Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Writer and broadcaster known for best-selling books and award-winning programmes about people on the fringes, such as internet trolls and porn stars.
On the island
Eight records
First disc. Reason: story about pretending to faint at a Specials concert.
Second disc. Reason: 'the way she sings cabaret, particularly the last verse … it's like a primal scream from her soul.'
Third disc. Reason: 'it's so strange, it feels like it's coming from another dimension, but also what it's about, that there's a world going on underground.'
Fourth disc. Reason: 'she was like the most smiley of all the grunge post-punk people. Just so warm and delightful.'
Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear
Fifth disc. Reason: 'it's a song about a lovably deluded guy who thinks that if he goes to a restaurant, all the rich people will applaud him, but in fact, they're just exploiting him and laughing at him.'
Sixth disc. Reason: 'I have memories of holding my baby in my arms while Fiona Apple played, and he's finally going to sleep.'
Seventh disc. Reason: 'It's a song you can hear a million times and think, ah, it's fine. And then on the million and first time, you think, this is the greatest song I've ever heard.'
Jersey GirlFavourite
Eighth disc. Reason: 'I always get very moved when a singer does a live version of their song and the audience cheers when the singer name checks the place where they're from.'
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:50You once said all human stories are valid. Does that mean there are no limits to what you will consider covering?
I won't do stories that are just perpetuating what we already think about someone. So for instance, I won't do a story about a neo-Nazi who's just a neo-you know, I want to surprise people. I want to try and find counterintuitive stories, stories that shed light on the world. So I'm not one of those people who just want to say, oh, he's a terrible person. I'll go and spend enough time with them to portray them as being terrible and then we'll put out a documentary about a book about how they're terrible. Like I won't do anything like that.
Presenter asks
8:50How did you deal with it? Who did you talk to?
I don't really talk to anyone. That's it. I really appreciate the fact that my parents allowed me to do things like get on buses and lose myself in London and go to the specials and so on. I really appreciated that. But I suppose the downside of that is you're also on your own to deal with the bad stuff. So I didn't, I haven't really talked to anyone about it. I remember.
Presenter asks
21:50Why did working on [The Last Days of August] affect you so much?
The ethics of that just got too much for me. I realized I was in a... It was an almost impossible ethical situation.
The keepsakes
The book
The biggest book of Magnum photographs
Magnum Photos
Maybe one of her photographs will be in there.
The luxury
I want very well made, proper legal medical weed made by a bespoke weed manufacturer somewhere like Massachusetts. So that means I can sleep at night.
Presenter asks
27:49How close are you? Have you got there yet?
Yes. You're there. I think so. I think so. Yeah, I do. I remember my mother saying to me, you get less ambitious as you get older, less driven. And I think that's happening. I'm really happy. Being completely alone, just constructing my non-fiction stories and polishing them. Once I've done that, I don't really care what happens to them. I don't really care whether they're successful or not successful. For me, the pleasure is all in the putting together the story. And that's that's enough. That's you know, there's a um phrase in Judaism, Da'enu, that is sufficient, and that's like sufficient for me.
“I won't do stories that are just perpetuating what we already think about someone. So for instance, I won't do a story about a neo-Nazi who's just a neo-you know, I want to surprise people. I want to try and find counterintuitive stories, stories that shed light on the world. So I'm not one of those people who just want to say, oh, he's a terrible person. I'll go and spend enough time with them to portray them as being terrible and then we'll put out a documentary about a book about how they're terrible. Like I won't do anything like that.”
“I don't really talk to anyone. That's it. I really appreciate the fact that my parents allowed me to do things like get on buses and lose myself in London and go to the specials and so on. I really appreciated that. But I suppose the downside of that is you're also on your own to deal with the bad stuff. So I didn't, I haven't really talked to anyone about it. I remember.”
“The ethics of that just got too much for me. I realized I was in a... It was an almost impossible ethical situation.”
“Being completely alone, just constructing my non-fiction stories and polishing them. Once I've done that, I don't really care what happens to them. I don't really care whether they're successful or not successful. For me, the pleasure is all in the putting together the story. And that's that's enough. That's you know, there's a um phrase in Judaism, Da'enu, that is sufficient, and that's like sufficient for me.”
“I want it on record.”