Under the Skin with Russell Brand


Under the Skin with Russell Brand is a podcast hosted by comedian, actor, radio host, author, and activist Russell Brand. According to iTunes the podcast "asks: what's beneath the surface - of people we admire, of the ideas that define our time, of the history we are told."

Format

Interviews

In the podcast Russell Brand interviews a variety of guests from "the world of academia, popular culture and the arts." A variety of public figures and academics are interviewed including Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker Naomi Klein, former US Vice-President Al Gore and physicist Brian Cox.

Content

According to iTunes the podcast "asks: what's beneath the surface - of people we admire, of the ideas that define our time, of the history we are told." A review in The Guardian described the contents of the podcast stating that "Many big ideas are covered: the lurch to the right, humans becoming redundant thanks to the rise of digitalised economies and the focus given to the image of the burning twin towers after 9/11."

Critical response

A review in the Financial Times described the podcast as "Refreshingly calm and thoughtful." A review in The Guardian commented on the content of the podcast stating "Although the thoughts exchanged aren’t those that usually make it on to Question Time, they are powerful." A review in the magazine The Skinny was more critical, calling the episode where Brand interviewed the Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle "Just an hour of half-arsed, loosely-connected gibberish."