Esther Anatolitis with her overview of the National Arts Election Debate, Chips Mackinolty's beautiful meditation on food and food production, Phillip Bacon recalls the artist Jeffrey Smart, and the Lost and Found Opera in Perth, which takes its' performances out of the theatre and into the suburbs.

Patricia Karvelas moderates a three-cornered contest about the arts and cultural policy, with Arts Minister Mitch Fifield, Shadow Arts Minister Mark Dreyfus and Adam Bandt, the Arts spokesperson for The Greens

Zunar is a Malaysian political cartoonist whose work is banned in his own country, Julie Ewington reviews two big art exhibitions in Singapore and London, Nicolette Fraillon is the world's only woman conductor of a ballet company orchestra, and Peggy Frew lists her Top Shelf works of art.

Tyrone and Lesley in a Spot. Bjork Digital . John Birmingham: How to be a Writer. Our Young Man by Edmund White.

After Stella, a history of gender bias in book reviewing. Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan. James Nott: Going to the Palais. Richard Jordan, and the 2016 Tony Awards.

Artists bring together elderly residents and primary school students for a creative story-telling project, writer Hanya Yanagihara shares her Masterpiece work of art, The Australian Ballet's Nicolette Fraillon is the world's only female music director of a ballet company, and La Boite Theatre's radical re-interpretation of Shakespeare's Richard III.

The Shadow Arts Minister the Hon. Mark Dreyfus joins Books and Arts to discusses Labor's arts policy; the latest production from the Australian Theatre for Young People imagines a post-apocalyptic Australia that has been devastated by drought; much-loved Australian children’s author and illustrator, Jeannie Baker has followed a long-legged wading bird to Alaska, China and North Korea for her new book; and Tiger Webb joins us for Expressions of Interest.

At the 2016 Sydney Writer's Festival, Michael Cathcart is in conversation with Jamaican writer Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, which won the 2015 Man Book Prize for fiction.

Take a tour of the exhibition of renowned American artist Cindy Sherman at GOMA in Brisbane, Nigerian American writer Teju Cole on history, writing and photography, Arnold Zable's new memoir of boxer Henry Nissen, and Book to Film reviewers Thomas Caldwell and Alicia Sometimes look at the film Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Julie Ewington reviews some of the big contemporary art exhibitions on in Singapore and London; Dubai gets its own opera company, with Plácido Domingo performing at the grand opening; Aleksandar Hemon discusses The Making of Zombie Wars and contemporary America; and author Jamie Attenberg selects her Masterpiece.