Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

In March, Time Out magazine released its list of the The 100 greatest cinemas in the world right now, and 6 Australian cinemas made the cut.

Sun Pictures in Broome, The Regal Theatre in Adelaide, Melbourne’s Sun and Astor Theatres, and Sydney’s Golden Age Cinema and Bar all made the list, but the highest ranking Australian cinema is the art deco Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace in Sydney, coming in at number 30.

The General Manager of the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, Alex Temesvari joins the program to share what makes the Orpheum so special, and what it's like running an independent cinema in the age of streaming.

Guest: Alex Temesvari, General Manager of the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace in Cremorne, Sydney. 

Hungarians will go to the polls on April 12 in what is shaping up to be a historic election.

Incumbent president, Viktor Orbán, Europe’s most right wing populist, and an ally of US president Donald Trump, is being challenged by Peter Magyar, a young centre-right candidate who originally hailed from Orbán’s Fidesz party.

Held every Easter long weekend at Exhibition Park in Canberra, the National Folk Festival is still going strong for it's 60th year running. To mark the anniversary, festival co-artistic director Holly Downes joins the show to speak about the history of the festival, and the strengths of folk culture today. 

Featuring the song Waterfall Way by The Double Dole Stringband.  

Guest: Holly Downes, one of the artistic directors of the National Folk Festival.

For more than 700 years, the upper house of British parliament, House of Lords, was largely made up of hereditary peers. Seats in the House of Lords were passed down through generations of Lords and Viscounts along with their titles.

But that all changed last month, when the last of the hereditary peers were removed from the House of Lords, replaced with Life Peers, nominated by the Prime Minister.

Does the change mark the end of political nepotism, or the beginning of the end for the House of Lords?

Guest: Ralph Matthew Palmer, 12th Baron Lucas, 8th Lord Dingwall and outgoing hereditary peer

North Korean workers in Russia work up to 16 hours a day with no day off and earn as little as 10 USD per month, according to a report titled A Day in the Life of a DPRK State-sponsored Labourer.

Adelaide's O-Bahn was the second guided bus railway in the world, and is now one of only four on the planet. But it has been an enormous success, and remains the most used public transport option in Adelaide. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Adelaide's O-Bahn, and the Bus Preservation Association of South Australia organised an informative tour to mark the occasion.

Guest: Michael Pretty - committee member of the Bus Preservation Association of South Australia, who organised the 40th anniversary O-Bahn tour, and is the proud owner of two O-Bahn buses.

This week's mystery caller occupies wooded habitats across the south and up the east – the Golden Whistler.

Emily Strasser was in her late teens before she began to realise the depth of her family's secret. Her grandfather, George, whom she had never met, had been a scientist at Oak Ridge in Tennessee, during the development of the atomic bomb that was eventually dropped on Hiroshima. This was the start of Emily's journey to uncover the truth about her grandfather's role and to come to terms with her family's past and the guilt she has inherited.

Guest: Emily Strasser, Professor in the Department of English at Tufts University in Boston and author of Half Life of a Secret.

Much has been written about Errol Flynn, whose extraordinary life took him from Hobart, to Papua New Guinea, to Hollywood's Golden Age where he became an icon of the screen. But drawing from new sources including Flynn's own letters, Patricia A. O'Brien has written "the first complete account" of his life, which reveals the extent of Flynn's involvement in slavery, in more than one form.

Guest: Patricia A. O'Brien, Author of Errol Flynn - The true story of Australia's Hollywood icon, Adjunct Professor in Asian Studies at Georgetown University and Honorary Associate Professor in ANU's Department of Pacific Affairs.

Is the longevity of Australians in the 21st century actually a curse for future generations? Government spending on the elderly is predicted to grow significantly in the next 30 years, and the proportion of taxpayers will decline. So what are the burdens future generations will face if we all keep going on and on?

Guest: Lucinda Holdforth, speechwriter and author of Going On and On