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Deep in the crate-crawling world of Conor Guilfoyle on mission is to save the lost recordings of the Irish jazz scene. The music of gum-chewing, with composer Andy Igamels, whose new album includes a measure of that mundane mastication; plus, a moment of pause as Patrick O'Laoghaire sails by with the latest of his island postcards. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Deep in the crate-crawling world of Conor Guilfoyle on mission is to save the lost recordings of the Irish jazz scene. The music of gum-chewing, with composer Andy Igamels, whose new album includes a measure of that mundane mastication; plus, a moment of pause as Patrick O'Laoghaire sails by with the latest of his island postcards. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Culture File Presents The Comfort Zone: artist and performer Day Magee comes to unpack the enduring value of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, the 1942 epistolary satire of memos from a senior devil to his nephew, still green in the ways of evil. Inspo for a conversation that seeks to answer questions such as what is eternity? Is modern culture rubbish? How will heaven sort out the issue of remarried widows and widowers? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Culture File Presents The Comfort Zone: artist and performer Day Magee comes to unpack the enduring value of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, the 1942 epistolary satire of memos from a senior devil to his nephew, still green in the ways of evil. Inspo for a conversation that seeks to answer questions such as what is eternity? Is modern culture rubbish? How will heaven sort out the issue of remarried widows and widowers? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The full interview with Meghan O'Gieblyn from this week's Culture File.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"We have to try to cure our faults by attention and not by will,” a thought from French mystic Simone Weil, inspires Meghan O’Gieblyn's new book, Will and Attention, a probing philosophical examination of addiction, recovery, beauty and grace. As the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir heads to Ireland for the NCH's ECM 2026 festival, their conductor and Estonian musical mainstay, Tõnu Kaljuste talks language, Arvo Pärt and the musicking of their homeland. Paddy Woodworth finds some space on The Naturalist's Bookshelf for Juilian Hoffeman's Irreplaceable. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Comfort Zone: dancer and choreographer, Favour "Official PAK" Odusola brings the choreographic art of Les Twins for appreciation, and also creates a Comfort Zone Choreo (seated) for celebrated non-dancer Colm Tóibín. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An epic trilogy of documentaries dedicated to a cinematic biography of Argentine writer, Jorge Luis Borges, premiered at this year's Venice Film Festival. Its director, Mariano Llinás and its main character, archivist and translator, Ernesto Montequin unfurl their completist life of Borges. An award winner at this year's Ars Electronica festival was SummitShare, a project from Zambia which uses AR and deep metadata to address the crisis in museums around contested cultural objects. One of the project's creators, Samba Yonga explains the problems around repatriation SummitShare promises to right. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Musician, conceptual artist and regular Eno collaborator, Beatie Wolfe encourages The Comfort Zone crew to contemplate the not-quite-natural silence of an anechoic chamber. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Culture File's summer reading club concludes with Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, Jorge Luis Borges' story of a possibly lost, possibly never-existing civilisation, hunted down by a literary flatfoot called Borges and his BFF, Adolfo Bioy Casares. Writer and critic Orit Gat helps Luke Clancy and Colm Tóibín assess the damage to the fabric of reality, while Ariel Hernandez (guitar) and Dermot Dunne (accordion) play some live milongas. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Culture File's summer reading club continues with Funes, His Memory, Jorge Luis Borges' tale of a man benefiting and suffering from total recall. Colm Tóibín and Luke Clancy are joined by Joseph Rizzo Naudi, a blind writer and researcher who works on making art and exhibitions engaging through the creative use of blindness. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Culture File's August reading club featuring the Fictions of Argentine writer, Jorge Luis Borges. Colm Tóibín and Luke Clancy are joined by poet and novelist, Susannah Dickey, for Culture File's latest voyage into Borges' short stories. This time, they find themselves on a mysterious island dreaming new life into being, while wondering is art even worth making. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Culture File's August reading club featuring the Fictions of Argentine writer, Jorge Luis Borges. Colm Tóibín and Luke Clancy are joined by poet and novelist, Susannah Dickey, for Culture File's latest voyage into Borges' short stories. This time, they find themselves on a mysterious island dreaming new life into being, while wondering is art even worth making. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Art as history, and history as art in the research-driven, karaoke-spiced work of artist duo Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty, showcased in a provocative new exhibition, A Disentailing Deed, at Project in Dublin. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Culture File's August reading club featuring the Fictions of Argentine writer, Jorge Luis Borges. Luke and Colm welcome a special guest to discuss one story from Borges's collection Fictions. This time, we're on the trail of Pierre Menard, an improbable literary figure who has re-written Don Quixote from scratch. Poet, Ella Frears, and composer and improviser, Olesya Zdorovetska, join the search posse. Presenters: Colm Tóibín and Luke Clancy Associate Producer: Niamh Daly Producer: Luke Clancy See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.