The Gentleman‘s Journal Podcast

”He said: ’I’ve seen a lot of ideas — but this has got to be the worst...’” How Tim Brown built Allbirds into a multi-billion dollar giant

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.

 

 

Restaurant critic Giles Coren on Twitter beef, the problem with triple cooked chips, and advice to young writers

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.

”I was a homeless bohemian, sleeping in the studio and eating jammy dodgers...” — Labrinth, musician and super-producer

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 after 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. 

“It felt as if the air around Twickenham was shaking…” — Maro Itoje, England and Saracens rugby star

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.

Tussling with Trump, leaving the BBC, and asking the deadly question with a smile — Jon Sopel, journalist and broadcaster

“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.

Shooting Tom Hiddleston — Overheard at the Clubhouse with Tomo Brejc

"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. 

Confessions of a Dilettante — Dana Brown, former Deputy Editor of Vanity Fair

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. 

The return of the mullet and the rise of the LinkedIn Man — Overheard at the Clubhouse

"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, singer

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: “I’m just waiting for Matt Hancock to challenge me to a celebrity boxing match…”

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.