The Gentleman‘s Journal Podcast

As the influential Freuds Group turns 40, its founder and chairman Matthew Freud gives a rare interview on his life and career as a public relations guru.

In a live panel discussion, two of the leading voices in modern luxury discuss origin stories, the importance of names, why you should open your first shop as soon as possible — and where they think luxury will go next. Nick English (co-founder of Bremont; executive chairman of Moke) Luca Faloni (founder of Luca Faloni)

In the first of our special series of live panel conversations, three seasoned VCs share invaluable insights into securing funding, navigating the investment landscape — and the start-ups they passed over that they wish they hadn't...   Dinika Mahtani (partner at Cherry Ventures) Harry Destecroix (co-founder of SCVC) Harry Stebbings (founder of 20VC)

Among a slew of high-profile luxury e-commerce casualties, Mytheresa has enjoyed remarkable and sustained success — a trajectory that has been masterminded, in no small part, by the company's affable CEO, Michael Kliger. Now, Kliger has spearheaded the formation of LuxExperience — a new group that includes Mytheresa, Net-A-Porter, Mr Porter, Yoox, and The Outnet under one roof. Here, in a special recording at Huntsman on Savile Row, Kliger reveals the secrets of his success — and his predictions for the future of luxury. 

The legendary editor's new memoir, 'When the Going Was Good', is a delicious dispatch from the golden age of magazines — and a guidebook to the good life, even now.    

“Play hard, forgive quickly, and apologise when you're wrong,” says the Mercedes Formula One boss on the eve of a poignant new season.  

We sit down with Dom Hamdy, the London-based restaurateur who oversees Crispin, Bar Crispin and Bistro Freddie.

Justin Hast is a watch collector and Gentleman's Journal's Watch Editor-at-Large. Today, he sits down with Harry Jarman to talk trends for 2024, the problem with watch boxes, and the time he let a priceless Louis Vuitton timepiece go for next to nothing. 

Motoring Editor-at-Large Rory Smith talks us through his interview with Ineos's Sir Jim Ratcliffe — including the unlikely pub origins of the Grenadier car; his surprising shyness; and the Manchester United takeover. Plus! The most exciting new car launches of the year. 

Harry and Joe turn the pages on the new American(ish) Issue of Gentleman's Journal — including tangents on the good life down in Miami; reasons why the 1994 Volvo Estate is the apex of modern culture; booze-less lunches with the creators of Industry; and Rolf Sachs's endless oomph.   

Michael Murray is the CEO of Frasers Group, which owns some of Britain's best known retail brands — including House of Fraser, Sports Direct, Flannels, Jack Wills, and Gieves & Hawkes.    Appointed to the role in May last year at the age of just 33, Michael has overseen an impressive leap in fortunes for the company, at a time when the high street seems in greater flux than ever. In a conversation recorded at the Fraser Group HQ, Michael tells us how his childhood growing up in Doncaster shaped his attitude to hard work and why he feels he was always destined to be an entrepreneur — as well as what the government might do to help the ailing high street, and just what the future of retail might hold.

When young men, starting out in life, their eyes wide and dreams un-crushed, say they wish to ‘work in the movies' (whatever that means), it is because they hope one day to have an office like Charles Finch. They don't make them like this any more — the office or the career. It is a serious room. A study in the proper sense. An accidental curation. There are wooden models of sailing yachts; hand-written letters from royal households; giant monochrome photographs of racing cars and distant relatives; stacks of books as impromptu side-tables; framed magazine covers from past lives — a fascinating monument, in other words, to the varied life and various careers of Charles Finch.  The Gentleman's Journal Podcast is sponsored by Luca Faloni

People sometimes describe Tom Straker s a “TikTok chef” or an “Instagram chef,” and yes, it's true that he has millions and millions and millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok, and that he's known across the globe for his mesmeric butter-making videos, among many other things. But Tom's also the real deal — a chef who trained at the Ledbury, the Dorchester and headed up the kitchen Casa Cruz before trying his hand, one day in lockdown, at making a cooking video for a few hundred followers. That first attempt was pretty dreadful, he admits — but now he runs an entire studio to produce his content, while his adoring fans flock from around the world to Straker's, his new-ish restaurant in Notting Hill, which thoroughly lives up to the excellent reviews its had since its opening at the end of last year. A second is set to open in Manhattan in just a few months time.    Tom and I spoke about all sorts of things in this episode, recorded in the office above Straker's on the Golborne Road — including his earliest food memory, the ridiculous suit that he wore to his first interview at the Dorchester, his plans to shake up the butter market, and his advice for anyone unsure of what they want to do in life. Enjoy. The Gentleman's Journal Podcast is sponsored by Luca Faloni

It's remarkable to think that Reggie Yates is only 39 years old. In a career spanning more than three decades, Reggie has been a presenter, actor, radio host, screenwriter, director, and documentary filmmaker — but also a sort of spiritual older brother to the nation; a friendly, dependable, permanent resident on our screens.  Today, in a wonderfully open conversation, Reggie talks to us about: The prospect of turning 40 How, for many years, he had trouble recognising his own value How we can all start to work out what we want to do with our lives How he gets interview guests and documentary subjects to confide in him Why he gives a copy of Rick Rubin's new book to pretty much all his friends And his dreams and hopes for fatherhood. The Gentleman's Journal Podcast is sponsored by Luca Faloni. Our thanks to Fitzdares Club for playing host.

To celebrate Gentleman's Journal turning 10 at the end of last year, we thought we'd invite, Harry Jarman, founder of Gentleman's Journal, to sit down in the hot seat. Harry takes us on the meandering, rollercoaster journey the publication has been on from a small bedroom start up (and one that everyone said would fail) to an established and hugely successful media brand.  We speak about how the worlds of magazines, luxury, and even manhood have changed dramatically over the past decade; how Harry's hairline won him early advertisers; about the moment in the pandemic that he thought the party might be well and truly over; and whether, given the chance, he'd do it all again. Enjoy!  

This is the last episode of the podcast for 2023. But fear not — we're going out with a bang. Or a roar. Or whatever the noise is that Formula One cars make. Because our guest on today's show is Christian Horner, the Team Principal at Red Bull and one of the sport's most compelling ambassadors. Christian has petrol in his veins. He was a talented driver himself as a young man, before he set up his own race team, Arden International, at the age of just 25 — and then became the sport's youngest ever team principal when he joined Red Bull at 31. We spoke earlier this month, at the end of another bumper year for the team and its talismanic driver Max Verstappen — and in a reflective conversation, Christian gives us the inside line on the 2021 championship (the spiciest in history, perhaps); the secrets he learned from the sport's biggest characters; and why he always uses the same portaloo on race day.  Enjoy, and we'll see you in 2023.

Tim Brown sometimes talks about how much he used to dread dinner parties — and especially that moment when the conversation would turn to him and what he was up to for work. The truth was, Tim wasn't entirely sure. A former professional football player in New Zealand who went to the 2010 World Cup, by his early thirties Tim had retired and embarked on what many people (including himself) though was a highly eccentric calling: creating a pair of shoes from his country's greatest export, wool. Now, however, less than a decade later, his Allbirds brand is one of the great e-commerce and footwear stories of our time — and when it went public last year, it was valued at over four billion dollars.  Today, Tim tells us why imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; how everyone originally told him the project was doomed to fail; and what it feels like to see Barack Obama wearing a pair of your shoes.    

Our guest on today's show is Giles Coren, the Times restaurant critic and columnist. We recorded with Giles for an hour, but it felt almost like we got two hours of content — and often at times, listening back to the recording, I was convinced I had my player going at double speed, such is the pace of Giles speech and mind. So, in a wide-ranging, highly entertaining conversation, we touched on the rise of the caviar 'bump', charges of nepotism, being seen as a person who ‘divides opinion', why he regrets tweeting about a kid with a drum kit, trying to save Simpsons Tavern, the debauched days of 1990s Tatler, why lobster is overrated, his advice to young writers, why Keith McNally and James Corden deserve each other, and how nobody uses the word 'Proustian' correctly.

Our guest on today's episode of the Gentleman's Journal podcast is Labrinth, the musician and super producer. We first met Labrinth back in 2019, just afyer his last album, 'Imagination and the Misfit Kid', came out — but before the wild, runaway success of the giant HBO show Euphoria, which became the most tweeted about program in history during its second season earlier this year. A huge amount of the show's success is almost certainly down to its soundtrack, which Labrinth, of course, scored and produced — and the music in the show very often has the otherworldly and yet soulful energy that is true of all of Labrinth's music. His latest album, 'Ends and Begins', is certainly otherworldly — and we talk about the cosmic nature of Labrinth;s music and beliefs in a highly enjoyable conversation that spans his feelings on his recent ADHD diagnosis; how he is excited about the great adventure of death; and why fame makes toddlers of us all. 

Our guest today is Maro Itoje, the England and Saracens rugby player and Frieze London committee member. Maro has won four English Premiership titles with Saracens, three European Rugby Champions Cup titles, three Six Nations titles, and has played in a world cup final — that agonizing defeat, of course, to South Africa, which we talked about a bit during our conversation. On top of that, he's been selected for two British & Irish Lions tours, and in the second of these was voted the Lions Player of the Series. Off the pitch, he's a huge collector of African art and has curated an exhibition with Sotheby's — and eventually, he tells us, he'd like to open up a London gallery of his very own. In a highly enjoyable episode, we talk about the origins of his ‘Pearl' nickname; the fragile state of Premiership Rugby; the psychological tricks of England Coach Eddie Jones; and the last days of Roger Federer.

“My phone was exploding, mainly with texts from my kids: ‘Donald Trump knows who you are — do we need to leave the country?!'” Jon Sopel was the BBC's North America editor from 2014 to 2021 — perhaps the most eventful seven years in modern American history. Last year, he announced he was leaving the BBC after more than three decades to start The News Agents, a new podcast with former BBC colleagues Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall, which kicked off in the number one slot on the podcast charts this week.  In a rather wonderful conversation, Jon discusses his high-profile scuffle with Donald Trump in the White House briefing room; the most devastating moments in his time as a foreign correspondent; and how his nerves almost got the better of him when interviewing Barack Obama.  The News Agents is available on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts.

"The older I get, the more I am interested in simplicity..." To celebrate the launch of our Summer 2022 Issue of Gentleman's Journal, the wonderful celebrity photographer Tomo Brejc talks us through his shoot with cover star Tom Hiddleston — and tells us how we can all take better portraits, no matter who we're shooting. 

In this episode of 'Overheard at the Clubhouse', we sit down with writer and editor Dana Brown to discuss his new book, Dilettante: True Tales of Excess, Triumph and Disaster, which is excerpted in the Summer Issue of Gentleman's Journal. The book is brilliant. Charting Dana's clamber up the formidable masthead at Vanity Fair across the 1990s and 2000s, it's a wonderfully revealing romp through Manhattan's power circles at their most powerful. 

"Men will always find a way to show off, no matter how uncool it makes them look..." To celebrate the launch of our Summer 2022 issue of the magazine, we sat down with Ed Cumming (a regular contributor and Senior Feature Writer at the Telegraph) to discuss the unlikely return of the mullet and the nauseating rise of the LinkedIn Man — two recent developments that may well be intertwined...  

George Ezra is a singer, songwriter, and perhaps the loveliest and most thoughtful man in pop music. He is about to release his third album — The Gold Rush Kid — a record he says is his most personal and honest yet. But it is also a huge amount of fun, of course — that sort of sun-baked perfection that George does so uniquely well. In a highly enjoyable conversation, we spoke about the origins of his remarkable voice; the weirdness of social media; and how he almost lost a foot (sort of) while walking the length of the British Isles.

Munya Chawawa is the brilliant comedian and satirist whose viral videos have skewered the likes of Matt Hancock (in a memorable cover of Shaggy's ‘It Wasn't Me'), Piers Morgan, Will Smith, Nigella Lawson, vacuous influencers, American YouTubers, and most of the current cabinet. He is also the host of Race around Britain, a documentary series for which he was nominated for a Bafta just last week, while in 2021 he was nominated for a MOBO award for best media personality. He is also the hardest working man in show business, I think, and quite possibly the nicest, too. In a thoroughly entertaining episode, Munya tells us how he pretended to be Idris Elba's son in order to get an agent; what having a million followers does to your brain chemistry; what the back of Olivia Colman's head looks like; and how middle-aged Lithuanian women might just be central to his success.  

On the latest episode of Overheard at the Clubhouse, regular contributor Harry Shukman talks us through his piece about Oligart: a story of how the art market helped launder the reputations of the kleptocratic classes — and created a modern monster in the process.    

Ollie Dabbous is the head chef at HIDE, the beautiful, Michelin-starred restaurant overlooking Green Park in London. Having worked his way up through some of the most renowned and intimidating kitchens in the world, Ollie burst onto the scene with his eponymous restaurant Dabbous in 2012 when he was just 31, quickly becoming a truly darling of the London food scene and gaining a reputation as one of its hardest working chefs.    In a highly enjoyable episode of the Gentleman's Journal Podcast, Ollie tells us about the dish that changed his career forever; what it's like to be at the mercy of the nation's restaurant critics; and why Pret a Manger will always hold a very special place in his heart.

Oliver Bullough is the author of Butler to the World: How Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals. The book does exactly what it says on the tin, as they probably don't say in Moscow: it tells the story of how, as the British empire declined, we found a new role for ourselves — as a Jeeves to a series of oligarchical Woosters: laundering their reputations, hiding their money offshore, providing them with legal counsel, schools and lordships; and only now realising that perhaps that wasn't always such a good idea. Released just last month, in March 2022, It's hard to think of a more timely or poignant book — and in one of my favourite ever episodes of the podcast, Oliver tells us the story of the Ukrainian gas mogul who bought a defunct tube station; how gambling in this country has become our equivalent of the opioid epidemic; and the mantra that a school pupil taught him that might just sum up his entire career. Enjoy.

Our guest on today's episode is Freddie Blackett, founder of Patch Plants. Freddie set up the company back in 2015, after discovering that he couldn't find any decent plants that would survive on his small balcony in suburban London. Since then, Patch has become the purveyor of a very particular millennial status symbol, dragging the houseplant from its 1970s doldrums, and transforming it into a cultural phenomenon all of its own. This is a classic start up story — neat, disruptive idea; buckets of hard work; lovely branding; success. Although it's never quite as simple as that, as Freddie explains. In a very fun episode of the podcast, Freddie explains how caring for houseplants spurred an existential crisis in him; why the unpleasant taste of Red Bull is oddly inspiring; and the overlooked secret to keeping your own plants alive forever. Enjoy!  

The use of Performance enhancing drugs — or PEDs — may well be the movie industry's worst kept secret, according to contributor Harry Shukman. It's the only way that many of today's leading men could cook up those superhero abs at such short notice, as a host of industry insiders reveal. Today on Overheard at the Clubhouse, we discuss the effect these treatments can have on the stars themselves; the wider impact on the rest of us; and the mysterious, shadowy omèrta that surrounds this dark art — and why it persists today.  Overheard at the Clubhouse tells the stories behind the stories in Gentleman's Journal magazine and beyond.

NFT: the three most befuddling and bemusing letters in the modern English language. Depending on who you ask, that pesky acronym either contains the future of all financial security, innovation and investment; or is simply a passing fad, characterised by geeky internet artwork, the worst kind of speculation, and a thousand dinner party bores. The truth, of course, is much more complex and much more fascinating than either of those definitions. And in today's episode, Harry Jarman, founder of Gentleman's Journal, sits down with three industry experts to get their insider take on the field, their thoughts on where it's about to go next, and their actual useful advice for anyone looking to jump aboard. 

"I never felt sorry for a homeless person in my life. You've got to use that energy trying to sort them out..." Lord John Bird is the founder of The Big Issue — the revolutionary street magazine which turned 30 last year. Lord Bird's story is fascinating. He grew up in one of the roughest slums in London, was homeless at the age five, and found himself in and out of prison several times before the age of 18. (It was here, in fact, that  he first encountered a printing press.) Today, the Big Issue is the world's most distributed street paper — a project that has given millions of homeless people not just a solid income, but also a way back into society — and Bird himself is a hugely respected member of the House of Lords. In a brilliant episode of the podcast, he takes us on a journey from the slums of Notting Hill to the highest chambers in the land — via the tumultuous and sometimes raucous early days of the Big Issue, the new pressures of the pandemic, and an inside view on the political climate of the moment. 

Francis Bourgeois is the trainspotter turned TikTokker turned overnight national treasure, and our February 2022 cover star. Here, photographer Isaac Marley Morgan tells us what it was like to shoot him. Choo choo! Overheard at the Clubhouse is our new series where we tell the stories behind the stories in Gentleman's Journal magazine and beyond. 

Tom Molnar is the co-founder and CEO of Gail's — and thus, indirectly, the man behind the finest cheese and ham croissant in the history of the world. In a start up culture that values innovation and disruption at almost any cost, it is heartening to learn about the incredible success of Gail's — a bakery that has always made the quality and taste of its food the number one priority, from first shop to 79th. In a brilliant episode, Tom tells us why he almost pursued a career in fish instead of bread; how the company's 30-year-old sourdough starter is it's most sacred and protected IP; and reveals — for the first time and in perhaps the biggest scoop in Gentleman's Journal history — his five all time favourite items on the Gail's menu.

Harry Shukman, our writer on the dubious 'billionaire beat' of late, takes us inside the world of luxury estate managers — the string pullers who choreography the lives of the 0.0001%. Expect Shamans on private jets, £100,000 scented candles, an FBI-grade screening process, and 27-hour work days.  'Overheard at the Clubhouse' is our brand new podcast series at Gentleman's Journal, where we delve into the stories behind the stories from our magazine and beyond. Do let us know what you think.    

John Russo, the CEO of Maddox Gallery and an expert in street art, takes us inside the sometimes discombobulating contemporary art market. In a fascinating conversation, John tells us what we should look for in our first art acquisitions; how Instagram is dramatically changing the way art is discovered; why smart TVs could be the future of art displays; and what the atmosphere was like in the room at Sotheby's as Banksy enacted his famous shredder stunt. 

Ruth Rogers is the founder of the River Cafe — London's last true power restaurant, and a bastion of brilliant Italian comfort cooking. But the only thing harder than getting a reservation here, perhaps, is getting a seat on her new podcast, 'Table 4.' The brilliant new interview show, helmed by Rogers herself, uses food as the jumping off point for a series of candid, strikingly honest interview with the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Iger, David Beckham, Edward Enninful and Pete Davidson. We were lucky enough to sit down with Ruth for half an hour just before lunch service down at the River Cafe. Here — as the knives are sharpened, the onions cut, and the seabass  filleted — she tells us how the restaurant originally came about almost by chance; her first memories of coming to England; what her ultimate comfort food is; and why you should always have a meal with someone before you hire them.

Ben Francis is the founder and CEO of GymShark, a fitness company he started with some school friends back in 2012, drop-shipping supplements to their pals in the bodybuilding community. The first thing Ben sold was a £52 pound tub of USN Hyperbolic Mass protein powder — an order that earned ben a whopping £2 profit, but which left him, in his own words, dancing around his bedroom. A few years later, a single event caused one of Gymshark's tracksuits to go viral, and the young company went from selling £300 of clothes a day, to making £30,000 of revenue in just half a single hour. But it wasn't until last year, perhaps, that the company became a true household name, and the 29-year-old Ben became a poster boy for modern British entrepreneurship — after General Atlantic invested more than $260 million in the business, valuing it at over a billion pounds.  In a highly enjoyable episode of the podcast, we sat down with Ben up at company's  Solihull campus to discuss why humility is the best trait of all; the time Ben suffered a total ‘ego death,' and how we should always feel like we're winging it, all of the time. Enjoy. 

Our guest today is Jamie Laing, the founder of Candy Kittens, former star of Strictly Come Dancing and Made in Chelsea, and now author of a new memoir: I Can Explain. Jamie is one of the most open and honest and energetic guests we've ever had on the show. A natural entrepreneur with infectious enthusiasm, in his early twenties he walked into a meeting with Harvey Nichols to pitch his new business Candy Kittens — and walked away with a £150,000 purchase order, despite never having produced a single sweet. When he was a kid, Jamie's friends used to joke that everything he touched came with L.A.T: Laing Added Tax. But more than that, he's a true entertainer — and a thoughtful commentator on topics of mental health, popular culture, and the perils of social media.  In a wonderful episode of the Gentleman's Journal podcast, Jamie tells us why he originally thought Made in Chelsea might be the biggest mistake of his life; the problem with the label ‘posh'; how he always used to worry that a swarm of wasps might turn up and ruin the party; and why we should all tell our parents we love them as much as possible. 

Scooter Braun is a media proprietor, record executive, investor and manager, best known, perhaps, as the mastermind behind the careers of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and many others. He started his career selling Fake IDs at Emory University, before becoming one of the most successful club promoters in Atlanta. After dropping out of college, Scooter jumped headfirst into the music industry — where he discovered an angelic young street busker called Justin Bieber while scrolling through YouTube one evening. The rest, as they say, is history — but that leaves out all the wild highs and lows of the years that followed: the way that the music industry bigwigs described the pair as “that internet kid and his crazy manager”; the trials and tribulations of fame and success; and the succession of canny deals that turned Scooter Braun into one of the most formidable forces in his field today.   In a fascinating and candid interview, Scooter talks to us how he slept with a gun by his bedside for years; why he loves founders with a ‘burn the ships' mentality; and how he's finally re-claiming his real name, Scott, once and for all. 

Charlie Bigham is the man behind the gourmet food brand that bears his name — and the saviour of many a weekday dinner time. Known for his wholesome takes on British classics, Charlie's eponymous company — which celebrates its quarter century this year — sells 80,000 meals every single week, and will likely hit £100 million pounds in sales this year alone. But for Charlie, you sense that the finances are much less important than the food — and in a fascinating episode of the podcast, the founder tells us how a night on the Iran-Pakistan border provided his lightbulb moment; how the financial crisis of 2007 nearly scuppered the business; why he resents his food being called ‘posh'; and what happened when a noted food critic tasted his lasagne.

Federico Marchetti is the founder and Chairman of YOOX-Net-a-Porter. He grew up in Ravenna, an ancient town in Northern Italy, which is home to some of the most historically significant mosaics in the world. And Federico describes his career, in fact, like a giant mosaic — a long process of placing building blocks on top of building blocks, slowly working towards a grand design. After an early career in finance, Federico hit upon the idea of a luxury e-commerce site in 1999, at the height of the Dot Com boom. Most people thought he was crazy for attempting to fuse these two worlds — but after cold calling Italy's most famous venture capitalist, Federico quickly managed to get the idea off the ground — and the rest, of course, is history. Today, YOOX-Net-a-Porter is one of the biggest e-commerce players in the world, with customers in over 180 countries.  In a fascinating episode, Federico describes how Apple took some of its inspiration from Italian typewriters; why none of us will be using mobile phones in five years time; and how the next Coco Chanel won't be a designer — but a programmer.

Most of us would be content to have one big hit in our lifetimes, and to milk it for all its worth. But Marcia Kilgore has had four resounding successes with four separate businesses — Bliss, a range of New York beauty spas, of which she sold a majority stake to LVMH for a reported $30million in 2004; Soap & Glory, a toiletries brand thar Boots bought acquired in 2014 and has hundreds of millions in annual revenues; FitFlop, the ingenious ergonomic footwear brand; and now Beauty Pie, a subscription cosmetics service which may well turn the beauty industry on its head. In a fascinating and highly enjoyable episode, we discussed the unique atmosphere of New York in the late 1980s; why bullshit is the enemy of success; and how the opposite of a good idea is almost always a great idea.  

On a special episode of the podcast we talk to three figures from the world of retail about the quiet revolution taking place on our streets. Ross Bailey is the founder of Appear Here, the venue marketplace for shops, pop-ups, and just about anything else; Luca Faloni is the founder of the beautiful Italian outfitter that shares his name; and Archie Hewlett is the founder of London footwear label Duke + Dexter. It is a fascinating conversation with three entrepreneurs who live and breathe these issues every day — and they tell us how our high streets might look in the near future; why certain brands have ridden out the storm and others have sunk; the shopping gimmicks that they're tired of seeing; and why, in fact, we should cancel the word ‘retail' altogether. 

Jack Rivlin is the founder and former CEO of the Tab — a network of student newspapers. Started while Jack was at Cambridge, the Tab hoped to bring energy, levity, and a tabloid edge to the dull and worthy university papers — and used volunteer student journalists to report on the things that actually mattered to them. It soon grew to plenty of other universities in the UK, and in 2016 Jack raised a few million pounds of investment from none other than Rupert Murdoch himself, who Jack and his partner met the week after Glastonbury, with glitter still stuck to their faces. After expansion into the US, the Tab's fortunes began gradually to wane; until Jack decided to sell up entirely at the start of 2020 — a process that became a fascinating ordeal in its own right. In a wonderfully honest episode, Jack tell us just how hungover he was for that infamous meeting with Rupert Murdoch; give us the inside scoop on the Aziz Ansari story that broke the internet; tells us how one of the Tab's early legal corrections is now used in Journalism textbooks; warns against the perils of the Facebook algorithm; and discusses why newsletters have become the media outlet of the moment.    

Louis Theroux is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, broadcaster, national treasure, and latterly podcast host. Louis joined us on the podcast to talk about the release of his brilliant new documentary Shooting Joe Exotic, in which he revisits the star of last year's Tiger King documentary — but the conversation soon became about so much more: the state of America right now; the trouble with social media; the poignancy of shooting horses; the perils of podcast coziness — and the very art of interviewing itself.  Louis Theroux: Shooting Joe Exotic is now available on BBC iPlayer  

Marco Pierre White is the legendary chef often described as the enfant terrible of English cuisine, and the youngest cook ever to receive three Michelin stars. Marco's story has now passed into legend: the childhood on a council estate outside Leeds; the prodigious genius mentored by Albert Roux, Pierre Koffman and Raymond Blanc; the outrageous work ethic and infamous temper; the pre-Raphaelite curls and smouldering brow. But to hear him tell his own story is an unpredictable joy. You don't so much interview Marco Pierre White as uncork a genie — and so this episode does away with our usual structured conversation format and becomes something else entirely: a rolling meditation on childhood, luck, pain, celebrity, greed, and good food.  We recorded this episode in one of the living rooms of Marco's home — a Victorian gothic hotel he is converting near Bath. It kicks off with Marco explaining what walking into a Three Michelin Star restaurant should feel like — and it rolls like a juggernaut from there. Enjoy. 

Andy Coulson is a strategic advisor, former Downing Street director of comms, former editor of the News of the World — and onetime resident of HMP Belmarsh. Across the nineties, Andy worked his way up from a local newspaper to take on one of the biggest jobs in the UK media, before jumping over the fence to join the Cameron campaign as DC ascended to Number 10. Then, following the News of the World's phone hacking scandal, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison — a part of his life that inspired his new podcast: Crisis, What Crisis, in which he talks to a wide array of people who have, as he puts it, been up and down the hill a few times.  In a fascinating episode, Andy tells us how he dealt with what we might call David Cameron's Toff Problem; discusses the entrepreneurial lessons he learned in prison; and describes the dangerous symptoms of a condition he calls 'Editoritis'. Enjoy. You can find a link to Andy's podcast, Crisis, What Crisis?, here.  

Gerald Ratner is the former CEO of the Ratners jewellery empire, and a professional corporate speaker. As a young man, Ratner worked his way up the ladder of his family company, eventually turning it into the biggest jewellery chain in the world. And then, at the height of his powers, a single speech changed his fortune forever, and sent his life and his business into a downwards spiral that took some years to recover from.  His story — and that infamous moment — is now the subject of business degrees the world over, and his name still trends on Twitter several times a year at moments of corporate blunder. This is one of the most interesting episodes we've had in a while — a true rollercoaster of a story, with a born entrepreneur whose colourful career has come to be defined by just a few words. With his famously deadpan sense of humour, Ratner talks us through the meteoric rise of the Ratners Group, the morning leading up to that speech, and why, if you want to get something done, it sometimes pays to impersonate a police officer.

In a special episode of the podcast, we're joined by Tommy Stadlen and Jonnie Goodwin — two prominent members of the UK's investment community. Tommy is the co-founder of Giant Ventures, and has had a remarkably varied career — working as an advisor to both Barack Obama and David Miliband, setting up a photography app that was then sold to Microsoft, and even finding time as a teenager to release an ambient music album.  Jonnie, meanwhile, is the head of Alvarium Merchant Banking. He's enjoyed a rich and colourful career in television and radio, advising on over 100 very high-profile media deals in his time. He is best known now, perhaps, for setting up Founders Forum — a network for entrepreneurs — with Brent Hoberman.  This episode is all about tech investing in 2021, and the current climate and outlook for the wider venture capital community. In it, Tommy and Jonnie discuss how purpose is now front and centre in most investment decision; the rise of the Special Acquisition Company; how they stay on top of the sea of noise and nonsense in startup land; and the sort of entrepreneurs that they do and don't like to invest in. Enjoy.