Category Archives: Podcasts

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

We talk to Max Hollein, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, about the new plans for the museum’s wing of modern and contemporary art, including the appointment of the architect Frida Escobedo in place of David Chipperfield. 

As The Art Newspaper is about to publish its annual museum attendance survey, showing that visitors are beginning slowly to return to museums after the height of the pandemic, we ask Hollein how the vision for the museum has changed following the events of the past two years. Plus, Aimee Dawson talks to the curator Sam Bardaouil about the exhibition Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility at the Gropius Bau in Berlin. And in this episode’s Work of the Week, as the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, opens a major Meret Oppenheim survey, the show’s curator Natalie Dupecher discusses Oppenheim’s Surrealist object Ma gouvernante – My Nurse – Mein Kindermädchen (1936): a pair of white heels on a silver platter, trussed like a chicken.

The Art Newspaper’s visitor attendance survey is in the April print edition, and online next week at theartnewspaper.com, or on our app for iOS and Android, which you can get from the App Store or Google Play.

Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility, Gropius Bau, Berlin, until 12 June.

Meret Oppenheim: My Exhibition, Menil Collection, Houston, until 18 September; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 30 October-4 March 2023

Morning News: Biden To Visit Poland, Elections In Malta, Fashion World

Joe Biden heads to Poland to address Russia’s war on Ukraine. Plus: a look ahead to Malta’s parliamentary elections, top stories from the fashion world and Andrew Mueller’s unique assessment of what we’ve learned over the past seven days.

Science: Subgiant Stars Age, Yellowstone’s Hot Water, Birds & The Moon

Precisely ageing subgiant stars gives new insight into the Milky Way’s formation, and uncovering Yellowstone’s hydrothermal plumbing system.

In this episode:

00:45 Accurately ageing stars reveals the Milky Way’s history

To understand when, and how, the Milky Way formed, researchers need to know when its stars were born. This week, a team of astronomers have precisely aged nearly a quarter of a million stars, revealing more about the sequence of events that took place as our galaxy formed.

Research article: Xiang and Rix

News and Views: A stellar clock reveals the assembly history of the Milky Way

09:53 Research Highlights

Archaeologists reveal an ancient lake was actually a ritual pool, and how the Moon’s phase affects some birds’ altitude.

Research Highlight: Ancient ‘harbour’ revealed to be part of fertility god’s lavish shrine

Research Highlight: These birds fly high when the full Moon hangs in the sky

12:34 Uncovering Yellowstone’s hot water plumbing

Yellowstone National Park’s iconic geothermal geysers and volcanic landmarks are well studied, but very little was known about the ‘plumbing system’ that feeds these features. Now a team of researchers have mapped the underground hydrothermal system, showing the specific faults and pathways that supply the park.

Research article: Finn et al.

19:27 Briefing Chat

We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, 0why an Australian university has been suspended from winning a research foundation’s fellowships, and the ongoing debate about the cause of ‘COVID toes’.

Nature: Funder bars university from grant programme over white-male award line-up

Morning News: NATO Allies Gather, Eastern Europe, Belgrade-Budapest By Rail

We’ll have the latest as Biden and European allies gather in Brussels for a high-stakes Nato summit. Plus, Estonia calls for Nato to build up a permanent force in Eastern Europe, a flick through today’s papers, and Monocle’s Balkans correspondent, Guy De Launey, boards the Belgrade-Budapest railway.

Morning News: Ukraine Holds Positions, Africa Divided, Finland Politics

Emily Sherwin and Olga Tokariuk discuss the latest on the war in Ukraine. Plus: a look at why Africa is divided on Russia’s invasion, a flick through today’s papers and an interview with the former president of Finland, Tarja Halonen.

Interview: “Time’s Witness” Author Rosemary Hill

In the 1740s the Scots were invading England and the wearing of tartan was banned. By the 1850s, Queen Victoria had built her Gothic fantasy in Aberdeenshire and tartan was everywhere. What happened in between?

In the second episode of her series on Romantic history, Rosemary Hill talks to Colin Kidd about the myths and traditions of Scottish history created in the 19th century, and the central role of Walter Scott in forging his country’s identity.

In the first episode of a new four-part series looking at the way history was transformed in the Romantic period, Rosemary Hill is joined by Tom Stammers to consider how an argument over the ‘improvement’ of Salisbury Cathedral in 1789 launched a new attitude to the past and its artefacts. Those sentiments were echoed in revolutionary France, where antiquarians risked the guillotine to preserve the monuments of the Ancien Régime.

Morning News: War Crimes In Ukraine, Middle East Food, Mexico City

Joe Biden, among others, has called Vladimir Putin “a war criminal.” International tribunals have tried and convicted war criminals from Rwanda and Serbia: will Russia’s president suffer the same fate?

The war in Ukraine will disrupt the world’s wheat market, with potentially grave political consequences in the Middle East. And three public-works projects in Mexico are stirring controversy.

Political Analysis: Ukraine War & China, Free Trade, War’s Corporate Fallout

A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: how the war in Ukraine determines China’s view of the world (9:45), confronting Russia shows the tension between free trade and freedom (16:42), and who are the corporate winners and losers in Russia’s war​​.

Sunday Morning: Stories From Zurich, London, Amsterdam & Bangkok

Monocle’s editorial director Tyler Brûlé and panellists Juliet Linley and Marcus Schögel on the weekend’s biggest discussion topics. Plus: we check in with our friends and contributors in London, Amsterdam and Bangkok.