Pulitzer prize-winning Australian art critic Sebastian Smee on finding new ways to work as a critic during the pandemic, being an ally and how he came to art.

Yaron Lifschitz turned an edgy punk circus in Brisbane into the hugely successful performing arts company Circa. He tells Michael how he went from studying history to directing precision acrobats.

Plus, Mararo Wangai and Chris Isaacs turn life stories into moving monologues for Black Swan State Theatre Company and Julie Curtis talks about Russian theatre under Vladmir Putin.

David Mitchell celebrates the power of music in Utopia Avenue, Jane Austen inspired fiction and Tara June Winch, winner of the 2020 Miles Franklin Award.

Listener notes:

Jaguar Jonze calls out various cases of harassment and abuse from within the music industry

Music photographer admits 'I'm an abuser' after #MeToo posts

Who’s Afraid of Ziwe Fumudoh? For guests who dare to appear on the comedian’s Instagram Live show, the question is not if you are racist, but how.

We meet writer Meg O'Connell and actor Pallavi Sharda, some of the creatives behind lockdown series Retrograde, a review of Judd Apatow's The King of Staten Island, and a new history of the movies from an environmental perspective.

In his latest book, A Month in Siena, Hisham Matar travels to Tuscany to look at the city's ancient paintings. In the process, he finds himself grieving for his father who disappeared 30 years prior.

What makes a leader, a super star? Director Saheem Ali has turned Shakespeare's Richard II, a tale of political intrigue and enmity, into a radio serial for our times; and nearing age 90, conductor Richard Bonynge reflects on the exquisite vocal style that made his wife Dame Joan Sutherland, La Stupenda, a legend.

Plus, The Telephone: a bright dose of opera for a Zoom-weary audience.

Emily St John Mandel on The Glass Hotel and pandemics in fiction, a preview of the Miles Franklin shortlist and Ronnie Scott on his debut The Adversary.

BW + BL sit down for some breakfast TV and consider the resurgence of open letters, filmmaker Karla Hart and Rule family matriarch Daniella Borg drop in to talk Family Rules season three, and we mourn Poh.

An Australian theme runs through the show as Jason meets directors Tony McNamara (The Favourite, The Great) and Natalie Erika James (Relic), plus Icelandic filmmaker Hlynur Pálmason talks about his unexpected take on Nordic noir.