Arifa Akbar is chief theatre critic of The Guardian and author of a memoir, Consumed, which has just been shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award. Arifa has been arts correspondent and literary editor of The Independent. She has written for newspapers and magazines ranging from The Observer to the FT and is a trustee of the Orwell Foundation and English PEN. In this podcast, she talks about the role of instinct in our careers, the power of the deadline and her journey from childhood poverty to one of the most powerful roles in arts journalism.

Listen to the podcast here.