Skip to main contentSkip to navigation
Print subscriptions
Sign in
Search jobs
Search
The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

The Start

​The Start is a podcast about artistic beginnings, as told by great artists of our time. Focusing on one piece, they share how these early moments of creativity shaped them, the influence it had on their subsequent work, and what the piece now means to them in retrospect

1 April 2022

  • Weekend banner by Luis Mendo

    Weekend: episode two of a new podcast

    In this episode, Marina Hyde looks at the new additions to Downing Street, Hadley Freeman interviews Hollywood actor Will Arnett, Sirin Kale tries her hand at quiz show Mastermind, and David Robson examines why we’re so stressed about stress

5 February 2022

  • Artwork by Luis Mendo

    Weekend: episode one of a new podcast

    In our first episode, Marina Hyde reflects on another less than stellar week for Boris Johnson, Edward Helmore charts the rise of Joe Rogan, Laura Snapes goes deep with singer George Ezra, and Alex Moshakis asks, “Are you a jerk at work?”

1 July 2021

  • Grace Dent bathes in pasta

    Comfort Eating with Grace Dent: episode one of a new podcast

    In the first episode of our new podcast, screenwriter Russell T Davies tells Grace Dent about his childhood in Swansea, the delights of Woolworth’s pork and egg pies, and how his husband’s death informed his TV series It’s a Sin

8 February 2021

  • Podcast Reverberate ApplePodcasts PromotionalArt 3

    Reverberate: episode 1 of our new series – podcast

    In the first episode of our new series, Reverberate, we hear from Kashy Keegan – the unlikely voice of Hong Kong’s nascent pro-democracy movement

3 August 2020

  • Innermost graphic

    Innermost: another episode of our new series – podcast

    Two callers tell Leah Green how their relationships sent them down unexpected paths, one with criminal consequences

25 June 2020

  • Innermost graphic

    Innermost: episode 1 of a new series - podcast

    In our first episode, we hear how an uncle’s funeral and meals with an emotionally distant brother help James and Jess think about their families in new and unexpected ways.

11 May 2018

  • Lemn Sissay

    The Start podcast: ‘There’s no camera – it feels like a safe space’

    Our interview series with artists about their early work is turning out to be intimate, popular and surprisingly revelatory

29 March 2018

  • Locked in a Basement album artwork. Pictured, Mark Guiliana with Heernt bandmates.

    Mark Guiliana on the album that sounds like innocence – The Start podcast

    The drummer and composer talks about Locked in a Basement, the album he recorded with his band Heernt, before facing the pressures of adulthood

22 March 2018

  • Shirin Neshat's video installation 'Turbulent'

    Shirin Neshat on the video art that reconnected her with Iran - The Start podcast

    The visual artist reveals how her installation Turbulent built a community among the Iranian diaspora in New York, and expressed her feelings for her homeland

15 March 2018

  • Cover from Will Self's cartoon strip Slump, originally published in the New Statesman during the 1980s

    Will Self on the cartoon strip that set him on the road to writing – The Start podcast

    The novelist and journalist shares how living a life of austerity inspired his first professional work, Slump

8 March 2018

  • Peaches Performs At Trash At The End, London December 2001: Peaches (real name: Merrill Beth Nisker)

    Peaches on the song that defined her new sound – The Start podcast

    The electronic musician relates how a breakup, a new keyboard and a hunger for feminist rock’n’roll led to her signature track Lovertits and album The Teaches of Peaches

1 March 2018

  • Lemn Sissay, author and broadcaster

    Lemn Sissay on the 'radical' poem born of heartbreak – The Start podcast

    The poet shares the story behind Invisible Kisses, a poem that impressed on him the true value of family

22 February 2018

  • Sinead Cusack and Zawe Ashton in London revival of Splendour

    Abi Morgan on the play fuelled by fury - The Start podcast

    The playwright and screenwriter reveals how a fascination with tyrants and their wives compelled her to write Splendour

15 February 2018

  • Remembering, backpacks spell out a Chinese sentence in characters on the Haus der Kunst art museum, Munich, for the Ai Weiwei exhibition ''So Sorry''

    Ai Weiwei on the project that awoke his political voice – The Start podcast

    The artist and activist tells how investigating schoolchildren’s deaths in the Sichuan earthquake of 2008 spawned his mammoth installation, Remembering

8 February 2018

  • Stills from Ann Hirsch's online Youtube performance art piece Scandalishious, circa 2008

    Ann Hirsch on the art project that invaded her private life – The Start podcast

    The internet artist recalls how her groundbreaking YouTube project Scandalishious allowed for self-reflection, but also invited the scrutiny of a watchful audience

1 February 2018

  • Damien Hirst with objects from Mr Barnes’s house, 1985

    Damien Hirst on the break-in that changed his art – The Start podcast

    In the second episode of our new culture podcast about artistic beginnings, Damien Hirst reveals how his neighbour – a compulsive hoarder – triggered a creative explosion that set him on the road to success

25 January 2018

  • Virgin Suicides 1999. Sofia Coppola directing Kirsten Dunst during the making of the movie. COLLECTION CHRISTOPHEL

    Sofia Coppola on the film that launched her – The Start podcast

    In the first episode of our new culture podcast, Sofia Coppola talks about the fear and the thrill of directing her debut film, The Virgin Suicides

18 January 2018

  • the-start-uber

    Coming Soon: The Start

    A new podcast about artistic beginnings, as told by great artists of our time. The first episode will be coming soon...
Explore more on these topics