Talk Fuse

    Culture

    Culture covers the stories that shape how we express ourselves and connect with one another. From film festivals and entertainment to social movements and artistic endeavour, these stories reflect the values, conversations and creativity that define our communities. Whether it's a new film project breaking ground, a performer taking their work to new audiences, or society grappling with important questions about identity and behaviour, culture encompasses the ways we live and the narratives we tell.

    This topic matters because culture is often where change begins. The entertainment industry responds to shifting tastes whilst simultaneously influencing them. Artists and creators challenge conventions, spark conversations, and hold up mirrors to society. Social and cultural movements highlight the issues that resonate with people's lives and futures.

    Culture also reflects broader trends in how we consume and engage with content and ideas. From streaming platforms to live performance, from traditional institutions to emerging voices online, the stories documented here chronicle the evolving landscape of how we entertain, educate and challenge ourselves.

    • Tougher crops and beaver dams: how UK farmers are tackling drought

      UK farmers are adopting a range of measures to cope with hotter, drier summers, including drought-tolerant crops, healthier soils, ponds, rainwater storage and restoring wetland areas. The changes matter because repeated heatwaves and low rainfall are damaging crops, straining livestock water supplies and increasing reliance on imported vegetables. This summer’s conditions have produced the earliest…

    • The Beverly Hills Housewife by James Cahill review – a trip inside Hockney’s world

      James Cahill’s book uses David Hockney’s 1966–67 portrait Beverly Hills Housewife to explore the artist, his collector and friend Betty Freeman, and the cultural allure of Los Angeles. The review finds it an elegant blend of anecdote and art history, showing how a seemingly polished image of mid-century wealth can suggest loneliness, performance and complicated…

    • The forgotten 2013 role Mark Wahlberg says had “a combination of the best parts”

      It’s one of his most underrated performances. The post The forgotten 2013 role Mark Wahlberg says had “a combination of the best parts” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

    • TV tonight: Lydia West’s offbeat college campus murder mystery

      Tonight’s television highlights include Lydia West’s campus murder comedy-drama He Had It Coming, alongside concerts, comedy, crime drama and films. – He Had It Coming, 11.15pm, BBC Three: West plays feminist art student Elise, who and an influencer friend become entangled in a campus murder after vandalising a statue. – Beethoven’s Seventh at the Proms,…

    • How Maresca’s Man City are shaping up compared with Guardiola side

      Enzo Maresca’s early Manchester City side appears to retain many of Pep Guardiola’s core ideas, including possession, positional play and protection against counter-attacks. However, the article argues that Maresca is developing a more distinct structure, particularly through a rigid 3-2-2-3 shape in possession and greater emphasis on wide attackers. City had 64% possession in Maresca’s…

    • Builders, bakers and cheeseburger-makers: the UK workers struggling in extreme heat

      Workers in jobs without air conditioning, including chefs, builders and bakers, say extreme heat is making their workplaces increasingly unsafe. As London temperatures exceeded 35C, they described improvised measures to cope, while unions renewed calls for a legal maximum working temperature in England. Kitchen staff are adapting menus and using fans or ice to cool…

    • Air India orders drug tests as Treasury exemption draws fire

      Air India ordered a one-off screening programme for more than 5,000 pilots across Air India and Air India Express after the captain of flight AI2379, from Phuket to Delhi, returned a positive confirmatory test for marijuana, according to reporting citing people familiar with the matter. The Airbus A320 lost about 300 feet of altitude on…

    • Phoebe Bridgers surprises fans at Lost Weekend skating preview

      Phoebe Bridgers surprised fans by joining a YouTube-sponsored roller-skating listening party for her forthcoming third solo album, ‘Lost Weekend’, at Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, California. She skated with attendees before answering questions about the record, marking a rare public discussion of an album that has otherwise received little comment from her. The event gave fans…

    • Listen to Alex G’s New Song With The Blue Nile’s Paul Buchanan

      Alex G has released “Pain is the Heart of Love”, a new collaboration with The Blue Nile’s Paul Buchanan and the first preview of his soundtrack for Jane Schoenbrun’s forthcoming film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. The release is notable as it reunites Alex G with Schoenbrun for a third film and marks…

    • Becky G’s Eclectic New Album ‘Baraja Bendita’ Is Here: Stream It Now

      Becky G has released her fifth studio album, Baraja Bendita, through RCA Records. The 17-track record presents her mixed Mexican-American identity as a strength, moving beyond expectations that she should fit one language, genre or version of herself. The album includes earlier singles “EPA”, “Marathon” and “Patrona”, but contains no featured artists and was written…