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The Monthly | Australian politics, society & culture

The December – January issue

Friday, December 16, 2022

Cooking with gas

Is there anything that can stop the Coalition from encouraging conspiracy theories and misinformation?

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PREFERENCE CENTER

Essays  Right arrow

Indigenous Australia

Yukun’s return

The historic repatriation of the remains of an Aboriginal man murdered by a white policeman at Uluru in 1934

Yukun’s return
Firewood harvesting threatens forests

Environment

Firewood harvesting threatens forests

Illegal timber felling is destroying globally significant river red gum forests in northern Victoria

Robodebt and the transmission of shame

Federal politics

Robodebt and the transmission of shame

What the robodebt royal commission tells us about who knew what, and why it matters


Online Latest  Right arrow

Still from Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder, showing star Florence Pugh as English nurse Lib Wright in a billowing blue dress walking through the Irish Midlands, while a man follows behind her, carrying an 11-year-old girl.

Film

The best of 2022 on screen

From an Iranian masterpiece lost for decades to a devastating documentary about troubled children in eastern Ukraine, the year on screen was full of surprises

Still from Maryam Touzani’s The Blue Caftan, showing two men seated at opposite sides of a dining table, with a woman seated between them. Image credit: Marrakech International Film Festival

Film

Opening dialogues at the Marrakech International Film Festival 2022

The largest film festival in the Arab world showcases stories from around the globe, but those from Arabic and Middle Eastern filmmakers prove the most telling

A Christmas tree with broken bauble on the floor amid dropped pine needles

Society

The little drama boy

Remembering a Christmas amid the strains of both John Farnham and extended family

Image of former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann leaves the ACT Supreme Court in Canberra, October 27, 2022. Image © Mick Tsikas / AAP Images

Law and order

The twin spectacles in the trial of Bruce Lehrmann

Neither trial by jury nor trial by media are effective paths to a true, restorative justice

The Nation Reviewed  Right arrow

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, November 9, 2022

Federal politics

Jim Chalmers’ moment

How an understanding of history would prepare our economic leaders to lay the groundwork for the future

Illustration by Jeff Fisher

Health

Doctored facts in The Australian

The danger of misrepresenting new malpractice regulations as muzzling doctors’ opinions

Illustration by Jeff Fisher

Science and technology

Heart of old

How an Australian discovered the oldest heart on the fossil record in the Kimberleys

Illustration by Jeff Fisher

Religion and ethics

The goddess of Moonee Ponds

In a temple in Melbourne, mystics, activists and feminists find common cause in goddess worship

Vox  Right arrow

The Vox Owl

A patch of land

The joys of planning then surrendering to a native garden, before bidding it a fond farewell

Arts & Letters  Right arrow

Installation view, ‘Clearing’

Art

The artist in space: Simryn Gill’s ‘Clearing’

A new commission for AGNSW’s Sydney Modern showcases the artist’s dedication to bearing witness

Still from ‘Triangle of Sadness’

Film

Louche rich sink ships: Ruben Östlund’s ‘Triangle of Sadness’

The Swedish director’s Palme d’Or–winning satire of the ultra wealthy successfully throws a lot of (literal) crap at the wall

Still from ‘Tár’

Film

Orchestral manoeuvres: ‘Tár’ and ‘White Noise’

Todd Field’s drama asks to what extent we can separate a work from its maker, while Noah Baumbach tackles DeLillo’s best-known novel

Image of Robert Connolly

Film

The dry and the wet: Robert Connolly

The Australian producer-director of ‘Blueback’ has always sought to spotlight people with vision

Photograph of Oren Ambarchi

Music

While my guitar gently bleeps: Oren Ambarchi’s ‘Shebang’

Another mesmerising album from the itinerant Australian, in collaboration with some of the biggest names in experimental music

Illustration by Jeff Fisher

Stories

The glass abattoir

A new story from Nobel Prize–winning author J.M. Coetzee, in its first English publication, for Summer Reading

Illustration by Jeff Fisher

Stories

The couples therapist

A new story from Abigail Ulman, author of ‘Hot Little Hands’, for Summer Reading

Illustration by Jeff Fisher

Stories

A Christmas Carol coda

TV host, comedian and writer Shaun Micallef revisits Dickens’ seasonal classic, for Summer Reading

Noted  Right arrow

Cover of ‘Lessons’

Books

Ian McEwan’s ‘Lessons’

The English master novelist’s latest describes a boy’s sexual awakening with his piano teacher, and its lasting impact on his life

Cover of ‘ART’

Books

Charmaine Papertalk Green and John Kinsella’s ‘ART’

The poets’ second collaboration, including work from the late Nyoongar artist Shane Pickett, interrogates the settler-colonial mindset

In Light of Recent Events  Right arrow
Cartoon
Einstein on the beach
In light of recent events

Podcasts  Right arrow

7am

‘A patch of land’: Gardening with Laura Tingle

On this Weekend Read, chief political correspondent for the ABC’s 7.30 program Laura Tingle, with her piece from the summer issue of The Monthly.

HOST Ruby Jones
GUEST Laura Tingle

7am

How counter-terrorism turned a blind eye to the far right, with Lydia Khalil

Author Lydia Khalil discusses how counter-terrorism turned a blind eye to the far right and how we all need to solve that problem.

HOST Ruby Jones
GUEST Lydia Khalil

7am

The search for the very first star, with Dr Alan Duffy

Director of the Space Technology and Industry Institute at Swinburne University, Dr Alan Duffy on why the last year marked a new beginning for our understanding of the universe.

HOST Ruby Jones
GUEST Alan Duffy