Popular Culture Videos

Talkback: Enduring toys Some toys have real lasting power -- think train sets, building blocks and yoyos. They never go out of style.

If you´re going to collect anything you can be sure it´ll collect dust. In our show dedicated to the humble mote we get down the back of a sofa, sing along with Dustys – Slim and Springfield – dish the dirt on ochre and asbestos and take a trip with John Steinbeck. For music details please 'show transcript'

Urban fantasy writer Kelley Armstrong talks about the challenges of writing female science fiction characters.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Dr. Sharon Lamb and Dr. Mark Tappan, co-authors of Packaging Boyhood: saving our sons from superheroes, slackers, and other media stereotypes with Dr. Lyn Mikel Brown published by St. Martin's Press. Dr. Sharon Lamb is Distinguished Professor of Mental Health at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, in the Department of Counseling and School Psychology. She is on leave from Saint Michaelâs College in Vermont where she is a Professor of Psychology. Originally from the Chicago area, she received her doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and her child psychology training at Mass. General Hospital in Boston. Sharon co-authored Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketersâ Schemes with Lyn in 2006 and is thrilled to be able to continue working with Lyn and her partner Mark on Packaging Boyhood. Sharon is author of The Secret Lives of Girls: What Good Girls Really Do, and Sex, Therapy, and Kids: Addressing their Concerns through Talk and Play (a book for psychotherapists). Dr. Mark Tappan is Professor of Education and Human Development and Chair of the Education Program at Colby College. He received his A.B. in Religion from Oberlin College, his M.A. in Education from the Ohio State University, and his Ed.D. in Human Development from Harvard University. He is co-editor (with Martin Packer) of Narrative and Storytelling: Implications for Understanding Moral Development and Cultural and Critical Perspectives on Human Development. Mark grew up in suburban Philadelphia but he now lives in Waterville, Maine with his partner Lyn Brown, their daughter Maya, their dog Heidi, and four cats. At Colby he teaches courses on education and social justice, contemporary children and youth, and boys development and education. Students in his âBoys to Menâ course also work with local elementary and middle-school boys on media literacy and leadership development. Visit their website. Visit KD Booksellers for affordable quality fiction and non-fiction books online

Your hip bone´s connected to your thigh bone true and even if it´s not the word of the Lord you hear, perhaps it´s an instinctive sense of rhythm. That tingling, harmonic minor-scale sensation down your spine, the boom-boody-boom as your heart beats and the clanging in your head all add up to a great concert of music made on, around and within the body. For music details, please click on 'show transcript'.

Fover forty years now, Harry M. Miller, the legendary show business guru, has managed and promoted figures such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, The Rolling Stones, Graham Kennedy and Alan Jones. He transformed live theatre by introducing the rock opera to Australian stages with the production of Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and the Rocky Horror Show, simultaneously launching the successful careers of John Waters, Marcia Hines and Jon English. But always restless to move onto something new, his work in crisis management for people like Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton and Stuart Diver, being the man to go to when people found themselves thrust into the media spotlight, he's found the most satisfying.

The crazy pursuit of love with the help of a taxi driver-cum-matchmaker, together with love that kills modern romance with the experience of dating USA-style, relationship experts and common-or-garden assignations everyone keen for action without losing sight of proper etiquette. For music details please click on 'show transcript'.

Dean and Britta -- Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips -- are presenting their music and songs for 13 of Andy Warhol's screen tests at the 2009 Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Do you remember the story of the London 'plinthers'? In July, Breakfast previewed an ambitious art project unfolding in London's Trafalgar Square, on what is called the fourth plinth. The Square is home to statues of kings and generals, but the northwest corner has always been bare. Over the last one hundred days, two and a half thousand people have filled the void -- hoisted onto the plinth for one hour at a time. The aim was to create a portrait of London: some dressed up in costumes, some protested, some read poetry and others just used it as an opportunity to take their clothes off. Overnight, the last 'plinther' stood down, bringing the project to a close.

Without a doubt Dame Edna Everage is a global superstar without parallel. She can be a terrible tease, but it doesn't stop the rich and famous, world leaders, even royalty, from seeking out her advice on any number of matters. But how did the former housewife, the frump from Moonee Ponds, manage to reach these stratospheric heights of fame? The man closest to her, the one who has been beside her from the very start of her career, is Barry Humphries. He has just completed an unauthorised biography of Dame Edna which promises to tell the truth behind the legend.

Copyright-fighters the Evolution Control Committee mash up pop music and free-wheelin' Bob Dylan wanders through his many incarnations ... Part 1: The Evolution Control Committee under the leadership of Trademark G. (aka Mark Gunderson) has been challenging copyright laws since 1986, risking millions in copyright violation fines for what the ECC calls `music´. The ECC is credited with the creation of the Mash Up or Bastard Pop genre of blended pop songs, a style popular with young listeners today. In this session TradeMark G talks about the ECC´s work and demonstrates one of its recent products, the VidiMasher 3000. Part 2: We go the full Bob certainly not the Robert always the Bob and for nearly half a century, consistently elusive. Whether poetic or philosophical, political or playful, socially conscious or spiritual, Mr Dylan just keeps on bobbing along with his highly-eclectic followers. We listen as the young man rubs shoulders with the old man and the many Bobs in between. for music details, please click on 'show transcript'.

Graffiti writers exposed Hip hop began in the Bronx in the 1970s but it took a decade before it became part of the international music scene. The poetics of hip hop If asked to list the great innovators in American poetry, few of us would think to include rappers like Jay-Z, Eminem or Ice Cube.

Taste the joy and terror as we chomp into some very Dark chocolate mixing Willy Wonka with child slavery. Then we ask: was Alexander Graham Bell trying to contact the dead when he invented the telephone? It may now be less than mystical but the 'phone still has us spellbound conversations with unseen callers seem preferable to face-to-face communication and a phone can call up wars and assassins, convey the thrill of new arrivals and mediate the pain of love. It's the power of life, love and abandonment in a pocket device. So much trust in so much technology but don´t forget to pay the bill!

Elephant and Castles is a record label investigating and cultivating a field in between documentary, field recording, unusual sound practices and delicate music. Curator Cédric Anglaret is our sound guide. Using reality as a raw material, always oscillating between the extremely concrete and the abstract creating imaginary places through a non-pictorial narration, getting close to what could be a cinema of sensations where images are made up by the public's own imagination. Image by Gilles Freluche of Soyouz Design http://soyouz.design.free.fr/