Wide Open Air Exchange

Broken Hill is a mining town in outback Australia. The red dusty landscape of its surrounding regions has been a backdrop for numerous films including Mad Max 2 and Priscilla Queen of the Desert. It is the only heritage listed city in Australia and a place with a thriving arts scene. Locals Andrea Roberts and Bonnie Fitzpatrick share their knowledge of Broken Hill's history and culture and memories of growing up there.

A look at Donald Trump's first year as President of the United States through the lens of some of his Twitter activity.

A discussion of medical cannabis and the regulatory frameworks and market forces which impact its availability in Australia and elsewhere. Nick Lintzeris is a director of drug and alcohol services in Sydney, a conjoint professor with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney, and a chief investigator for the newly established Australian Centre for Cannabinoid and Clinical Research Excellence.

Danny Chifley a.k.a. Banga is a familiar voice on Sydney radio station 2SER where he hosts Friday Drive and co-hosts the hip hop program Hardcore Classic. He is a funk, soul and hip hop music aficionado who has recorded and performed as part of the groups Chaos Maths and Dirtbox Kings. Banga has an impressive vinyl record collection and here he shares five albums to look out for when crate digging in Australia.

Dr Elisabeth Kirkby shares insights from her lifetime of vocational pursuits. Lis was a theatre actress in Britain, a radio broadcaster in Singapore and Malaya, and a star of the Australian television soapie 'Number 96' before becoming a parliamentarian and state leader for the Australian Democrats political party. At the age of 93, Lis graduated with a doctorate from the University of Sydney.

Dr Marilynn Davis is a professional educator of outdoor leaders in first response strategies for mountaineering accidents and other pre-hospital care. Marilynn has volunteered with Teton County Search and Rescue in Wyoming and she featured on the television program Backcountry Rescue on the Outdoor Channel.

Old-time is a genre of American folk music which developed in the Appalachian Mountains region from a fusion of British/Irish folk and West African musical traditions.  Joe Glover is banjo player for the band Shelley's Murder Boys and he explains the roots of old-time music along with sharing techniques for playing the banjo and banjo making. Joe also plays harmonica for the blues band Backsliders.

Professor Naguib Kanawati is Director of the Australian Centre for Egyptology. He explains his fascination with the Old Kingdom and why he considers that researchers should have hands-on experience of archaeological digs. Professor Kanawati has an inspirational personal story of pursuing what he loves doing.

A discussion of gaming and the video game industry with Jeremy Ray a.k.a. Junglist. Jeremy is best known as a video game critic and a journalist with interests in game and industry development. Among his accomplishments, Jeremy co-created Good Game on ABC television and 5 inch Floppy for GameArena and he recently became Managing Editor of FANDOM in Australia.

Often the first question people ask astronomer Ben Pope is whether Pluto should be a planet. Ben shares his thoughts on this and how it relates to different approaches to astronomy. He also explains his own research of astronomical imaging. Ben has a DPhil in Astrophysics from the University of Oxford and is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney. He's been awarded a NASA Carl Sagan Fellowship to pursue research at NYU.