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Miranda Sawyer

Miranda Sawyer writes features for the Observer. She is also the paper's radio critic

February 2025

  • Scott Mills in the studio with a celebratory cake and a cuppa

    Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
    The week in audio: The Scott Mills Breakfast Show; Magic Breakfast with Harriet Scott and Gok Wan; Bed of Lies; Extreme: Peak Danger – review

    The BBC host is a touch too eager to please in his new dream job, while Gok Wan is a breakfast show natural on Magic. Plus, a refreshing look at the Troubles, and a grippingly immersive mountaineering story

January 2025

  • Sean Moore, James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire of Manic Street Preachers sitting on a sofa

    Manic Street Preachers: ‘The band feels like something you can go into battle with against the world’

    As they release their 15th album, the Manic Street Preachers are as fired up as ever. They talk about tech bros, stealing hotel shampoo and four decades of combining friendship with being in a band
  • Scottee in a sleeveless T-shirt eyes closed, head up, outside on a sunny day

    Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
    The week in audio: The Telepathy Tapes; Self Help; Thinking Allowed: Playgrounds – review

    A chart-topping podcast about psychic communication makes for a troubling listen. Elsewhere, more excellent mental health musings from Scottee, and in praise of the adventure playground

    • ‘We have Radio 4 voices, but we swear’: pioneering podcasters Answer Me This! on the show’s return

    • Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
      The week in audio: Virtually Parkinson; The Con: Kaitlyn’s Baby; The Pitcairn Trials; Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban – review

    • Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
      The week in audio: Human Intelligence; Sergei & the Westminster Spy Ring; UnReality; The Hole Truth – review

December 2024

  • Keiko, star of Free Willy, at home in the Oregon Coast aquarium.

    Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
    The week in audio: The Good Whale; Fashion Neurosis With Bella Freud; Archive on 4: A Child’s Christmas – review

    The true story of Keiko, the orca star of Free Willy, makes for a moving new Serial tale; the fashionista follows in her grandfather’s footsteps. Plus, writers on child’s-eye-view Christmas wonder
  • Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver sit at a desk together smiling against a turquoise background, they were photographed in London for the Observer New Review in June 2024.

    Radio and podcasts: Miranda Sawyer’s 10 best listens of 2024

    Miquita Oliver and Lily Allen’s intimate chats, Jake Shears’s deep dive into queer music and the ongoing mystery of Lord Lucan were among the standouts
  • Posed portrait of Alex James

    Observer New Review Q&A
    Blur bassist Alex James: ‘I’m so happy for Oasis. Liam is an incredible singer, and he can’t help being a rock star’

    The musician on struggling to fit into his Britpop pants, his ambition to make giant Frazzle, and the football song that keeps him fed

November 2024

  • A young man in a puffer jacket, facing away from the camera, looks out over a rural landscape

    Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
    The week in audio: County Lines; Shane MacGowan – The Old Main Drag; The Rest Is Classified; Short Cuts – review

  • Vivien Goldman in a period close-up black and white photo

    Book of the day
    Rebel Musix, Scribe on a Vibe by Vivien Goldman review – hanging with the punks and the Rastas

  • An out of focus picture of Freddie Scappaticci.

    The week in audio: Cover: Stakeknife; From Bomb to Ballot: The History of Sinn Féin; The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show – review

  • Clara Amfo and Jordan Stephens return with Make Me a Mixtape.

    Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
    The week in audio: Make Me a Mixtape; 16 Sunsets; Cinematic Soundtracks; How to Play – review

  • Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
    The week in audio: Shattered By Hanif Kureishi; The Hidden 20%; Begin Again; The Joe Rogan Experience – review

  • Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
    The week in audio: The Lucan Obsession; Halloween: Trilogy of Terror; Extrasensory – review

October 2024

  • Michael Gove as levelling up secretary, pulling an odd face

    Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
    The week in audio: Surviving Politics With Michael Gove; In the Studio; Up in Smoke; Unfit for Service – review

    The ex-Tory minister talks shop; artist Jonny Banger enthuses about his activism; Mei Mac and Adam Buxton lift a spooky drama; and a harrowing look at the US military’s attitudes to homosexuality
  • Clockwise from top left: Damon Albarn, PJ Harvey, Tricky, Suede’s Brett Anderson on the cover of Select, Liam and Noel Gallagher, Shirley Manson of Garbage, the NME’s Blur v Oasis edition.

    Blur v Oasis was only part of the story: the case for a wider – and wilder – Britpop canon

    The UK musicians who came to prominence in the mid-90s were more diverse and thrilling than is often acknowledged. In her new book, Miranda Sawyer, who was writing for the music press at the time, looks back through 20 songs

    • Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
      The week in audio: Origin Story: Russell Brand – Confidence Man; Lost Notes: Groupies; The Lion, the Witch and the Wonder – review

    • British jazz stars Ezra Collective: ‘We destroy any impostor syndrome with our first tune’

    • Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
      The week in audio: Kill List; Call Her Daddy; Boj & Kate Have a Lot on Their Plate; Johnny Walker – review

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