On this month’s episode of Strange Currencies, we run through our top fives of ’25—albums, films and books—alongside reflections on Connor’s debut cricket season. We also take a moment to remember Andy Rourke of The Smiths, climb aboard the Geese bandwagon, and debate the enduring appeal of Deftones. Recorded at Narrm Ngarrgu Library on 19 January 2026, on the unceded lands and waterways of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong / Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation.

In this episode of Strange Currencies, we dive into the unsettling worlds of J.G. Ballard to explore how the cinematic adaptations of Crash (Cronenberg, 1996) and High-Rise (Ben Wheatley, 2015) translate his vision of technology and greed peeling back the civilised veneer and dragging us toward our more primal selves. From a partial defence of men reading on trains to tangents through American Psycho, late-stage capitalism, and the proud tradition of intentionally “difficult” art, we roam widely before landing on something all too real: Melbourne University’s increasingly dystopian surveillance of students protesting its ties to arms manufacturers.

In this month’s episode—our second recorded at the new narrm ngarrgu Library—we explore two poems: Neika Lehman’s Dog House, winner of the 2024 Judith Wright Poetry Prize, and Pablo Neruda’s Tonight I Can Write (1924). Written a century and worlds apart, both reflect the truth that “Love is so short, forgetting is so long.” Recorded on the unceded lands of the Wurrundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.

After a long break, Connor and Rob return with a wide-ranging chat: Connor’s unexpected dive into cricket, recent overseas travels, and a hefty Napoleon biography by David G. Chandler. The pair take on the ugly face of fascism close to home and abroad, before Rob relives the excruciating experience of sitting through graphic sex scenes in Ethan Coen’s Honey Don’t—with his eldest daughter beside him. Connor shares his MIFF highlights, the two clash over The Doors, Zappa, and Springsteen, and lament the shrinking space for film criticism. There’s also a birthday to celebrate (Connor's), and one burning question to answer: is Rob a deadbeat dad for spending Father’s Day recording a podcast?

On our final episode broadcast from 3WBC we have a relaxed chat about music, life and a couple of short stories: Entropy by Thomas Pynchon and Drive My Car by Haruki Murakami. Little did we know it would be our last episode before a lengthy hiatus!

In this week's episode, we interview Jordan Prosser, a writer, filmmaker and performer based in Naarm. In 2022, he won the Peter Carey Short Story Award for Eleuterio Cabrera’s Beautiful Game, accessible on the Meanjin website, which is how we came to read and discuss it on Strange Currencies just a few months ago. His debut novel, Big Time, was released in July of last year, and is described as “a rollicking ride told by a master storyteller” in The Age. In Connor's view, the plot of the book could be summarised as Lester Bangs being handed a small vial of psychoactive drugs and parachuted into the setting of Brave New World or Slaughterhouse Five!

In this episode, we interview Andrea Pavleka about her award-winning short story The Golden Hour, which won the 2024 Peter Carey Short Story Award and was published in Meanjin, as well as her fascinating journey from a 30-year career as a Commonwealth prosecutor to studying writing, history, and archaeology—and even digging for dinosaurs.

This week’s episode is the second of a two-part special covering Strange Currencies’ top five movies, tv shows and novels for 2024. 

This week’s episode is the first of a two-part special covering Strange Currencies’ top five movies, tv shows and novels for 2024. 

In this week’s episode we chat about a couple of stories that appeared in Meanjin and were both winners of the Peter Carey Short Story Award: Andrea Pavleka’s ‘The Golden Hour’ and Jordan Prosser’s 'Eleuterio Cabrera's Beautiful Game'.