This is a good one for holiday listening. I'll be back with new conversations in Feb 2025. Take care and dig in to the Wide Open Air Exchange podcast back catalogue in the meantime. Best wishes, Christine Gallagher.

This episode was first broadcast on radio 2SER 107.3FM Sydney:

A Song for You is a vocal ensemble with a rotation of around 50 members from a community of artists in the Berlin live soulful music scene. Co-founder Dhanesh Jayaselan shares the origins and ethos of the project which serves to elevate the voices and stories of BIPOC artists.

Film aficionado Davis Rivera shares his memorable movie viewing of the past 12 months including The Brutalist, Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros, Aggro Dr1ft, Juror #2, In Water, and Last Summer.

For more than 30 years, Bonnie Barlow has been involved in the narration and writing of audio description for the theatre, television, feature films, museums, historical sites, and more.

Bonnie gives us an introduction to the role of an audio description specialist and her professional approach to providing accessible services for people who are blind and visually impaired.

Bonnie is also a trainer of other audio description specialists and shares some of the foundational lessons and core principles she teaches.

Dr Erica Sze Lok Ho is a founder of peer support communities for PhD candidates and other higher degree by research (HDR) students and a Research Analyst at UTS Business School where she promotes HDR student engagement and wellbeing.

Michoel Moshel is a PhD researcher of Clinical Neuropsychology at Macquarie University. Michoel's current research is on the topic of disordered and problematic screen usage. This episode has a discussion of the problems of screen addiction and some interventions and related policy, along with some of Michoel's vocational story.

Discussing art, science, and disability advocacy with multidisciplinary artist Magnets aka Dr Siobhan McGinnity. Siobhan is a clinical audiologist with a PhD in Audiology on the prevention of hearing injury in the music industry. This episode was first broadcast on radio 2SER 107.3FM and features music from Magnets' debut album DIPLACUSIS including excerpts of the tracks 'ADHme', 'Anxiety', 'Desire', 'Down', and 'Speak'. The album explores themes of self-acceptance and identity. Diplacusis is a hearing condition that Siobhan has experienced with Meniere's Disease.

Professor Nancy C. Unger is an historian with a special interest in the progressive era in American history and an author of biographies of progressive era reformists Bob and Belle La Follette. Senator Robert La Follette was a third-party candidate at the 1924 US presidential election (100 years ago) for the Progressive Party and Belle La Follette was active on the women's suffrage circuit.

Andrew Max Levy was one of the first comedy photographers carving out a scene in Los Angeles by providing photography services to comedy clubs and stand-up comedians. Andrew is now well established and trusted as Justoffthesix Photography and is expanding into directing specials.

As well as having a fascinating vocation, Andrew has an interesting vocational history from starting out as a playwright and comedy writer and working as a maitre d’ in the restaurant industry for a decade to teaching himself photography before finding a niche as a comedy photographer.

Kankawa Nagarra discovered the guitar as an adult and found that Blues music resonated with her as a "soothing ointment" for healing pains and mending scars. As a Blues musician and environmental activist from Gooniyandi and Walmatjarri country in north western Australia, Kankawa has earned the title of "Queen of the Bandaral Ngadu Delta".

Dr Laura Tuohilampi is an academic researcher at UNSW with a specialty in mathematics education. Laura is currently working on a book about popularising maths and discusses some of her thinking about the value of maths for the wider population. Laura is author of the book, Seriously Fun Maths, and also shares insights about what makes learning fun and engaging in a classroom setting.