The Drawing Room

For many of us, sharks tend to be a source of fear.

But for Valerie Taylor, they've been a wonderful part of her life, with personalities as varied as puppies.

Valerie has swum with sharks all over the world, captured remarkable footage, and led conservation efforts to get us to rethink our relationship with these animals.

A new film, Valerie Taylor: Playing With Sharks, tells the story of Valerie's work and adventures.

Mobile apps and games have become central to the way that most of us interact with the world.

Industries as diverse as gambling and education are looking for ways to use gamification to increase their impact.

But can games help in assessing and treating the way we think?

Dr Azadeh Feizpour and Dr Simone Gindidis - guests of the Games for Change Festival - explore their research and development in the field of child psychology.

She was perhaps Australia's first true global superstar: a nightingale with a voice that enchanted the world.

And her own story is a tale to match any of the operas that she performed on the stage.

Robert Wainwright explores how Helen Porter Mitchell become Dame Nellie Melba and what drove her to such great heights.

"Long ago, there was a world of wonders - of what you and I might call magic"

In their new book, Dark Rise, C. S. Pacat brings readers a version of London far removed from our own. Magic has long since faded away, but there are remnants of power and ancient orders of good and evil who fight in secret to restore their version of that world.

In the Drawing Room, Pacat discusses their love for British pastoral fantasies and how they set out to include the people that were left out of the books that they read growing up.

Christopher Doyle has brought audiences some of the most captivating moments in cinema.

But who is the man behind the camera? And what drives his vision of the world?

In the Drawing Room, Doyle and director Ted McDonnell discuss Like The Wind - a new documentary that examines Doyle's life and work.

From war zones in Afghanistan to the Raskols of PNG, photojournalist and artist Stephen Dupont has shown us the world.

In his latest exhibition, Are We Dead Yet?, Stephen has turned his lens on Australia, capturing the fires, the floods and the droughts that have swept the country over the last few years.

Zana Fraillon is an award winning author whose books have been inspired by the stories of refugees, of slavery and of Australia's forgotten generation.

But in her latest children's book, The Curiosities, she was inspired by a very personal story: her own child's.

It's illustrated by Phil Lesnie and celebrates neurodiversity and the differences between us all.

In Tim Bonyhady's new book, Two Afternoons in the Kabul Stadium, he looks at the modern history of Afghanistan, the way that cultural symbols and women's rights have changed over the last hundred years, and the way that images have shaped our understanding of the country.

In the Drawing Room, Bonyhady discusses the afternoons of the title - a great unveiling and a brutal execution - and the complexities in between.

A symphony orchestra is a remarkable thing: dozens of musicians all working in perfect harmony to bring the most complicated and sublime music to our stages.

And at the front of that stage - the conductor - bringing it all together.

Jaime Martin is one of the stars of this world and, in the Drawing Room, he talks about his own path to the baton and explains how a conductor is like a football coach.

Richard Pleasance is a celebrated musician and producer, a founding member of Boom Crash Opera, and, for the last couple of decades, he's been bringing the Australian screen to life with his captivating scores.

Now he's back with his first solo album since 1995, Crooked River, a collection of instrumental tracks designed to inspire a painter's imagination.