Standing Room Only Podcast Options

1:50 PM.The New Zealand screen industry - film, TV and now gaming - has exploded over the past 20 or so years. Where you could once probably fit our film-makers into a decent-sized bus, these days they'd fill… Read more Audio

1:33 PM.A new exhibition at the Christchurch Art Gallery uses retro pop music, and futuristic Artifical Intelligence to create a bespoke experience for every visitor to the gallery. In Kahoots is a… Read more Audio

12:30 PM.The Kiwi dairy has been a cornerstone of New Zealand life since the 1930's - not just a source of food, and household essentials, but a newsagent, a post office and a centre of the community. But are… Read more Audio

12:15 PM.It's been a very tough year for performance artists. But for now audiences can go along to shows in New Zealand and kiwi performers who have returned from overseas are capitalising on it while they… Read more Audio

4:17 PM.Stewart Island Rakiura's museum was first built in 1960 - to house an abundance of island treasures. Back then, it cost the thousands of tourists coming to the island 50 cents to get in and see the… Read more Audio

2:50 PM.Who has the flashest post box on your street? Writer, photographer and travel blogger Rachel Reid has spent the last twenty years documenting the novelty and designed letterboxes around New Zealand… Read more Audio

2:40 PM.For sheer event status there's nothing quite like seeing a big-deal Hollywood movie with the musical soundtrack provided by a live orchestra. Read more Audio

2:26 PM.It feels a bit odd in our current isolated state to be thinking about journeys around the world as a form of self discovery. Read more Audio

1:30 PM.New Zealand composer John Psathas had a road to Damascus moment in 2018 while roaring along at Toto's 40th anniversary concert at London's Royal Albert Hall. Read more Audio

12:45 PM.Fascination with the private lives of the rich, the famous and the talented is hardly new. Ever since there have been stars - Shakespeare? Ancient Greek theatre? - there have been people dying to know… Read more Audio

12:30 PM.Right now people are hungry for live spectacle wherever they can get it. And they don't get more spectacular than an exhibition that's about to land in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch early next… Read more Audio

12:15 PM.Prime was initially best known for fact-based shows - Uncharted - Sam Neil's series about James Cook - and Go South. But since then they've started moving into scripted shows, notably Brokenwood… Read more Audio

4:45 PM.We think of New Zealand literature as matter of fact, no-nonsense, social realism territory. But beneath the stoic surface we seem to have an extraordinary fantasy life. Margaret Mahy, The Vintner's… Read more Audio

4:15 PM.When the Chinese dreamed up the terrible threat "may you live in interesting times" they were probably thinking about a year like 2020. In a world that's been locked down, divided and cut off, it's… Read more Video, Audio

2:49 PM.We like to think that art is a seamless connection between the mind or heart of the artists and their audience or public. But of course it's not. The writer has a pen or a keyboard, the actor has a… Read more Audio, Gallery

2:25 PM.TV executive Andrew Shaw is about to be formally be handed the title he probably warranted about 30 years ago. The New Zealand TV Awards have named him the TV Legend for 2020. It's an award given to a… Read more Audio

1:50 PM.Writer Jenny Robin Jones - like so many people - was always fascinated by the United States - just the idea of it intrigued her. And like anyone who's even passed through the country, you soon… Read more Audio

1:33 PM.Julia Parnell is the director of Six60: Till The Lights Go Out, a documentary that charts the band's meteoric rise. Six60 are the biggest local band ever - even if they're yet to crack it overseas… Read more Audio

12:30 PM.There's nothing quite like a Christmas pantomime - England's major contribution to the holiday season. But we seem to like it in New Zealand too, especially at Wellington's Circa Theatre. There's… Read more Audio

1:50 PM.Auckland's Basement Theatre has long been an important part of the city's theatre scene, not least for promoting New Zealand material and encouraging exciting young talent. Now Executive Director… Read more Audio

1:33 PM.Many of New Zealand's endemic birds may not fly well if at all, but they're still a challenge for artists wanting to sketch them in the wild. The nocturnal species pose an extra degree of difficulty… Read more Audio, Gallery

12:45 PM.Writer Owen Marshall, artist Grahame Sydney and poet Brian Turner have combined forces to produce a colourful and golden book called Landmarks. It's an ode to Central Otago and the people who live in… Read more Audio, Gallery