Bangarra Dance Theatre explore Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu through dance, we meet Performing Hamlet author Jonathan Croall with performer Dickie Beau who channels history's famous Hamlets in his lip-sync show Re-Member Me, soprano Emma Matthews draws on stories of her life in The Space Between, and comedian Joel Kim Booster on growing up gay, Asian and Christian in America's Heartland.

Yumi Stynes, Osman Faruqi, and Brodie Lancaster join Beverley and Ben to battle it out and state their case for the most stand-out TV, music, and internet moments of 2018.

A bumper end of year film special with critics Philippa Hawker and Luke Goodsell. We're looking at stories and trends from the year, as well as some big new Boxing Day and festive season releases. We'll also hear from Australian filmmakers about their cinematic picks of 2018.

Tate curator Carol Jacobi on the rebellious, colourful and fastidious Pre-Raphaelites ahead of the NGA exhibition Love & Desire, Frida Kahlo's love of photography on show at the Bendigo Art Gallery, we get festive in the studio with Brisbane tinsel artist Rachel Burke, and Fiona Gruber gives us her picks on the 2019 art calendar.

Scottish author William Boyd on his latest novel Love is Blind — an homage to Anton Chekhov, the apostrophe wars with Tiger Webb and Louisa Fitzhardinge, bookseller Elias Greig on his funny encounters with customers, and six year old school children chose their favourite reads.

Willy Wonka throws open the doors to his chocolate factory in a new stage musical directed by Jack O'Brien and starring Paul Slade Smith, we meet dance educator Athol Willoughby — winner of the 2018 Australian Dance Award for Lifetime Achievement — and find out how his voice became known to ballet students all over the country, Judith Lucy considers giving up on men, and S. Shakthidharan's massive play about a Sri Lankan family in Australia comes to the Sydney and Adelaide Festivals.

Louisa Collins was hanged in 1888 for murdering her husband...she was tried for killing the other one too. Janet Lee gets inside her head in her debut novel.

How comic artist and historian Trina Robbins made history, Lauren Rosewarne on Christmas horror films, producer Hannah Reich on Hanukkah pop culture, Tumblr has banned adult content after child pornography concerns, and Rookie mag has folded.

On our last TV panel of the year we're talking new releases including Homecoming and The Bisexual, plus favourite shows of 2018. An interview with Singaporean filmmaker Sandi Tan about her Netflix film Shirkers, and a review of Melissa McCarthy's new film, a biographical comedy-drama called Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Art historian Joanna Mendelssohn and CoUNTess report founder Elvis Richardson on the gender imbalance in both the art history canon and contemporary art scene in Australia, producer Hannah Reich takes us to the optical illusions of Escher x nendo at the NGV, Karla Dickens on winning the inaugural $80,000 Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund visual artist fellowship, and Phuong Ngo gives us his Top Shelf ahead of his 10-day performance work at Sydney Festival in January.