Words on Wednesday

In September 2016, Eastside’s own, Toby Creswell was a guest on Arts Wednesday talking about his then latest book: A History of Australia in 100 Objects. Toby is a former editor of Rolling Stone and founding editor of Juice and other magazines. He has written a number of books and has written and produced several [...] Read More... from A History of Australia in 100 objects

You’ve most likely passed by the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park, but have you ever walked in? There was a big renovation of the memorial and Sylvia sits down with Caroline Mackaness, who played a role in the renovations vision and designs. Listen to learn more. [...] Read More... from Anzac Memorial with Caroline Mackaness

Amanda Woodard is a journalist from London. After a 12-year stint with The Guardian newspaper, she moved to Sydney with her family and continues to write on travel and art. Her articles about art crime caught Sylvia’s attention and she sat down with Sylvia to talk all about the topic. Woodard debunks myths about art [...] Read More... from Art Theft with Amanda Woodard

In this episode, Sylvia sits down with Andy Bromberger, a professional musician and music historian who lectures on different eras and genres of music. She talks with Sylvia where they deconstruct 20th century classical music through three lenses: Atonalism (refers to the absence of a tonal centre or key), Alienation (isolation), and Appeasement (acceding to someone’s [...] Read More... from...

At the time of recording, Richard Major was curator of ornithology at the Australian Museum and he selected the following 5 birds to talk about in a 5 part series: Australian ibis, white fronted chat, sulphur crested cockatoo, noisy miner and the common myna. Each one of these birds is unique to Australia and each [...] Read More... from Australian native birds with the Australian Museum

In January 2017, David Bock from the Australian Museum talked to us about Australian native bees. Did you know that we have some 1600 species documented so far! Unlike their European honey bee counterparts, many of our bees are solitary. Females mate once and keep the sperm, dispensing it when she wants to lay eggs [...] Read More... from Australian native Bees with David Bock

On 26 May 2021, Nicolette Fraillon was a guest on Arts Wednesday. At that time, Nicolette was Musical Director and Chief Conductor of the Australian Ballet. It is a fascinating insight into conducting ballet as opposed to conducting a symphony orchestra or an opera. Listen to learn more! [...] Read More... from Conducting ballet with Nicolette Fraillon

In December 2016, Bryce Peters, ornithologist at UTS, was a guest on Arts Wednesday. It was summer and I asked him about the all-too-prevalent insects we love to hate: cockroaches, mosquitos and flies. Bryce actually likes cockroaches but has an aversion to ants!  Find out what role each insect plays in the ecosystem and see [...] Read More... from Creepy crawlies with Bryce Peters

On 24 July 2019, Elise Edmunds, Senior Curator at the State Library of NSW, was a guest on Arts Wednesday. The topic of conversation was Dead Central, an exhibition she had curated at the library. The colony had outgrown the old burial ground where the Town Hall sits today and Governor Phillip created a new [...] Read More... from Elise Edmunds talks about a burial ground

Anna Musson is the maiven of etiquette, wherever it is needed – privately or in business. Surprisingly, this conversation attracted a lot of feedback: surprisingly, because it was so unexpected. Most of the queries came from mothers of sons as Anna talks about workplace etiquette, from applying for a job to the job interview (including [...] Read More... from Anna Musson talks about etiquett...

Laila Ellmoos is an historian with the City of Sydney and for many years presented 6-part series on aspects of Sydney history. In a new history series, titled, Events That Shaped Sydney, she looks at several topics: the assassination attempt on the life of Prince Alfred, son of Queen Victoria during a royal visit in [...] Read More... from Events that shaped Sydney with Laila Ellmoos

We humans share something like 99% of our DNA with chimpanzees. This means at some point we had a common ancestor, but once our paths diverged, how did our early ancestors become us? Fran Dory, Manager of Exhibitions at the Australian Museum talks with Sylvia about this mysterious common ancestor and how we became human. [...] Read More... from The Evolution of Humans with Fran Dory

Barbara Hill established Macenmist, a Truffle Farm out of Bredbo, New South Wales just north of the Snowy Mountains back in the 1990s with her husband. When she bought the property some 30 years ago, it was underdeveloped, but today it is a thriving establishment that produces Black Perigord Truffles. But how did that happen [...] Read More... from The story of a Truffle farm with Barbara Hill

In today’s world with global conflicts rising, Sylvia looks at warfare, what it is, what it was, and what its likely to be. Dr. Keith Suter is global futurist and media commentator in national and foreign affairs and he sits down with Sylvia to talk about wars of the past and present, and what warfare [...] Read More... from Warfare today with Dr. Keith Suter

Jin Sun Kim came to Australia from her native Korea to become a pastry chef. Along the way she fell in love with chocolate and is now a chocolatier at her business Kakawa in Darlinghurst. Learn about where chocolate comes from, how it is made and what makes it good – and bad! [...] Read More... from Chocolate with chocolatier Jin Sun Kim

The first recorded curry meal served in the colony was at a dinner party given bt Governor Macquarie. It was the food of the upper classes and, as we have learned with other foodstuffs, it doesn’t come on to the tables of average households until it is cheap and plentiful. Commercial curry powders came to [...] Read More... from Eat Your History Part 6: Curry with Jacqui Newling

Jelly arrived in the colony long after it was fashionable on tables in England. It was very much a rich man’s dish because of the time it took to make. Learn about these techniques and how jelly later becomes a staple in all Australian homes. [...] Read More... from Eat Your History Part 5: Jelly with Jacqui Newling

Jacqui Newling returns with Part 4  on oysters. In the early days, oysters were used as mortar. However, we quickly started harvesting them for eating and by the 1860s had seriously depleted this resource. Thus began oyster farming. [...] Read More... from Eat Your History Part 4: Oysters

In this episode Jacqui looks at tea. Convicts and poor settlers had drunk tea back in England, but it was not considered a staple and was not included in convicts’ rations. As more idea from China came into the colony, the poor drank cheap green tea while the wealthy drank black tea with milk and [...] Read More... from Eat Your History Part 3: Tea with Jacqui Newling

When the convicts and first settlers arrived, sugar was not a staple. It was still a very expensive commodity, only on the tables of the wealthy. Learn how sugar became more plentiful, cheaper and part of everyone’s life. [...] Read More... from Eat Your History Part 2: Sugar with Jacqui Newling

We return to a series from 2016 with Jacqui Newling called Eat Your History. Jacqui is colonial gastronomer at Sydney Living Museums and in this series, she takes us through the history of basic food staples in the early colony. First episode is our most basic: bread. [...] Read More... from Eat Your History Part 1: Bread with Jacqui Newling

Diane’s latest book is set in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands occupied by the Nazis during World War II and alternates  in time between those dark days and the present. Diane talks about the inspiration for the novel and her research, including her trips to Jersey. [...] Read More... from Dancing with the Enemy with Diane Armstrong

Sue Jowell joins us for a new series entitled The Musical – More Than Entertainment. In Part 1, she introduces the background and early history of the musical from the 18th century, through vaudeville and Gilbert and Sullivan of the 19th century. We conclude with where Sue’s heart belongs: the silver screen and the first [...] Read More... from The Musical – More than entertainme...

In this final episode of From the Quantum to the Cosmos, Geraint talks about facing cosmic mysteries: what don’t we understand? Well  basically a lot – like 70% of the stuff of our universe: dark matter and dark energy, for a start! Once some great scientist discovers the Theory of Everything, that chasm between quantum [...] Read More... from From the Quantum to the Cosmos Part 6: Fac...

Anna Groden from ANG Art and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Archibald finalists at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and recorded our impressions in this conversation. As always, I tend to be the cynic while Anna brings the measured approach, tempered as always, with her great knowledge. Were we blown away? [...] Read More... from The Archibald 2022 with Anna Groden