre. Simon Callow CBE is an actor, director and writer. He has appeared in many films, including the hugely popular Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love and Phantom of the Opera. Callow’s books include Being an Actor, Shooting the Actor, a highly acclaimed biography of Charles Laughton, a biographical trilogy of Orson Welles and his memoir My Life in Pieces. His acting credits in productions of works by and about Dickens ...
On the political repercussions of post-natal depression - Elif Shafak
May 21, 2014 07:54 - 16 MBElif Shafak is one of today's most influential international writers and intellectuals who straddle East and West. She is the acclaimed author of ten novels including The Architect's Apprentice and The Bastard of Istanbul, and is the most widely read female writer in Turkey. Her work has been translated into over forty languages and she has been awarded the prestigious Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. She is also a public speaker, a women's and LGBT rights activist and a commentator who reg...
The signature of all things - Elizabeth Gilbert
May 16, 2014 09:21 - 17.9 MBElizabeth Gilbert on her grandfather and her beloved character from The Signature of All Things - a big novel, about a big century. It soars across the globe from London, to Peru, to Philadelphia, to Tahiti, to Amsterdam. Peopled with extraordinary characters – missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses and the quite mad – most of all it has an unforgettable heroine in Alma Whittaker, a woman of the Enlightened Age who stands defiantly on the cusp of the mod...
The strangler vine - Miranda Carter
May 11, 2014 14:33 - 15.9 MBMiranda Carter tells the story of the thugs of the East India Company. Miranda Carter's first book, Anthony Blunt: His Lives, won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the Orwell Prize and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Biography Prize, the Guardian First Book Award, the Duff Cooper Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The book was named as one of the New York Times Book Review's seven best books of 2002. Her most recent book is The Strangler Vine, written under the name M....
Errors in fiction- Ian McEwan
May 05, 2014 13:48 - 17.5 MBIan McEwan talks about errors in fiction and the realist novel. Ian McEwan is a writer of short stories and novels whose work has won him worldwide critical acclaim. His first published work, a collection of short stories, First Love, Last Rites, won the Somerset Maugham Award. His novels include The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award, The Cement Garden, Enduring Love, and Amsterdam, which won the 1998 Booker Prize. His novel Atonement was adapted into an O...
Risks and ethics and the imperative to Do No Harm - Henry Marsh
May 05, 2014 13:48 - 16.1 MBNeurosurgeon Henry Marsh on risks, ethics, and the Ukraine. Dr Henry Marsh offers an insight into the highs and lows of a life dedicated to operating on the human brain. With candour and compassion, Henry Marsh reveals the exhilarating drama of surgery, the chaos and confusion of a busy modern hospital, and above all the need for hope when faced with life's most agonising decisions. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There a...
Witnessing global corruption - TED Prize winner Charmian Gooch
May 05, 2014 13:47 - 14.8 MBTED Prize-winner and Global Witness co-founder Charmian Gooch addresses corruption. Charmian Gooch is co-founder and director of Global Witness, a non-profit campaigning organisation that addresses the links between natural resource exploitation and the funding of conflict and corruption. She jointly led Global Witness's first campaign, exposing the trade in timber between the Khmer Rouge and Thai logging companies and their political and military backers. Subsequently, Charmian developed a...
Prayer and family life- Akhil Sharma
May 05, 2014 13:39 - 13.4 MBNovelist Akhil Sharma tells of prayer and his family life. Akhil Sharma was born in Delhi in India and emigrated to the USA in 1979. His stories have been published in the New Yorker and in Atlantic Monthly, and have been included in The Best American Short Stories and O. Henry Prize Collections. His first novel, An Obedient Father, won the 2001 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. He was named one of Granta's 'Best of Young American Novelists' in 2007. His second novel, Family Life, won The 201...
A journey along the red dust road - Jackie Kay
March 30, 2014 13:21 - 14.1 MBPoet Jackie Kay takes us on a journey through her past, along the red dust road. Jackie is the Scots Makar and Chancellor of the University of Salford. Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was adopted at birth and was brought up in Glasgow, studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Stirling University where she read English. The experience of being adopted by and growing up withing a white family inspired her f...
The power of stories- William Fiennes introduces First Story
March 30, 2014 13:21 - 13.9 MBWilliam Fiennes on founding the charity First Story, and his passion to foster creativity and literacy. The charity runs writing workshops in schools across the country, hoping to encourage that revelatory process of 'finding one's own voice.' Fiennes thinks that we all have our own unique voice, and he quotes Pullman on the importance of discovering it: "Real writing can liberate and strengthen young people's sense of themselves as almost nothing else can." William Fiennes is the bestselling...
The battle for Afghanistan- William Dalrymple holds forth
March 30, 2014 13:21 - 14.9 MBWilliam Dalrymple tells stories from Afghanistan. William Dalrymple is an award winning historian as well as a broadcaster, critic and art historian. In 1986, while still at college, he set off to follow on foot the outward route of Marco Polo from Jerusalem to Mongolia and wrote a highly acclaimed bestseller about the journey, In Xanadu, when he was twenty-two. The book won the 1990 Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award and a Scottish Arts Council Spring Book Award. He followed this up with...
The Garden Bridge- Joanna Lumley
March 30, 2014 12:43 - 8.38 MBJoanna Lumley talks about her idea for a garden bridge across London, which is being developed with Thomas Heatherwick. Joanna Lumley is one of Britain's favourite actresses. Her break through role came as Purdy in The New Avengers. However it was Joanna's role as the chain-smoking Patsy in the award-winning Absolutely Fabulous which brought her renewed fame. Joanna is known for her support for Gurkhas, the exiled Tibetan people and government, the Kondha indigenous people of India, and the ...