Older men have some of the highest suicide rates. Bob Dylan offers a different way to think about ageing: not simply staying alive, but finding purpose, obligation and meaning in mortality. (more…)
Category: Arts
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NAZA exposes the distance between those who target Gaza and those who die
Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s film NAZA exposes more than AI-assisted targeting in Gaza. It shows how decades of walls, blockade and separation helped place Palestinian suffering out of sight. (more…)
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The attempt to silence Macklemore put Palestine centre stage
Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour prompted other artists to walk away and brought fresh attention and donations to Palestinian aid. An attempt to contain his message ended up amplifying it – a sign that speaking up for Palestine is becoming harder to silence.
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Keating by Biggins: a rollicking ride and some solemn reflection
Jonathan Biggins brings Paul Keating’s famous wit to the stage in The Gospel According To Paul, but beneath the laughs lies a moving portrait of family, sacrifice and loss – and the personal cost of a life in politics. (more…)
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What is wrong with Oasis helps them to thrive
Oasis are easy to mock for blunt songs and ridiculous lyrics, but the tension between Liam and Noel Gallagher helps explain why their music still carries such emotional weight. (more…)
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In an age of doomscrolling and AI, young Australians are turning to poetry
From poetry slams and pop-up readings to chapbooks and Instagram, young people are embracing a form that offers honesty, experimentation, connection and a way to navigate an increasingly complex world. (more…)
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What are we missing about Helen of Troy?
Debate over who can play Helen of Troy misses something more interesting: in Homer, she emerges as a rare figure capable of questioning fate, power and her own responsibility. (more…)
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Nolan’s The Odyssey and the moral blindness of power
Christopher Nolan’s *The Odyssey* offers a warning for modern powers: military strength means little when nations abandon restraint, moral responsibility and shared humanity. (more…)
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Might Kyrgios actually know what he is doing?
Nick Kyrgios, Rafael Nadal and Kylie Minogue took very different paths to success. Their lives raise a deeper question about ambition, sacrifice and what it really means to fulfil our potential. (more…)
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The extraordinary life and art of Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama, who has died aged 97, transformed personal trauma and hallucinations into an extraordinary body of work that made her one of the world’s most celebrated contemporary artists. (more…)
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How to Sell a Genocide – libraries are for difficult books too
A confronting display can be reconsidered. Removing a documented critique of the war on Gaza from a public library collection would be another matter entirely.
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Glen Hansard and the Ireland that learned to sing in its own voice
Glen Hansard’s life traced Ireland’s journey from poverty and emigration to global confidence, while never losing sight of those excluded from its prosperity.
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Omar Musa’s Miles Franklin win rewards epic, ambitious writing with a global scope
Omar Musa’s Fierceland has won the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award, recognising a formally adventurous novel that links family inheritance, colonial violence and environmental destruction across borders.
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The political cartoonist is becoming an endangered species
Fiona Katauskas’ departure from Guardian Australia points to a larger decline in permanent cartooning jobs, even as political cartoons remain vital to satire, public debate and local media culture. (more…)
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Trump has broken Zeus’ law
Greek tragedy offers a way to read the present: when mercy, law, restraint and community are replaced by power, vengeance and wealth, disorder follows.
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Picturing armageddon: Will Trump listen to the next nuclear war film?
Films about nuclear war have often been dismissed by officials as inaccurate, alarmist or merely fictional, but their real power lies in forcing audiences to confront the madness of nuclear annihilation. (more…)
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Public life needs fewer empty notes – Message from the Editor
Public life is loud, reactive and full of people mistaking noise for importance. But there is a difference between speaking when something must be said and simply filling the silence. (more…)
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Artists need copyright plus in the age of AI
Copyright law has long served owners and technology companies more effectively than creators. AI licensing now makes the case for stronger protection for artists. (more…)
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From Astral Weeks to the “Iron Cage”: Van Morrison and the disenchantment of the World
Van Morrison’s career traces a cultural movement from youthful openness and spiritual wonder towards bitterness, calculation and disenchantment. (more…)
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The case for spiritual sociology
Modern society can measure inequality, power and behaviour in extraordinary detail, but struggles to explain despair, loneliness, hope and the human need for meaning. (more…)
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When reality catches up with satire – Message from the Editor
The Boys spent years exaggerating the Trump era. By its final season, political reality had become so grotesque that satire was struggling to stay ahead. (more…)
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Why Steinbeck’s East of Eden still stands the test of time
As East of Eden becomes a Netflix series, Steinbeck’s sprawling Californian saga still holds power through its moral ambition, regional depth and slow contest between destiny and choice.
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Why Frankenstein still matters in the age of AI
Shelley’s portrayal of consciousness helps us to better understand why artificial intelligence cannot feel wonder or shame. (more…)
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David Hockney – the artist who forced Britain to make room for colour, joy and queerness
David Hockney’s legacy lies not only in colour, pleasure and innovation, but in the way he challenged class prejudice, homophobia, ageism and cultural gatekeeping by insisting that seeing itself is active, generous and political. (more…)
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The five best films from Sydney Film Festival
This year’s Sydney Film Festival offered a strong field of films beyond Hollywood’s familiar moral economy, with strange melodramas, existential horror, childhood reverie, sporting tragedy and art-house pleasures among the standouts. (more…)
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Fifty years of ABC Classic and a nation still listening
ABC Classic’s fiftieth anniversary gives this year’s Classic 100 added resonance, celebrating not only great music but a shared cultural ritual that brings Australians together through listening.
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“Please try to enjoy each fact equally” – Severance and the fragmentation of modern identity
Whether you’re an ‘innie’ or an ‘outie’, the television series Severance resonates so deeply because its vision of fragmented identity, emotional suppression and corporate control no longer feels futuristic. It feels uncomfortably familiar. (more…)
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Allowing loved ones to rest
A formal apology in Tasmania’s parliament for the past practice of taking human specimens from autopsies and displaying them highlights the importance of repatriation. (more…)
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Cannes and the courts deliver a sharp rebuke to political silencing – Message from the Editor
Two seemingly unconnected things happened this week, one at the Cannes film festival on the French Riviera, the other in the US District Court in Washington. The events concerned two women – Susan Sarandon and Francesca Albanese. So what connects an icon of the screen with an Italian human-rights lawyer, and why does it matter?
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Is Trump actually helping? Message from the Editor
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Donald Trump made us see sense. (more…)