Harry Kolotas is an Australian playwright who has been awarded mutilple times. He is a returning author at Manly Theatre Group and that's where we met a couple of years ago. His plays area a witty and profound look into Australian society.

THE FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR MAN was a finalist in a British one-act competition.

LOOK WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN: won a first prize at the Noosa One-Act Festival in 2020 and was picked up by a Queensland publisher Maverick Musicals and Plays.

PISSOIRS OF PROVINCIAL FRANCE: Short-listed at Noosa and also on the lists of the publisher.

GRAVE CONCERNS: first prize and performed in a competition run by Playhouse Players INC in Melbourne.

Ariane de Souza is a multifaceted Brazilian artist, expressing her unique point of view through acting, singing, dancing and songwriting.

Before her time at Sydney Actor's Studio, Ariane completed a Journalism degree and gained a Black Belt in Kung-Fu. Since moving to Sydney, Ariane has performed as a professional singer and dancer and has participated in TVCs for St. George Bank and Bulk Nutrients. While at Sydney Actor's Studio Ariane performed in Animal Farm (director Kevin Jackson), The Irresistible (director Kim Hardwick) and A Kind of Alaska (director Shane Anthony). During her training, Ariane became a confident producer, production designer and cinematographer, and she is passionate about utilising these skills in future projects. She can be found online at:

https://www.arianedesouza.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/arianemdsouza/

Zewlan Moor (pronounced SHOO-len) is an author, GP and bibliotherapist who writes playful books for today’s savvy kids. Nothing Alike (illustrated by Peter Cheong, Bright Light imprint of Hardie Grant, 16 August) and The Bill Dup (illustrated by Simon O'Carrigan, Windy Hollow, 1 September) are both releasing in 2023. Now living on the land of the Yugambeh people at the Gold Coast with her husband and two children, Zewlan loves to read, practise medicine and combine the two through her private practice, Byron Bibliotherapy. Her books are sometimes multi-layered, with a quirky sense of humour and light touch that belies their serious intent. Other times they're just fun. In her reading and writing, Zewlan is preoccupied with themes of identity, language, power and social justice. Which sounds very dry, but isn't. Especially when wrapped in a picture book/cozy mystery/dark academia/romcom package. She is very grateful to the teachers and mentors who have helped her along the way, and for her boring childhood which made her into a reader!

You can find more about her work on her website www.zewlanmoor.com

00:00 Introduction and Context

02:21 Understanding Bibliotherapy

08:34 The Healing Power of Stories

11:18 Inspiration Behind 'Philippines' and 'Nothing Alike'

22:18 Cultural Identity and Experiences in Australia

31:29 Cultural Bridges in Multicultural Societies

34:10 Reflections on Childhood and Personal Experiences

37:15 Balancing Medicine and Writing

42:23 Writing During the Pandemic: A Doctor's Perspective

47:00 Disillusionment with the Role of Literature

55:17 Finding Purpose in Writing and Documenting History

59:38 The Importance of Writing for Children

01:01:33 Exploring Dramaturgy and Storytelling Techniques

01:07:53 The Essence of Identity and Personal Reflections

Tito Ferradans is a cinematographer, motion graphics designer and a content creator. He is the co-founder of Final Version 2, a post-production studio based in Canada, and he is also the heart and soul of the Anamorphic Channel on Youtube, dedicated to share insights and knowledge regarding Anamorphic lenses and everything cinematography. He has partnered with brands such as Lumix and Atlas to create the fantastic Anamorphic Cookbook series, a comprehensive guide to Anamorphic Lenses in theory and in real life.

You can find him on Youtube at the Anamorphic Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@AnamorphicChannel) and also on www.finalversion2.com

Kenn Ross is a performer, dancer and choreographer and he has been performing on stage since his teenage years. You might have seen him in Tenders, a circus cabaret show that did a successful run at the Sydney Fringe Festival and in Melbourne. you might have also seen him on the Cabaret Show Miss Piggy Variety as Kenny Sais Quoi.

You can find him on Instagram as @_kenversations_ and @kay.es.que

Go check his amazing work out!

Michelle Yañez-Olivares is the creator of Amiga Mía, the largest Latin American Community HUB in the APAC region. As a community manager she brings together more than 80.000 people through her channels on Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, Linkedin, and Spotify.

She is the host of the Podcast The Amiga Mía Talk Show, where she talks to inspiring members of the Latin American culture in Australia.

You can connect with her through her website https://www.amigamia.com.au/ and her socials:

https://www.instagram.com/soy_amigamia/

https://www.tiktok.com/@soy_amigamia

https://www.youtube.com/@soy_amigamia

Poppy Gee is a brilliant writer, editor, journalist. She is a published author and her books Bay of Fires from 2013 and Vanishing Falls released in 2020 are two novels that I couldn't put down once I started reading. Her brilliant friend Allie said that she could never be a parking warden because she is so nice she wouldn't fine anyone.

She can be found on her website: www.poppygee.com or on social media: @poppygeenovelist

On this episode, I’m going to go through films, plays, books, and initiatives that have inspired me in 2024:

• BBC Podcast - This Cultural Life - hosted by John Houston: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010fl4/episodes/downloads

  Mehdi Harsan- the journalist joined the Guardian as a columnist and started a new media outlet called Zeteo. https://zeteo.com/

  Vincent Namatjira - Australian Artist, Archibald Prize Winner in 2020: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2020/30235/

• https://shop.australian.museum/products/albert-namatjiraBOOK

  Eduardo Ortiz - Chilen street photographer. He has several videos online, several of his photos can be seen on Instagram or on his website. He inspires me because of his absolute surrender to what is happening and because of the way he gives himself to photography. https://www.eortizdelacruz.com/

• August - Osage County Belvoir St Theatre.

• Belvoir Street Theatre is one of Australia's most prestigious theatre companies, and I was lucky enough to see of their productions in 2024: August: Osage County. It was written by Tracy Letts and directed by Eamon Flack. The cast includes Tamsin Carroll, Pamela Rabe, Bee Cruse, John Howard, Amy Mathews, and Bert Labonte, Johnny Nasser, Rohan Nichol, Will O'Mahony, Anna Samson, Greg Stone, Helen Thomson and Esther Williams.

  https://belvoir.com.au/productions/august-osage-county/

• Kate Box is also one of my inspirations for 2024. I’ve seen her perform in multiple tv series, and the way she changes from character to character with the same integrity, the same sobriety, the same understanding of her vulnerability, is absolutely inspiring. She is in Deadloch, Four Years Later, Fucking Adelaide, etc https://www.instagram.com/boxkatebox/

• Otto By Otto - by director Gracie Otto. It is one of those films that are miracles, actually, because it had to be done by Gracie Otto. There was no way for it to be done by someone outside the family, and we’re just so lucky to be able to watch it, because it is the history of Australian cinema and theatre, as Barry Otto is part of that history and it is also the history of a family, of the influence of an artist in his own family, it is a must watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80UlSaC6l2M

• Don’t expect too much from the end of the world, by Radu Jude, with Ilinca Manolache and her character Bobitza, the script shows an overworked production assistant that has to select the cast for a safety video for a company, in midst of a cast of people that suffered work accidents. It was one of my favourite films this year, because the story is there and here I take a pause to share what I like about films and theatre and stories in general, which is not the spectacular side of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0uh5i-SEW8

• Es Devlin - I've been a fan of Es Devlin since I saw her on the episode of Abstract, a series of documentaries about different artists. Her work is out of bounds, she doesn't respect frontiers between different forms of art, she is happy to mix it all up and that is why she inspires me. She has recently launched her book and you can buy it online. It is a book but it is a sculpture at the same time. https://esdevlin.com/

• Watermelon Pictures -a production company founded to tell stories of Palestinian identity, which is an initiative that has a very deep and profound history and is focused on offering a voice to Palestinian stories. One of my goals for 2025 is to have more and more diversity on the podcast and I feel like Watermelon Pictures is an initiative that does exactly that: fosters diverse stories https://www.watermelonpictures.com/

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