This talk introduces themes from the book Culture is bad for you. The book analyses the connection between culture and social inequality, presenting the first large-scale study of social mobility into cultural and creative jobs, hundreds of interviews with cultural workers, and new analysis of secondary datasets to show how who works, and who engages, in culture is deeply unequal. Alongside these themes, the talk addresses the intersection between class, race and gender underpinning exclusions from the workforce and the audience, demonstrating how women, people of colour, and those from working class origins, are systematically excluded.