Past Programs
Books - Non Fiction - 2008
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Italian Language in the World Week
25/10/2008
For the 8th annual Italian Language in the World Week, the journalist and author Beppe Severgnini explains this year's theme of the piazza, a particular kind of gathering place that has been described as 'the concrete representation of language'.
The naming of roses
04/10/2008
The rose is an ancient bloom of which there are now thousands of varieties, with hundreds more new types introduced each year. Gardening writer Roger Mann reads from the introduction of his new book, which tells the history of their naming.
Learning Adnyamathanha language
12/07/2008
There are only some twenty people still fluent in the Adnyamathanya language of the Indigenous people of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. But they are teaching many others, passing on their cultural heritage to all who are willing to learn.
(This year's NAIDOC Week is being celebrated 6-13 July. NAIDOC celebrates the survival of Indigenous culture and the Indigenous contribution to modern Australia.)
Butter me up!
21/06/2008
Robert Dessaix addresses the up and down sides of flattery, opining that we can all do with a bit of buttering up!
That last, posthumous, goodbye
10/05/2008
Dealing with the death of someone close is one of life's biggest challenges. Having to find the words for a eulogy, and the emotional strength to present it publicly, can be almost as confronting, as Mark Wakely explores in his new book, Sweet Sorrow: A Beginner's Guide to Death.
Review of new Collins Australian Dictionary
12/01/2008
With a new, the 9th, edition of the Collins Australian Dictionary published last August, how does it compare with others in the market and what more does it offer than previous versions?
This program was first broadcast on 11/8/2007.
Frequent coarse language
05/01/2008
Keith Allan and Kate Burridge describe how we censor our own language in order to negotiate taboo topics.
First broadcast on 8/9/2007.
