We are living in the physical world (not the hair-conditioned Tower of Babble), as Canadian band Austra warbles angelically in Gaia, from their terrific album, Future Politics, which kicked off the show this week. Relevant, because whether it’s coming from burning lumps of coal, spinning wheels or solar panels, the question of how we harness, […]
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You’ve Been Warmed…
What a week! People were frying eggs on car bonnets in the Central Desert, flying foxes fell cooked to death mid-air in Singleton, Casino and Richmond, a firestorm destroyed homes and livestock near Dunnydoo and Uarby, and the state was only saved from rolling blackouts by wind and solar energy in the mix. NSW was officially the hottest place on the […]
Heat Waves – turtles, trump, trouble
This week as baby turtle hatchlings fried, and farmers buckled in the heatwave, we discussed how to stay cool, combat the heat island effect, and interpret the fiery debate about where our energy comes from, which erupted across the political and media landscape. Scorched earth in the wake of the Trump Presidency’s latest shenanigans, felt […]
deadly animals, “alternative” facts, social harmony
John Hurt died last week, but that only made 1984 seem all the closer as the first 7 days of the tumultuous Trump Presidency ended with thousands protesting at airports around the United States, American scientists planning to March en masse on Washington DC, and calls for the President to be impeached or something, gathering […]
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Goodbye Baird, Koalas, Leonard Cohen….?
We wanted to ask Mike Baird if he could imagine Australia without koalas? But he made a tactical retreat from politics this week by resigning – some would say NSW just got too hot for the Premier whose popularity has been severely dinted in the past 12 months by community opposition to his government’s controversial […]
Sublime and Ridiculous
Archie Roach sang at the recent Human Rights Awards hosted by everyone’s favourite author and commedian, the increasingly outspoken Magda Szubanski, and we couldn’t resist playing the track It’s Not Too Late on Monday Drive last week – this powerful ballad from his latest album Let Love Rule seemed fitting as we discussed the very […]
Surface Snorkel Insanity
Senator Pauline Hanson’s in depth analysis of the Great Barrier Reef gleaned during a strenuous “surface snorkel” during her first ever outing in a wetsuit, has brought the spectacular peculiarities of our times into stark relief this week. Senator Hanson was able to fall back on years of ignorance when she announced that the […]
Interview with Kathryn Jane Williams
In this podcast Ruth Hessey talks with Kathryn Jane Williams, who is an Associate Professor in Environmental Psychology at the Sustainable Society Institute in Melbourne. Together Ruth and Kathryn discuss how we as a society need plants to live and survive, but we only think of plants as ‘furniture’ rather than living participants in the […]
Interview with Benjamin Cooke
In this podcast Ruth Hessey interviews Benjamin Cooke, who is a lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne. They discuss the future of “green cities” and how the rapid construction of units and high rises and indeed cities can and has effected the environment. Ruth and Benjamin delve deeper into the topic of how green planning […]
cetaceans under siege, peculiar children, 1787 reviewed
Ever wondered why whales and dolphins periodically commit suicide with mass beachings? Often it’s because they can’t stand the noise we are making. Imagine the loudest pub band or noisiest cafe that’s ever battered your ears to a pulp and amplify it till your brain bleeds, to get some idea of the aural horrors […]
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SOS Sydney! – our disappearing oysters, trees, humans
It wasn’t just this week’s guests who got us thinking about quality of life, from friendly streets to Sydney Rock Oysters. Seems like everywhere we go at the moment there’s a chainsaw or a whipper snipper, an Ausgrid team or a bull dozer, menacing Sydney streets and knocking down things we love. When you see yet another […]
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Interview with Alphamama
In this podcast Ruth Hessey talks to Alphamama live in studio. In the interview they discuss Alphamama’s upcoming show Queen Cxnt which she is performing in at the Sydney Fringe Festival and talk about her song ‘Ass In The Front’ which Alphamama preforms live in studio. To listen to the podcast click here: To […]