Books And Arts - Full Program Podcast

Post Covid Beverley returns to the warm embrace of Stop Everything and Benjamin Law. This week BL and BW discuss their ambivalence for ‘First Dog’ Toto Albanese’s social media presence, the etiquette of the Swedish dinner discourse and the return of old televisual IP: Borgen, Willow and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Also hear from UK-born, Perth-raised electronic music producer and vocalist Kučka who’s back in Australia for headline shows at the Sydney Opera House. Kučka chats with BW about collaborations, covers and making her mark in the music industry. Show notes: Kučka on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv_PePyKrERL_YMjcYa6ZPQ Kučka’s Vivid show: https://www.vividsydney.com/event/music/kucka-vivid-live Musical artists pushback against making TikToks: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamkucka?lang=en Swedish dinner discourse: https://twitter.com/SamQari/status/1529868644846641153?s=20&t=ZmOyLBSRFdhHXpE8bHQVSA Borgen’s back: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/may/30/borgen-again-the-most-presc

As Obi-Wan Kenobi, the latest incarnation in the Star Wars universe arrives, we meet Deborah Chow, the first female director in the film franchise's history, as well as one of the stars of the series, Moses Ingram. We're also joined this week by Executive Producer Patrick Walters from See-Saw Films who are behind a slate of the best TV right now including Heartstopper and The Essex Serpent, plus, screenwriter Kodie Bedford, who's credits include Mystery Road, Squinters, Troppo and Firebite joins us for a career chat.

Daniel chats with artist brothers Abdul-Rahman and Abdul Abdullah, who are close in life but not so much in their art. However, thorny issues unite them in Land Abounds, their new joint exhibition. Hear how Filipino sculptor Leeroy New builds his large-scale sci-fi installations made from 100% recycled materials. He's in Australia for Melbourne's RISING festival. And how did an 1897 painting by the Wurundjeri clan leader William Barak, end up at a Sotheby's auction house in New York? Last week Wurundjeri people successfully bid for the works.

Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical theatre star — and two-time Disney Princess — Lea Salonga rose to international fame for originating the role of Kim in the stage musical Miss Saigon. She retraces her journey into the spotlight and struggles along the way. Also, voice and dialect coach Leith McPherson explains how she helps actors to find their character's voice and the prolific, 'critic-proof' composer Frank Wildhorn reflects on his long career and best-known work, including Jekyll and Hyde and Bonnie and Clyde.

British Booker winner Julian Barnes's latest novel, Elizabeth Finch, is about a life-changing teacher and he tells the audience at the Sydney Writers Festival that "you become a writer by not being the child of a writer".

This week, Benjamin Law is joined by guest co-host Tahlea Aualiitia to talk about creating and finding joy in safe spaces.   Award winning podcast host and comedian Deborah Frances-White dials in from “The Guilty Feminist” to talk about comedy, activism and peeing outdoors. Ben and Tali discuss the charming and wholesome innocence of Netflix’s Heartstopper and how Stan’s RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Winners is a winner, baby. Meanwhile, the TIME 100: The Most Influential People of 2022 list is out… and somehow Ben hasn’t been included. Show notes: Time 100 list: https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2022/ The Guilty Feminist: https://guiltyfeminist.com/

Writer-director Aaron Wilson on Little Tornadoes, his beautiful portrait of life in small town Australia in 1971, a time when the country was swept up in change. Opera singer Tiriki Onus on his debut film Ablaze, where together with filmmaker Alec Morgan he uncovers a 70-year-old lost film made by the first Aboriginal filmmaker, his grandfather William ‘Bill’ Onus. Plus, Nash Edgerton joins us from Dublin to talk about his latest film, a short about a couple of pranksters which he stars in alongside Rose Byrne called Shark, set to play at St Kilda Film Festival.

The American artist Kiki Smith talks about tapestry and her long career. My Art Crush: painter and printmaker Kirtika Kain makes tactile work about the oppression  and unrecorded history of Dalit people. Step inside the Palais de Tokyo (in Paris), Europe's largest centre for contemporary art, for a tour of the exhibition Reclaim The Earth.

Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera and Cats were all produced by the same man: Cameron Mackintosh. In Australia for the opening of a new production of Mary Poppins, Cameron shares his journey from humble beginnings to producer extraordinaire. Also, Anna O'Byrne shares songs and stories inspired by her work with Julie Andrews and we interrogate the Cinderella story with performers from a new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and Windmill's radical reinterpretation, Rella.

Canadian author, Emily St John Mandel, says the pandemic changed her as a writer. Her latest, Sea of Tranquility, was written during lockdown in New York and while it's a standalone novel, also features links to her previous books, Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel. Also, Goan-Anglo-Indian Australian writer Michelle Cahill's novel, Daisy and Woolf, is a literary homage and post-colonial critique of Virginia Woolf’s classic Mrs Dalloway.

Logie nominated ABC series The Newsreader is a late 20th century period drama about sexual politics, egos and the stories that shaped our consciousness in the mid 1980s. Co-creator and writer Michael Lucas and series writer Kim Ho take us behind the scenes of the series. MasterChef judge and Logie nominee Melissa Leong talks about how life has changed since stepping into one of the most coveted TV foodie jobs. Cantopopstar and pro democracy activist Denise Ho discusses music as a form of  protest. Show notes: Denise Ho arrested: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/denise-ho-arrest-1.6450291 Logie nominations: https://www.pedestrian.tv/entertainment/logie-2022-nominations-list/

We meet two Australian women making waves in film & TV to hear about their personal experiences in the industry....Chloe Rickard - Partner, COO and Executive Producer at Jungle Entertainment who are behind some of our most high-profile shows including No Activity, The Moodys and Wakefield; and Sophie Hyde - director of the feature films Animals, 52 Tuesdays and 2022 Sundance hit Good Luck To You Leo Grande which stars Emma Thompson. Plus, director Renee Webster on How To Please a Woman, a lively female liberation drama with Sally Phillips in the lead (Veep, Bridget Jones), about a woman in her fifties who starts an all-male house house cleaning business.

How often does a political artwork fall into the national spotlight during a federal election? Hear from Archibald portrait prize winner Blak Douglas. Plus, an Italian art exhibition that puts NFT juggernaut Beeple alongside European masters and Australia's Richard Bell. And enter the studio of weaver, printmaker and textile artist Ema Shin.

When Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai theatre-maker Andrea James quit her job as a legal secretary to pursue a career in the arts, it was because she saw the theatre as 'a place where truth gets told.' She is now one of our most celebrated playwrights and directors. Also, we hear a scene from A Letter for Molly, the debut play from Brittanie Shipway at the Ensemble and Dr Ana Flavia Zuim, co-author of a study measuring vocal demands in musical theatre, explains why technique may not be enough to protect our vocal health.

Here Goes Nothing is the last in what Steve Toltz calls his trilogy of fear which began with A Fraction of the Whole. This latest book is narrated by a ghost who discovers there is an afterlife hierarchy and he is at the bottom. Also, Irish writer Audrey Magee on her second novel The Colony which is colonisation in microcosm and Toni Jordan's sixth novel, Dinner with the Schnabels, billed as a family dramedy.

This week Ben and Bev discuss the #WrongAsianing of Labor candidate for Reid, Sally Sitou, why these incidents cut deep and wonder why apologies can be so hard to come by when they happen. We shove Whovians Rhianna Patrick and Ahmed Yussuf into a Tardis for their take on the news that Sex Education’s super charismatic Ncuti Gatwa will be Dr Who’s 14th Time Lord.  After falling into a coma in 2016, Dave has risen. Comedian Zoë Coombs Marr tells us why her alter ego Dave is the man we need for the times we’re living through.   Also: Hacks is back for its second season — does it live up to expectations? Show notes  Dr Fiona Martin and Sally Sitou clash in 2GB on-air debate: https://www.2gb.com/fiery-debate-the-live-on-air-battle-for-reid/ Ncuti Gatwa cast as new Dr Who: https://www.salon.com/2022/05/09/doctor-ncuti-gatwa-education/ Brett Worthington on lies and the death of shame in Australian politics: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-10/election-2022-morrison-deves-trans-albanese-minimum-wage/1

Director Leah Purcell and actor Rob Collins on The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson, Purcell's powerful post-colonial revision of a short story by Henry Lawson, which in her hands becomes a mesmerising outback western presented through a feminist, First Nations lens. Plus, Jonathan Alley tells us how he wove his admiration for cult band The Triffids into the beautiful documentary Love in Bright Landscapes, and Liz Doran, the co-creator and lead writer on a new 1970's set surf series Barons explains why this was a moment in time she was inspired to put on screen.

Greetings from the 22nd La Biennale di Venezia, in Italy! The Venice Biennale is known as the Olympics of the art world, complete with golden awards, stunning achievement and sometimes, disappointment. This year has seen more female artists, Black artists and minority cultures representing national pavilions than even before. Take a tour with Daniel around the storied pavilions and canals of the world’s most prestigious art event, speaking with participants, former Australian representatives and punters.

Geraldine Turner has been a mainstay of the stage since the 1970s, featuring in the Australian premieres of Chicago, A Little Night Music, Into the Woods and more. Now she's written a memoir, Turner's Turn, about her performing life and a very painful personal life. Also, the cast of Bob Dylan musical Girl from the North Country perform for us and we ask Australian Musical Theatre Festival artistic director Tyran Parke and headliner Philip Quast why Launceston is the ideal place for musical theatre tragics to gather.

Booker winner Douglas Stuart's second novel, Young Mungo, is again set in gritty working class Glasgow, but also explores blossoming queer love. And, two debut novels also exploring queer identity with Indyana Schneider's 28 Questions and Omar Sakr's Son of Sin.