Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:05:00 +1100

It's 200 years since the birth of the great English writer Charles Dickens. We'll find out about his life and his loves with the grand dame of literary biography, Claire Tomalin. Her book is Charles Dickens: A life.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:48:00 +1100

Just one week after the show debuted, Excess Baggage is shedding viewers faster than the contestants are losing kilos.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:35:00 +1100

With classics such as Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens was famous then and now, for his vivid, harrowing portrayals of 19th century poverty and Victorian England.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:35:00 +1100

With classics such as Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens was famous, then and now, for his vivid, harrowing portrayals of 19th century poverty in Victorian England.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:05:00 +1100

'Please sir I want some more', that's the classic line from Oliver Twist and it was with this novel that actor Miriam Margolyes began her love affair with Charles Dickens's work.

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:05:00 +1100

Do you have spiritual thoughts? Or do they drift away in a fog while you're busy doing something else? MY SPIRITUAL DIARY is a monthly series on The Spirit of Things where people in all walks of life keep a record of their spiritual thoughts and practice. Sharing their feelings and observations, they focus on the things that give meaning to their lives, in the day to day.

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:05:00 +1100

In 1974 a bunch of unemployed Broadway dancers got together to see if they could generate some kind of work for themselves. The result was one of the most successful musicals of all time: A Chorus Line. Baayork Lee was one of the original cast members, and she tells the story of the making of this show that’s all about dancers. Plus – cast members of a new production of A Chorus Line in Australia discuss the ironies of auditioning for a show that’s about dancers who are auditioning for a show.

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +1100

One of the most treasured objects in the State Library of Victoria is the Whitman Cabinet, a special box, purpose built by the Australian man of letters Bernard O’Dowd to house his personal correspondence with Walt Whitman. Today we take a peak inside that cabinet.

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:20:00 +1100

Still Waters in a Storm is a writing project for children and young adults in Bushwick, New York. Many famous writers have taken part in the project, including Peter Carey.

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:25:00 +1100

Australian novelist and former park ranger Carrie Tiffany on her new novel Mateship with Birds. It's a kind of hymn to the rhythm of country life but at its core is a story about young lust and mature love.

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:05:00 +1100

On Creative Instinct this week, the man considered to be the greatest living Catalan artist, and a very important creative voice in 20th century Europe - Antoni Tàpies.

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:17:00 +1100

In this week's Short and Sweet wine writer Max Allen reveals his love and admiration for the work of singer/songwriter Gillian Welch and tells why cider beat wine to the top of his death-row drinks list.

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:27:00 +1100

The advertising watchdog has banned a poster advertising the Queensland Theatre Company's upcoming production of Romeo and Juliet. It ruled the image of the production's two young stars, embracing in bed, depicted a teenager in a highly sexualised pose. That's despite the fact that both actors are aged 26 years old.

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:41:00 +1100

From the CD 'Dear Animals', the track Mr 9 O'Clock. The Woohoo Revue has a show tonight in Hobart and then tomorow playing at the Jackey's Marsh Forrest Festival

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:36:00 +1100

When Red Dog picked up best film at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts awards, there was a small outback pub that received a little tip of the hat.

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:44:00 +1100

The contemporary dance company Chunky Move has a new artistic director. We meet the innovative Anouk van Dijk.

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:18:00 +1100

Two theatre makers ask who has the authority to tell black stories and to play black roles. Aboriginal playwright Jane Harrison and black Canadian director Philip Akin talk about their differences and common ground.

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:48:00 +1100

The woolsheds dotted across the Australian landscape tell a rich history of Australian life in the backblocks. Freelance photographer Andrew Chapman took his first picture of a woolshed in 1976, and he's been charmed and obsessed with them ever since. His last book, Woolsheds, was released last year, and he's hitting the road to start work on his next book to be called 'Around the Sheds'.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:20:00 +1100

An ageing professor laments his shrinking brain.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:18:00 +1100

Modigliani is one of the most forged artists in the world. He died young at 35, and embodied the classic struggling artist. But Meryle Secrest says this image is part of the mythology of Modigliani and there's more to his story than his alcoholism and womanising.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:05:00 +1100

Gerard Vaughan on his legacy at the NGV, the legend of artist Modigliani, and Dean Frenkel on the art of throat singing.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:54:00 +1100

It's a new line-up on RN this year and Breakfast is on air until 9am, and the 8.30 reports are now broadcast in the afternoon.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:47:00 +1100

Optus has won a landmark court case which ends Telstra's stranglehold on internet sports broadcasting. The Federal Court decided that Optus and its TV Now service would be granted protection from copyright claims by Telstra, the AFL and the NRL. The football leagues have signalled their intention to appeal the ruling. But that process could be lengthy, and in the meantime Optus will be able to offer its customers full online access to free-to-air games.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +1100

The Panel. Design Files with Colin Bisset. In The Field with James Grose. The Conversation: Camouflage.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:34:00 +1100

Mike Brown was part of the avant-garde in Australia and he was controversial. A new book looks closer at his legacy.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:41:00 +1100

Imagine the view of Australia from space right now. La Nina and her flooding rains have had a huge impact on our nation and not just on the coastline. The flaming reds and burnished browns that our sunburnt country is renowned for have been replaced by huge swaths of green and are positively humming with life. Peter Elfes has spent the past three years documenting the transformation.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:22:00 +1100

Scotsman Gary Mulgrew was convicted over what he calls a dodgy deal, a deal that was blamed ultimately for the downfall of US energy giant Enron.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:53:00 +1100

Along the windy roads near Wyndham, at the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, there's some rather odd things happening.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:44:00 +1100

Reviewer Chris Flynn tells us what he thought of Jeffrey Eugenides latest novel The Marriage Plot and that most prolific of dead authors, Roberto Bolano's The Third Reich.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:20:00 +1100

The Australian ballet kicks off it's 50th year with a triple bill of new, contemporary works.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:49:00 +1100

The 2012 Adelaide Fringe Festival is giving you the opportunity to sing opera in front of a big audience. They're allowing anyone the opportunity to perform Wagner choruses.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:43:00 +1100

Radio National Breakfast's TV critic, David Knox, takes us through the best and the worst of what's on the box this week.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:17:00 +1100

The latest casualty of the digital revolution is the US film manufacturing company Eastman Kodak, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Film studios are switching from analogue to digital at a rapid rate. But archivists still have a preference for film, which they say is superior over time. Some archives are even transferring their digital media on to analogue film.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:17:00 +1100

Australian novelist and former park ranger Carrie Tiffany on her new novel Mateship with Birds. It's a kind of hymn to the rhythm of country life but at its core is a story about young lust and mature love.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:05:00 +1100

Pan MacMillan Australian launches Momentum to better target growing e-book market.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:30:00 +1100

Imagine doing away with your password and logging on to a website using facial recognition technology. We also examine the possibility of your mobile phone replacing your credit card. Also we wade though the numbers to find out just how much damage piracy is really doing to the entertainment industry. This week's guest panel includes Nick Ross, Editor of the ABC's Games and Technology website and Patrick Gray, cyber-security journalist from Risky.Biz

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:05:00 +1100

The Night Air explores Identities - Indigenous and otherwise.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:05:00 +1100

Atheists and Believers have different abilities to feel and express their emotions according to a new Canadian study by Psychologists Raluca Petrican of Rotman Research Institute, Toronto and Chris Burris of St. Jerome's University, Waterloo, Ontario. Atheists are more left-brained while Believers are more right-brained, and the latter exhibit alexi-thymia more than the former. Award winning poet and former psychiatric nurse, Sally Read, found it hard to put her conversion experience into words when she turned from hardline atheist to believing Catholic.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:05:00 +1100

How did Zooey Deschanel go from making indie films and tooling around in a band to being TV's latest It Girl? And, the end of the Kodak era... what does the past tell us about the future of photography?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:45:01 +1100

A parrot flies into the home and heart of a musician, helps him eat breakfast and make music and then promptly departs. This jazzy short work was a contribution to the Birdland project on ABC Pool.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:05:36 +1100

A protrait of surrealist poet Ben Frater who wrote searingly about his home of Campbelltown in Sydney's West but who died prematurely after suffering from schizophrenia. Also a short jazzy story about a parrot who came to stay.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:05:00 +1100

Come on an inspiring and surreal journey into Sydney suburbia, through the poetry of Benjamin Frater. This is not your usual poetry yarn. Ben's story begins in Campbelltown on Sydney's suburban fringe. He died in 2007 at just 28 years of age.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:45:00 +1100

In another "favourite read" selection, Kate opts for a meaty, reflective, literary memoir from the sometimes-spiky Jeanette Winterson.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:05:00 +1100

Australia has a new online journal. It's called The Review of Australian Fiction and it pairs an established author with an emerging writer of their choice—with sometimes surprising results.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:05:00 +1100

Welcome to the first edition of Books +, RN's new extended bookshelf, piled high with an eclectic collection of books, genres, stories and interviews. It also offers, in one place, an extended book reading.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:05:00 +1100

MONA FOMA is the wild child of arts festivals. It brings a rock festival edge to the arts, and an arts festival sense of play to music.

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:17:00 +1100

If 'video killed the radio star' as the famous Buggles song goes, then we can say that the internet has resurrected the music video. We look at the art of music videos with connoisseur Adam Buxton.

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:13:00 +1100

In May 2010 Breakfast had the privilege of interviewing the British-born author, literary critic and journalist Christopher Hitchens. Just two weeks after our interview Hitchens was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, and died on December 15 last year, aged 62. Given that Breakfast was off air at that time, we have decided to replay our 2010 interview now.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:05:00 +1100

How the great Indian epic the Mahabharata can illuminate our present day dilemmas

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:42:59 +1100

How does a poet pick his themes? And how does he marry tradition with novelty and creativity?