The Drawing Room

Emerging out of Austin's indie-rock scene in the early 90s, Spoon have gone on to craft a body of work that must be the envy of their contemporaries.

The band was in the middle of recording their tenth studio album, back home in Austin, when the first wave of Covid hit America and everything went on hold.

In the Drawing Room, the band's frontman, Britt Daniel, explains why that enforced hiatus may have been the best thing for the record.

Professional cricketers, who spend their summers standing around in the sun, are vulnerable to climate change. Matches have been postponed because of air quality concerns in recent years and the rising heat creates its own challenges.

But what about the impact that the sport itself is having on emissions?

Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins led Australia to a series of dominating wins in the Ashes over the summer, but is now championing a movement that's taking place off the pitch: Cricket for Climate.

These days, Sesame Street is an institution. But when the show first started, it was charting a radical new path.

Combining the wisdom of education specialists, the tricks of the advertising industry and the dark humour of Jim Henson, the creators wanted to find out what a television show could do if it loved people instead of trying to sell to them.

In the Drawing Room, Marilyn Agrelo talks about her new documentary Street Gang, and explains how the show's integrated cast led to it being pulled off the air in Mississippi.

In the thawing permafrost of Siberia an ancient body is found, a preserved virus makes its way into the world, and everything changes.

Sequoia Nagamatsu started his debut novel, How High We Go in the Dark, long before Covid hit the headlines, but it couldn't have been more prescient.

It's a beautifully written book that grapples with grief and hope, science and faith. In the Drawing Room, Sequoia discusses his own inspirations.

In a society that seems increasingly fractured into smaller communities, is it still possible to embrace the idea of 'us' instead of 'them'?

Against a rising tide of authoritarianism, Stan Grant examines the importance of finding common ground, despite how difficult that can sometimes seem.

For Patricia's final Drawing Room, a couple of musicians whose awesome music will end the year on a good note.

In 2021, Gordi and Alex Lahey have collaborated together and released their own solo tracks; Gordi's been doubling as both a doctor and a musician and Alex has been getting Oscar buzz. It's been a big year!

In the Drawing Room they reflect on recent times and reveal their plans for the future.

On an isolated Island, off the coast of Scotland, a small group of men wait.

And wait.

They fill the hours with old episodes of Friends and awkward lessons in British culture.

Ben Sharrock talks about his new film, Limbo, an absurdist, tragic, funny, and heartfelt look at the days and months of asylum seekers waiting for an answer about their future.

In 2015, a glamourous young couple in Tehran died in a car crash when they lost control of their new Porsche.

At a personal level, it was a tragedy for the families involved. But the story didn't stay personal.

Their Instagram feeds became a flashpoint: a place to vent anger about the ostentatious wealth displayed by the children of privilege in Iran

Javaad Alipoor takes that event and its fallout as the starting point for a recent show, Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran, in which he examines questions of wealth, images, history and the Anthropocene.

In her first starring role, in The Worst Person In The World, Renate Reinsve has won the best actress award at Cannes and been celebrated by critics around the globe.

But it almost didn't happen. Reinsve was considering giving up acting when Joachim Trier approached her with a role he'd written specifically for her - having grown tired of waiting for the industry to recognise her talent.

In the Drawing Room, Reinsve shares the shock of winning the award, the relief of handing back her diamonds at the end of the night, and how she's embracing the chaos of an expected year.

Rita Moreno is one of a handful of performers to complete the EGOT and she featured in iconic musicals like West Side Story and Singing In The Rain.

But her own life is as remarkable as any tale she's performed on screen.

In the Drawing Room, Mariem Pérez Riera talks about her biopic on the trailblazing actress.