Looking Sideways: 10 Things
Andre 3000 ruffing feathers, Bon Iver has good taste, and a 19th century throwback
1. “Not just a podcast. It’s a challenge to everything we thought we know about business, wealth, and the true cost of staying the same.”
My series The Announcement continues on its quixotic little journey; this time to New Zealand, where I was just interviewed about the series for the country’s best-selling Adventure Magazine.
2. And here’s another really interesting post-Announcement development: Looking Sideways listener and MAD//Fest London organiser Dan has invited me to host a live podcast at this year’s event on July 2nd.
I’ll be hosting a conversation that will bring together leading brands, activists and commentators to discuss the often uneasy relationship between brands, purpose, and activism. In other words, exactly the issues I explored in the series.
MAD//Fest is a big old annual marketing and adland jamboree that takes place in East London each year and it always has a proper eclectic line-up - like Jimmy Carr, Richard Ayoade, Rory Sutherland, Dr Maggie Pocock and, er, me this year. Looking Sideways listeners can get 25% off tickets here.
3. If the number of friends and acquaintances who’ve tapped me up for advice on ‘starting a Substack’ or ‘building a community on Substack’ in the last month (it’s in double figures) is anecdotally anything to go by, this platform is having a bit of a cultural moment.
This piss-take of Substack and its attendant mores (‘for the price of a coffee a month!’) skewers the whole thing pretty well.
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4. André 3000’s 7 Piano Sketches record has kicked off a really interesting and/or incredibly snobbish debate around authenticity in music and, in 2025, who gets to decide what that actually means.
Start with this Vice piece, then head to the link below for somebody really sticking the boot in:
5. I’m absolutely not a fan of Douglas Murray, but I’m glad he’s taken the opportunity to use his appearance on Joe Rogan to call Rogan out on his responsibility-abdicating, deeply disingenuous ‘Hey, it’s all vibes!’ form of interviewing.
6. I really enjoyed all the Bon Iver Artist in Residence stuff on BBC Sounds, especially his brilliant playlists
7. Two opposing views of human nature to mull over.
The first, from Chris Hedges, posits that Gaza, Trump, Ukraine etc are the harbingers of a new dark age. (Warning: not a cheery take).
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8. The second, from Humankind author Rutger Bregman, argues for a new wave of ‘moral ambition’ to lead us out of said encroaching darkness, as he outlines in this New York Times interview, part of a big old promo trail for his new book.
9. This new Empire series is great on the last time the autocrats carved up the world in the way Trump is proposing now. As usual, William and Anita contextualise everything brilliantly.
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10. Reading a 900-page book with hardly any plot, and which is essentially just a series of whimsical socio-comic set pieces featuring a series of characters who pop in and out at random, is proving to be an interesting and very worthwhile exercise for my internet-addled brain.
Don’t forget: I just launched the new Looking Sideways book store. Buy anything from here and you’ll be supporting independent UK book stores, as well as helping finance Looking Sideways (I get a 10% commission) in a really simple way.
Click here to see my 2025 Reading List (including Bleak House), and here to add your own recommendations.
I'm sorry to say my Empire Podcast binge has left no time for Looking Sideways listening. I just can't stop listening to them....
Also isn't Bookshop.org great, I've been using it for a year now and have added a few of your books to my wishlist. Ta