Better off Read Pip Adam

In this episode I talk with Sylvan Spring about their incredible book Killer Rack.
https://teherengawakapress.co.nz/killer-rack/
In this episode we talk about a few things, so here are some links:
Sylvan spoke with kitten author Olive Nuttall in what is probably the best thing you'll read this year - thank you to The SpinOff:
‘So gay, thank you for noticing!’: Olive Nuttall and Sylvan Spring in conversation'
In the week leading up to our conversation Wellington-based singer-songwriter Vera Ellen and Georgia Gets By (Georgia Nott) announced they were pulling out of SXSW in protest at the festival's partnerships with tech companies RTX (formerly Raytheon), Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems, which have been linked to manufacturing and supplying weapons to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). You can read more here
You can also support both these artists through Bandcamp:
Vera Ellen https://veraellen.bandcamp.com/
Georgia Gets By https://georgiagetsby.bandcamp.com
We also talk about the terrible acts of censorship happening at State Library Victoria. You can read more about that at this link
Last night RNZ published this amazing essay by Henrietta Bollinger and I wanted to put a link to it here:
Why we cannot let the disability support changes happen
Thanks again for listening to the podcast.
 

In the most recent episodes I've been talking to people about where they are up to in their creative projects. I've asked these people to bring along an object they are 'using' for this stage of the project. 
This episode was recorded at Randall Cottage while Rachel O'Neill was resident there.
You can read more about Rachel at their website:
https://rachel-oneill.com/
I have set up a Buy Me a Coffee for Better off Read. If you are able and willing you can make a donation here to help support the podcast: 
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/betteroffread
 

Last Thursday, Whiti Hereaka was kind enough to come into Wellington Access Radio and have a chat with me on the occasion of the end of the year.
I love talking to Whiti and I always learn heaps from her.
Whiti has amazing recommendations. I thought I’d list them below along with the songs Whiti chose, which I can’t play in the podcast for copyright reasons.
Whiti has a great Instagram
Songs chosen by Whiti:
Short and Roung by The Bug Club
Passionflower, Paperbacks and Woodlice by The Bug Club
Read the Room (feat. Laetitia Sadier) by Pearl & the Oysters
Books Whiti talks about:
You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann
Movies Whiti talks about:
Godzilla Minus One (2023)
The Boy and the Heron (2023)
Saltburn (2023)
TV Whiti Talks about:
After the Party (2023)
Deadloch (2023)
Homecoming (2018)
Pushing Daisies (2007)
 

Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be sharing some short chats I’m having with some of my favourite people. These are recorded at Wellington Access Radio and first appear on the Friday Drive show which I host with Amy Delahunty.
In this, the first of these chats, I talk to Kerry Donovan Brown. 
I asked Kerry about what they have been up to this year, what they have enjoyed and how they are feeling about 2024.
In this recording, Kerry talks about two songs. Due to copyright I can’t play these in the episode and I was thinking of taking out the reference to them but they are such great recommendations I thought I’d keep Kerry’s descriptions in the recording and include a link to the music here:
https://youtu.be/EDKcbW0XDk0
https://youtu.be/cmDeCKY9XFU
 

On 28 October 2023, City Gallery Wellington hosted an event to celebrate the opening of Angela Lane’s amazing exhibition Phosphene
As part of this event Joan Fleming and Aaron Lister wrote and read responses to these works. 
Joan wrote a beautiful description of their work:
I read a short, strange essay about awe and the beauty experience with its inevitable fringe of disgust, and about withness and terror and the sun. Aaron Lister read something about Mary Shelley, the year without summer, and Frankenstein as the first climate change novel.
In this episode Joan and Aaron generously recorded these essays at Massey University.
I hope you enjoy these readings.

I’m incredibly grateful to Jared Davidson and Verb Festival for letting me podcast this amazing event.
Jared’s book Blood & Dirt: Prison Labour & the Making of New Zealand (Bridget Williams Books, 2023) is an outstanding work of scholarship and creativity. I am a huge fan of this book and I feel very grateful to Jared who trusted me with this conversation.
At the end of this talk, we took questions from the audience. Unfortunately, my recording didn’t pick these up very clearly, so I’ve recorded and inserted summaries of the questions in my own words. I hope that is okay with the people who asked them. I was so excited by how many questions were asked - the event felt like a conversation and it was really great.
Thanks also to the amazing team at Verb. Every year they build this incredible ‘city’ made up of communities who are interested in ideas, writing and reading. It is an amazing thing to be involved with and I love it so much.