Perlina Lau hosts a weekly show about creativity and culture in Aotearoa.
Latest episodes
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20 min
Sarah Ell, author of Tarawera novel A Sky Full of Fire
Sarah Ell was a sixth former camping on the shores of Lake Tarawera when she first imagined writing about the eruption. That was 1986, a century after the mountain blew. Forty year…
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21 min
Kirsten Vangsness Criminal Minds
Kirsten Vangsness was halfway through an ab workout when a distinguished voice across the gym announced that it worshipped at her throne. It was Tim Curry. She went straight to wor…
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4 min
Nicky Brzeska: Raglan Arts Weekend 2026
It's Labour Weekend, which in Raglan means the studio doors are open. The Raglan Arts Weekend is in its 16th year, with more than 70 artists inviting thousands of visitors in to se…
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17 min
Composer Luke Di Somma on co-creating TV3's Happiness
There's a lot more singing in season two of Happiness, and Luke Di Somma is the one writing it. This time the show within the show is a Sherlock Holmes musical. Luke helps run the…
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14 min
Johnny Chan: AI micro-dramas and the one-more-minute trap
Not many people decide to sit down and watch a 40-minute drama on their phone. Plenty of people will watch 40 one-minute episodes, though, one easy decision at a time. That's the h…
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16 min
Fast Favourites: Jonathan Smart
Jonathan Smart knew artist Mark Braunias since 1988, the year Jonathan opened his gallery and Mark graduated from Ilam with a remarkable class of artists. Almost two year's after M…
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13 min
Todd Karehana: the story behind Socks and his Venice dream
Todd Karehana is a Maori and queer writer-director from Kawerau, and his short film Socks is in Show Me Shorts. He says the story starts with his own childhood in the Mormon Church…
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22 min
Dylan Reeve: why reality TV deserves a closer look in The Reality Machine
Dylan Reeve takes Perlina through The Reality Machine, a seven-part RNZ podcast with two episodes a week. He has worked in and around reality TV for more than 20 years and was a co…
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16 min
The Big Screen: Dan Slevin on Sense & Sensibility, Whalefall and La Bola Negra
Dan Slevin joins Perlina on Zoom to review three films. Sense & Sensibility is Georgia Oakley's adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, written by Diana Reid. The Dashwood sisters, El…
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23 min
Duncan and Erin McKellar: A Box of Memories turns dementia into a musical
Duncan and Erin McKellar talk about turning their family story into a musical. Duncan is a psychiatrist who works with people living with dementia, and his mother was diagnosed wit…
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9 min
Jason Te Mete: strangers singing disco at the Nelson Arts Festival
Jason Te Mete explains how Battle Chorus works. The audience is split into two teams, learns a set of choruses on the night, then sings off. Jason co-created it with Rutene Spooner…
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4 min
Megan Brown: Tauranga Arts Festival highlights
Megan Brown, Artistic Director of the Tauranga Arts Festival, gives Perlina a heads up on this year's festival highlights.
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14 min
Zoe Moon: Real Black for Me and finding her voice through Roberta Flack
When Roberta Flack died, Zoe Moon felt like she'd lost a teacher. Flack was the singer who helped Zoe find her own voice, away from the sonic expectations she felt as a Black woman…
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9 min
Rebecca Jensen: waltzes, wrestlers and the referee’s three count at Tempo
Auckland-born, Melbourne-based dancer and choreographer Rebecca Jensen brings two works to Tempo Dance Festival, and both are about threes. Natural Basic is a trio built on the wal…
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18 min
NZFC ends core funding: Alice Shearman, Roseanne Liang and Patricia Watson respond
The New Zealand Film Commission is ending its Core Funding Programme, which gives just over $1 million to 10 screen organisations and guilds, including Equity, the Directors Guild,…
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19 min
The Big Screen with Kate Rodger
Kate Rodger reviews three new releases: Verity, The Social Reckoning and the Netflix documentary Unabomber.
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21 min
Tom Eslinger: Saatchi’s old desk and why it’s brutal out there (and that’s good)
In 2000, Tom Eslinger became the first global creative director of digital at any agency network, at Saatchi & Saatchi, in a role that had no job description. It started in 1989, w…
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10 min
Taarati Taiaroa: a fallen kahikatea and Aotearoa’s strong showing at the Lyon Biennale
Ten of the 120 artists at this year's Lyon Biennale are from Aotearoa, after curator Katherine Nichols was told to return to where she's from. Taarati Taiaroa was at the opening. I…
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5 min
City Gallery Wellington reopens: director Charlotte Davy after two years of upgrades
After two years of major upgrades and earthquake strengthening, City Gallery Wellington is open again. The work covered the internal masonry walls, the roof, heating and ventilatio…
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15 min
Karl Puschmann's October TV picks
Karl Puschmann joins Culture 101 with his picks for October. He recommends Happiness Season Two on Three and ThreeNow, the local musical comedy about an ex-Broadway director forced…