The Last Mixed Tape

Macklemore walked onto the stage at MetLife Stadium and said two words: Free Palestine.
What followed became much bigger than a moment between songs.
Macklemore was removed from the remaining US dates of Ed Sheeran’s tour. The promoter said venues had objected to his continued involvement. Sheeran said the decision was not his, and that he had tried to find a way through the dispute.
Then the other artists started walking. Finneas. Lukas Graham. Aaron Rowe. Beoga.
Suddenly, this wasn’t simply a story about one rapper making a political statement. It became a story about power, money, free expression and the machinery behind the modern stadium tour.
In this episode of The Last Mixed Tape, I ask the uncomfortable question: Is Ed Sheeran a coward?
Sheeran describes himself as apolitical. He says his concerts should be places of safety, sanctuary and escape from politics. But what happens when politics enters the room anyway? What happens when the biggest artist on the stage has the power to challenge the machinery around him and chooses not to?
Macklemore has since pledged his $1 million in tour earnings to organisations supporting Palestinians. Robert Kraft has said Sheeran asked him to commit $2 million towards humanitarian relief.
And while the music industry argues over who was right and who was wrong, we cannot lose sight of the people at the centre of this story.
Palestinians living through the consequences of this war.
This is The Last Mixed Tape.
Free Palestine.

With Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger arriving in cinemas, Stephen looks at Liam and Noel Gallagher, the sixteen-year feud that kept them apart, and what their reunion might tell us about masculinity, friendship, pride and forgiveness.
Oasis embodied a particular kind of masculinity in the 1990s. Swagger, aggression, emotional armour and the refusal to back down. But beneath all of that, their music gave a generation of young men permission to feel something they didn’t always have the language for.
Now Liam and Noel are approaching 60. They’ve spent years fighting, refusing to speak and trying to prove they didn’t need each other. Yet when Oasis finally returned to the stage, reconciliation didn’t arrive through some grand emotional conversation.
This is an episode about Oasis, masculinity and what happens when the things we once needed to prove stop mattering.
The Last Mixed Tape is a music and culture podcast exploring the stories, ideas and contradictions hiding underneath the songs we love.

Stella Lefty is having a moment. But what happens when the people making music don’t all start from the same place?
Stella Lefty’s rise to fame with Boston has become a lightning rod for arguments about nepotism, authenticity and the modern music industry. Her billionaire father has made her an obvious target for the “nepo baby” label, while controversy surrounding Boston and its similarity to Noah Kahan’s Stick Season has only added fuel to the conversation.
But the real question is bigger than Stella.
What does it actually mean to earn success when we don’t all begin with the same opportunities?
In this episode of The Last Mixed Tape, we look at the class ceiling in music, the inherited advantages that come with wealth, and why “starting from zero” is often a myth. We also look at the gendered suspicion surrounding accusations of “nepo baby” and “industry plant”, and why successful young women can find themselves treated as fraudulent simply for becoming successful.
Music has a nepo baby problem. But it’s because society has a class problem.

Dolly Parton didn’t just become a country music legend she changed what a woman could be in music. From Locust Ridge to Nashville, Jolene to I Will Always Love You, CMAT to Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter, this is the story of how Dolly built a legacy that reaches far beyond country music.
She didn’t make the next woman into Dolly, she made it easier for her to be herself.

Fontaines D.C. have spent five albums trying to find somewhere else to go. From Dublin, to Ireland, to romance, fantasy and now something much harder to define, escape has been one of the central tensions running through their music.

With “Marianne”, their first new music since 2024's Romance, Fontaines D.C. offer our first glimpse into their forthcoming fifth album, Dopamine Chamber.

In this episode, Stephen explores what “Marianne” tells us about Fontaines' evolving sound and their fascination with escapism, while examining the song's Ripley-inspired music video and the controversy surrounding its original AI Artist credits.

Dopamine Chamber is released October 16th, 2026 via XL Recordings.