The Drawing Room

It's been 68 years of boycotts and controversies, highs and lows. We speak to the world's foremost Eurovision academic and dig into the socio-political history of the famed song contest.

How do other countries respond to mental health callouts? One US state is leading the way - now with police but with mental health first responders.

Sometimes in life you pick up a skill in one place and years later it remerges in a totally different field. Take Anaplastologist Sophie Fleming; she spent her early career working on Hollywood special effects making prosthetics from silicone on the set of blockbusters like Wolverine and Star Wars. Now she’s one of the foremost experts in reconstructing people's faces after they lose a nose or an...

Humans have always been fascinated by Octopus. They're littered through cultural history and yet we still don't fully understand them and their intelligence. A new docu-series aims to understand a little bit more.

If you’ve ever fancied yourself as a crime writer, exploring crime scenes, jailhouses and courthouses, crime writer Mark Dapin can teach you a thing or two. 

With the reunification of the two Koreas further away than ever, you might not know that Australian soldiers were there in a key battle when they first broke apart in the 1950s.

Dominic Gordon's memoir Excitable Boy charts how a loved, middle-class boy went so far off the rails, a cautionary tale for anyone dealing with a teenager’s appetite for danger and mischief.

The documentary Beyond Utopia follows the harrowing journey of several families trying to find a better life for themselves in a world they can't even really comprehend.

The documentary A Still Small Voice follows Mati, a chaplain in residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and the highs and lows of providing support and care for those in hospital. 

Diplomat and singer-songwriter Fred Smith on what music means and gives to him, and how his time in Afghanistan informs his music today.

Australia’s history of blackbirding - the practice of kidnapping Pacific Islanders and using them in forced labour is a lesser-known part of our story.

For the past three decades, UK Singer-Songwriter Beth Orton has refused to be boxed in or bow to commercial binaries.

Stephanie Lake might have failed third year ballet but that hasn't stopped her becoming one of the nation’s most exciting choreographers, for The Australian Ballet. 

What did an orphan in Venice with no fingers on her left hand, have to do with the great composer Antonio Vivaldi? 

What is assisted evolution or genetic rescue and could it save the projected one-third of plants and animals that face extinction by 2070.

The martini a drink that never seems to go out of style. It’s tuxedos, sophistication, it’s the Great Gatsby … and of course James Bond. How has this drink managed to retain its iconic status after all this time?

Where arguing was once an art form, today it seems more like a free-for-all pub brawl. So is it time we go back to basics? Can ancient rhetoricians teach us how to get along again? Professor Robin Reams on 'The Ancient Art of Thinking for Yourself '

Did you know Dr Kerryn Phelps was an aerobics instructor? … or that such was her voracious appetite for learning, her favourite school holiday reading was the World Book Encyclopedia? Her new memoir Power of Balance reveals all.

Jess Ribeiro grew up in country Chinese restaurants where her father socialised and she uses memories of these times to inform her songwriting and music videos.

It used to be said that men were from Mars and women were from Venus. Well, in the digital age perhaps it’s more like men are from YouTube and women are from Instagram. So what do our different digital habits mean for feminism and sexism in the algorithm age? 

Identity labels are often a way for people to find community, but is there a downside to these otherwise good intentions? And how has identity politics been conflated with social justice?

How far would you go to get the shot? Would you … climb a rock face … learn to base jump … run towards the eye of a storm? Photographer Krystle Wright is willing to go to extremes for her art. 

Imagine cleaning out the house of a loved one after their death and finding a priceless famously stolen artwork amongst their things. This is how a 35 year old mystery was solved ... or was it?

Claire Anne Taylor’s voice grew out of the Tarkine region of Tasmania. It has a deep raspy, woody texture just like the Huon pine trees or myrtle beech trees that grow there.

The brutal calculations of the value of your life are happening all around you every day - from the cost of lifeboats to the cost of IVF. Jenny Kleeman has investigated how much we're worth.