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The Monthly | Australian politics, society & culture

Essays  Right arrow

Infrastructure

Whyalla’s white-knight wipeout

Sanjeev Gupta’s collapsing global businesses make his promises to revive and expand the Whyalla steelworks ring hollow

Whyalla’s white-knight wipeout
Walking on water

Society

Walking on water

During a week staying at the Whitlam family home in Cabramatta, a series of unexpected aquatic resonances emerge

Fascist bedfellows

History

Fascist bedfellows

How postwar anti-communist zeal seeded the growing influence of far-right extremism in mainstream politics

Notes for a better world

Music

Notes for a better world

On the beauty and necessity of music, especially in times of disaster, conflict and crisis

Shades of democracy

International politics

Shades of democracy

Former Philippines senator Leila de Lima, imprisoned for nearly seven years during Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”, on her hopes for democratic reform


The Nation Reviewed  Right arrow

Senator Lidia Thorpe, wearing a possum cloak, surrounded by dignateries, as she protests King Charles's presence in Parliament House

Federal politics

Standing on ceremony

Both Lidia Thorpe’s protest against King Charles and the subsequent civility policing served to demonstrate how the status quo continues without the Voice

Illustration by Jeff Fisher

Health

Agony and ecstasy

The limited legalisation of psychedelic-assisted therapy permits it in medicalised and hospital settings, but will that work for everyone?

Illustration by Jeff Fisher

Environment

Down for the count

Like meerkats with binoculars, Landcare Victoria Twitchathon participants compete to spot the most birds in six hours

Illustration by Jeff Fisher

Culture

Game of throwns

Role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons updates its rules – and its views on orcs’ inherent evil – to mark its 50th anniversary

Arts & Letters  Right arrow

Masami Teraoka, ‘Catfish Envy’, 1993

Art

Mass production: Masami Teraoka and Angelica Mesiti

Ukiyo-e prints at the NGA and a monumental video installation at the AGNSW provide rewards beyond gallery blockbusters

Image of boy jumping to catch football in silhouette against sunset sky

Books

Down at the rail: Helen Garner’s ‘The Season’

The latest book from one of our most compelling writers finds her contemplating old age through the lens of a grandson’s footy team

Still from ‘Bad Sisters’

Television

The hit list: Crime on screen

The season’s best criminal drama, comedy capers, horror and true crime viewing, from ‘I’ll Be Gone in the Dark’ to ‘Longlegs’

Still from ‘Anora’

Film

Capers and capability: ‘Anora’ and ‘Black Dog’

Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winning take on a rags-to-riches story set in the sex industry, and Guan Hu’s energetic, heartfelt story of a tough guy and a wild dog

Illustration by Jeff Fisher

Fiction

Tamanu

New fiction from the two-time Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist and author of ‘Here Until August’ and ‘A Loving, Faithful Animal’

Illustration by Jeff Fisher

Fiction

Hungry ghosts

Hungry ghosts New fiction from the Miles Franklin–winning author of ‘The Yield’ and ‘After the Carnage’

Noted  Right arrow

Cover of ‘The Edge of the Alphabet’

Books

Janet Frame’s ‘The Edge of the Alphabet’

A reissue of the New Zealand author’s 1962 abstract classic of trans-oceanic passage and postcolonial melancholy

Cover of ‘Didion & Babitz’

Books

Lili Anolik’s ‘Didion & Babitz’

A twin biography that tells us more about its podcasting and bestselling American author than its celebrated subjects

Life sentences Right arrow

Flowers being watered

‘Many are the caterpillars / that have outcrawled it’

The author reflects on the line from Szymborska that reminded him death isn’t as irresistible as it might seem

Online latest  Right arrow

Dietrich Bonhoeffer playing piano with Hans von Dohnányi’s three children around him, and Eberhard Bethge playing flute, at a Christmas celebration

A spoke in the wheel

Remembering the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as we approach the 80th anniversary of his execution on Hitler’s orders

Christmas crackers

Christmas crackers

Misinformation is easy to ignore online, but what to do when it permeates the festive family lunch?

a judge’s gavel

Courting an escaped mischief

Should a priest’s actions be the responsibility of the church? Final submissions are being heard, sort of.

Flight and fight

Flight and fight

Prime Minister Albanese’s reaction to the accusation of receiving special treatment is more troubling than the allegation itself

Podcasts  Right arrow

7am

The doping scandals overshadowing the Australian Open

Sports journalist and author of the Substack “But Do You Actually Like Sport?”, Molly McElwee, on the twin doping scandals overshadowing the Australian Open.

HOST Ruby Jones
GUEST Molly McElwee

7am

'Everyone wants to be my friend': The people paying millions for access to Trump

Public Citizen’s lobbyist on ethics and campaign finance, Craig Holman, on who is giving Trump money, and what they’re getting out of it.

HOST Daniel James
GUEST Craig Holman

7am

Ex-Pentagon official on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire

Research director at The Washington Institute, Dana Stroul, tells us how the deal was struck and how Trump and Biden each claiming the victory as their own obscures an unlikely alliance.

HOST Daniel James
GUEST Dana Stroul