Conversations: Art & Passions

Nick Cave on how living through addiction, love and unthinkable loss has changed his inner life

The stage and screen actor looks back at his mother's magical influence on his childhood imagination, and his life in character

Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason on what it takes to keep up with her seven children — all of them gifted classical musicians.

Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason is a former English academic and the mother of seven extraordinary children.

All of them are gifted classical musicians.

Her eldest daughter, Isata wrote and performed her first piano concerto at the age of eleven.

Her son Sheku mastered the cello and performed at the royal wedding of Harry and Megan Markle.

Every day the seven Kanneh-Masons, who range from early teens to the mid-twenties, fill the family home with glorious music.

Further information

House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons is published by Oneworld

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Maggie Beer started her working life at the age of 14 in a chenille bedspread factory. Two decades later, in a pheasant farm in the Barossa Valley, she found her dream job

Legendary cook, author food producer and educator Maggie Beer grew up in Lakemba in South-West Sydney, and got her first job when she was 14.

Maggie had to leave school early to go out to work to help support her family after her father's business went bankrupt.

Although she had a varied working life over the next two decades, it wasn't until her mid-thirties that Maggie found her purpose.

She and her husband Colin began a pheasant farm in South Australia's Barossa Valley, then added a farm gate shop and a restaurant.

In the process, Maggie discovered that she loved to cook for people. For the first ten years they struggled to make the restaurant work financially, until a big award catapulted the business to fame.

Eventually the hours and the demands became too much, and Maggie's husband Colin issued an ultimatum - it was him or the restaurant.

Maggie chose her husband, and eventually began her media career writing newspaper columns, and then became a TV star on The Cook and the Chef and Masterchef.

In 2010 Maggie was named the Senior Australian of the Year. More recently she has been campaigning to improve the quality of food in aged care.

Further information

Learn more about the Maggie Beer Foundation

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

He's one of the world's most acclaimed opera stars, but Teddy Tahu Rhodes did everything he could, for a very long time, to avoid his destiny on stage

As a Chinese-Australian girl growing up in the era of the White Australia Policy, artist Lindy Lee always felt that she didn't belong. When she began studying Zen Buddhism, some big shifts began to happen in her life, and her art

Nadia Wheatley with the stories of two women ahead of their time: the writer Charmian Clift and her own mother Nina Watkin.Two decades ago, Nadia published her acclaimed biography of the late Australian writer Charmian Clift.

Charmian is best known for her memoirs Peel Me A Lotus and Mermaid Singing about her family's poverty-stricken but wildly romantic life on the Greek Islands in the early 50s and 60s.

While her husband George Johnston worked on his novel My Brother Jack, Charmian also tried to carve out time to write, while caring for their three children in an old stone house without electricity or running water.

Making up for the practical challenges of life on Hydra was the beauty of the sea, and the endless talking and drinking with other expat artists, including Leonard Cohen and his lover Marianne Ihlen.

After moving back to Australia, Charmian's life ended tragically after a drunken misadventure.

Separating the truth from the mythology which had shrouded Charmian's life and death consumed many years of Nadia's working life.

Then a few years ago she began another big project about a woman ahead of her time; her own mother, WWII Australian Army nurse Nina Watkin.

Further information

Her Mother’s Daughter, A Memoir is published by Text

Learn more about the crowdfunding project for a new documentary about Charmian Clift's life

The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift is published by HarperCollins

Charmian Clift's memoirs of her life in Greece, Peel Me A Lotus and Mermaid Singing are published by HarperCollins

Suzanne Chick's Searching for Charmian is published by Melbourne University Press

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Stories from Dave Grohl about his life in music, including how he went from being "that guy from Nirvana” to a superstar rock star fronting the Foo Fighters

Designer Jenny Kee with the story of her wild and creative life, including how she and Linda Jackson began a movement which changed Australian fashion (CW: discretion required. Drug references, suicide and content that might be upsetting)

When an eruption began in 1994 in Papua New Guinea, the last thing singer-songwriter Ngaiire expected was a second volcano to begin spewing ash. Tuning in to the mystery and majesty of PNG has become a lifelong project (CW: Some listeners may find parts of this conversation upsetting. Please use discretion when listening)

Throughout her childhood, singing was something Ngaiire did at church, somewhat begrudgingly, because her dad told her to.

The singer-songwriter grew up between Palmerston North in New Zealand and her father's home in Rabaul, a volcanic hot spot on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea.

As a child, she and her family survived a double volcanic eruption in 1994, and the chain of events that followed pulled Ngaiire to Wenamo, her mother's ancestral home in the Highlands.

Amongst the mountains, Ngaiire leaned into quiet spirituality and connected with her ancestors, both living and deceased.

Music is a delight and a necessity for Ngaiire, but in the past she tried to separate her Papua New Guinean heritage from her music career in Australia.

That changed in 2017 when she made a pilgrimage to her mother's mountain.

Further information

Some listeners may find parts of this conversation upsetting. Please use discretion when listening.

The following songs have been edited for the podcast:

Shiver

Him 

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.