Laura Whitmore: On My Culture Radar

Current favourite book

I just started Be The Change by Gina Martin. Two years ago, she was at a festival and a guy took a picture up her skirt so she started this campaign and from this year, upskirting is illegal. It’s huge because the papers have been doing it for years. The book is interesting; you have normal people and you have politicians, but she’s shown how everyone has the power to change the law.

Play/musical

I go to the theatre a lot and last week I went to see The Starry Messenger, by Kenneth Lonergan who wrote Manchester By the Sea. You have two types of productions: ones where it’s jolly and you’re singing songs, and ones where you’re deeply affected by it and you can’t stop thinking about it for days – and it was that type. It’s about a science teacher in New York - Matthew Broderick, who I’m a big fan of from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off - who’s teaching mature students and quite bored, like he finds marriage mundane. Then he bumps into a nurse. The first half is purposefully quite calm, then the second half becomes quite intense. I needed to go home and watch an episode of Friends afterwards to recuperate.

Artist/designer

There's a new Irish artist called Duda, whose real name is David Uda. My friend owns a few bars in New York and I saw one of his works on the walls. I'm looking at one of his pieces at the moment - he does really cool, street art style stuff. I'm also a big fan of Peter Homan, an Irish artist. He does abstract fire paintings - if you go on his Instagram you can see how he makes his art using blowtorches. I have one of his pieces in my living room called Freedom. It's abstract that I had it upside down until someone asked why I had his signature on the top left corner.

Album

I’m a massive fan of Lewis Capaldi so I’ve been listening to his album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent. His voice is just incredible, in years to come his albums will become classics.

David Nicholls: ‘At 16 I felt repulsive. That’s quite a thing to carry around’

---

Civilisation and its Discontents (1930) by Sigmund Freud, translated by David McLintock

---

Live a Little: This is so good from Howard Jacobson

---

City

I love New York, but Dublin is the best city in the world. My dad was raised in Temple Bar, in those flats by Elephant & Castle, and I could see the Ha’penny Bridge from my grandmother’s flat. So for tourists it’s iconic but for me, it’s a reminder of growing up - when Temple Bar was completely different except for Rory’s Fishing Tackle.

Actor

I’m a huge fan of Taron Egerton who starred in Rocketman and Eddie the Eagle. He’s incredible. I feel like his time is coming now, but I remember seeing him in Kingsman: The Secret Service and noticing how good he was then. He’s so watchable and energetic. And very talented at playing real people.

Podcasts

I listen to podcasts more than I watch television. I listened to An Irishman Abroad with Colm O’Regan loads when I moved to London, I found it really heart-warming because it’s basically about people who left Ireland. The Boy George and Dermot O’Leary ones are really interesting. I’m also a big fan of Deborah Frances-White who does The Guilty Feminist. She just speaks sense; she says something and you’re like ‘oh my god, of course, why did I not think of that’. I recently interviewed her for my radio show and normally I do about 30 to 40-minute interviews, but I was there for two hours. My producer had to tell me to stop talking.

Social media

There’s a great feed on how we measure our self-worth called I Weigh (@i_weigh) on Instagram. It was set up by Jameela Jamil and run by a friend, Megan Ellis. Also, How Not To Travel Like a Basic Bitch (@hownottotravellikeabasicbitch). The name is full-on but it’s about how to be sustainable in your travels - for someone who travels a lot, it’s useful to pick up tips.

TV show

I’m all about Black Mirror at the moment, I’ve just watched the new episode with Andrew Scott in it, and it’s incredible. I’m a huge fan of Charlie Brooker. Again, Black Mirror is one of those things that really affects me, so I have to watch another episode of Friends after to balance me out.

Film

I loved Yesterday. I’m a huge fan of its writer Richard Curtis anyway, and I’m a music fan, so it’s hard to imagine a world that doesn’t know The Beatles. It was my first time seeing Hamish Patel in action, and he and Lily Collins were great.

Laura Whitmore’s Sunday Session is on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds every Sunday from 11am to noon.