Wide Open Air Exchange

Rhonda Davis shares her approach to art curation ahead of the exhibition Eric Smith: The metaphysics of paint which is on at the Macquarie University Art Gallery from June 18th to August 1st 2025. Rhonda is Senior Curator of the gallery and its collection with 25 years of experience.

Fran Grant is an educator, advocate and Yuin woman who is on a journey of learning about her family as the child of a Stolen Child, her father. Fran is planning PhD research informed by her own experience of using DNA to explore family connections. Fran is a lecturer at UTS and Director of Koori Education offering cultural consultancy services.

A conversation about Western Sydney Literature and Working Class Literature with creative writer Emma O’Neill-Sandham who is a PhD researcher at the University of Sydney.

Emma's research and creative writing are in part informed by her own life experiences in Western Sydney. This episode features Emma reading parts of her creative nonfiction piece 'The Salon' set in her mother's home hair salon.

Emma is interested in stories that are told from Western Sydney cultural perspectives, and her research is spotlighting the creative works of other writers from the western suburbs.

Part of Emma's doctoral research is exploring working class and Western Sydney themes through a novel she is writing as a creative practice part of her PhD.

Among other milestones Emma has been awarded a Varuna Fellowship, a Western Sydney Emerging Writers Fellowship, and a Master of Creative Writing qualification from Macquarie University.

Dr Benjamin Pope is an Associate Professor in Statistical Data Science at Macquarie University at the Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre. Since being awarded a DPhil in Astrophysics from the University of Oxford, Ben has been a NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow and an ARC Decra Fellow among other accomplishments. Ben is active in public science communication and other meaningful civil society engagement.

This is a great introduction to concepts related to Astrostatistics and Astrophysics and data science, This is a great introduction to concepts related to Astrostatistics and Astrophysics and data science, and Ben's approach of combining flexible statistical models with rigorous physical models.

There are discussions of astronomical imaging, philosophy of science debates in statistical inference reasoning, and some history of radio astronomy in Australia including the pioneering work of Ruby Payne-Scott.

Associate Professor Kathomi Gatwiri has led the development of a Racial Dignity Framework informed by her academic research and clinical practice as a psychotherapist. Dr Gatwiri is an Afro-diasporic scholar, an ARC DECRA Fellow at Southern Cross University, and founder and director of Healing Together Psychotherapy.

In a career spanning 25 years, Clint Drieberg has worked across radio and television in production, presenting and management roles, and as a showbiz reporter and entertainment interviewer. Clint shares family influences and the story of his entry into media along with insights into navigating life as a media specialist and his approach to leadership as a radio program director. We also go behind the scenes of The Graham Norton Show when Clint was invited on set to interview Graham.

An introduction to swing dancing with discussions of Lindy Hop and Balboa and other styles including Shag. Michael Jones has been involved in the Sydney swing scene for more than twenty years and participates in events around the world, particularly for Balboa these days.

Haydee Rojas-Judd is a senior lawyer with an impressive approach to being a lifelong learner. Haydee has a Diploma of Counselling and is part way through a Bachelor of Health Science (Acupuncture Therapies) motivated by her love of learning. She had also taken singing lessons for a few years as a way to challenge herself. This conversation will be of interest to you if you're starting out in your vocational life, if you're considering a mid-career change, or if you're looking for inspiration to learn for non-vocational reasons.

This week's episode features three vocational stories by Brigit Busicchia. These were originally produced for a radio segment called 'What Job is That?' on Brigit's Thursday Drive program on 2SER 107.3FM Sydney.

This episode features the voices of Tugboat Master Andy Wilson, Activist Liz Millen, and Philosopher Simon Lumsden.

An insight into what is horology and the training and apprenticeships system in Australia. Oliver Broos Revitt trained in Australia and followed with qualifications from the American Watch and Clockmakers Institute and the British Horological Institute. He now runs his own watch repairs business, OBR Horology in Adelaide.