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Lately I've found favor with the streaming gods and happened upon a few treasures. Here's what's got my attention, in case any of it lands for you too.
The Grand Tourist with Dan Rubinstein. Long, unhurried conversations with makers, architects, chefs, designers. The recent season finale with Tom Sachs is worth your time — he talks about his path from architecture to fine art, his Phaidon retrospective, his Nike collaborations, and drops a line I keep coming back to: "It's all sculpture to me." Side discovery: the podcast's illustrator-in-residence, Zebedee Helm. UK-based cartoonist whose clients include The Financial Times, Hermès, and The Row. His work has this warmth and wit I can't stop looking at. zebedeehelm.com
Civilizations on PBS. Nine episodes tracing art and architecture as they evolve alongside humanity — 37,000-year-old cave paintings in Cantabria to Caravaggio to Hokusai to the Buddhist caves of Ajanta. Simon Schama, Mary Beard, David Olusoga presenting. Liev Schreiber narrating. It is gorgeous and I am obsessed. Streaming free on the PBS app.
Look, Look, Look, Look, Look Again by Kevin Thomas Townley Jr. Found this through the How to Be a Better Human podcast episode "What it means to truly pay attention" — which I also recommend. Townley looks at 26 women artists, from Artemisia Gentileschi to Hilma af Klint to Marilyn Minter, through the lens of Buddhism's five wisdom energies. John Hodgman called him "the Fran Lebowitz of Buddhist writing." It's funny, deeply personal, and it makes you want to go stand in front of a painting for a very long time.
How to Be a Better Human: What it means to truly pay attention →
