This Cultural Life
by BBC Radio 4
Is this your podcast?On the show
From 22 epsHost
Recent guests
Recent episodes
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Oct 15, 2026
43m 12s
Liliane Lijn
Oct 8, 2026
43m 21s
Elif Shafak
Oct 1, 2026
43m 14s
Joel Meyerowitz
Sep 24, 2026
43m 13s
Ray Winstone
Sep 17, 2026
43m 14s
Insights from recent episode analysis
Audience Interest
Podcast Focus
Publishing Consistency
Platform Reach
Insights are generated by CastFox AI using publicly available data, episode content, and proprietary models.
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Blended from 1 signal.
Built from
By chart position
- 🇬🇧United Kingdom · ArtsHOME#921K to 133K
- 🇦🇺Australia · Arts#361.4K to 8.6K
- 🇪🇸Spain · Arts#37955 to 6.0K
- 🇮🇪Ireland · Arts#12705 to 4.4K
- 🇮🇳India · Arts#82671 to 4.2K
- Per-Episode Audience
Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
27K to 170K🎙 Daily cadence·163 episodes·Last published 4d ago - Monthly Reach
Unique listeners across all episodes (30 days)
91K to 566K🇬🇧78%🇦🇺5%🇪🇸4%+7 more - Active Followers
Loyal subscribers who consistently listen
36K to 227K
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* Data sourced directly from platform APIs and aggregated hourly across all major podcast directories.
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| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/15/26 |  Viet Thanh Nguyen | Pulitzer Prize-winning author and academic Viet Thanh Nguyen talks to John Wilson about his formative influences and experiences. A child refugee, he moved to the United States with his family at the end of the Vietnam War. He is best known for his 2015 debut novel The Sympathizer which has been translated into 30 languages, has sold more than a million copies worldwide, and was adapted as an HBO television series in 2024. Viet Thanh Nguyen has written widely about conflict, migration and identity in his fiction and, more recently, in his memoir A Man Of Two Faces. A professor of English and American Studies, he teaches at the University of Southern California. Producer: Edwina PitmanArchive used:News archive from Newsdesk, BBC Radio 4, 29 & 30 April 1975 Clips from Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola, 1979 Extract from The Quiet American, Graham Greene, 1955 Trailer for The Sympathizer, HBO, 2024 | 43m 12s | ||||||
| 10/8/26 |  Liliane Lijn | Pioneering artist Liliane Lijn talks to John Wilson about her formative cultural influences. A leading figure in the development of kinetic sculptures in the 1960s, she is renowned for her use of light and movement, creating sculptures and installations that draw inspiration from quantum physics and astronomy. She has worked with scientists at the CERN nuclear research laboratory and the Space Science Laboratory at Berkely University, and her art has involved spinning texts, plastic prisms and conical sculptures that emit light. Liliane Lijn’s work is held in museums and galleries around the world, including MOMA in New York, and the V & a. In 2025 she was the subject of a major retrospective show at Tate St Ives. She has recently published a memoir Liquid Reflections, which shares its name with one of her best known artworks. Producer: Edwina Pitman | 43m 21s | ||||||
| 10/1/26 |  Elif Shafak | Bestselling Turkish-British novelist Elif Shafak talks to John Wilson about her formative cultural influences. Renowned for epic stories that connect the past and the present, told from multiple perspectives, her novels explore marginalised communities and exiled people. An activist who has campaigned for the rights of women and freedom of expression, she faced prosecution in Turkey in 2006, accused for ‘insulting Turkishness’. Elif Shafak’s 2019 novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and her 2021 novel The Island of Missing Trees was a finalist for the Women's Prize for Fiction. Her books have been translated into more than 50 languages. In 2025, she was elected as President of the Royal Society of Literature. Her latest novel One Brief Moment All Eternity is a portrait of the French writer Gustav Flaubert told through the eyes of the women who shaped him.Producer: Edwina Pitman | 43m 14s | ||||||
| 9/24/26 |  Joel Meyerowitz | American photographer Joel Meyerowitz talks to John Wilson about his cultural influences and formative experiences. A pioneer of the artform, he first began capturing life on the streets of his native New York in the early 1960s, and helped to establish colour photography as a fine-art medium. After travelling throughout Europe he made his name with a groundbreaking show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1968. Following the attacks on the World Trade Centre in 2001, Joel Meyerowitz became the only photographer to secure access to Ground Zero and, over several months, captured the scenes of devastation. His work has been the subject of more than 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world, and he is the recipient of many awards, most recently the prestigious Outstanding Contribution prize at the Sony World Photography Awards 2026.Producer: Edwina Pitman | 43m 13s | ||||||
| 9/17/26 |  Ray Winstone | Actor Ray Winstone talks to John Wilson about his formative cultural influences and inspirations. A schoolboy boxing champion, he built a reputation playing tough, working class characters after being cast in the borstal drama Scum at the age of 17. Winstone won huge acclaim for his performance as an alcoholic abusive husband in the film Nil By Mouth, directed by Gary Oldman, and Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast in which he played a bank robber forced out of retirement. Other big screen roles include the Martin Scorsese gangland drama The Departed, and Anthony Mingehella’s American civil war film Cold Mountain. On television, he’s played Henry the Eighth, Magwitch in Great Expectations and most recently, an imprisoned crime boss in the Netflix series The Gentlemen. Producer: Edwina Pitman | 43m 14s | ||||||
| 9/11/26 | theatrefilm direction+3 | Sir Nicholas Hytner | National TheatreBridge Theatre+8 | — | Nicholas Hytnertheatre+6 | — | 43m 13s | ||
| 9/3/26 | musicpiano+3 | Mitsuko Uchida | BBC Radio 4Schubert+2 | — | Mitsuko Uchidapianist+3 | — | 43m 31s | ||
| 8/27/26 | literaturecultural influences+3 | Sebastian Faulks | BBC Radio 4Birdsong+6 | — | Sebastian FaulksBirdsong+3 | — | 43m 19s | ||
| 7/9/26 | performance artfreedom of speech+4 | Tania Bruguera | Harvard UniversityMOMA+3 | CubaUS | Tania Brugueraperformance art+5 | — | 43m 25s | ||
| 7/2/26 | artsculpture+4 | Sir Anish Kapoor | Greenpeace | ChicagoLondon+1 | Anish Kapoorsculptor+5 | — | 43m 07s | ||
| 6/25/26 | cultural influencescareer+4 | Frank Cottrell-Boyce | BrooksideCoronation Street+6 | — | Frank Cottrell-Boycechildren's books+3 | — | 42m 52s | ||
| 6/18/26 | actingmusic+4 | Kiefer Sutherland | Stand by MeThe Lost Boys+4 | — | Kiefer SutherlandJohn Wilson+6 | — | 43m 10s | ||
| 6/11/26 | speculative architectureclimate change+4 | Liam Young | BBC Radio 4Princeton+5 | Venice BiennaleMOMA+2 | Liam Youngspeculative architecture+5 | — | 43m 24s | ||
| 6/4/26 | actingfilm career+4 | Kristin Scott Thomas | BBC Radio 4A Handful Of Dust+9 | — | Kristin Scott ThomasJohn Wilson+5 | — | 43m 13s | ||
| 5/28/26 | literaturecultural influences+3 | George Saunders | Syracuse UniversityBBC Radio 4+2 | — | George SaundersBooker Prize+5 | — | 43m 07s | ||
| 5/21/26 | operasoprano+3 | Dame Felicity Lott | BBC PromsLégion d’Honneur+6 | — | Felicity Lottsoprano+3 | — | 41m 57s | ||
| 5/14/26 | theaterliterature+4 | Michael Frayn | Noises OffClockwise+7 | — | Michael FraynNoises Off+6 | — | 42m 53s | ||
| 5/7/26 | artidentity+4 | Lubaina Himid | BBC Radio 4Venice Biennale | — | Lubaina HimidTurner Prize+7 | — | 43m 03s | ||
| 4/30/26 | theatrecreative influences+4 | Robert Icke | VarietyOresteia+4 | Stockton on Tees | Robert Icketheatre+6 | — | 42m 49s | ||
| 4/23/26 | creative influencesBooker Prize+4 | David Szalay | London and The South EastAll That Man Is+7 | — | David SzalayBooker Prize+6 | — | 43m 07s | ||
| 4/16/26 | operaBaroque repertoire+3 | Danielle de Niese | Los Angeles OperaMetropolitan Opera+2 | — | Danielle de Nieseopera+6 | — | 43m 33s | ||
| 4/9/26 | photographywar photography+3 | Sir Don McCullin | ObserverSunday Times+3 | Somerset | Don McCullinphotography+3 | — | 43m 25s | ||
| 2/19/26 | literaturecultural influences+3 | Julian Barnes | David Cohen Prize for LiteratureOrder of Arts and Letters+5 | France | Julian BarnesJohn Wilson+5 | — | 43m 01s | ||
| 2/12/26 | classical musicpiano performance+3 | Dame Imogen Cooper | BBC Radio 4Face The Music+1 | Wigmore Hall | Imogen Cooperconcert pianist+5 | — | 43m 36s | ||
| 2/5/26 | actingtheater+4 | Sir Jonathan Pryce | ComediansHamlet+9 | — | Jonathan Pryceacting career+5 | — | 43m 15s | ||
| 1/29/26 | theatreopera+4 | Katie Mitchell | Royal Shakespeare CompanyRoyal Opera House+5 | — | Katie Mitchelltheatre director+6 | — | 43m 12s | ||
| 1/22/26 | photographycelebrity culture+3 | Annie Leibovitz | Rolling StoneVanity Fair+2 | Buckingham Palace | Annie Leibovitzphotography+5 | — | 43m 07s | ||
Showing 27 of 163
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Chart history for This Cultural Life
Peaked at #9 in United Kingdom, top 10 in 1 of 17 tracked markets, currently #9 in United Kingdom.
| Market | Genre | Peak | Current | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | — | #9 | #9 | — |
| Ireland | — | #12 | #12 | — |
| New Zealand | — | #16 | #16 | — |
| RO | — | #19 | #19 | — |
| South Africa | — | #21 | #21 | — |
| PT | — | #24 | #24 | — |
| Australia | — | #36 | #36 | — |
| Spain | — | #37 | #37 | — |
| IS | — | #60 | #60 | — |
| Norway | — | #68 | #68 | — |
| India | — | #82 | #82 | — |
| ID | — | #113 | #113 | — |
| KE | — | #118 | #118 | — |
| CH | — | #135 | #135 | — |
| Canada | — | #137 | #137 | — |
| Finland | — | #159 | #159 | — |
| MY | — | #182 | #182 | — |
Chart Positions
17 placements across 17 markets.
Chart Positions
17 placements across 17 markets.