Joining the Dots: A Huck podcast

The author of The Jakarta Method on Western imperial violence, the future of journalism, post-Brexit London and much more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We sat down from afar last spring with two stalwarts of California surf culture - and explored the strange power of Malibu, the burdens of a wave-riding career, and the healing power of the sea. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We sit down with journalist Gary Younge at a time of transition for the long-time columnist and US correspondent. We discover the hope that for Gary resides within the madness and brutality of contemporary life, and discuss the current state of journalism as he embarks on a new life in academia. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joe Talbot and Nick Waplington discuss music, photography and the importance of making art amid the plague. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We speak to young climate activist and author Jamie Margolin about crisis, organising, and the urgent need for change. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Gabriel Krauze on his groundbreaking first novel, Who They Was. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We speak to the founder and publisher of radical press Repeater Books. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We speak to the 19-year-old London singer-songwriter on negotiating the trials of isolation and London life... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We speak to recording artist and double Mercury Nominee Ghostpoet at the height of the BLM protests... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Photographer Guy Martin has been part of the Huck creative family from the very beginning. The Cornwall-raised lensman started his career chasing waves and documenting beach culture around the world. Inspired by photojournalists like Don McCullin and Larry Burrows, who had documented the wars of Southeast Asia, in his mid-twenties he began to turn his attention to conflict. Soon he found himself at the heart of The Arab Spring. Following the story from the demonstrations in Tahrir Square to the teeth of the battle for Libya, Guy took the hunt for the defining moment right up to – and almost over – the edge. The experience nearly cost him his life. In this season finale of Joining the Dots, Guy reflects on documenting the horrors of war, experiencing loss – and the lessons learned which helped him get back on his feet, re-focus, and re-build. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Photographer Guy Martin has been part of the Huck creative family from the very beginning. The Cornwall-raised lensman started his career chasing waves and documenting beach culture around the world. Inspired by photojournalists like Don McCullin and Larry Burrows, who had documented the wars of Southeast Asia, in his mid-twenties he began to turn his attention to conflict. Soon he found himself at the heart of The Arab Spring. Following the story from the demonstrations in Tahrir Square to the teeth of the battle for Libya, Guy took the hunt for the defining moment right up to – and almost over – the edge. In this, the first of a two-part episode of Joining the Dots, Guy traces the movement of his life as a surf photographer to a harder-edged existence as a witness to war. It was a journey that nearly cost him his life. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of Joining the Dots, Don Letts meets South London vocalist and artist Cosima Ehni. Signed to esteemed label Island Records and with a background that bridges London, Germany and the African Diaspora, Cosima’s work is impossible to categorise. She channels the work of singers from Sade all the way back to Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. The 24-year-old swaps stories of what it’s like to be young, gifted and black in a Peckham manor where the dominant cultural force for the last few years has been gentrification. Growing up in similar neighbourhoods a generation apart, Cosima and Don find more things that draw them together than that keep their experiences apart. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week Don sits down with emerging recording artist Georgia. The young musician and producer grew up deeply embedded in the culture of electronic music - her dad Neil Barnes being one half of influential British dance outfit Leftfield. In the conversation Georgia and Don explore what it’s like to be a kid growing up in the beat-centric counterculture of rave - and discover that pop, dance and beats can be intimately intertwined. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The world of big-wave surfing is populated by an elite coterie of high-profile athletes from all over the planet. Andrew Cotton, who sits down with Don Letts for this episode of Joining the Dots, is a humble young surfer from North Devon - an unlikely member of this rarified subculture. ‘Cotty’ shot to surf world fame in 2016 when, in front of a battery of lenses at Nazare in Portugal, he rode one of the biggest, most spectacular waves ever documented. When he sat down in the Letts bunker, Cotty was strapped up and healing from a broken vertebrae suffered whilst plying his madcap trade and hoping to recover for the coming big-wave season. Stories were shared. Motivations were explored. Two worlds collide in a leafy backyard in West London. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this week's episode of Joining the Dots, our host Don Letts sits down with Gemma Harrison, of VC London, and Gary Inman, editor of Sideburn Magazine. Emma and Gary are at the heart of the burgeoning alt.biker scene – an inclusive, open-minded generation of people redefining what it means to ride a motorcycle. Careworn clichés and the tired macho tropes of biker culture are being replaced with a simple love of riding – and the crew explore all the consequences of this liberating new scene. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Writer and journalist Hattie Collins is the documenter-in-chief of the Grime generation. For fifteen years she had a ringside seat as the young emcees and producers of East London created a culture in their own image — and she remains locked in tight to the music’s evolution. In 2016 she published Grime’s first and definitive oral history. This Is Grime told the story of the most dynamic subculture since Punk from the inside out. As the scene goes global, Don Letts sits down with Hattie to reason with the rise and mutation of UK music’s most powerful force. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Don Letts meets Ed Templeton, the pioneer skater and artist from deep in the SoCal heartland. Unexpected dots are joined between Huntington Beach & Ladbroke Grove; and between punk, hardcore, skate and ska. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining the Dots connects culture across skate, music, the arts and beyond. Hosted by Donn Letts and presented by Huck Magazine in association with size? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.