ABC RN Arts

By ABC Radio

What's ABC RN Arts about?

Each week day RN Arts programs zoom in on a specific area of art and culture, brought to you by a specialist presenter. Subscribe to their podcasts separately by searching by name in your podcasting app.

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ABC RN Arts episodes:

07.12.2022
'It became very woke' — An Asian Australian director embraces 'elder' status
Darren Yap has been a part of some huge moments in Australian performing arts history, from acting in Miss Saigon to being on the directorial team for the Sydney 2000 closing ceremony. Now he's using his talents to bringing new...
07.11.2022
'I guess I'm a weirdo' — Benjamin Myers on crop circles and being a loner
British author Benjamin Myers says he likes to be on the margins as a writer and his latest novel, The Perfect Golden Circle, is about the crop circles that appeared in 1989 in the English countryside and explores the type...
07.08.2022
Highlights: Barkaa, Firebite and All my friends are racist
It’s time to Get up, stand up, show up- the theme for NAIDOC week 2022. Stop Everything presents highlights celebrating the depth of talent from First Nations creatives working in music, television and theatre. BL is joined by BARKAA, a Malyangapa Barkindji...
07.07.2022
NAIDOC Week + two exciting directors from Finland + on the red carpet with Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi
For NAIDOC Week we're joined by Warren H. Williams, co-creator & star of a unique and stunningly shot new crime series, True Colours, NITV's first foray into longform drama, and filmmaker Larissa Behrendt, who talks about Warriors on the Field,...
07.06.2022
Richard Bell at Documenta 15, Sebastian di Mauro, and 1980s New York artist Edward Brezinski finally finds his 15 minutes of fame
Richard Bell is one of the few individual artists curated into Documenta 15, the highly-anticipated global survey of contemporary art. This year, for the first time, it’s been dominated by artists and collectives from the Global South. But the historic takeover...
07.05.2022
'It was time they had a blackfella at the top' — A new era for ADT
Our oldest modern dance company, the Australian Dance Theatre, has been delighting and challenging audiences for nearly 60 years. Now Wiradjuri dancer and choreographer Daniel Riley is at the helm, becoming the first Indigenous man to lead the company. Also,...
07.04.2022
Anita Heiss, Tony Birch and SJ Norman grapple with the past
For NAIDOC Week, three Aboriginal writers who are grappling with the past: Anita Heiss takes the 1852 Gundagai flood as the starting point for her novel Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, Tony Birch explores his family history in Dark as Last Night and SJ...
07.01.2022
Taika Waititi on Thor: Love and Thunder
He’s been at the top of Stop Everything!’s interview wish list for awhile and we got him: Taika Waititi talks to Ben Law about his latest film for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Love and Thunder, the follow up to...
06.30.2022
The cinematographer who shot Baz Luhrmann's Elvis + the Netflix malaise + Claudia O' Doherty
We meet Mandy Walker, the pioneering Australian cinematographer who shot Baz Luhrmann's epic film Elvis. TV writer Wenlei Ma is along with an analysis of where streaming services, particularly Netflix, have gone wrong recently and what they can do to remain relevant in the...
06.29.2022
Daniel Boyd's solo show, Sally Ryan's Holy Family, and reclaiming Arnhem Land's art
A conversation with artist Daniel Boyd whose work has focussed on reframing Eurocentric images from Australia's past. Plus, Sally Ryan discusses her latest commission, a giant oil painting of Jesus, Mary and Joseph for St Mary’s cathedral in Sydney. She...
06.28.2022
90 years of performing arts on your ABC
As the ABC celebrates its 90th birthday, we delve into our archives to revisit key moments in Australian performing arts history, including Laurence Olivier on tour, Nureyev and Fonteyn dancing into Australian hearts and Indigenous theatre taking centre stage. Also, Ian...
06.27.2022
'They're about real things' — Madeline Miller on the popularity of Greek myths
American author Madeline Miller has found a new audience for her prize winning novel Circe on #BookTok and now she has a new offering based on Greek mythology called Galatea. Also, Lauren Chater's real life inspiration for her third historical novel,...
06.24.2022
Beyoncé’s breaking our souls, Tony Armstrong wins a Logie
We’re talking about new releases from superstars Beyoncé and JLo and chatting with silver Logie winner and ABC sweetheart Tony Armstrong and Gruen’s Wil Anderson. Break My Soul is Beyoncé’s first single off her upcoming album Renaissance, Halftime documents JLo’s blazing...
06.23.2022
Baz Luhrmann is back with Elvis + the stars of The Boys + Nude Tuesday
A chat with the inimitable Baz Lurhmann about what he thinks Elvis, his first new film in nearly a decade might add to the legend and mythology of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. We've all heard of...
06.22.2022
Chiharu Shiota's epic threads, Wura Ogunji and a history of light in Art
Have you ever walked through an epic entanglement of red cotton thread, by the artist Chiharu Shiota? The Japanese installation and performance artist takes Daniel through The Soul Trembles, an exhibition highlighting 25 years of her practice. Including the time...
06.21.2022
The Tony-winning creator of Broadway's 'big, black and queer' Best Musical
A Strange Loop has won Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical at the 75th Tony Awards. This funny and challenging metafictional musical is inspired by the experiences of its writer, Michael R. Jackson, who joins us from New...
06.20.2022
'I got obsessed with horses' — Geraldine Brooks on her novel Horse
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brookes says she "didn't grow up as a horse obsessed girl" but rather her interest in horses was a result of a midlife crisis which led her to the history of a famous American thoroughbred that...
06.17.2022
Did Rebel Wilson come out or was she pushed out?
The media debacle around Rebel Wilson’s coming out has implications for journalism, LGBTQIA+ safety and the right to privacy. The story’s travelled far and wide with everyone from Whoopi Goldberg to Magda Szubanski weighing in. Among many questions we’re asking...
06.16.2022
Legendary U.S. documentarian Frederick Wiseman + actor Jack Davenport + a doc about Greek exile music
The great documentarian Frederick Wiseman is being celebrated this month at Sydney Film Festival & ACMI with a retrospective of ten seminal films which chronicle American life and institutions. 92 year old Wiseman is our guest. British actor Jack Davenport...
06.15.2022
Colour is my medium: David Sequeira, colourblind art and the magic of Autochrome
Why artist and curator David Sequeira doesn't believe in just a 'pop of colour'. How a colour-blind artist adapted to colours he couldn't perceive. And how glasses that allow colour-deficient people to see the full spectrum of colours, work. Plus, Daniel...
06.14.2022
Tina Arena on the intimacy and vulnerability of cabaret
Since starting her career on Young Talent Time, Tina Arena has become one of our most successful musical exports, having sold over 10 million records worldwide. She's now flexing new creative muscles as the artistic director of the Adelaide Cabaret...
06.13.2022
Meg Mason's surprise success with Sorrow and Bliss
Meg Mason thought her second novel, Sorrow and Bliss wouldn't be published, it was and is now shortlisted for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction, which will be announced this week. Also Australian writer Ennis Ćehić on his playful collection, Sadvertising,...
06.10.2022
Platty Jubes, Fire Island, Stranger Things 4
Lettuce discuss the rising cost of living, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Fire Island and Stranger Things 4. Ben talks to queer comedy icon Margaret Cho, SNL favourite Bowen Yang and rising comedy star and now glossy magazine cover boy Joel Kim...
06.09.2022
Sydney Film Festival preview + Iranian star Amir Jadidi + British filmmaker Terence Davies
Nashen Moodley, artistic director of Sydney Film Festival is in to talk festival highlights as the event opens this week. He's joined by the curators of Screenability, a section of SFF that shines a spotlight on people with disability, and also the Travelling Film Festival, which showcases this...
06.08.2022
Tattoos, watercolour with eX-de-Medici + Angelica Mesiti at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris
We start the show at the Parade for the Moon in Melbourne's Chinatown, part of the city's RISING festival. Then Daniel speaks with tattoo and visual artist eX-de-Medici about her intense and detailed watercolours that interrogate violent power structures. And step inside...
06.07.2022
At RISING, the arts take the chill off winter
After being cancelled in 2020 and 2021, Melbourne's RISING festival is finally here. It's the first major arts festival the city has hosted since 2019. We venture into the frosty night air to discover how this festival tries to subvert...
06.06.2022
'I wish I’d had more resolution of character' — Booker winner Damon Galgut on privilege and power
Booker-winning writer Damon Galgut wasn’t always aware of his privilege, growing up as a white man in South Africa. Instead, he describes a ‘slow-shifting of consciousness’, that culminated in The Promise, a book he calls ‘my most South African novel'. Also,...
06.03.2022
Kučka, Swedish dinner discourse and emo Obi-Wan
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...
06.02.2022
Obi-Wan Kenobi + the man behind Heartstopper + screenwriter Kodie Bedford
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...
06.01.2022
Abdullah brothers, Leeroy New and the return of a William Barak painting
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...
05.31.2022
Lea Salonga — a trailblazing star of the stage
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...
05.30.2022
Lessons in life, mortality and love from Julian Barnes
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".
05.27.2022
Influencers, guilty feminists and a whole lot of queer joy!
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,...
05.26.2022
Little Tornadoes + Ablaze + a new short film by Nash Edgerton
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...
05.25.2022
Kiki Smith, Kirtika Kain and Reclaim the Earth at the Palais de Tokyo
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...
05.24.2022
Mr Producer — How Cameron Mackintosh rebuilt an industry
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...
05.23.2022
Moon colonies and the 'Mandelverse' with Emily St John Mandel
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...
05.20.2022
Highlights: Denise Ho, Melissa Leong and The Newsreader
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...
05.19.2022
Director Sophie Hyde & Producer Chloe Rickard talk females in film + How To Please a Woman
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...
05.18.2022
Blak Douglas wins the Archibald, NFT artist Beeple and embroidered organs that get personal
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...
05.17.2022
Truth-telling in the theatre — Why Andrea James ditched law for the arts
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...
05.16.2022
Family troubles with Steve Toltz, Audrey Magee and Toni Jordan
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...
05.13.2022
#WrongAsian, Hacks and a new Dr Who
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...
05.12.2022
Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife + a doc about cult band The Triffids + Barons
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...
05.11.2022
The Venice Biennale: electric sounds, new voices and open borders
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...
05.10.2022
Theatre icon Geraldine Turner reveals her off-stage struggles
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...
05.09.2022
Queer stories with Douglas Stuart, Indyana Schneider and Omar Sakr
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.
05.06.2022
Curry discourse and the Met Gala
This week it’s all about curry, capes and … sex clubs. The PM’s social media obsession with posting his curries hit new highs of engagement when the internet noticed the chicken in his questionably-garnished korma was also questionably cooked. Is the...
05.05.2022
Hugh Bonneville on playing Roald Dahl + Cannes winner To Chiara
British actor Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey, Paddington) talks about playing the writer Roald Dahl in the new film To Olivia, set in the late 1950s, early 1960s, a period when he was married to American actor Patricia Neale and the couple lost their young...
05.04.2022
Public art, toppled monuments and the statue in the crate
What do artists think about when making huge public art? Lindy Lee is making the most expensive work commissioned by the NGA, and Judy Watson's bara will grace Sydney's harbour with a giant Gadigal fish hook. Then, the US art lab...

What's ABC RN Arts about?

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ABC RN Arts episodes:

'It became very woke' — An Asian Australian director embraces 'elder' status

'I guess I'm a weirdo' — Benjamin Myers on crop circles and being a loner

Highlights: Barkaa, Firebite and All my friends are racist

NAIDOC Week + two exciting directors from Finland + on the red carpet with Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi

Richard Bell at Documenta 15, Sebastian di Mauro, and 1980s New York artist Edward Brezinski finally finds his 15 minutes of fame

'It was time they had a blackfella at the top' — A new era for ADT

Anita Heiss, Tony Birch and SJ Norman grapple with the past

Taika Waititi on Thor: Love and Thunder

The cinematographer who shot Baz Luhrmann's Elvis + the Netflix malaise + Claudia O' Doherty

Daniel Boyd's solo show, Sally Ryan's Holy Family, and reclaiming Arnhem Land's art

90 years of performing arts on your ABC

'They're about real things' — Madeline Miller on the popularity of Greek myths

Beyoncé’s breaking our souls, Tony Armstrong wins a Logie

Baz Luhrmann is back with Elvis + the stars of The Boys + Nude Tuesday

Chiharu Shiota's epic threads, Wura Ogunji and a history of light in Art

The Tony-winning creator of Broadway's 'big, black and queer' Best Musical

'I got obsessed with horses' — Geraldine Brooks on her novel Horse

Did Rebel Wilson come out or was she pushed out?

Legendary U.S. documentarian Frederick Wiseman + actor Jack Davenport + a doc about Greek exile music

Colour is my medium: David Sequeira, colourblind art and the magic of Autochrome

Tina Arena on the intimacy and vulnerability of cabaret

Meg Mason's surprise success with Sorrow and Bliss

Platty Jubes, Fire Island, Stranger Things 4

Sydney Film Festival preview + Iranian star Amir Jadidi + British filmmaker Terence Davies

Tattoos, watercolour with eX-de-Medici + Angelica Mesiti at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris

At RISING, the arts take the chill off winter

'I wish I’d had more resolution of character' — Booker winner Damon Galgut on privilege and power

Kučka, Swedish dinner discourse and emo Obi-Wan

Obi-Wan Kenobi + the man behind Heartstopper + screenwriter Kodie Bedford

Abdullah brothers, Leeroy New and the return of a William Barak painting

Lea Salonga — a trailblazing star of the stage

Lessons in life, mortality and love from Julian Barnes

Influencers, guilty feminists and a whole lot of queer joy!

Little Tornadoes + Ablaze + a new short film by Nash Edgerton

Kiki Smith, Kirtika Kain and Reclaim the Earth at the Palais de Tokyo

Mr Producer — How Cameron Mackintosh rebuilt an industry

Moon colonies and the 'Mandelverse' with Emily St John Mandel

Highlights: Denise Ho, Melissa Leong and The Newsreader

Director Sophie Hyde & Producer Chloe Rickard talk females in film + How To Please a Woman

Blak Douglas wins the Archibald, NFT artist Beeple and embroidered organs that get personal

Truth-telling in the theatre — Why Andrea James ditched law for the arts

Family troubles with Steve Toltz, Audrey Magee and Toni Jordan

#WrongAsian, Hacks and a new Dr Who

Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife + a doc about cult band The Triffids + Barons

The Venice Biennale: electric sounds, new voices and open borders

Theatre icon Geraldine Turner reveals her off-stage struggles

Queer stories with Douglas Stuart, Indyana Schneider and Omar Sakr

Curry discourse and the Met Gala

Hugh Bonneville on playing Roald Dahl + Cannes winner To Chiara

Public art, toppled monuments and the statue in the crate