Hello, this is Everything Else, the FTs Culture Podcast.

I'm Gris.

And I'm Al.

This week we'll be discussing political theatre.

And later on, we'll be talking to a woman who rode across the Pacific in an all-women boat.

And in other exciting news, we have a new Facebook page.

Come and chat to us at facebook.com slash everything else podcast.

So Al, how are you doing?

What have you been up to?

I've been covering the Michigan Star Awards as a real news journalist

for the first time in my whole life. And what did that involve? It involved me getting a terrifying

email from the UK news editor telling me to go and cover this grand event in the brewery in London

and telling me to write a news story so off I went to be

confronted by dozens and dozens of chefs or not winning. Not that surprising at the Michelin Star Awards.

No, no, you would hope that at any decent Michelin Star Awards, there might be a chef and indeed

there were.

It's a strange event because it's very corporate to begin with.

It's all about Michelin tyres, which is fine if you like tyres.

But then after that, they start presenting awards to chefs.

And the ones who haven't won a star before, but are going to win one today, are

kept in a dark room.

So they know they're going to win?

...