Culture File

Fairy tales, they're not just for kids you know, suggests Tadhg O'Sullivan in his latest Cloud of Unknowing.

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A taste of our forthcoming Culture File Debate: Wìngéd Muses, for which we asked some of our favourite writers—Orit Gat, Sara Baume, The Naturalist, Paddy Woodworth and John Banville—to speak to us about a bird they cherish. Here, John Banville puts in a good word for the Swift. Full program Dec 28th, 6.30pm, RTÉ lyric fm.

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How do artists capture the limitless beauty and complexity of the natural world? Paddy Woodworth chairs a panel of image-makers, featuring Jane Carkill, Melissa Culhane, Killian Mullarney and Yanny Petters, recorded live at the National Botanic Gardens as part of Dublin Book Festival 24.

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Artist and perception wrangler, Renata Pekowska, on a few of her favourite things, which include a book about religious relics and the smell of tomato vines.

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As a taster for this week's Culture File Debate: Seeing Natures, Paddy Woodworth asks his panel of nature image-makers - Jane Carkill, Melissa Culhane, Killian Mullarney and Yanny Petters - about the effects of the climate emergency on their work and their lives.

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Conversations, impressions and quick sketches from this year's Galway Cartoon Festival, in cartoonist Caoimhe Lavelle's festival notebook.

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VR visionary, Curtis Hickman, on how even good old-fashioned legerdemain can teach a creator about working with the "hyper-reality" of VR storytelling.

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Paddy Woodworth's latest selection for his ideal shelf of nature books is The Signature Of All Things by 'Eat, Pray, Love' author, Elizabeth Gilbert.

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Neuroscientist and cyberdelic evangelist, Till Holzapfel, on some of his favourite things, including Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Magic Mountain and the smell behind his dogs ears.

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Conductor and researcher, Peter Whelan on what we're still learning about Handel in Dublin; Orit Gat attempts to see Monet in London through the fog, and artist, Rada Iva Sibila on working with pain.

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