Shows
Cutting EdgeEpisode 12: Professor Ron Stewart/The one about CartoonistsEpisode hosts: Ben Nickl and Jessica Milner Davis About our guest on this episode: Ronald, an Australian, is a professor in the Sociology Department of Daito Bunka University. He has lived and worked in Japan since 1998, earning his MA and PhD at Nagoya University on a Japanese government scholarship. Ronald is currently researching the work of Japan’s first professional cartoonist Kitazawa Rakuten (1876 – 1955) as part of a longer-term history of Japanese political cartooning project. His recent publications include: “Can Australian Cartoonists Monster the Gods of Asian Politics?” coauthored with Robert Phiddian in Moral Dimensions of Humour (20...
2025-08-0316 minCutting EdgeEpisode 11: Dr Will Noonan/The one about TranslationEpisode hosts: Ben Nickl and Rodney Taveira About our guest on this episode: Will is a lecturer in English studies and translation at the University of Burgundy, where he is assigned to the Interlanguage Centre - Text, Image, Language (UR 4812) laboratory. Originally from Australia, he began his research career by studying the relationship between Francophone and Anglophone humour before gradually turning to issues related to the translation, adaptation and accessibility of audiovisual and digital products.About the episode hosts:Ben is a Senior Lecturer in The University of Sydney’sDepartment of Co...
2025-07-2716 minCutting EdgeEpisode 10: Professor Tony Moore/The one about Comedy HistoryEpisode hosts: Ben Nickl and Matilda Knowles About our guest on this episode: Tony is the Lead Chief Investigator for the ARC Linkage Grant ‘Comedy Country’. Based at Monash University’s School of Media, Film and Journalism, he has a background in leading large-scale projects and is an experienced cultural and media historian focusing on the intersection of countercultures, popular culture and politics and the translation of research into digital media outputs. Tony’s books include Fringe to Famous – Australian Cultural Production After theCreative Industries (Bloomsbury, 2024), Dancing with Empty Pockets: Australia’s Bohemians Since 1860 (2012 Allen & Unwin), Death or...
2025-07-2015 minCutting EdgeEpisode 9: Dr John Cook/The one about GamesEpisode hosts: Ben Nickl and Geoffrey Lee About our guest on this episode: John is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, researching climate misinformation. He wrote and drew the cartoons in the book Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change, and developed the Cranky Uncle smartphone game, which combines cartoons and gamification to build resilience against misinformation.About the episode hosts:Ben is a Senior Lecturer in The University of Sydney’s Department of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies. He works on popular technologies of mediation like humour and laughter an...
2025-07-1314 minCutting EdgeEpisode 8: Associate Professor Ian Maxwell/The one about TheatreEpisode hosts: Ben Nickl and Rodney Taveira About our guest on this episode: Ian’s research seeks to understand both how people use creative practices to make sense of their lives and experiences, particularly in the context of extreme circumstances, and how we might use the idea of performance, more generally, as a way of thinking about being human. His current projects are, first, a performance-led exploration of performance work made by German/Austrian refugees in Australia during the Second World War, and, second, a book about avant-garde performance in Australia from the 1960s....
2025-07-0616 min
SBS German - SBS DeutschThe cultural differences of images - Die kulturellen Unterschiede von BildernEvery culture understands images differently. A new study by the University of Sydney shows that anyone who disseminates health information via social media should take a closer look at how images work. Benjamin Nickl has investigated this topic. - Jede Kultur versteht Bilder anders. Eine Studie der University of Sydney zeigt jetzt: Wer Gesundheitsinfos über soziale Medien verbreitet, sollte genau hinschauen, wie Bilder wirken. Einer der das wissenschaftlich untersucht hat, ist Benjamin Nickl, ein Wissenschaftler im Bereich Komparatistik an der University of Sydney.
2025-05-1911 minCutting EdgeEpisode 7: Dr Tatiana Bur/The one about ClassicistsEpisode hosts: Ben Nickl and Anna-Sophie Jürgens
About our guest on this episode:
Tatiana is a Lecturer at ANU in Canberra and joined the university’s Centre for Classical Studies in 2023. Prior to this, she was the Moses and Mary Finley Research Fellow at Darwin College, University of Cambridge. Tatiana is a graduate of the University of Sydney where she completed her undergraduate studies and MPhil. Tatiana is French-Australian and has lived in France, Australia, Spain, England and Portugal. She is passionate not just about ancient Greece and Rome, but about languages and cultures (anc...
2025-02-0916 minCutting EdgeEpisode 6: Dr João Paulo Capelotti /The one about the LawEpisode hosts: Ben Nickl and Alberto Godioli
About our guest on this episode:
João Paulo Capelotti is a Brazilian legal scholar and humour studies researcher with a PhD and Master of Laws from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). João is a member of the International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS) and the International Society for Luso-Hispanic Humor Studies. His work explores humour and the law, focusing on Brazilian court cases and their treatment of humour. His recent publications include chapters in Judges, Judging and Humour (SpringerLink) and the DeGruyter Handbook of Humor Stu...
2025-02-0217 minCutting EdgeEpisode 5: Associate Professor Kerry Mullan/The one about The NetworkEpisode hosts: Ben Nickl and Suchi Chowdhury
About our guest on this episode:
Kerry is an Associate Professor at RMIT in Melbourne and teaches French language and culture at all proficiency levels, and sociolinguistics. Her main research interests are cross-cultural communication and differing interactional styles – particularly those of French and Australian English speakers. She also researches in the areas of intercultural pragmatics, discourse analysis, language teaching and conversational humour. Kerry also heads the board of the global Australasian Humour Studies Network and talks to us about the research that its members do, how one can jo...
2025-01-2714 minCutting EdgeEpisode 4: Dr Mark Rolfe/The one about PoliticsEpisode hosts: Ben Nickl and Geoffrey Lee
About our guest on this episode:
Mark is an Honorary Lecturer with the School of Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, where he taught. He is keenly interested in Australian politics, rhetoric, propaganda, political satire, American politics, populism, and political leadership. Some of his recent publications include: ‘The idea of national humour and Americanization in Australia and Britain’, in the European Journal of Humour Research (2022); ‘The Danish Cartoons, Charlie Hebdo and the culture wars: satiric limits in comparative national and transnational perspectives’, in the Europ...
2024-12-1215 minCutting EdgeEpisode 3: Dr Goh Abe/The one about AnthropologyEpisode hosts: Ben Nickl and Jessica Milner Davis
About our guest on this episode:
Professor Goh Abe is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering and Design at Kagawa University, Japan. He is a long-standing member of the Japan Society for Humour and Laughter Research and has presented at many conferences of the JSLHS as well as the International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS)as well as at the AHSN in Australia. His own research interests include rituals of laughter in Japan, ethnic jokes, intercultural communication between African-Americans and Anglo-Americans in the USA, and an...
2024-10-0312 minCutting EdgeEpisode 2: Dr Anna-Sophie Jürgens/The one about ScienceEpisode hosts: Ben Nickl and Will Visconti
About our guest on this episode:
Anna-Sophie is a Senior Lecturer in Science Communication at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science of the Australian National University, and the founder and head of the ‘Popsicule– ANU’s Science in Popular Culture and Entertainment Hub’. Her research explores the cultural meanings of science, the history of (violent) clowns and mad scientists, science and humour, and the interface between science and (public) art, which is what we talk to her about in this episode.
About the episo...
2024-09-2314 minCutting EdgeEpisode 1: Professor Alan McKee/The one about FunEpisode hosts: Ben Nickl and Will Visconti
About our guest on this episode:
Alan is Head of School of Art, Communication, and English at The University of Sydney and Professor in Media and Communication. He is an expert on entertainment and healthy sexual development. His most recent book reporting on sexually explicit material and its audiences is called What Do We Know About the Effects of Pornography After Fifty Years of Academic Research (Routledge, 2022). Alan talks to us about fun and entertainment, and how both feature in his current research. He also shares publication advice...
2024-09-0512 min
Real Is Not Real EnoughBonus Ep: Acoustic Access to Knowledge (feat. Kylie Giblett)Hello again, “Real Is Not Real Enough” enthusiasts! In this special episode, we're happy to present an article titled "Acoustic Access to Knowledge." This piece is a product of the original Günther Anders podcast translation project, where we explore the profound impact of sound on our understanding of the world.
Dive into the intricate world of sound with Kylie Giblett from The University of Sydney, as she performs the audio version of an article penned by a member of the “Real Is Not Real Enough” team, Ben Nickl. This article, combined with sound editing and mixing by Jacob...
2023-12-2209 min
The Ethical LifeHow has technology changed what we think is funny?Episode 119: As computers get smarter and learn more about us, they’re also being built to be funnier. And unlike your friends, who use humor to build stronger relationships, the motives of these digital devices are less clear.
Host Richard Kyte and Scott Rada talk about the health benefits of laughter, how what's funny has changed over the past several years and why a sense of humor can be an important part of being a leader.
Links to stories discussed during the podcast:
Laughter has the power to turn strangers into friends, by Ri...
2023-12-0640 minReal Is Not Real EnoughBonus Ep: Anders at the Museum (feat. Avril Alba and Alina Kozlovski)Inspired by Anders' comparisons of the Hollywood Costume Factory and museums, this bonus episode features two experts in history and museum studies who help Ben and Chris 'unpack the real'.
You can find out more about us via the links below.
Avril Alba, scholar and expert in Jewish and Holocaust museums from the University of Sydney:
https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/about/our-people/academic-staff/avril-alba.html
Alina Kozlovski, scholar and expert in Roman history and archaeology with extensive experience working in museums in the UK, USA and Australia from the Un...
2023-07-271h 14
Real Is Not Real EnoughEpisode 5: Exiled in Hollywood (feat. Bernd Bösel and Claudia Sandberg)As promised, this is the second of a two-part discussion featuring Claudia Sandberg and Bernd Bösel.
In our previous episode – Romans, Hitler, Hollywood – we focused on heritage cinema and notions of truth. Here, we consider questions of authenticity, exile, shame and the connection between humour and pain.
The work of Kerstin Putz, literary scholar and curator of exhibitions at the Literature Museum of the Austrian National Library in Vienna, is mentioned. You can find out more about Kerstin’s work here: https://www.chbeck.de/autor/?authorId=441556719
You can find out more about u...
2023-01-2536 min
Real Is Not Real EnoughEpisode 4: Romans, Hitler, Hollywood (feat. Bernd Bösel and Claudia Sandberg)If you’ve ever watched a historical Hollywood movie, this episode is for you. In fact, there’s so much to discuss that this is the first part of a double episode. Here, we unpack notions of truth and the distortions that the filmmaking industry thrives on.
This conversation includes several voices but features Claudia Sandberg and Bernd Bösel. You can find out more about our guests and also us (Chris, Ben and Helen) via the links below.
Claudia Sandberg, scholar and filmmaker from the University of Melbourne: https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/750238-claud...
2022-11-0842 min
Real Is Not Real EnoughEpisode 3: Ears and Eyes (feat. Edgar Eckert and Eric Löbbecke)This time on Unpacking The Real we unpack the sound and look of Real is not Real Enough with the people who helped us bring Günther Anders’ Hollywood diary to life.
To do that, we’re introducing you to Swiss/German actor Edgar Eckert and cartoonist, illustrator and fine artist Eric Löbbecke.
Edgar is an accomplished stage and screen actor in Germany and Switzerland and you can find out more about him here: https://www.deutschestheater.de/en/ensemble/ensemble-and-guests/edgar_eckert/
Have a look at samples of Edgar’s performance work via...
2022-09-0228 min
Real Is Not Real EnoughEpisode 2: The Truths of Translation (feat. Tracey Cameron and Consuelo Martinez Reyes)In this episode of Unpacking The Real we meet Tracey Cameron and Dr Consuelo Martinez Reyes.
Tracey is a Gamilaraay person and Lecturer in Gamilaraay Language and Indigenous History at The University of Sydney: https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/about/our-people/academic-staff/tracey-cameron.html
Consuelo is a Lecturer in Spanish and Latin American Studies at Macquarie University: https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/consuelo-martinez-reyes
Consuelo and Tracey each bring different perspectives to the text and audio of Real is Not Real Enough. Together in conversation, and with excerpts from the audio...
2022-08-1844 minReal Is Not Real EnoughEpisode 1: Unpacking Anders (feat. Anna Pollmann)In this inaugural episode of Unpacking The Real we meet Dr Anna Pollmann. Anna is a researcher at the Research Institute for Social Cohesion at Konstanz University, where she is co-editor of the volume Key Concepts of Social Cohesion: A Critical Vocabulary. https://www.fgz-risc.de/das-forschungsinstitut/personen/details/anna-pollmann
Anna is a cultural historian of the 19th and 20th centuries. Her first book "Fragments from the End Times" is based on the work of Günther Anders and reflects her broader interest in the transformation of historical consciousness from modernity to postmodernity.
In our conversatio...
2022-08-0828 min
Fraunhofer-Podcast: Forschung erleben – Zukunft hörenNachhaltige Batterieproduktion für das Elektroauto von morgen»Das Interesse an der Technologie ist riesig. Für die Hersteller ist es entscheiden, die Kosten zu reduzieren. Entsprechend waren schon viele Kunden bei uns, mit ihnen gemeinsam entwickeln wir die nächsten Schritte.«
Der Bedarf an grünen Technologien steigt rasant, entsprechend bevölkern immer mehr Elektroautos unsere Straßen. Hinzu kommt eine Flut elektronischer Geräte, die aus dem täglichen Leben kaum mehr wegzudenken sind. Die effiziente und umweltfreundliche Produktion von Batterien rückt deshalb immer mehr in den Vordergrund. Vorreiter der aktuellen Forschung ist das Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoff- und Strahltechnik IWS in Dresden und dort vor al...
2022-06-0311 minReal Is Not Real EnoughSeason Two: Unpacking the RealUnpacking the Real is season two of Real is Not Real Enough. Here we introduce you to a range of guests who help us 'unpack' and the ideas that emerge from season one's podcast audio diary Real is Not Real Enough.
If you’re ready to wonder longer and question further, join us for Unpacking the Real.
Podcast cover design by Karen Ho
2022-05-1401 min
Real Is Not Real Enough10th of March 1941: The Imitation Game“One certainly can't learn cutting corners.”
2022-05-1404 minReal Is Not Real EnoughComplete 1941 Hollywood Diary OmnibusListen to all the whole diary!
Remember to subscribe for Season 2 - Unpacking the Real - the Companion Podcast!
Brought to you by Chris Müller, Benjamin Nickl, Helen Wolfenden.
Performed by Edgar Eckert.
Sound design by Jacob Craig.
Visuals Eric Löbbecke.
Trailer narration by Veronica Faust.
Find out more: https://www.goethe.de/ins/au/en/kul/lok/gap.html
2021-12-0850 min2021-12-0803 minReal Is Not Real Enough26th of March 1941: New is not New Enough“The past is becoming all the rage.”
2021-12-0806 minReal Is Not Real Enough23rd of March 1941: Surviving Europe“How childish to believe that fake is fake.”
2021-12-0803 min2021-12-0808 min2021-12-0803 minReal Is Not Real Enough17th of March 1941: Real Quality“The past must have seemed like a kingdom of make-believe.”
2021-12-0803 minReal Is Not Real Enough16th of March 1941: The Three Napoleons“In Hollywood, the Berezina snow will never melt.”
2021-12-0804 min2021-12-0804 min2021-12-0802 min2021-12-0802 min2021-12-0804 minReal Is Not Real EnoughIntroducing: Real is not Real EnoughWelcome to Real is not Real Enough. Subscribe for an audio experience based on the remarkable Californian diary of Günther Anders, who was forced to flee Berlin in 1933, and finally arrived in Los Angeles, after many stops that he is hardly able to retrace. Join us as we spend 12 days exploring the Hollywood Costume Palace in 1941, and learn the truth about Hollywood and exile, as seen through his eyes.
Remember to subscribe!
2021-11-3001 min
Behind The PodcastWhy Do People Love True Crime Podcasts???True Crime is the most popular podcast genre in Australia.Over the next 5 episodes we talk to 4 of the finalists in the True Crime Category, to try and understand what forms True Crime Podcasts take, and why people love them.This episode we talk to Dr Benjamin Nickl (Cultural Studies Professor at the University of Sydney), and explore why True Crime is so popular.Behind The Podcast, brought to you by the Australian Podcast Awards and is created by DM PodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
2020-12-2327 min
Beef And Dairy NetworkEpisode 15 - Eli Roberts Goes LegitMike Bubbins joins us for this month's episode in which we hear how Eli Roberts has started a new business. By Benjamin Partridge and Mike Bubbins. Thanks to Sarah Morgan, Tonya Prewitt, Randall Cooper, Jamie Bradley, James Garrison, Nathaniel Metcalfe and Fred Nickl. Featuring ∂f/∂xi by The Fucked Up Beat, with permission of the artist. Stock media provided by Setuniman/Pond5.com and Soundrangers/Pond5.com
2016-09-2830 min