The Drawing Room

Cottagecore is an aesthetic that celebrates simple living … an escapist movement that developed a following during the pandemic.

Anastasia Vanderbyl and her sister Julia have tapped into this movement by documenting their life living on a rural property in Northern NSW with a new book Mother the Mountain.

Guest:Anastasia Vanderbyl

Were you watching when Steven Bradbury came from the back of the pack to win gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics?  I remember the story absolutely gripped Australia and we've seen countless retelling of that moment both in musical and documentary forms. Still, I haven't even seen it as a combination of both… 

Chris Taylor and Andrew Hansen decided it was long overdue and have written a new musical-comedy-docuseries that looks at six critical events in recent Australian history and re-tells them through interviews and songs in Australian Epic.Guest:Chris Taylor

What would you be willing to do to raise money for charity? Share a post on Facebook? Door knock? A fun run? 

How about a solo bike ride of thousands of kilometres across Australia … twice. Andrew Kerec has done exactly that to raise money for charities supporting people with spinal cord injuries after his father Ludvig became a quadriplegic. Andrew has just completed his second solo trip The Spine-tingling Ride

Guest:Andrew Kerec

What does retirement look like to you? Is it putting your feet up, and enjoying the fruits of your labour by travelling or spending time with your grandkids? What about buying and restoring a French Chateau that has fallen into disrepair and will probably cost millions and never be quite finished? Well, former Victorian labour water and tourism minister Tim Holding has done precisely that and written a book about it - Château Reawakening. 

Guest:Tim Holding, author

Grammy award-winning band WILCO's music is characterised by lead singer Jeff Tweedy's introspective, poetic and heartfelt vocals. Again a signature on their new record “Cousin” as they prepare to tour Australia early next year.

Guest:Jeff Tweedy, Musician WILCO

The colour and movement of Bollywood seem almost the antithesis of Australia's smaller, perhaps more serious film industry.Anupam Sharma's new documentary Brand Bollywood Downunder explores the links between the two nations' film industries.

Guest:Anupam Sharma, Filmmaker 

You might be familiar with Rossini’s charming opera The Barber of Saville or the dramatic overture in William Tell but listen a little closer and you might notice the wit and humour of the characters he paints in his opera and his expert use of crescendo to build tension and excitement...

Everywhere you look there’s more to be found in Rossini… Peruvian Tenor Juan Diego Flórez is a fan and will be singing his music on his tour of Australia.Guest: Juan Diego Flórez, Singer

Friendship and failure are the two big “F words” that loom large in the work of podcaster and writer Elizabeth Day.

In her podcast How To Fail she interviews successful, high-profile people about how they’ve overcome failure and she talks about the complexities of friendship in modern life in her book Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict

Guest:Elizabeth Day, Podcast host and author

When photographer Andrew Quilty landed in Kabul for the first time in 2013 to cover the Afghanistan cricket team as they prepared for the cricket World Cup, he admits his motivation at first wasn't noble story-telling, but more ‘ego-driven’... being able to say he’d worked in a ‘conflict zone’.

His two-week stay finally ended nearly a decade later, his new book of photographs “This is Afghanistan” captures the country during the draw down and withdrawal of Allied troops and the return of the Taliban. Welcome to you, Andrew