The Drawing Room

In 2020, ASIO revealed that up to 40% of its counter-terrorism caseload involved far-right extremists.

Meanwhile, in countries like America, Norway and New Zealand, shocking attacks have been perpetrated by men with manifestos. And while these attacks are usually described as 'lone-wolf' events, there are similarities in the goals and beliefs that drive them.

So what has driven this rise in extreme beliefs and in violence across so many different parts of the world?

In the Drawing Room, Lydia Khalil examines those questions and talks about her book, Rise of the Extreme Right.

'Instill me with a greater sense of compassion so that I can be liberated'

It was this line in Avinu Malkeinuan, a Jewish hymn, which spoke to singer-songwriter Lior and led him to perform it at a tribute to the son of composer Nigel Westlake.

That chance meeting led to something remarkable, a song cycle called Compassion, which combines beautiful music with ancient Jewish and Arabic texts.

Dr Lachlan McIver has found himself fighting for the lives of his patients all over the world: from a remote medical clinic, where a headlamp normally used to avoid snakes provided the light for a surgery, to the biggest cities, where he advocates for action about the health impacts of climate change.

Lachlan is the tropical diseases and planetary health advisor at Médecins Sans Frontières, and in the Drawing Room, he shares his expertise and the remarkable moments of community and survival he's seen throughout his career.

The stories that we see on our stages entertain us, but they also reflect our world and help us to understand who we are and who we can be.

So what does it mean to be in charge of those stories? To help shape the conversation and that sense of self?

As the new artistic director at the Melbourne Theatre Company, Anne-Louise Sarks is in that rare and privileged position.

In the Drawing Room, Anne-Louise shares her path to the stage.

Georgie Stone is an actor and an activist who has received the Medal of the Order of Australia and became the first openly trans actor on Neighbours.

But before all of that, Georgie was a young girl who had to fight for the right to live her own life and who carried others with her along the way.

In the Drawing Room, Georgie and director Maya Newell discuss the new documentary, The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone, and share their perspectives on filmmaking and life.

Stories can transport us to times and places we never imagined, opening up perspectives beyond our own.

But, by and large, literature tends to focus on the human experience.

Chris Flynn's latest collection, Here Be Leviathans, takes a very different approach. Over nine stories, Chris gives a voice to the world around us, with narrators including a bear, a river, a platypus and a hotel room.

When Nicola Harvey left her high-powered job in the media in Sydney to take on a small cattle farm in New Zealand, she had little idea what she was getting into.

And as she and her husband slowly developed their skills, they realised that the typical goals of commercial farms—centered around efficiency and exports—didn't match what they wanted from life or the land.

So, from land management to waste use, they sought out ways to let the business match their ideals, and along the way discovered a different approach to farming, which merges tradition with technology.

In the Drawing Room, Nicola shares her experience and talks about her new book, Farm: the making of a climate activist.

Sophie Cunningham has been involved with every part of writing in this country, from her celebrated works of fiction and non-fiction, to her work as an editor, publisher and even co-founder of the Stella Prize.

Her latest work is This Devastating Fever — a deeply inventive novel that examines the life of Leonard Woolf and his wife, the much more celebrated Virginia, as well as the Bloomsbury set of which they were a part.

Across countries and across centuries, something is going wrong and reality seems fragile.

Bombs are exploding and the people responsible are left confused and uncertain, until a man with mismatched eyes appears and asks them to hold a black stone sphere.

Psalms for the End of the World is a kaleidoscopic debut novel by Cole Haddon, and in the Drawing Room, he talks about David Bowie and the importance of questions.

The Dandy Warhols swept to global fame in the late 90s with singles like Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth and Bohemian Like You. 

Over the last two decades, they’ve gone on to create an enduring and unusual catalogue: albums that vary in sound and style, but always have the same creativity and wit.

In the Drawing Room, Courtney Taylor-Taylor chats about wine bars, inspirational cars and DIY venues.