Public

Learn more about Alpha School at ⁠https://go.alpha.school/howiwrite

We started the conversation by discussing his time at Pixar. I asked Michael, "You worked on movies like Toy Story 3. What is it about Pixar's DNA that has made them so successful for so long?"

We also discussed Little Miss Sunshine, the movie that won him an Oscar in 2007. He has read thousands of screenplays, so he understands what distinguishes a bad screenplay from a good one. As a script doctor and storytelling scientist, he's here to teach us how to write great stories.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been 54 months since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Guardian’s senior international correspondent, Luke Harding, has witnessed the war firsthand. His latest book condemns the US 'betrayal' of Ukraine, and asks probing questions about Donald Trump’s often baffling relationship with Vladimir Putin. 

• Guest: Luke Harding, senior international correspondent for The Guardian, author of 'Betrayal: Trump, Putin and the Age of Conquest'
• Producer: Julie Street

Punk rocker, lead singer of The Undertones, Feargal Sharkey speaks to Kim Hill about reinventing himself. The Irishman has become one of the most vocal advocates for cleaning up Britain's waterways and served as chairman on one of England's oldest angling clubs.

Watch the video version of this episode on the RNZ website on YouTube or TVNZ+.

Season 2 Episode 1

Feargal Sharkey recommends TV mini series Dirty Business, see more about the series and stories from the real whistleblowers and victims from the Channel 4 documentary series on YouTube.

In this episode:
(00:00) From Punk Rocker to Environmental Advocate
(10:14) The Music Industry and Its Challenges
(15:22) The Decline of Chalk Streams
(24:02) The Crisis of Water Privatisation
(36:03) Public Concern and Political Accountability
(41:26) Comparing Scandals: Water Industry and Post Office
(50:14) The Need for Visionary Leadership
(54:10) The Future of United Ireland

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

On Point news analyst Jack Beatty looks into the devotion of white evangelical Americans to Donald Trump and the power of political Christianity.

***

On Point news analyst Jack Beatty looks into the devotion of white evangelical Americans to Donald Trump and the power of political Christianity.

***

What can we really know about the world around us and our place within it? On Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, Adam Rutherford is joined by three guests who explore the values that shape our lives and the things that still matter even when they cannot easily be counted, explained or priced.

The theoretical physicist and internationally acclaimed writer Carlo Rovelli discusses his new book On the Equality of All Things: Physics and Philosophy (translated by Simon Carnell). Drawing on modern physics and philosophical inquiry, he explores the relationships between minds and matter, ideas and objects, and asks us to reconsider how we understand the world and our place within it.

The poet and writer Lavinia Greenlaw has drawn on science in her work. She talks about On Difficulty (and Poetry), her exploration of why difficult experiences, ideas and works of art can be so rewarding. She argues that resistance and complexity are not obstacles to understanding but can open up new ways of seeing and thinking.

And the award-winning playwright James Graham discusses The Standard of Living, his new play about the economist John Maynard Keynes. Set amid economic crisis and social change, it asks what makes a good life and whether art, love and human connection might matter more than wealth and power.

Producer: Katy Hickman

He was one of Ireland’s greatest and most controversial playwrights. Sean O’Casey’s remarkable life began in the slums of Dublin and took him to the biggest stages in the world, including the Abbey Theatre.

His work caused riots in Dublin and caused protests around the world, from Texas to Berlin to London. O’Casey made enemies of the Church and the Censors, forcing him to choose self-imposed exile in England.

Through his plays, O’Casey asked fundamental questions about violence and challenged the founding myths of the new Irish state. They were questions a new Ireland wasn’t ready for.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ian McMillan's poets show how the tiniest poem can help us brave the fiercest elements - from a haiku that's inspired generation after generation - with its careful noticing of the splosh of a frog into a pond, to a thin poem that summons the forces that shape mountains, and which end up shaping our own lives - and the poetry of biblical fire and wind.

Some poets seem to be in tune with the elements - and in this show Ian celebrates the poetry of Wendell Berry, American poet and farmer - who encouraged us to 'come into the peace of wild things' in times of despair.

Ian's guests are:

The poets Robert Crawford and Keith Jarrett, who share poems of fire, air, water and earth.

Professor of Physical Geography Jamie Woodward, who takes us close to a landscape that's inspired life-changing poems, and to poetry that can help us understand the changing landscape.

Poet Kate Fox who brings us a new poem inspired by the screen-avoiding, earth-loving, farmer and poet Wendell Berry - who died in Kentucky last week.

Books:

Produced by Faith Lawrence

Sarah Anderson reads her story “Dark Horse,” from the September 28, 2026, issue of the magazine. Anderson is a graduate of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, where she won two Hopwood Awards. Her début novel, “Fallow,” was published this month.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today is the final episode in our series about the relationship between twentieth-century biography and philosophy. David talks to Nikhil Krishnan about the life and thought of Iris Murdoch, a deeply philosophical novelist and a fully committed philosopher. How was Murdoch influenced by the ideas of Plato? Why did she believe that metaphysics could serve as a guide to morals? What lessons did her novels try to teach about the nature of love and the sovereignty of the good? Was hers a good life?

**Available now: a pair of new educational courses to accompany two of our series – The Great Essays and The Lives of the Philosophers. These courses are free for anyone who wants to use them and offer recall tests, extensive reading guides, discussion topics and essay questions for further reading, writing and study around the subjects of our podcasts. For use in schools, colleges or just in your spare time. To explore these courses simply go to https://ppfideas.com/courses

Out tomorrow on PPF+: ‘Podcast University’, a bonus episode to accompany the launch of our new educational courses in which David lays out the thinking behind them and his own ideas about the relationship between what he used to do as a university teacher and what we do now on PPF. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening – and to help support and keep freely available our educational work – subscribe to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus.

You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including all PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next time the start of a new series – An Ageing World: Increasing Longevity and its Consequences

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices