Big Lives

Lauryn Hill is a generational voice, a cultural lightning rod, and one of music’s biggest what-ifs. This time, we're joined by NPR’s Code Switch host B.A. Parker to unpack the meteoric rise of the Fugees...

David and Victoria Beckham weren't always the untouchable power couple we know today. In 1998, David was public enemy number one after a red card cost England the World Cup. So how did the Beckhams go from national...

Sharing Malcolm Gladwell’s latest project, featuring our very own Kai Wright: a podcast called Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise.  Imagine a time when the United States was split in two. And then had to...

Sinéad O’Connor had one of the most unforgettable voices in music history and one of the most misunderstood lives. Kai and Emmanuel go beyond the "angry pop star" label and headlines to tell the real story...

This Juneteenth, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s seismic rulings on voting rights, Emmanuel and Kai talk about the legacy of one man: Jesse Jackson. We trace his journey from teenage activist to Martin Luther...

Before the fame, there was incarceration. George Takei has lived an  extraordinary life: from a childhood in Japanese American internment camps to a groundbreaking role on Star Trek , to a decades-long struggle...

Pop princess, gay icon, global enigma. We unpack how Kyle Minogue, soap star with “manufactured” hits, became the ultimate symbol of joy for generations of fans. For Pride Month, celebrate the singer...

<p>Ziggy Stardust didn’t just land - he detonated. We rewind to David Bowie’s 1972 Top of the Pops breakthrough and unpack the paradox at its core: a “meaningless” persona that transformed culture. Was Ziggy a...

<p>What happened to the golden age of Rom-Coms? Emmanuel and Kai tell the story of the Rom-Com boom via the career of its biggest star, Meg Ryan. From When Harry Met Sally, to one of the more infamous talk show...

<p>He screamed, shimmered and rewrote popular music and then disappeared from the throne he built. This episode reveals Little Richard’s unstoppable rise, painful erasure, and lifelong battle between the divine and the...

<p>What happens when a black icon refuses to make white audiences comfortable? This episode traces Muhammad Ali’s BBC interviews—full of swagger and wit, fury and fallout—to reveal how he reshaped media, protest and...

<p>Born into a spotlight she never asked for, Liza Minnelli didn’t only survive her inheritance—she made it into her own art. Using BBC archive, iconic performances, and her complicated bond with her mother Judy...

<p>Sir David Attenborough turns 100 this year—and no one has done more to shape how humanity sees our planet. But for years, there was one issue he didn’t talk about. Emmanuel & Kai chart the story of how one nerdy...

<p>LL Cool J didn’t conquer hip‑hop by being the toughest or the slickest, he did it by being unabashedly himself. Kai & Emmanuel break down the charisma, contradictions, and carefully crafted showmanship that turned a...

<p>Amy Winehouse rewrote the rules of modern songwriting by refusing to fake a single feeling. In this episode, Kai and Emmanuel explore the BBC archive and find how a teenage jazz obsessive became a generational...